Joy - Apollo 100

Joy

Apollo 100

Mega Records M31-1010

1972

I have a long history with this ridiculous record.  When I was a kid my sister took ballet classes and my mother would force me to go to her dance recitals which I regarded as torture.  At one of them however the girls danced to the title track of this album, "Joy" which is a rock version of J. S. Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."  I was not into music back then but the song absolutely enthralled me.  The song was a top ten hit in the U.S. so I began to hear it occasionally on the radio although I failed to catch the artist.  You couldn't just whip out your phone and ask it what you were hearing back then, you couldn't even whip out your phone since it was hard wired into the wall of your home.  The years went by and I became obsessed with the Beatles and other 1960s bands and I lost interest in tracking down this record.  By the time I was in college I was into Bach and had acquired multiple copies of his arrangement of the song.  I didn't think I needed this version but occasionally I would hear it on the radio and realize that it still appealed to me.  Eventually more than thirty years after I first heard the song as a child I finally bought this album.  I have to admit that even now when I put it on the turntable and hear the harpsichord riff for "Joy" fading up, I still get a little excited.  The song is so kinetic and engaging I can't resist its allure.  Unfortunately that is not true for the rest of the album, in fact none of it even comes close.  Apollo 100 was a bunch of studio musicians led by keyboardist Tom Parker who seems to have specialized in instrumentals and pop arrangements of classical music.  "Mad Mountain King" is a stiff arrangement of Grieg's "Hall of the Mountain King" which is in total contrast to the effervescence of "Joy."  The song picks up steam in the end but I've heard symphony orchestras rock more convincingly than this.  "Mendelssohn's 4th" is taken from the second movement of his "Symphony No. 4 in A Major."  It is a ludicrously jaunty arrangement that is a vulgar travesty of the original work which I suppose you could argue is the most rock and roll approach one could take to this but I still don't like it.  "Evil Midnight" is an arrangement of Saint-Saëns' "Danse Macabre" that sacrifices much of the mood and atmosphere of the original for energy.  It sounds like something you would hear in Disneyland aside from the dumb drum solo.  Parker returns to Bach for "Air for the G String" which was adapted from the second movement of his "Orchestral Suite in D Major."  The beginning of the song follows the Bach model but then Parker takes it in a jazzier direction complete with a sax solo and vibes.  My fondness for the Bach original prevents me from endorsing this, but I give Parker points for trying something different.  He also has an arrangement from a more modern composer namely Leroy Anderson and his "Jazz Pizzicato" although that piece is already so pop music oriented that Apollo 100 essentially plays it as written.  Parker contributed a few of his own songs to the record.  I think the most interesting one is "Tamara" which he co-wrote with Brian Hunter and Tony Ritchie.  For the most part it sheds the classical pretentions for a pop melody and a heavy section in the middle.  Its chamber pop style suits Parker extremely well and I wish more of the record sounded like this.  His other songs are less successful.  "Exercise in A Minor" sounds like a classical pianist jamming with a samba band.  The pretty but vapid "Classical Wind" could be the soundtrack to a TV commercial.  There are two other original songs on the album not written by Parker.  "Reach for the Sky" was written by Tony Ritchie and Del Spence.  It comes closest to replicating the euphoric sound of "Joy" although it is too derivative to be truly memorable.   "Libido" was written by Apollo 100 guitarist Vic Flick and Reg Leonard and it features a pleasant melody with catchy guitar lines and a tasteful string arrangement.  It sounds like a cross between a European film soundtrack and a Belle and Sebastian outtake.  I have no regrets about buying this album but I wish more of it sounded like "Libido" and "Tamara" and less of it featured "rock" versions of the classics.  When I was younger I was into prog-rock and appreciated the idea of classical-rock fusion.  I have less tolerance for it now, but even back then I think I would have found Parker's style to be insipid.  I prefer the audacious vulgarity that Emerson, Lake and Palmer brought to their heavy interpretation of "Pictures at an Exhibition" which seems like an experiment worth trying.  Parker's approach just sounds like he is dumbing down the music to me.  The exception of course is "Joy" which does fuse the dynamic quality of rock with Bach's original music.  Bach has always been the exception that proves the rule.  From Paul Simon to Procol Harum to the Toys to the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble, Bach's music has frequently been successfully transposed to rock probably because the strength of his musical motifs lends itself to rock melodies.  I can't unconditionally recommend such a silly record especially since you can just buy the single of "Joy" and likely have all the Apollo 100 you will ever need.  However if you love "Joy" as much as I do and you come across this album (which is generally pretty cheap), you will probably find stuff you like on it if you buy it.  I don't play it much but I enjoy it when I do.  Recommended to fans of Focus.

Pictures at an Exhibition - Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Pictures at an Exhibition
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Cotillion  ELP 66666
1972

This is a live recording of ELP's version of Modest Mussorgsky's classical opus recorded at Newcastle City Hall on March 26, 1971.  It was released in England in 1971 but ELP's American record company initially rejected it and its American release was delayed until 1972.  I had been planning a post in honor of Keith Emerson after he committed suicide last year.  I was planning to do an album by his previous band, the Nice, which I like better than ELP, but I changed my mind following the recent passing of his bandmate Greg Lake.  I've made fun of ELP and this album in particular in some previous posts, but I was actually a fan of Emerson as a teenager.  I loved the Nice and liked the first ELP album as well.  This one not so much, but I've never considered getting rid of it in the many years I've owned it.  Reading his obituary I was surprised to find that Emerson was living in my hometown of Santa Monica when he died.  There are loads of British ex-pats here but somehow Emerson seemed so European to me that it was hard for me to imagine living next to him out here in sunny SaMo.  In one of the obits I read, his girlfriend mentioned that he never listened to rock music, only jazz and classical.  That I found easy to believe.  Even back in the Nice I sensed that Emerson felt that rock was beneath him.  Not unlike Frank Zappa, I got the feeling he was pandering to his fans presumably for commercial reasons.  In that regard this album is emblematic of his career.  I'm sure Emerson was skilled enough to have recorded a straight performance of Mussorgsky's original work but that would have sold a tiny fraction of what this "rock" version of it did.  The album begins with "Promenade" which was taken straight out of Mussorgsky's original composition.  It features a distinctive melody that is used throughout the original work to link together some of the movements.  Emerson plays it on the big pipe organ in the hall.  "The Gnome" was also taken from Mussorgsky and adapted by ELP's drummer Carl Palmer.  His main contribution seems to be adding a bombastic drum track to the piece as well as a mercifully brief drum solo.  Like the original piece, it is gloomy and ominous.  The work proves surprisingly suitable for the heavy rock treatment given to it by ELP.  I imagine Mussorgsky would have been appalled, but I like it.  Emerson switched to an electric organ and a synthesizer for this track and I enjoy his frenetic noodling.  Next Emerson plays a subdued version of "Promenade" on his organ and Greg Lake takes to the microphone to gently croon the words he composed for it which are basically quasi-mystical nonsense about life's journey.  Lake expounds further on this theme for his original song "The Sage" which is him and his acoustic guitar. The song sounds a bit like a courtly Renaissance air crossed with a traditional English folk song although the lyrics are pure hippie bullshit reminiscent of the trite philosophizing of the Moody Blues.  Emerson changes the tempo dramatically with his high energy adaptation of "The Old Castle" which was the second movement in Mussorgsky's original work.  The sensitive romantic character of the original piece is completely obliterated by Emerson's intense bludgeoning of assorted electric organs and synthesizers but it is entertaining.  It segues seamlessly into the pompously titled group composition "Blues Variation" which is an Emerson-dominated jam that is easily my favorite track.  It really cooks, which makes it a rarity in ELP's discography.  They frequently rock but they seldom roll.  Side two begins with a reprise of the "Promenade" theme played forcefully by the full band.  They then run through "The Hut of Baba Yaga" at breakneck speed.  This was the ninth movement in Mussorgsky's original work.  This is followed by another group jam entitled "The Curse of Baba Yaga" which features more blistering keyboard runs from Emerson.  It is followed by a brief return to "The Hut of Baba Yaga" before moving into the tenth and final movement of Mussorgsky's opus, "The Great Gates of Kiev."  In the original work this piece is stately and triumphant, but ELP instead go with a full throttle attack featuring Lake bellowing out more of his silly lyrics with Emerson maniacally raising a ruckus in support.  Near the end the band finally slows down and Mussorgsky's majestic music emerges to back up verses like "there's no end to my life, no beginning to my death, death is life."  Ugh!  When the music finally finishes, the audience erupts in thunderous applause and if I had been there perhaps I would have too, it is perversely impressive.  The band returns to encore with a high octane performance of Kim Fowley's ludicrous Tchaikovsky adaptation "Nutrocker" which gives the album a winningly irreverent finish.  I ought to hate this record, it is one of the most pretentious pop albums ever and a vulgar travesty of Mussorgsky's original work.  It goes against all my beliefs of what good rock music should be.  Nonetheless I do find it listenable and even sporadically enjoyable, mostly because Emerson was such a dynamic keyboard player.  He may not have been interested in rock, but he was good at it as a performer.  Also I find some charm in the dialectic collision between the refined art of classical music and the crudity of heavy rock.  The results are often ridiculous (especially when Lake is singing) but there are times when the frisson between the two is engaging to me.  This record never bores me which is more than I can say about Yes, Genesis, or even post-Barrett Pink Floyd.  You could definitely do worse when it comes to prog-rock.  Even if you hate this sort of thing, you ought to hear it at least once, if only to marvel at Keith Emerson's skill and shameless audacity.  I'm going to miss him.  Recommended to classical music fans who dig Jerry Lee Lewis.

Second Album - Curved Air

Second Album
Curved Air
Warner Bros.  WS 1951
1971

I learned about Curved Air from the Logan/Woffinden "Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock" which was extremely influential on my early record collecting.  The book has a British perspective which is a good thing as far as Curved Air is concerned since they never made any impact over here.  To this day I don't think I've ever heard them on the radio and I rarely see their albums in the record bins.  I guess American prog-rock fans preferred to listen to Keith Emerson butcher the classics than to listen to Sonja Kristina Linwood sweetly crooning this band's pop-oriented version of arty rock.  The songwriting on this album is divided evenly with Linwood and the band's violinist Darryl Way writing all of side one and Francis Monkman (guitar and keyboards) writing the three songs on side two.  "Young Mother" establishes the band's prog credentials right off the band with Way sawing away at his electric violin while Monkman goes nuts on his synthesizer.  The narrative portion of the song gives way to a lyrical instrumental passage with a soaring synth line that I find exhilarating.  The song is a statement of independence.  Bassist Ian Eyre joined Linwood and Way in writing "Back Street Luv" which was a hit in England and should have been here too.   Linwood sings of the perils of romance in a cool, reserved voice, she reminds me of Fairport Convention's Judy Dyble crossed with a young Marianne Faithfull.  The song features a more stripped down sound than most of the record, it sounds like a conventional pop song.  It has a strong hook and features hard rock heaviness in the verses contrasting with the lightness of the chorus.  I consider it one of the best songs of its era.  Art rock rears its fearsome head with "Jumbo" which is entirely synth and string driven.  Linwood's icy vocals suit this ponderous song quite well.  The title appears to be a reference to the jet plane the singer is flying home on.  Straight ahead rock returns with "You Know" which I think is about the double standard among the sexes.  The song has a heavy riff and even a couple of guitar solos.  Side one ends with one of the artiest songs on the album, "Puppets" which is some sort of allegory about free will and conformity I believe.  Linwood lifelessly intones the lyrics as if she were a puppet herself with Way's piano offering most of the instrumental color.  Side two's opener, "Everdance" wakes me up again.  It is another allegorical song about the roads people choose in life.  It is a fast-paced, riffing rocker with a Middle Eastern flavor particularly in Way's violin lines.  I can't believe I'm actually writing this, but I dig the dynamic interplay between the violin and Monkman's synth.  "Bright Summer's Day '68" sounds like the title of some lyrical paean to hippie bliss, but it is instead a satirical portrait of a dysfunctional family.  It is another rocker with a light, poppy chorus that ends with a surprising amount of guitar noise in the concluding instrumental passage.  Then comes the grand finale, the nearly 13 minute long "Piece of Mind."  With its shifting tempos, multiple musical themes, lengthy instrumental passages and numerous keyboard and string solos, the song is easily the most proggy one on the album, it sounds like the Nice jamming with It's a Beautiful Day.  The song is about madness, nightmares, distorted perception and despair and is just as awkward and pretentious as you might expect, Monkman even name checks Berlioz's "Harold in Italy."  Linwood can't do much with these lyrics although she gives it a game try.  I doubt that even Sandy Denny could make me care about these words.  Despite all that, I like the song, some sections of it are quite engaging.  I just wish the song had a stronger finish than just petering out the way it does.  Nonetheless if there has to be prog-rock, let it be like this.  This is a very underrated album, one of the better albums of the early 1970s.  The pop sensibility that Curved Air applied to progressive rock resulted in some complex yet enjoyable music.  I'll take a good hook and a solid riff over a rock symphony anytime.  Recommended for prog-rock fans looking for something a little sexier than their usual fare.

Procol Harum - Procol Harum

Procol Harum
Procol Harum
Deram   DES 18009
1967

The debut album by Procol Harum.  When I was much younger, I really liked Procol Harum.  I liked that their music was complicated, I thought it was clever that they borrowed from Bach for their hit and I thought that it was cool that Keith Reid's lyrics were almost impossible to make any sense of.  Then I grew up.  I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with having an outside lyricist, Robert Hunter, Bernie Taupin and Brian Wilson's various collaborators come to mind, but I do consider it a troubling sign when an artist has nothing to say.  It is an even more troubling sign when the outside lyricist is more fond of surreal wordplay then saying anything much either.  It is even worse when two of his songs on an album feature references to Neptune (the god not the planet.)  As far as major bands go, I consider Reid's lyrics to be the most pretentious and irritating in the history of rock.  I don't normally judge bands too severely for their lyrics, if the music is good I don't mind stupid or banal lyrics all that much, it is rock and roll, no one is expecting poetry.  If I do get something like poetry, hopefully it is good and still has an emotional impact like Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen or Patti Smith.  I think the best lyricists reach me on a direct emotional level while also making me think, people like Richard Thompson, Thom Yorke, Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Elvis Costello and Tori Amos.  I respect authenticity and sincerity.  What I dislike are lyrics that are so obscure that I need to study a lyric sheet to even begin to figure them out, like Keith Reid's lyrics.  By definition that is not popular music.  I've never heard a Procol Harum song that had any emotional effect on me aside from perhaps "A Salty Dog."  That said, I still find this album sporadically enjoyable.  "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is practically beyond criticism.  That entrancing Bachian organ line is irresistible to me and Gary Brooker could be singing absolute nonsense (although lines like "if behind is in front then dirt in truth is clean" come pretty close to nonsense) and I would still enjoy this song.  It is certainly one of the odder classic hit singles in the history of rock and kudos to the the Procols for pulling it off.  The only other song on here that I really like a lot is "Conquistador" and this version sounds naked without the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra driving it.  "She Wandered Through the Garden Fence" is a jaunty tune with a nice organ solo but I don't see why the first verse needs to be repeated, it doesn't make any more sense the second time around.  "Something Following Me" is a dreary little tune about death notable only for some nice heavy guitar work.  "Mabel" is the song I most dislike, a shambling music hall type number with morbid lyrics, it reminds me of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" which if you read my entry on "Abbey Road" you'll know is not a compliment.  "Cerdes (outside the gates of)" as you can probably tell from the stupid title, is Keith Reid at his most self-indulgent with its references to unicorns and rhinestoned flugelhorns.  I would hate it were it not for the heaviness of the music with some blistering guitar work from Robin Trower.  "A Christmas Camel" is just as bad, a steady stream of verbal diarrhea rescued by the music.  How exactly does a sheik impersonate a hot dog stand anyway?  The piano hook seems to be lifted from Bob Dylan's "Ballad of A Thin Man" and the rest of the tune seems very influenced by Dylan as well.  I'm fond of J. S. Bach, but when it comes to rocking, I think you are better off copying Dylan.  "Kaleidoscope" is a nice rocker with more befuddled lyrics.  Reid's protagonists are so frequently disoriented that I suspect he must have spent a lot of time drunk or high, either that or he was easily confused. "Salad Days (are here again)" is a compelling majestic tune, I really enjoy the organ work, almost enough to ignore lines like "the sun seeps through the window to see if we're still dead."  Since it has no words "Repent Walpurgis" ought to be one of the best songs on the record, but I find it pretty boring, the most prog-rockish tune on the album.  I have a lot of problems with this record, but on the rare occasions that I play it, I do find it mildly engaging.  The lyrics may be annoying, but they are different at least and the music may be proggy, but it does rock as well.  Recommended for poetry majors with a taste for organ music.

Relics - Pink Floyd

Relics
Pink Floyd
Starline SRS 5071
1971 

As a teenager, I never understood Pink Floyd's widespread popularity among my peers.  My sister had "Dark Side of the Moon" and I couldn't believe it was so successful, it just sounded like mildly dull prog-rock to me.  My teenage ears found their music to be morose, humorless and tedious.  When I started reading rock encyclopedias and histories, I realized there was another Pink Floyd that existed before the pretentious arena band did, a psychedelic band led by a guy named Syd Barrett.  I was intrigued and that led me to this comp.  My copy is the English version with a charming cover drawing by Nick Mason.  The American cover art features some guy with four eyes.  Barrett is only featured on a little more than half of this record, but that was enough for me to realize how brilliant he was.  I eventually acquired most of Pink Floyd's albums, but this and "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" are the only two that I play much.  The Barrett-era Floyd tracks are my favorites on this record but even the David Gilmour-era stuff all of which dates from the late 1960s is mostly good.  The record begins appropriately enough with the band's debut single "Arnold Layne."  It is a terrific song, naughty, funny and catchy with crisp drumming, driving bass lines, ringing guitars and swirling organ, it is a classic slice of English psychedelia.  From their debut album comes "Interstellar Overdrive," a lengthy instrumental, but unlike the epic prog-rock snoozefests they'd later unleash on the world, this one actually goes somewhere.  It is trippy and sounds great with headphones.  "See Emily Play" is another classic single and my favorite of all their songs.  It shimmers and soars with the grace and beauty of the best psychedelic music.  It is followed by two 1967 songs by Richard Wright, "Remember a Day" and "Paintbox" which are sung by Wright.  They both have a dreamy psychedelic flavor and boast terrific drumming from Mason.   Side two features the post-Barrett Floyd.  "Julia Dream" was written by Roger Waters, the first of many somnolent ballads he would deliver with the band through the years.  I like the freaky sound effects and the keyboards, they have a nice hallucinogenic effect.  "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" is a portent of Pink Floyd's progressive rock future, a long keyboard dominated instrumental that slowly builds to a mild climax.  It is not as dull as the ones that would come later, but no great favorite of mine either.  I prefer the version they re-recorded for the film "Zabriskie Point" which is heavier and more intense.  The record jumps to 1969 with "Cirrus Minor," another sleepy Waters ballad dominated by a droning organ that makes me think of church.  Things perk up with Waters' "The Nile Song" which is the hardest rocking song they ever recorded.  Pink Floyd could really rock when they wanted to, they probably just thought it was beneath them.  The previously unreleased "Biding My Time" rocks out quite a bit as well, but it is otherwise undistinguished.  The use of horns on the song brings to mind "Atom Heart Mother" although fortunately it is not anywhere near as bad as that.  It is self-indulgent but it is more fun than most of side two.  As far as fun goes though, it can't hold a candle to the closing number, a return to 1967 with Syd Barrett's "Bike" which is funny, charming and trippy and really after Barrett left, how many Pink Floyd tracks can you say that about?   Recommended for people who think "Lovely Rita" is a better song than "Let It Be."  

Spaceship Earth - Sugarloaf

Spaceship Earth

Sugarloaf

Liberty LST-11010

1971 

The second album by Sugarloaf - I've listened to it a bunch of times and I'm still not sure if I like it, which probably means I don't.  It is kind of interesting though.  At times the group comes on like a straight ahead rock band akin to Crow or Steppenwolf, other times they sound more pop like the Raiders or the Guess Who and other times they go prog-rock with keyboardist Jerry Corbetta sounding like he's auditioning for Argent.  The new guy, Robert Yeazel, dominates the album writing or co-writing all but one of the songs on the record.  He's the hippie dude in the groovy macrame shirt on the right side of the front cover and his songs sound like the sort of songs a guy in a groovy macrame shirt would write.  Given the album title I expected an ecology theme, but actually it is more of a living in the city sucks we have got to back to nature theme or as they say in "I Don't Need You Baby" - "I'm gonna do what is needed, keep my mind good and weeded" which suggests that some of nature's appeal might be illicit as well but they also dig fresh air, the sun and the trees.  Actually like most rock albums, the songs are more about love than the environment which is just as well I think.  Only one song, "Mother Nature's Wine," sounds anything like their most famous song "Green-Eyed Lady" (from their first album) and it is the only song Robert Yeazel did not write.  With it's tempo changes and big hooky bass line, it sounds like they are consciously attempting a "Green-Eyed Lady" retread but it is not nearly as memorable.  Musically I do like the eclecticism of the group's sound and the boys can really play.  They are cooking on the prog-rock instrumental, "Spaceship Earth," that opens the album and there is some nice soloing on the rocking "Tongue in Cheek" which also has a bit of prog-rock flavor.  I'm not a fan of prog-rock, but if there has to be such a thing, let it be like this - it is very dynamic and never reminds me of Mussorgsky.  Overall I prefer their first album although this album is more consistently engaging.  If you have a taste for early 1970s rock you may like this album.  Recommended for adventurous Yes fans.