There is a very special feeling when you miss a joke and realise – alas, too late – you have appeared as thick as a brick.
I was responding to 1537’s post on a T Rex album and commented that I’m not a big fan. Sure, the singles are great, but I find the albums – even the one he was writing entertainingly about – unsatisfying. ‘Fun though wafer thin,’ I opined. ‘Not much of substance here,’ I asserted. ‘You’ll be hungry again soon.’
Now the blogger in question is, as many of you may know, a fellow of nimble wit and always ready to frolic with a metaphor or gag. He attacked the food/nourishment motif with gusto, agreeing that there isn’t much ‘roughage’ in T Rex and reflecting on the delights of Groundhogs or Camel. I missed it entirely.
Sad music tragic that I am, I responded literally, asking about albums in his collection by those UK bands. Later I cringed; lambasting myself for not counter-punching with barbequed Bulldog, Buffalo burgers or even a bite of Budgie. It may be something of a stretch, but I found myself thinking of Mark Twain’s observation that ‘it usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.’ What is the preparation time for repartee?
Included in the interchange was my opinion, totally off-the-cuff, that my favourite Camel album is Mirage. I decided to ascertain whether that was, in fact, true, and why.
So here are half a dozen reasons why I like Mirage, by UK progressive band Camel.
You can listen to ‘Earthrise’ here.
- Cigarette brand cover
Everybody knows that smoking will kill you and selling your soul to a tobacco company will kill you worse. Though everything seems sponsored today, it was strangely confronting to see a corporate image – albeit a cleverly phased one – adorning an album cover back in 1974. Come to think of it, the miragey logo dromedary shimmering under the cigarette brand name sucks at every level except that it is a brilliant piece of artwork; both deconstructive and manipulative. (‘Sleeve design by Modula’).
- Musical invention
The compositions are more fully developed and the arrangements more complex than the enjoyable self-titled debut. There are two long pieces, one per side, neatly constructed and mostly satisfying. Having said that, the three shorter pieces – punchy opener ‘Freefall’, tricksy ‘Supertwister’ and the exciting dawn of ‘Earthrise’ – are my favourites on Mirage.
- Pete Bardens
Having played with Them, worked with Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green and discovered how to get interesting sounds out of an impressive range of keyboard instruments, Pete was a real asset to Andrew Latimer’s fledgling band. The balance of Latimer’s guitar yang with Bardens’ fertile organ and synthesiser yin provides much of the enjoyable contrast in Camel’s music and Mirage is where it first blooms. Interestingly, when Latimer adds flute – a second instrument on which he is clearly adept – instead of the more astringent electric guitar timbres, the sound becomes so much more romantic it feels like a soft hug rather than a bracing clap on the shoulder.
- Literary references
‘Nimrodel’, the nine minute suite-piece on side one was an early Camel venture into literature inspiration, a direction fully embraced on their third album, The Snow Goose (1975). This exploratory foray dabbles with Lord of the Rings, the two parts being called ‘The Procession’ and ‘The White Rider’. Like the entire Snow Goose album, these are tone poems rather than literal interpretations of the story. But for someone besotted by JRR Tolkien’s book, this was an excellent selling point. Funnily enough, although I enjoyed Goose, it never excited me. Always sounded more like a lush film soundtrack than a rock album.
- Instrumental / Vocal ratio
There are lashings of melody and hummable themes in Camel’s music. It is tuneful in an creatively fertile, feminine way; describing them as the yin to, say, King Crimson’s yang would be far from outrageous. But that does not extend to the singing. Despite a shared workload, the singing is consistently limited in range and monotonous in delivery. Don’t bother about delving into the lyrics either, because they are generally dreadful. Here is a sample from ‘Lady Fantasy’.
I can see clearly,
A face in the sky,
Moon’s in your eye,
You’re passing me by
Tell me the reason why
So having the balance of Mirage (and Camel music in general) pointing away from vocals and towards instrumental work is a very good thing.
- Live, they cooked
Well, if you were the sort of person who would rather play air keyboard than shake your ass in an unbecoming manner, they cooked. In the early 90s Andrew Latimer released an ‘official bootleg’ CD of Camel live in 1972, the year before their first album. Comprising four long pieces, it shows the band bubbling with energy. It also reveals that some of their repertoire was well seasoned. One piece (‘God of Light’) was borrowed from a Pete Bardens solo album that pre-dated Camel, ‘Six Ate’ appeared on the imminent first album (released February 1973), while ‘Lady Fantasy’ and ‘White Rider’ were both recorded in the studio for Mirage two years later in 1974.
I really love the raw rolling waves of Camel On The Road 1972. But if you are a Camel fan – or become one! – and find the CD difficult to source, do not despair. The re-issues of the Camel discography in the early 2000s included thoughtfully chosen live cuts from around the time of each album. Mirage, for example, has three tracks (totalling 17 minutes) from the Marquee Club in October 1974. The live setting toughens up the genteel Camel sound, de-sweetens it if you will, and it is all the better for that.
Camel carried on long after their style of instrumental-soaked progressive music became unfashionable and long after Pete Bardens departed in 1978. There were flirtations with different styles (I can see your house from here, 1979) and Barclay James Harvest styled romanticism (‘West Berlin’, 1984) and though the band folded in 2003 (co-incidentally not long after the death of Bardens), Latimer re-formed a touring version of Camel to mount ‘The Snow Goose Tour’ in 2013-14. They even re-recorded an extended version of the Snow Goose album. You’d have thought the goose would have been well and truly cooked by that stage, but apparently it was well received and further concerts are planned for 2015, the 40th anniversary of The Snow Goose. What a long time to dine out on one bird. I guess prog fans have an insatiable appetite for nostalgia, if not for culinary jokes.
vinylconnection.com.au 
What a wonderful album cover – it made me crave for a smoke in a way I haven’t for many, many years. But luckily the suggestion ‘it’s time for a smoke’ in the Camel live BBC Sight and Sound Concert 1977 that I found on YouTube was sung with so little gravitas that the craving soon passed. Not bad music tho.
Cheers.
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It is a marvellous cover, isn’t it? I am very glad that the craving passed without having lured you into old unhealthy habits. Well, not having a biggie, anyway.
The music is very pleasant and well played. Camel are to prog what Jean Michel Jarre is to electronic music. Entertaining and enjoyable in an undemanding way.
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Wow, all this from a daft joke? Brilliant.
I always loved this cover, but I’ve always loved the cigarette logo too (never had a smoke in my life though , although I do have a much beloved Camel bag).
You’ve made me prowl around for it on eBay, I can think of no higher compliment!
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I’m always inspired by applied urban rural grads. So post-postmodern.
And it is odd how powerfully that cover speaks. Something about twisting the familiar perhaps.
Good hunting!
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£17 for a Spanish 2LP set with Mirage and Snow Goose, using the cover art for Mirage. What d’ya reckon?
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That’s about AUS$35. Hm. Sounds a bit rich to me but I’m probably not the best miser to ask; I still work off an internal 90s pricelist.
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Smashing post. A truly inspired and brilliant album. I preferred this to the more popular Snowgoose.
For some odd reason that I cannot fathom I was never really aware of the band as teenager and only discovered them in my thirties yet I had listened to and had albums by Crimson, Yes and the plethora of progressive rock bands of the era.
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I think you’re right – outside the UK Camel were not that well known. But an enjoyable addition to the progressive larder!
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What’s more odd is that I grew up in the UK before leaving for South Africa in my twenties.
I saw a number of the bands you have featured – you mention Groundhogs. Saw them in a tiny club in Chester, called Quaintways. Saw Budgie as well.
I used to hang out in two of the ”coolest” underground record stores in my city and even bunked school on many occasion, and some of the records I eventually came to own most people would say Uh?
I was the first person in my town to buy the Johnny Winter album, Progressive Blues Experiment. I was in the record store as it was being unpacked! Fifteen I was, I think?
I paid 90p for it.
So why this band never appeared on my radar until later is quite beyond me.
🙂
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Strangely enough I was discussing the Mirage album with a friend of mine just this week. I haven’t ever heard it, but he owns it and we got to talking about the artwork and the cigarettes (though neither of us smoke). Like you, he indicated that the music is where it’s at …
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If you use that UK soccer idea of a Premier League and a First Division (or similar), then Camel are, for me, near the top of the latter. But I would not argue with anyone who declared a love of their richly melodic music.
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If it’s Ipswich I’m all ears …
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yes you are right about the vocals, I didn’t labour on it in my blog but the lyrics and vocals are tame. the instruments doe the singing I think !
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[…] the 2015 entry it was an arm-wrestle between the 1968 Small Faces classic and Camel’s Mirage. In the end, sixties wonder just beat out seventies progressive […]
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As I read them, I both laugh and cringe at the thought of you “needing” to write those first four paragraphs, reactions that therein evidence how well you wrote them…
I have four Camels — but no Mirage — plus the anthology Echoes, which does include ‘Freefall’ and the ‘Lady Fantasy’ suite. I really like Camel when I’m in the mood.
Probably because it was my first, my favorite is actually the differently-styled I Can See Your House from Here. I hope you’ll still allow for its inclusion in the broader progressive rock bin despite its detour. It and Focus 3 — each copied onto one side of a 90-minute cassette given me by a pusher — were, while not my first hearing of “prog” by any means, nonetheless my first awareness of prog as a separate thing to seek out and explore as its own genre. [Yes, I was quite tardy in that realization, but would ask that you please cut me some slack for being so much younger and inexperienced than you at the time (smile)]
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Those who come late to the temple of prog are nonetheless welcome, as indeed are lost sheep and other cloven footed pilgrims. You are welcome, Brother. Park your camel outside…
I think you might have mentioned ‘I can see your house’ before; perhaps in the Space cover series? I recall playing it then but not my reaction. More song-based, rock orientated I think?
Finally, I think your prog pusher make have cut your Focus and short-changed your to boot. Focus 3 is a double LP, meaning that it would have required a C-90 all to itself. Too late to ask for a refund?
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Yes! ‘I can see’ was included – and your good self name-checked. Case closed.
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I was once again afraid that facts were going to rob me of a special memory, but I think I’m safe this time (with a slight modification). While I don’t have the cassette anymore (idiot!), I just checked my CD copy of Focus 3 and confirmed I knew every song (back then) from the cassette. It also caused me to remember that the two parts of ‘Anonymous II’ were on separate sides of the tape. Finally, I can remember pretty clearly what the tape looked like; a google image search tells me it was likely a 120-minute Memorex.
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Ah, mystery solved and pusher exonerated.
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