Listening to.......

[Adam]

Joan in the Garden, the new (19 minute!) song from the Decemberists forthcoming double album. Ruddy brilliant it is too. I’ve got a huge amount of time for this band, especially Colin Meloy who has performed loads of free one-hour solo gigs on Instagram. Just him, his guitar(s) and his iPhone. Wonderful stuff, and I’m hoping for some UK dates later this year, in addition to the one festival announcement so far.

[Andy]

In my mind's ear when I awoke this morning,

Rush's fifth album, A Farewell To Kings, was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth in June & July 1977, then released in September, this was the first of theirs that I had heard. I'm still amazed it peaked at only no. 22 in the album charts in the UK.

Although best-known for the eponymous opening track and Closer To The Heart, a multi-song extravaganza awaits your ears.

Cygnus X-1 Book I: The Voyage  (credited to Geddy Lee, Neil Peart (d. 2020) & Alex Lifeson) is a four part science fiction "epic" song taking place in outer space in the centre of a black hole named Cygnus X-1, where the character decides to take a closer look in his spaceship, the Rocinante. Peart was inspired by an article about black holes and their origin in Time magazine and went about researching the topic further. Lee thought that the science-fiction genre presented limitless ideas which gave the band the excuse to "use all your goofy, weird sounds because that's what's happening out in space."

The story was concluded on their next album, Hemispheres (1978) which opens with the six-part sequel, Cygnus X-1 Book II, forming a six song series with a combined length of 18 minutes.

[davidmjs]

Joan in the Garden, the new (19 minute!) song from the Decemberists forthcoming double album. Ruddy brilliant it is too. I’ve got a huge amount of time for this band, especially Colin Meloy who has performed loads of free one-hour solo gigs on Instagram. Just him, his guitar(s) and his iPhone. Wonderful stuff, and I’m hoping for some UK dates later this year, in addition to the one festival announcement so far.

Just listened now.  Fab...

[Will S]

Thanks for the reminder, Andy.  Haven't listened to it for a while, but it has been a favourite since I first discovered it (sometime in the early 80s, when I discovered music), so I'm putting it on now.

[Andy]

Today's earworm: The one side of four this album had that makes it all worthwhile.

Fifty years old!

Nous Sommes Du Soleil

[Jules Gray]

Today's earworm: The one side of four this album had that makes it all worthwhile.

Fifty years old!

Nous Sommes Du Soleil

I struggle with most of side 3, but the rest of it is the best stuff that Yes ever did.

Jules

[Alan2]

Today's earworm: The one side of four this album had that makes it all worthwhile.

Fifty years old!

Nous Sommes Du Soleil

I struggle with most of side 3, but the rest of it is the best stuff that Yes ever did.

Jules

Strange that Jules. I didn't think you were a prog person.

[StephenB]

I got my battered well-loved copy signed by Roger Dean...

Now, can anyone tell me what it all means?
Might give it a fond spin later.

[bassline (Mike)]

Today's earworm: The one side of four this album had that makes it all worthwhile.

Fifty years old!

Nous Sommes Du Soleil

I struggle with most of side 3, but the rest of it is the best stuff that Yes ever did.

Jules

Strange that Jules. I didn't think you were a prog person.

I've been trying to persuade him to emerge from the prog closet for years, but it's a long and delicate process.
I'm surprised too, even proud progsters have trouble with that album.

[Will S]

Let's face it, the way he worded it doesn't mean he really thinks it is good, just that it is better than anything else they did!

[Peter Allen]

I just think , so shortly afterwards , Pete Shelley spoke so much more clearly to the 15/16 year old me in 3 minute 7" bursts of energy

Singles Going Steady is the antidote to "Tales From Topographic Oceans"

[Jules Gray]

Strange that Jules. I didn't think you were a prog person.

I'm not really. I wrestle with it. When it comes down to it, I like Mike Oldfield's first four, most of the Pink Floyd stuff (even though Roger Waters is doing his best to make me want to bin the lot of them), and some 70s Yes, even though I know it's ridiculous twaddle. But god bless Jon Anderson, he knew how to write a melodic tune. The rest of it can largely bugger off.

But if you're going to listen to Yes, you may as well go all in. Tales was their zenith. Their most ambitious. And their most transcendent.

Jules

[bassline (Mike)]

Strange that Jules. I didn't think you were a prog person.

I'm not really. I wrestle with it. When it comes down to it, I like Mike Oldfield's first four, most of the Pink Floyd stuff (even though Roger Waters is doing his best to make me want to bin the lot of them), and some 70s Yes, even though I know it's ridiculous twaddle. But god bless Jon Anderson, he knew how to write a melodic tune. The rest of it can largely bugger off.

But if you're going to listen to Yes, you may as well go all in. Tales was their zenith. Their most ambitious. And their most transcendent.

Jules

Transcendent ridiculous twaddle is about right. I love me some of that.

[Jules Gray]

Transcendent ridiculous twaddle is about right. I love me some of that.

Yes, I think so. Pretentiousness gets a bad rap. Pretentiousness is artists trying to push beyond what has already been done. It can end up with people pointing and laughing, but I think we should at least applaud the effort involved and the risk to career and dignity.

In the late 60s and early 70s, people like Pete Townshend, Jon Anderson, and Peter Gabriel were bursting with creativity and ideas. Some of those ideas were bordering on bonkers, but I salute their ambitions nevertheless. Yes without Anderson and Genesis without Gabriel are empty vehicles to my ears, because the conceptual guys had gone leaving just the technically accomplished musicians who had nothing interesting to say.

Jules

[Dan O.]

I learned to appreciate Tales From Topographic Oceans from the first time I saw Yes live in 1998 (a lineup of Anderson, Squire, Howe, White, Igor Khoroshev on keyboards and Billy Sherwood (who's now the late Chris Squire-chosen bassist) on guitar & vocals.

They played the whole of Side 1, The Revealing Science Of God, and suddenly it all made sense.

Or as much sense as it could, anyway...

[DarrenWilliams]

Joshua Burnell in general, The Road to Horn Fair in particular. It seems to be a bit of a homage to 70s folk rock, akin to Offa Rex, whereas his newer material (Glass Knight) is more contemporary sounding, and quite catchy in places. Don't know much about him except he played Cropredy last year (I didn't go).

Any fans here?

[DarrenWilliams]

I learned to appreciate Tales From Topographic Oceans from the first time I saw Yes live in 1998 (a lineup of Anderson, Squire, Howe, White, Igor Khoroshev on keyboards and Billy Sherwood (who's now the late Chris Squire-chosen bassist) on guitar & vocals.

They played the whole of Side 1, The Revealing Science Of God, and suddenly it all made sense.

Or as much sense as it could, anyway...

That's the only track I listen to from Tales.

I've recently listened to Talk, and its far better than the two previous Rabin albums. I think Jon Anderson had more input on this one.

[Jules Gray]

I just think, so shortly afterwards, Pete Shelley spoke so much more clearly to the 15/16 year old me in 3 minute 7" bursts of energy

Singles Going Steady is the antidote to "Tales From Topographic Oceans"

When you reach a certain age, you just think f*** it, and admit that you're able to enjoy both of them, although not necessarily on the same day.

Jules

[Peter Allen]

Thanks Jules - Understood , and actually I came to Gabriel with his second & third solo albums and then went very briefly back to try the Lamb , the shorter songs at least
I obviously have a very short attention span , which is not conducive to listening to prog...

[John From Austin]

Today's earworm: The one side of four this album had that makes it all worthwhile.

Fifty years old!

Nous Sommes Du Soleil

I struggle with most of side 3, but the rest of it is the best stuff that Yes ever did.

Jules

I need to give it another spin. I've only listened once through (within the last year in fact), and I think I was influenced by negative opinions I read long before I ever pushed "play."