5. The Solid Time Of Change

Part five of the Solid Time of Change aired Saturday June-4-2016 c/o CiTR.FM.101.9.

 

Youtube playlist (possibly not the exact versions that were played). Podcast.

Also known as as the 661 Greatest Records of the so-called Prog Rock era, the Solid Time of Change is Randophonic’s current countdown project — an overlong yet incomplete history of whatever the hell happened between 1965 and 1979 – not in all music, not even in most of it, but definitely in a bunch of it.

What is Prog Rock? Is it different somehow from progressive rock, or for that matter, rock that merely progresses? These may seem like simple questions, but they are in fact doors that open unto some of the most complex enigmas of our time, which are best resolved by actually listening to the radio shows.

solid-crop-05

Part five of our journey went as follows:

  1. Yes – every little thing
  2. Yes – I see you
  3. Yes – no opportunity necessary no experience required
  4. Traffic – 40,000 Headmen
  5. David Bowie – memory of a free festival
  6. Renaissance – a trip to the fair
  7. Supertramp – Rudy
  8. Camel – first light
  9. Genesis – horizons
  10. Genesis – Can Utility and the Coastliners
  11. Cat Stevens – Angelsea
  12. Pink Floyd – Sysyphus
  13. Pink Floyd – + Cirrus [edit]
  14. Pink Floyd – pigs [three different ones]
  15. Melodic Energy Commission – song of the Delatron revises the scene
  16. Bo Hansson – divided thoughts [attic reality]
  17. Bo Hansson – flight to the ford

Solid Time of Change #6 airs Saturday, June 11th at 11 pm (Pacific time) c/o CiTR.FM.101.9, with streaming and download options available within twenty-four hours.

1049. I wish U heaven [extended]

Prince takes a nice ballad from 1988’s Lovesexy and remixes it into a ten minute groove adventure. The man was like that in the 80s.  Everything he touched turned a brighter, more rewarding shade of purple, even his own already brilliant stuff. And then came that dumb Batman soundtrack, which may have been good for his bank account, but not much else.

Prince-IwishUheaven

1050. white shadow

Upon leaving the then cool sort of cutting edge underground band known as Genesis in early 1975, Peter Gabriel embarked on period of serious reinvention. His second solo album found none other than Robert Fripp in the producer’s chair and Mr. Gabriel very much ready for whatever weirdness the coming decade (the 1980s) might have to throw his way. Indeed, a song such as White Shadow suggests that he’d be doing a bunch of the throwing.

PeterGabriel-78

1051. be

Neil Diamond had it all by 1973. Millions of adoring fans, great hair, even a grudging sort of critical respectability in the wake of those recent live shows at the Greek Theater in L.A. So what does the man do with it all? He dives deep, he reaches high, he gives his all to a soundtrack for an awful movie based on a really dumb book about a seagull. Yet even in falling Icarus-like, Mr. Diamond soars “… as a page that aches for a word, which speaks on a theme that is timeless.”

NeilD-Jonathon

1052. roll another number

In which Neil Young gets deadly serious in the wake of various deaths in and around the band (Crazy Horse) and weighs in with a public service announcement on the topic of smoking a little marijuana and going for a long drive if the times get too troubling. Because there’s nothing like a rear view mirror to put things further behind you than they really are. Which is kind of the opposite of Roll Another Number, which was already two years old before anybody ever heard it, the album in question having been held back for being just too grim.

(Morrison Hotel Gallery)

1053. life without buildings

The band known as Japan may have started out as a second rate (late to the game) glam outfit more famous for looking good than sounding good, but by the time the time they called it quits (for the first time), they were making a music that was entirely their own, as elegant as it was mysterious. Which perhaps speaks to Life Without Buildings being relegated to a limited edition flexi-disc and b-side, until finally showing up on 1984’s Exorcising Ghosts, one of the better compilation albums of any era.