Prog Rock Saturday: Szintetizátor-Varázs

Mihaly Tamas - "Szintetizátor-Varázs" (1983) - Start

Hello barátok,

Hungarian synth wizard, Mihaly Tamas, goes full Clockwork Orange on this Import LP from 1983. (Thanks Zsolti!)

Side One is a selection of pieces by Liszt and Side Two is dedicated to pieces by Wagner.

Like a cross between Wendy Carlos & Giorgio Moroder, its proggy and weird with hints of pop and disco. A very fun listen though probably not the best record to put on if you're trying to impress the ladies on a dark & stormy Saturday night. (my bad!)

Not much is known about Mihaly here in the States (we do know he was in an early 80's Hungarian new wave band called "Omega"), but we'd definitely be down to hear some more of his stuff especially if he's done any soundtrack work.

RATING: 4 disappointing sets of blue balls on a Saturday night out of 5

Offenbach: Gaite Parisieene

Offenbach: Gaite Parisenne (1962) - Parliament Records

Hello Friends,

Cranking out the classics on another hungover Sunday.

This recording of Jacques Offenbach's 1938 ballet about a wild and crazy night out at some Parisian cafe is waaaaaay too manic for be appropriately dealt with in our current state!

Here's the description of what's going on from the liner notes:

The action of the ballet takes place in an elegant cafe in the course of a single evening. As the curtain rises, waiters are preparing tables for the evening's trade. A dainty flower girl sets up her stand . A half dozen Bohemian students and their blowsy girls clatter... A pretty glove seller sets out her wares. She is followed by a foreigner - a South American - rich, rather pathetic, ready to be fleeced. He tries his luck with the disdainful glove seller, and then hopefully with the flower girl. The cafe grow more crowded. A Austrian baron struts in, his eye wandering to the glove seller; she lets him waltz with her. The South American is so obviously eager to spend money in good company that the girls abandon their student escorts ad oblige him by drinking the champagne that he so generously provides. This pleasant state lasts until a jaunty officer and some soldiers swagger into the cafe. The girls switch allegiance to the soldiers and each dances off with her man. Once more, the South American is alone. His hopes rise momentarily as a glamorous lady in red makes a flashy entrance, but she has a duke in tow... the pointless evening finally fizzes out. To the strains of a barcarolle the clientele departs - the girls with the soldiers, the beauty with the officer, the duke with the flower girl, the baron with the glove seller. As these last two leave, one figure - un-partnered and desolate - watches enviously. It is the South American. The gayety on close examination proves to be merely noise to ward off boredom; the romance is nothing more than greed, vanity, hope of gain, or an effort to avoid loneliness.

Cool, I guess?

RATING: 2.5 sexy glove sellers out of 5

Franck's Symphony in D minor

Franck - "Symphony in D Minor" (1958) - RCA Victor

Hello Friends,

We're keeping things classy once again here on Vinyl in the Valley.

Here's a record of Cesar Franck's Symphony in D Minor as arranged and conducted by Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Kind of a cool-sounding, lesser known Symphony from 1888.  Late Romantic period.   Three movements utilizing a cyclic form, meaning that the melody that is introduced at the very start of the piece is repeated and mutated throughout the movements.  

Believe it or not, this was kind of a revolutionary idea really embraced by the Romantic composers. The vast majority of the Classical Era Symphonies use completely different themes and melodies in each of their separate movements.  Its kind of crazy but your typical Symphony by the likes of Hayden, Beethoven or Mozart would be comprised of four distinct and separate movements that would not have much to do with each other sonically or thematically.  (Beethoven's Fifth & Ninth Symphonies being two notable exceptions!)

Think of it as four unrelated songs on a record.

When the Romantic composers came along they utilized cyclic form to help tie together the piece so there was more of a thematic flow.   Think of it more like Sgt Peppers or The Wall.

Belgian-born Franck lived from 1822 to 1890.  He was both a child prodigy and a late bloomer, with most of his important works being written the last 18 years of his life. This, his only Symphony, is probably his most famous work.  

To be honest, this symphony has a pretty dark & foreboding sound to it.  If you would have told us that it was something by Wagner (especially the First Movement), we probably would have believed you!

RATING: 4 Allegro Non Troppos out of 5

Hi-Fi Holidays: The Nutcracker

Antal Dorati conducting the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra - "Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, op. 71 - Complete Ballet" (1955) - Mercury Records

Hello Friends,

Another edition of Sunday Morning Classics.  Drinking some strong black coffee and cleaning the empty bottles and ashtrays from last night.  

And there's no better way to dance a holiday hangover away than with Tchaikovsky's famous Nutcracker Ballet from 1892.

This is a nifty double-album of the complete Nutcracker Ballet with some pretty impressive packaging.  

Mercury Records claims that this is the first complete recording of Tchaikovksy's most famous work.

Everyone, of course, is very familiar with the far more famous, Nutcracker Suite, which is pretty ubiquitous this time of year.  The suite runs usually about a half an hour whereas the complete version runs closer to 90 minutes; its like the Nutcracker's Greatest Hits.

Pretty extensive liner notes with some cool Wes Anderson-y illustrations throughout the accompanying pages.

RATING: 4.5 Sugar Plum Fairies out of 5

Beethoven's Fifth

Leonard Bernstein & The New York Philharmonic - "Beethoven Fifth Symphony" (1962) - Columbia Masterworks

Hello Friends,

Keeping it classy once again on a Sunday Morning.  This time with an all time great performance of one Classical music's greatest works, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as performed by the famous New York Philharmonic orchestra as lead by the incomparable Leonard Bernstein!  Hangover cures don't get much better than this!

No one loves a good hook more than Tiki T and myself and perhaps there's no piece of music with a better hook that Beethoven's Fifth.  The famous Da-Da-Da-Daaah intro which was described as Beethoven as the sound of "Fate knocking at the door".  I'll say!
That theme, in one form or another, permeates throughout the record as if to say there's no escaping it!

Its tense, terse, fierce and unrelenting.  Fate is something to be feared.  You can run, but you can't hide.  Its the ultimate inevitable.

Beethoven was one dark dude!

By the time we get to the Fourth and Final Movement (the "Allegro" for you fucking snobs) the music takes us out of the darkness.  The chords change from C-minor to C-major and we are left feeling satisfied, triumphant.  Things sound more like a victory march than they do a funeral procession.  But in the movement's final bars, we're once again reminded that Fate (a much more subdued, Da-Da-Da-Daaah) bubbles not far below the surface.  Enjoy your victory today suckers because who knows what tomorrow may bring?  

(For Beethoven, Fate may have in the form of the loss of hearing he started experiencing around this time.)

Our favorite part of this Symphony (and one of our favorite things in our very limited knowledge of Classical music) is the lamenting little oboe that appears out of nowhere amongst the turbulence and grandeur of the First Movement.  Buried within a barrage of the four note theme (Da-Da-Da-Daaah), everything stops and a short, quiet and timid oboe solo emerges.  Like a small, lonely man crying out.   Its like the sound you might hear if you were drowning in the ocean, sinking fast beneath the tumultuous rocking waves, a moment of solace, calm and clarity before dying.  Fucking heartbreaking.

Here's a real short clip of what we're talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffacsi35Z6s

Great record and a great piece of music!  Hangover is (almost) gone and we're ready to greet the day and hit the ground running!

RATING: 5 ludwig vons out of 5

Wagner: Parsifal

The Philadelphia Orchestra - "Wagner: Parsifal" (1956) - Columbia Masterworks

Hello Friends,

Keeping it classy again this fine November morning on Vinyl in the Valley.

The opera, Parsifal, would be Richard Wagner's last great opera as well as the culmination of his larger-than-life career and mythic body of work.   The original opera lasts for nearly five hours(!).  Its a football Sunday at the Vinyl in the Valley HQ and we don't have that kind of time on our hands!  Luckily, its been parsed down two sides of an LP so we can enjoy some of its most memorable moments while in our slippers and chasing last night's hangover away with some strong, black coffee!

And this record does get our juices flowing!  This is a very big-sounding, bad-ass record, with lots of heavy-sounding themes, intimating brass, build-ups, crescendos, sinister silences and unnerving quiet moments.  Its basically doom metal for the classical crowd! Its the kind of music that makes you want to "air conduct", climb a mountain or lead an army.  Its no wonder that the music of Wagner would really have a tendency to rev up the scary-types like Adolph Hitler, Nosferatu or Darth Vader.

Written by Richard Wagner over a period of 25 years, the complete opera debuted at the Bayreuth Festival in Bayreuth, Germany in 1882.  In a nutshell, the story follows Parsifal, from a young orphan boy to King of the Knights of the Holy Grail. Along the way, there's action a-plenty featuring knights, witches, wizards, holy grails, magic spears, femme fatales, holy communions, death and redemption.

Heady shit while you're trying to drink your morning coffee!

RATING: 4 today europe, tomorrow the worlds out of 5 

Magyar Melodies

Kalman Banyak - "The Outstanding Gypsy Violinist and his Orchestra play Magyar Melodies" (1960?) - B & F Records

Hello Friends,

We're once again keeping it classy today on Vinyl in the Valley.

Fun record of Gypsy-inspired folksongs played by the expert violinist, Kalman Banyak. Never heard of him?  Neither have we!  Still, its a pleasant record for a rainy Sunday morning in early October.

B & F Records was, apparently, a record label out of Cleveland, Ohio that released exclusively Hungarian-related music in the 50's & 60'.

RATING: 4 In My Little Garden Roses Never Bloom Out of 5

Switched on Bach

Walter Carlos - "Switched-On Bach" (1968) - Columbia Masterworks

Hello Friends,

We're keeping it classy again today on Vinyl in the Valley with some modern interpretations of J.S. Bach's most popular works.

Switched-On Bach is groundbreaking in many ways, but most especially in its use of the Moog Synthesizer as the primary instrument in interpreting the complex and multi-layered Baroque classics.  It sold over a million copies and remains one of the highest selling classical LP's of all time.  It also received critical praise and a multitude of accolades, including 3 Grammy Awards.

Listening to this record, we're instantly reminded of the soundtrack music to Stanley Kubrick films, specifically Clockwork Orange and The Shining.  

Well, whattayouknow, a little research has revealed that Walter Carlos did in fact do the soundtrack to Kubrick's 1971 film A Clockwork Orange and Wendy Carlos (Walter's wife or sister, maybe?) did the postmodern classical soundtrack for Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining.  

(cue record scratch)

Oh, wait.  Wendy Carlos is Walter Carlos!  The composer-musician underwent gender re-assignment surgery in 1972 making her the quite the groundbreaker in more ways than one.  Not only did she help revolutionize early electronic music, but she underwent sex change surgery WAAAY before it was something that society even had an inkling of understanding, dealing with and discussing.  Suck on that Caitlyn Jenner! 

We're drinking one for you today Wendy Carlos!

RATING: 4.5 brandenburg concertos out of 5

Songs and Dances of Death

Modest Mussorgsky - "Russian Songs from 'Songs and Dances' of Death" (1978) - Summit

Hello Friends,

October's here.  Days are shorter, leaves are changing and we're classing the place up with some Russian songs and dances of death courtesy of one of our favorite Russian composers, Modesto Mussorgsky.  

Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881) was one of five important composers from the mid-19th Century whose work focused on themes unique to Mother Russia and who often turned to Russian folklore for inspiration. Late in his career and deep in the throes of alcoholism, he would compose his "Songs and Dances of Death" song cycle, one of his last important works. 

Written for piano and voice (usually a bass or baritone), the song cycle is comprised of 4 compositions with macabre lyrics based on really dark poems by a friend of the composer, Count Arseny Golenischev-Kutuzov.  

On this particular record the piano duties are handled by Giorgio Favaretto and the bass vocals by Nicolo Rossi-Lemini, two very distinct, non-Russian names!

Obviously these songs are sung in operatic Russian. But a quick look at the English translations reveal some of the best death lyrics ever written:

A child is groaning...  A candle, burning out,
Dimly flickers onto surroundings.
The whole night, rocking the cradle, 
A mother has not dozed away with sleep...

Magical languor, blue night,
Trembling darkness of spring.
The sick girl takes in, with her head dropped, 
The whisper of the night's silence...

Your body is tender, your trembling is ravishing...
Oh, I'll suffocate you 
in my strong embraces: listen to my seductive 
chatter! ... be silent!... You are mine!"...

Forest and glades, no one is around. 
A snow-storm is crying and groaning,
It feels as in the gloom of the night
The Evil One is burying someone...

The battle is thundering, the armour is shining, 
Copper cannons are roaring, 
The troops are running, the horses are rushing
And red rivers are flowing.
The midday is blazing -- people are fighting, 
The sun is declining -- the fight is stronger, 
The sunset is fading away -- but the enemies
Are still battling more fierce and hateful.
And night has fallen on the battlefield.

(Complete translation text here.)...   \m/

In a nutshell, Trepak takes place on a bleak and snowy night when death comes along and begins dancing with drunken peasants.  Death tempts the revelers into eternal sleep with thoughts of Summer, warmth and contentment.

Lullaby is being sung by a mother to her dying child while in Serenade a young ailing girl is being serenaded by a seductive Death who sings outside of her window.

The fourth and final piece of the song-cycle is The Field-Marshall (or The General) in which Death assumes the guise of a General overlooking the slaughter on the day's battlefield with a certain grim satisfaction.  In tribute to the fallen, Death will conduct a dance of death over their bones at midnight!  Weird shit! 

Because the song-cycle only occupies about 20 minutes (or a single album side) of space, this LP is rounded out with some of Mussorgky's shorter vocal works including, Song of the Flea, Where Are You Little Star, The Grave, The Seminarist & The Old Man's Song.

All are pretty good, but we really like the Death stuff!

In our experience, cold nights, warm, flowing drinks, Russians and the spectre of death all seem to go pretty hand-in-hand, so this album is going to be a favorite on our October turntable! NOSTROVIA!

RATING: 4 Evil Ones Burying Someone out of 5

Pictures at an Exhibition

Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic - "Moussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition & Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol" (1959) - Columbia Masterworks

Hello Friends,

We're cranking up the Classical again on tonight's Vinyl in the Valley.  

And in honor of the Russian National Hockey team being eliminated at the Sochi Olympics earlier this we've got some Russkie favorites on the old the old Поворотный стол. 

Modesto Moussorgsky completed his 10-part piano suite, Pictures at an Exhibition, in 1874. In 1922, composer Maurice Ravel arranged Moussorgsky's suite for a full orchestra becoming one of Classical music's most performed and recognizable pieces.  

Its a piece of "program music", meaning it musically follows a plot or storyline; in this case, the composer walks through an exhibition of artwork by Russian artist, Viktor Hartmann- essentially making it an early form of the "concept" album like Come Fly With Me, Sgt Peppers or Dark Side of the Moon.

In 1959, Lenny Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic made this recording of Pictures at an Exhibition for Columbia Records.  We're not sure where this recording stands in comparison to others but we've got no complaints.  Its got a very "modern" feel to it like it could have been the soundtrack to some epic 1950's Cinemascope movie.  The melodies are familiar and there's lots of quiet-loud-quiet moments which is always a plus for us!

Rounding out the last 15 or so minutes of Side Two is Bernstein conducting a rousing version of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espangnol, a composition in five movements celebrating several Spanish folk melodies.  Ole!

Our thoughts go out to the Russian Hockey team!  Better luck in four years!

USA! USA! USA!

Update: USA loses to Canada (0-1) and then gets blown out by Finland in the Bronze Medal game (0-5).  There was no miracle on ice this time around!

RATING: 4.5 Great Gates of Kiev out of 5

number 9... number 9... number 9...

Beethoven - "Symphony No. 9" (1962) - Everest

Hello Friends,

We're classing things up tonight in Vinyl in the Valley.

Often considered (by people smarter than us) to be one of the most important works in all of Classical Music, Beethoven's last Symphony, aka The Ninth Symphony aka "The Chorale" Symphony, was a real game changer.  Like "Potato Head Blues", "Rocket 88", Sgt Peppers or Nevermind, the Ninth Symphony really turned the music world on its head and things haven't been the same since! 

Completed and premiered in 1824, when good ol' Ludwig Von was probably totally deaf, it's a Symphony in four movements which was pretty typical for the time.  What wasn't typical is that the Fourth and Final Movement incorporates the use of a vocal chorus-- something that had never been done before.  The Fourth Movement, often referred to as "The Ode To Joy", had lyrics based on a popular drinking song by the German poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller in 1785.    

Austrian Josef Krips conducts The London Symphony Orchestra.  In 1960, Krips would begin recording all 9 Beethoven Symphonies for the Everest record label.  Overall its a great listen.  Very Beethoven-y.  It goes from subdued, pastoral passages to larger-than-life sounding, bombastic themes.  This is a symphony not to be f'd with.   

Perhaps Alex from A Clockwork Orange puts it best on hearing the Ninth:

Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh. It was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now. As I slooshied, I knew such lovely pictures!

Well said brah!

RATING: 5 birds of rarest-spun heaven metal out of 5

Dreams of Love, Hungarian Rhapsodies and Dancing with the Devil!

Franz Liszt - "Liebestraum: Favorite Melodies of Liszt" - 1965 - Columbia Records

Hello Friends,

We're classing things up tonight at the tiki bar!  This record features the magic fingers of French classical pianist, Philippe Entremont, and features some selected works of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt.  So break out the Bulls Blood, because we've got bad case of Lisztomania tonight!

Excellent record for a stormy November evening.  Just a man and his piano playing the 'greatest hits' of the world's first rock star.

Side One
1. Liebestraum (Notturno no. 3)
2. Concert Etude No. 3 in F minor
3. Consolation No. 3
4. Mephisto Waltz

Side Two
1. Concert Etude No. 3 in D-Flat Major
2. Valse Oubliee
3. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15 ("Rakoczy March")
4. Canzonetta Del Salvator Rosa 
5. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

Mephisto Waltz is the album's highlight.  Ten minutes of frantic piano playing that's supposed to be about Faust & Mephisto, the devil himself, passing by a village tavern during a wedding.  Mephisto grabs a fiddle from one of the local musicians and starts playing this intoxicating melody that causes the Faust to grab and dance wildly with some local tramp.  They dance seductively into the night and eventually disappear out of the tavern and into the woods where sinful acts will no doubt follow!   (Editor's Note: Coincidentally, this is how Tiki T. and I met!)   

Plus, speaking of hotties, who doesn't love a sexy brunette looking over her shoulder while in a fainting chair? Too bad she's dressed like a Mennonite!

RATING: 4.5 servings of chicken paprikash out of 5

Behind the Candelabra

Liberace and Paul Weston - "Concertos for You" (1953) - Columbia Records

Hello Friends,

We just finished watching Stephen Soderbergh's Liberace biopic, Behind the Candelabra on HBO.  Starring Michael Douglas as the legendary (and troubled) pianist and Matt Damon as the much younger object of his affection; its like a cross between Boogie Nights and Mommie Dearest and it gets two thumbs up from up here on the tiki bar!

SPOILER ALERT:  Hate to ruin it for you folks, but Liberace was gay!  Really, really gay!  Coulda fooled me!

In keeping up with the Liberace mood, we pull out this early Columbia LP.  Liberace was best known for his over-the-top showmanship and his large, Las Vegas-style stage shows.  However, he was a first-class piano virtuoso with roots planted firmly in the classics.  This album is from the pre-schmaltz era of Liberace's illustrious career.  

There's some fine ivory tickling going on here.  Even if you don't play piano or know much about the instrument, you can tell that Liberace was good!  You can also tell on songs like "Chopin's Fantasia", "Laura" and "Spellbound Concerto" that the pianist had a flair for the dramatic. 

Born Vladziu Valentino Liberace, his father was Italian and his mother was Polish.  He pays tribute to his mother (played by Debbie Reynolds in the movie btw) on the lush and melodramatic, "Warsaw Concerto", written by Richard Addinsell for the 1942 English film, Suicide Squadron, a film about a Polish airman and concert pianist who flies a suicide mission during the Nazi invasion of Poland.  In the record's liner notes, Liberace dedicates this piece to his mother and "to all the Polish people the composition that expresses the wonderful faith, hope and great courage of these peace-loving people during the merciless bombings of their capital city during World War II."   

As I always say, whats better than roses on your piano? Tulips on your organ!

RATING: 4 muddy candelabras out of 5*

* - eww!

9 Days of Xmas: Arthur Fiedler & the Boston Pops - "Pops Christmas Party" (1959)

Arthur Fielder & the Boston Pops - "Pops Christmas Party" (1959) - RCA

Hello Friends,

Pahk you ahse up at the tiki bah fahr another egg nawg 'cuz we got the bawstan pawps ahn!  Don't make me cahm ova there!

"Holy Holidays Batman.. Something just popped up!"
(Yvonne Craig)

Arthah Fiedlah condahcted the pawps for like 50 yeahs.  Released in 1959, Christmas Pawps Pahty is the first of several Pawps LPs dedicated to pahrennial hawliday favorites.  The music is fahmiliar, done up and ahranged in a lite-classical, pawps style.   Its the perfect pahty album if yaah tryin' to keep things clahssy!

Its bahmbastic in ahl the right pahts, especially on their now pretty famous take on the Leroy Andersawn's "Sleigh Ride".  Nawt only that, but its the quietah moments that really stand out... like Alfred Krips' violin solo on "White Christmas" or the nine minute, "Dream Pantomime" from Humperdinck's Hansal & Gretel.   Now thaht's some sublime cahnducting if you ahsk me!

Nawt to mention the sauhcey brunette ahn the covah!    Man, I'd invite her to my pawps pahty any day! How'dya like dem apples? 

Go Sawx!

RATING: 5 Arthur Fiedler mustaches out of 5

The Devil in Hi-Fi

The Devil in Hi-Fi - Westminster Hi-Fi

Hello friends,

Its that time of year again: there's a chill in the air; dark comes early; the shadows are long; and a queer breeze blows the dry leaves in the backyard.

Meanwhile we're comfortably holed up inside, lighting some candles, drinking some wine and classing the tiki bar up with this LP of macabre-inspired classical works.  Its frightfully enjoyable! Beelzebub himself would be proud!

There are four pieces represented here: Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain", Saint-Saens's "Danse Macabre", Liszt's "Mephisto Waltz" and Hector Berlioz's "The Dream of the Witch's Sabbath."

The Mussorgsky and Berlioz pieces have themes that have to do with witches-- and their covens-- celebrating their Sabbath.   In fact, last April we celebrated Walpurgis Night with Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.  Franz Liszt's "Mephisto Waltz" has to do with the devil crashing a village wedding and working all the guests into an orgiastic frenzy with his fiddle-playing!     

Speaking of fiddling... Saint-Saen's "Danse Macabre" is about Death appearing at midnight on Halloween and playing his fiddle until the dead arise from their graves for one last killer romp!  

Here's a short cartoon that played on PBS around Halloween back in the 80's...



Holy Lucifer!

RATING: 4.5 Temples of Set out of 5

Prog Rock Saturday: Brain Salad Surgery

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - "Brain Salad Surgery" (1973)

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends... Vinyl in the Valley!

From the H.R. Giger designed album artwork to the prog rock opus contained in its grooves, Brain Salad Surgery is the quintessential prog album of the Seventies. 

Side One begins with ELP's take on the hymn, "Jerusalem" (based on a William Blake poem).  Its churchy-sounding and although it was banned by the BBC for being "degrading" to the traditional English hymn, its anything but sacrilegious.  The instrumental "Toccata" follows.  Its based on a Piano concerto by Argentine composer, Alberto Ginastera, and features some pretty weird-sounding synthesizer and drum effects.  Basically, its spazzy, unnerving and like much of their work, show-offy. 

Next up is "Still... You Turn Me On", a pretty acoustic song featuring some fine Greg Lake fingerpicking and vocals.  Best lyric: "Everyday a little sadder / a little madder / Someone get me a ladder!"

"Benny The Bouncer" is atrocious and Side One concludes with the First Movement of the 30 minute futuristic suite, "Karn Evil 9".  Yowsa!

Side Two picks up where Side One left off with the more familiar, "Karn Evil 9, First Impression, part 2" ("Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends...") and for the next 22 minutes the entire album side is a journey into the deep bowels of progressive rock!  Lots of sci-fi sounding keyboards and lots of drumming in weird time signatures courtesy of Carl Palmer.  The song is seemingly about some futuristic, dystopian carnival.  However, by the Third Impression there seems to be some sort of man versus computer war going on.  Its all really confusing and I got a headache listening to this!       

It can be said that Keith Emerson did for keyboards in the 1970's what Jimi Hendrix did for guitar in the late 1960's.  The sounds coming from the Emerson's fingertips are precise, bombastic & otherworldly.  The thing is keyboards aren't as exciting as guitars.  They're TOO mechanical; really show-offy and not very sexy.  Back in the day, no one was getting laid listening to this album!

Which reminds me of this fun fact: Did you know the phrase "Brain Salad Surgery" is code for "Oral Sex"?  Its true!  Look it up!

RATING: 3.5 Pictures at an Exhibition out of 5

Prog Rock Saturday: Shades of Deep Purple

Deep Purple - "Shades of Deep Purple" (1968) - Tetragrammaton

Hello friends and welcome to another installment of Prog Rock Saturday!

We're enjoying this midsummer's weather with a few cool cocktails and the sounds of Deep Purple's debut LP.

Now don't get your wizard hats all in a bunch!  Shades of Deep Purple definitely qualifies as an early example of prog-rock.  With long jam-filled songs and a big emphasis on classically-inspired organ, Deep Purple started out as an English proggy-psychedelic band in 1968 and, rather wisely, evolved into a more hard rock outfit by the early 70's.  Plus, founding member and organist, Jon Lord passed away this week at the age of 71 after a bout with pancreatic cancer.  So hush up and enjoy a killer of a debut album!

The LP opens with the bluesy instrumental, "And the Address", which sets the tone for the rest of the album which might be described as "Cream meets the Hammond Organ!" 

Next is the band's earliest hit, the classic, "Hush".  With its howling wolf intro, killer organ solo and lyrics about an extremely obsessed ex-boyfriend, "Hush" helped put this quintet on the map and, to this day, remains a classic of late 60's British rock. 

"One More Rainy Day" is a melodic, yet heavy ballad that sounds not too different from early Zeppelin (think: "Your Time is Gonna Come", also from '68!)       

Side One concludes with a monster Hammond organ solo-- a heavy interpretation of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade-- that morphs into the Skip James song, "I'm So Glad" (previously covered by the aforementioned, Cream, on their debut LP, Fresh Cream.

Named for a hallucinogenic plant that is often used in witchcraft and demon conjuring spells, Side Two opens with the Ritchie Blackmore-penned, "Mandrake Root".  In fact, their six minute cover of The Beatles' "Help"-- which follows-- sounds slowed and stoned as if recorded under the influence of a little Mandragora officinarum!  

Following "Help" is a driving, trippy little tune called, "Love Help Me".  

The last song on the album begins with a Bolero-style dueling guitar/Hammond B-3 organ intro (which as Tiki T. points out, reminds her of the Patti Page song "Conquest", also covered by the White Stripes!)  The bolero breaks and a heavy cover of the garage rock standard, "Hey Joe" closes out the album.  Great, great version of the song to close out one of rock & roll's greatest debut albums!

Here's an awesome video of the band performing "Hush" on "Playboy After Dark" in 1969...

  
  
RATING: 4.5 Dancing Playmates out of a possible 5
       

Happy Walpurgis Night Everyone!

Happy Walpurgis Night!

Tonight we're kicking back, drinking some wine and listening to Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" on vinyl!  Who knows, the night is young and maybe before its done we'll conjure a demon or two!

Here's the plot to Berlioz's psychedelic symphony:

(from http://www.hberlioz.com/Scores/fantas.htm)

Programme of the Symphony

A young musician of morbid sensitivity and ardent imagination poisons himself with opium in a moment of despair caused by frustrated love. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions, in which his experiences, feelings and memories are translated in his feverish brain into musical thoughts and images. His beloved becomes for him a melody and like an idée fixe which he meets and hears everywhere.