“Two songs joined as one side long epic c/o Triumvirat, Germany’s answer to Emerson Lake + Palmer, the key point being that Triumvirat ended up being at least as good as ELP, probably even better to the degree that they could contain their various egos and actually deliver cohesive suites of music every now and then. Not that there still wasn’t some wanking, but we needed their kind of wanking back in the mid 70s. What else were you going to air-keyboard to after the girls had all split the party? And seriously, the whole Illusions on a Double Dimple album is worth your time. Passion and finesse, even groovy in places.” (Philip Random)
The word debacle applies to Emerson Lake + Palmer’s 1977. While the cool world went punk and the party world went disco, they released a dubious double album and invested big in taking a full symphony orchestra on a world tour with them. It failed. Meanwhile, a wigged out sort of post-meltdown boogie like Tiger in a Spotlight got buried on a secondary album of various odds and sods, suggesting a whole other possible history for mankind … until you do little research and discover it had been sitting on a shelf since 1973. That ship had already sailed, and probably sank.
Last week saw the debut of Randophonic’s latest series, The Solid Time of Change (aka the 661 Greatest Records of the so-called Prog Rock era) – 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, particularly via bands hailing from the United Kingdom.
What is Prog Rock, and does it somehow differ from Progressive Rock, or for that matter, rock that merely progresses? These may seem simple questions but they are in fact doors that open unto some of the most complex enigmas of this split-atomic age.
The good news is, for the next year (or thereabouts) there shall be a radio show broadcasting pretty much every Saturday night, starting at 11pm (Pacific Time) c/o CiTR.FM.101.9 wherein these enigmas shall be explored – also queens and kings, queendoms and kingdoms, and dreams, wizards and witches, oceans, concertos, overtures, finales, voyages, apocalypses, angels, sandcastles, swords, redeemers, rebels, relayers, even a little funk; not to mention islands, saviours, prophecies, revelations, giants, shipwrecks, astronauts, rituals, robots, roundabouts, gods and goblins, sacred texts and liars, journeys and parades, runaways and sorcerers, at least one girl child named Linda, the total mass retain and the seven seas of Rhye.
The first part of our journey went something like this:
Apollo 100 – joy
Emerson Lake + Palmer – Karn Evil 9 [1st impression part 2]
Yes – beyond + before
Genesis – where the sour turns to sweet
Genesis – in the beginning
Spirit – space child
Spirit – aren’t you glad
Uriah Heep – the wizard
Queen – someday one day
Queen – great king rat
Electric Light Orchestra – Battle of Marston Moore [fragment]
The Move – message from the country
Electric Light Orchestra – 10538 Overture
Giorgio – automation
Guess Who – key [edit]
Pink Floyd -Matilda Mother
Kansas – Incomudro [lamplight to the Atman]
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Ramble Tamble
Installment #2 airs 11pm, Saturday, May 14 on CiTR, with relevant links to be eventually posted here and our Facebook.
Randophonic’s first ever attempt at a proper Christmas show aired December 20th on CiTR.FM.101.9.
Here it is in two Mixcloud streams.
Plus a very special Movie of the Week — Monty Python’s Pleasures of the Dance.
The podcast of the full program is available for download here …
A special program in which we look back with fondness at cherished memories of Christmases past. Try to anyway, as it turns out the Jukebox is still stuck in minimum 49-percent prog-rock mode after the previous week’s 1974 blowout.
Which isn’t to say there aren’t plenty of highlights, seasonal and otherwise.
Sorry about that. The rest are guaranteed highlights, presented more or less in the order they were broadcast.
Van Der Graaf Generator – theme one
Written by George Martin for some TV show or other. Reimagined for drums, keyboards and various horns by Van Der Graaf Generator at their 70s freakout peak.
They don’t say which King Henry, though this strikes us as decidedly Shakespearean. Which raises the question. Where the hell are all the rocked up Shakespearean Christmas carols?
The Clash – if music could talk …
… then we truly would have peace on earth.
Delaney + Bonnie – where the soul never dies
What it’s really all about.
Beatles – Christmas time + The Word
The word is love. The time is now.
Emerson Lake + Palmer – Jerusalem
An interpretation of William Blake’s cosmic musing on Britain’s industrial revolution (those dark Satanic mills) and Jesus Christ himself taking a little walk ‘cross England’s green and pleasant. ELP at their least annoying.
December even mentions the Christ child, but it’s not so much a Christmas song as a meditation on the gloomiest time of year, and how we always seem to find the light to see our way through, which seems to be what spirit’s all about.
Van Morrison – St. Dominic’s Preview
A song about many things, most of them indecipherable, but there is homesickness at the root of it. You think Buffalo’s a long way away? Try Belfast.
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – father of night, father of day
In which the Earth Band manage in ten minutes what Bob Dylan’s original accomplished in less than two. And yet, we’re pretty damned sure that the good Lord has love enough for both.
The band that brought bassoons and krumhorns to rock. And one more time, why is there not more of this sort of Shakespearean groove available this time of year?
Randophonic 