Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "progressive-rock"

As the news is spreading that musician Greg Lake has left us, I thought I’d post links to audio interviews I did with the other two members of ELP—Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer for online radio’s “Dave White Presents.” I’ll always regret we didn’t line up Greg for a conversation.

Nov. 6, 2012: Keith Emerson, Marc Bonilla, and Terje Mikkelsen on THE THREE FATES PROJECT; also Author Rick Podolsky on Don Kirshner.
http://tinyurl.com/aw9bnrt


Sept. 11, 2012: Carl Palmer (ELP, Asia) and Trevor Rabin (Yes)
http://tinyurl.com/8rzew7f

You can download as a MP3, stream, or listen live.

Or go to

www.audioentertainment.org/dwp.html


and check out our seven years of conversations with a cornucopia of entertainment insiders from musicians to actors to authors to producers . . .


Happy listening!

Long Distance Voyagers: The Story of the Moody Blues 1965-1979
Marc Cushman
Hardcover: 810 pages
Publisher: Jacob Brown Media Group; Unabridged edition (January 15, 2018)
ISBN-10: 0998866393
ISBN-13: 978-0998866390
https://www.amazon.com/Long-Distance-...


Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton

I’ve begun most of my reviews of Marc Cushman’s exhaustive studies of his various subjects noting his propensity for TMI. Comparatively speaking, I wasn’t hit over the head with quite as much detail in his new history of the Moody Blues. I think that’s because his indispensable three volume exploration of Star Trek (These are the Voyages) and then his massive Irwin Allen’s Lost in Space series provided everything any fan would want about each and every nook and cranny of every televised episode of those shows. For a rock band, there’s no need to delve into so many supporting cast players, script writers, production details, media reviews etc. etc.

Still, 800 pages, including around 100 or so full of research notes and other back-matter, makes for a hefty tome. But for Moody Blues fans who’ve had a 50 year drought waiting for a full-length appreciation of this often neglected but significant group, there’s really nothing to complain about. Especially when potential readers learn the first edition is also a limited edition with a somewhat slimmer mass-market paperback version scheduled for later in 2018.

Appropriately, Cushman devotes about 100 pages to the “Mark One” incarnation of the band that included Denny Laine (vocals, guitar) and Clint Warwick (bass) along with mainstays Mike Pinder (keyboards, vocals), Graeme Edge (drums) and Ray Thomas (vocals, harmonica, woodwinds.) For most of us, this was a band largely remembered as a one-hit wonder for the single, “Go Now.” But did you know of the many close associations this band had with The Beatles including having Brian Epstein managing the Moodies during his final year? Readers will also learn, likely more than they wanted to know, about the rock scene in the early ‘60s in British towns like Birmingham, especially all those groups who were only local favorites.

Then, we have a detailed history of the “Mark Two” incarnation of the band without Laine or Warwick who had been replaced by Justin Hayward (guitar, vocals) and John Lodge (bass, vocals). Everything about the Moody Blues sound completely changed, notably Pinder’s use of the mellotron (an instrument Pinder introduced to the Beatles during their Sgt. Pepper period) giving the group an orchestral sound first heard on the concept album, Days of Future Passed, and the hits “Nights in White Satin” and “Tuesday Afternoon.” We learn about a rich investor named Derek McCormick who saw the Moody Blues as a wise investment and pumped in a much needed shot of cash while becoming their troublesome manager. We also learn about the contributions of long-time producer, Tony Clarke and cover artist, Phil Travers.

For the bulk of the next three hundred pages or so, we get a very itemized analysis of the seven most important Moody Blues albums from Days of Future Passed (1967) to Seventh Sojourn (1972). Here, the TMI material is clearly the many notes on chart positions not only internationally but in local U.S. markets. Here, Cushman has a point to make, that national rankings in publications like Billboard or Cashbox didn’t always reflect how successful singles or albums were in more regional markets. Here, readers might see other matters that might be trimmed as with all the notes on tour dates and warm-up bands as well as repetitive contemporary reviews, even if they contribute to the cultural contexts the Moodies flourished in. In fact, perhaps 50% of the text in these sections is long strings of review reprints that might be better posted at a companion website rather in the book’s text.


Seventh Sojourn might have been a logical stopping point for a good volume one. No, Cushman carries on with the Moodies discussing their unhappy first American tour, the formation and dissolution of Threshold Records, their responses to the many charges of “pretentiousness,” their hiatus in the ‘70s, the career of Denny Laine in Wings, the Hayward/Lodge Blue Jays and other solo projects, the reunion of Octave (1978), the departure of Pinder and the introduction of his replacement, Patrick Moraz. Any wonder the book goes to 800 pages?

Despite the length, I think every serious Moody Blues fan will want this one. Pretty much every fan of ‘60s and ‘70s music will want this one as well, especially as nearly every page presents information not readily available elsewhere. More casual readers may prefer to wait for the edited version. You don’t need to. The book is easily skimmed. And it’s a serious pleasure to read the story of a band that was all about the music with minimal personal conflicts or musical turf wars. That was, and is, a rare thing.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Dec. 14, 2017
http://bit.ly/2zdXNK2

Book Review: Reinventing Pink Floyd: From Syd Barrett to The Dark Side of the Moon by Bill Kopp



Reinventing Pink Floyd: From Syd Barrett to The Dark Side of the Moon
Bill Kopp
Hardcover: 260 pages
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (February 9, 2018)
ISBN-10: 1538108275
ISBN-13: 978-1538108277
https://www.amazon.com/Reinventing-Pi...


Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton

Bill Kopp is far from the first rock critic to take on the legendary history of Pink Floyd, focusing on the formative years when band founder Syd Barrett captained the group’s first album to his departure and replacement by David Gilmour to the group’s various experimental projects up to the seminal release of the highly influential Dark Side of the Moon in 1973. I was intrigued to read Kopp’s introduction where he admits the Pink Floyd he knew best for many years was the period after Dark Side of the Moon with little awareness of what came before. That was exactly the reverse of my experience. Back in high school, we “heads”—to use the then prevalent term to describe those of us into non-mainstream music—usually owned at least one Pink Floyd album including The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, A Saucerful of Secrets, Umma Gumma, Atom Heart Mother or Meddle. Then and now, my favorite Floyd songs are “One of These Days,” “Interstellar Overdrive,” and “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.” All are pre-Dark Side tunes.

So when Dark Side came out and took the world by storm two years after my high school graduation, I was rather bemused by all the new listeners the band earned. I could understand why. Dark Side was, as someone I don’t know observed, the Sgt. Pepper of the ‘70s. Still, perhaps it was simple snootiness when, for years, I maintained the pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd was the Real Pink Floyd.

I got over that sentiment a long time ago. Now, I really have no excuse for any snootiness after reading Kopp’s new critical analysis of Pink Floyd’s evolution from 1967 to 1973. While this book was far from the first history of the band I’ve read, I learned something new on pretty much every page. For my money, two things distinguish Reinventing Pink Floyd from what has been published before. For one key matter, Kopp goes beyond the usual process of interviewing participants and contemporary observers and draws from his own background as a musician to comment on and analyze the songs, albums, and live performances from a musician’s perspective. For another matter, Kopp benefited from the release of the extensive 2016 The Early Years box set, a package he refers to at least once on nearly every page.

Even the most devoted Floyd fans are likely to learn tidbits they didn’t know before like the band’s first producer was Norman Smith who had worked on many of the Beatles albums. I knew about the existence of Pink Floyd film soundtracks, but not the details behind the creation of the usually experimental scores for the often-experimental films.

Fans who think of the post-Barrett Floyd as essentially the David Gilmour and the Roger Waters band with the late Richard Wright and Nick Mason as mere supporting players may well gain a new and deeper appreciation for the band’s keyboardist and drummer. Richard Wright aficionados, in particular, should appreciate reviewing in minute detail just how much he contributed to the music of this period of the band’s creative development.

Clearly, this is a book strictly for Pink Floyd fans, especially for readers who aren’t intimately familiar with the pre-Dark Side era. It would help to have some knowledge of musical terminology, especially the equipment and techniques used in the recording studio. In the end, Reinventing Pink Floyd is a treasure trove of musical history for a very particular audience. But it’s a worthy addition to any rock fan’s library.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on March

To listen to interviews with Kopp, visit: http://reinventingpinkfloyd.com/audio....


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on March 11, 2018:
http://1clickurls.com/p2UsiG4