#35
EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER — WELCOME BACK MY FRIENDS…
Being a fan of keyboard-driven progressive music there was never any doubt about acquiring EL&P’s document of the Brain Salad Surgery tour, released in August 1974. In one sense it is an overblown example of the live record plugging the previous studio album: every song from BSS is here. So it had better deliver something pretty special to justify the expense and shelf-space. And broadly speaking, Welcome Back does deliver. Greg Lake is in fabulous voice throughout, Carl Palmer drums up an entire eco-system of percussive sounds and what Keith Emerson’s keyboard wizardry loses from being outside the studio it certainly reclaims in vigour and passion.
(Excerpt from a series on triple live albums)
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#34
CAMEL — MIRAGE
Built around the guitar playing of Andrew Latimer and the keyboard nimbleness of Pete Bardens, Camel were a highly competent progressive band who never quite got their due. Like a more musically sophisticated Alan Parson’s Project, they wrote strong melodies and created mid-to-long compositions often arranged in sections. This is one of their strongest albums and a great place to test the waters if dromedaries are your thing.
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#33
JOHN LENNON — WALLS AND BRIDGES
Despite some so-so moments (the throwaway “Beef Jerky” and indulgent “Ya Ya”), this is a solid and enjoyable John Lennon album. Recorded during his infamous (and protracted) “lost weekend” while he and Yoko were separated, it contains shiny pop gems like the duet with Elton John—”Whatever gets you through the night”—and scarifying rockers like “Steel and glass”. In between we have the pastoral melancholy of “Old dirt road” and affecting self-disclosure of “Scared,” the LP being housed in a fascinatingly fragmented album cover that perhaps reflects John’s state of mind all too clearly.
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#32
RICHARD AND LINDA THOMPSON — I WANT TO SEE THE BRIGHT LIGHTS TONIGHT
A massive leap forwards from Richard Thompson’s debut LP Henry The Human Fly, this first collaboration between the songwriter and his partner is an absolute folk-rock corker. The songs are powerful, varied and often arresting while Linda Thompson (nee Peters) proved she was a vocalist to be reckoned with, right up there with Sandy Denny. Fans of Thompson know what to expect: songs of longing, anger, despair and misanthropy. It’s wonderful.
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#31
SUPERTRAMP —CRIME OF THE CENTURY
Rarely has a cover captured an album so well. We are alone and floating in endless space, yet somehow behind prison bars of our own making. Tapping into an alienation and nihilism stemming directly from Dark Side Of the Moon, Supertramp broke through with this, their third album. The hits—”Bloody Well Right” and “Dreamer”—were simultaneously catchy and mournful, while the keyboard driven tone of the album captured a pervading sense of melancholy with glimpses of sunlight through the barred window. Perhaps Supertramp brought us a cake with a file inside?
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vinylconnection.com.au 
Excellent choices. I’ve never heard of Camel, will have to check them out.
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Glad you found some resonance here, Ernie.
Hope you like Mirage. Should be on youtube or a streaming service. Thanks for your visit.
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I don’t have the ELP one for the very reason you stated. But I did pick up the Camel album on CD last year and have had Crime of the Century, also on CD, for many a year.
Classics, all three.
😀
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That’s cool, CTJ. I think often live albums are the test of how great one’s fandom is. Having been with ELP from the start, it was a bit of a no brainer. And of course I love the excessive in prog!
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Some corkers here.
It also seems like a good time to revisit Mirage. Maybe a selection of Lennon songs too.
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The R&L Thompson album is a great one. The title track is one of my all time favorite songs.
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Agreed, Jeff. I used to bash it out on acoustic guitar back in the day.
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Well, what a coincidence, Bruce – today, I published a dedicated post about “Crime of the Century” in light of its 50th anniversary (Oct 25) – great album overall. “Dreamer” could have been on my favorite Supertramp album “Breakfast in America”, which came five years later.
I am also with you on “Walls and Bridges” – to give you some truth, while as a Beatles fan I love John Lennon and his solo output had some highlights, to me it never quite reached the level of The Beatles. I feel the same about the solo work of the other three former Beatles.
Given your love of prog rock, I’m not surprised to see ELP. I’ve also heard of Camel and definitely have seen that album cover as well, though I can’t entirely exclude the possibility I might be confusing it with the packaging of the cigarette brand of the same name! 🙂
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I’ll nip over to yours in a moment to read your Supertramp piece, Christian!
Many — including me! — would agree with you re the Beatle components. The way I see it, neither Lennon nor McCartney were geniuses, but Lennon-McCartney was, irrespective of who brought/preformed the song.
You are spot on regarding prog rock, of course. As I discovered last year (and,looking ahead, next year too) the period 1973-76 was peak for progressive rock and jazz-rock. So I guess we’re in the middle of a banquet!
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I discovered Crime of the Century (*such* a great cover!) AFTER discovering, and wearing out, Breakfast in America as a college freshman. I always loved the Lennon/John collab on Whatever Gets You Through The Night, but have to say I was surprised to learn it first appeared in 1974…for some reason, I had slotted it several years later. Camel is new to me…I wonder if the tobacco company sued the band for copyright/logo infringement…?
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Breakfast in America was their commercial (and many would say, artistic) peak. That working backwards is always fun, and in this case I hope you felt rewarded for your archeology project.
When I wrote a feature on “Mirage” by Camel, I did some digging but was unable to find any juicy stories of litigation. Maybe it was like Paul Simon’s song “Kodachrome”. The photographic giant rolled up its sleeves and began huffing and puffing loudly… then realised they’d just scored priceless advertising.
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#35 is an intense listen but worth every minute. The guys were a musical force. #31 should get more love from me and I’m going to give it some. #32 was just spun over here. Was going through some Linda and Richard albums . Love the one you featured. Sounds better with age. Maybe a little nostalgic but the music is so good.
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Very cool, CB, that we are on similar wavelengths so often.
Interested in your comment on CotC. I often think that I should like Supertramp more than I do.
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Yes we are.
I’m going to bracket some time and give “Crime” a good listen. It’s been a while. Unlike a lot of music I have they have slipped out of my listening.
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Do you know I’ve reached the age of 52 without ever knowingly hearing a note of Supertramp? do I win a prize?
I’d forgotten all about Walls & Bridges, I must get it because there are a few excellent tracks on there as you say.
As for the Thompsons, there are very few songs that affect me as emotionally as ‘The Calvary Cross’ does, every single time I hear it. Pure genius.
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[…] #35 — #31 […]
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[…] I re-listened to Walls and Bridges for the 74 FROM ’74 series, I commented how the LP was housed “in a fascinatingly […]
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