Sunday, November 11, 2007

 

Music for November

Lots of music added to the stream recently. As always, if you have any suggestions, please write me or comment on this blog.

Lindsey Boullt - Composition (2007)
I like to play new music here once in awhile. Lindsey is one hell of a guitar player and these compact pieces of music show it off, along with his excellent sense of melody. The arrangements are clean and support him well. I love the energy in the guitar without having to deal with the anger and overload that seems to come fromprog guitar players these days. Check him out at http://www.lindseyboullt.com/ .
Versylus - Verysylus (1982)
They came to the party a bit too late and only got one album out. With the Internet bringing the past back though, they are trying to re-release their album. Classicprog that you can check out at: http://myspace.com/versylus .
Patrick Moraz - Future Memories II (1982/2006)
Composed and arranged live on TV are what the liner notes say. Very cool approach to music and Patrick does some of his best work since "I" here.
Steve Howe - The Steve Howe Album (1979)
An interesting album. At times you hear Yes here. But the supporting cast really gives this album some extra punch. If you are a Yes fan, you should probably have this one.
Steve Hackett - Watcher of the Skies/Genesis Revisited (1996)
I'm not sure why Steve felt the need to redo all of this great music, but here it is. I really enjoyed the CD, but would rather get the original cast back together.
Rick Wakeman - Journey to The Centre of The Earth (1974)
Maybe the best of Rick's solo work; powerful, majestic and still a fun ride 30 years later.
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975)
By 1975 I was already pushing away from Pink Floyd. There was new interesting stuff coming from across the ocean and PF was already becoming... conventional. But 30 years later you have to admire the work. Today I admire how they mixed the serious work with the pop melodies.
Yes - Going For The One (1977,1991 & 2003)
The buildings on the cover always reminded me of Century City in Los Angeles. It says "business". And by this point in Yes' career, it seemed that business was on their minds. They were moving toward a more conventional style. But this is still a solid CD. The last good prog CD from them until the late 90's.

Comments:
I'm always glad to see any promotion of Progressive music on the web. I've been a lifelong fan and I'm always on the lookout for bands who excel in this field.

This post evoked a series of memories of a summer when I was both elated and massively disappointed.

It was the summer when both Rick Wakeman and Yes held seperate performances at the Hollywood Bowl in support of "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" and "Relayer" albums.

Wakeman had the full orchestra and rock band performing the whole of the Journey and an hour of mixed blessings from Six Wives and improvisations. And when the audience refused to leave at the end of Journey, Rick apologized to the crowd and asked if they would mind if they played the second half of Journey a second time!

Yes, on the other hand, was a profound disappointment that year. Jon was in good form, but he was attempting to make use of their new Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz. Pat was more interested in his solo work, which was far too jazz oriented for Yes.

Worst of all, his attempts at playing Rick's compositions were a total disaster. A very sad evening at the Hollywood Bowl.

But the next summer, all was forgotten when I attended my first Genesis performance. It was held in Burbank at the Starlight Amphitheater and the album was "A Trick Of The Tail" with Phil on vocals and Bill Bruford on drums. A magical night that I will never forget.
 
I was at the Genesis show at the Starlight that year. I was delighted at how good they sounded, even without Peter. It was the second time I had seen them and would end up being my last.
 
Love those old prog albums. I read a lot of your blog, nice job. You may enjoy my new page too.
http://progalbums.com
 
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