Tag Archives: Prog
LUCKY MAN
From the woozy fanfare opening ‘The Barbarian’ to the final swooping moog solo panning between the speakers at the end of ‘Lucky Man’, via the stroked grand piano strings of ‘Take a Pebble’ and the dystopian drama of ‘Knife Edge’, I know the first Emerson Lake and Palmer album very well indeed. But it wasn’t […]
LISTENER’S DIGEST #2: YOUNG, FOCUS, SEA AND CAKE, TPOTUSA, SCHOENBERG
Having been doing the single parent thing for well over a day now, our appreciation of Ms Connection’s contribution to the good life at chez Vinyl Connection is shooting up the charts with a bullet. Amongst the chores, errands, boy-wrangling and general infrastructure maintenance there has, nevertheless, been space for spinning a few discs. Here are […]
YOU SCROOGE, YOU LOSE
Having had a crack at describing categories of record collectors (called Vinyl Hunter-Gatherers around these parts), this post continues looking at further case studies, your correspondent once again being the mandated patient. Sorry, that should read ‘volunteer’. Enthusiast (B): ‘Excellent — a very satisfying find. Wonder if I can swing a discount’. Chicago — Live […]
ART ON YOUR SLEEVE #3 – JETHRO TULL
An occasional series featuring LPs boasting ‘fine art’ on their covers, with commentary on the music and something about the art. #3 JETHRO TULL – Minstrel in the Gallery [1975] THE MUSIC After the patchy but commercially successful Warchild (#2 in the US), Jethro Tull’s eighth album was an energetic and consistently excellent return to form. Combining […]
FOUR MOMENTS IN POOLE
“I’ll be in meetings all day but you can take the car and go exploring.” My friend Jo was zooming down the M3 from London towards the coast, expertly nipping in and out of traffic and dodging belching lorries as I sat in the passenger seat feeling very much on the other side of the […]
10 ALBUMS TO SAY YES TO
Following the recent departure of Yes co-founder and bass supremo Chris Squire, it seems fitting to revisit the music of a band central to 70s ‘Prog’ who continued to make music through every subsequent decade. Who would have thought that the song-writing partnership that began when Jon Anderson and Chris Squire hit it off in […]
ON THE ROAD TO GENESIS
Vinyl Connection’s love of live albums is well known. They’ve been written about frequently (the series on triple live albums, for example) but not recently (Back Live goes way back). Not through waning interest nor fears of retribution from the unconverted but simply because there just so much music to enjoy and so little time. […]
HEAVEN EARTH RELAY
Rock and roll will never last, you know. Gone in a couple of years. That’s what they said back in the early 60s. Yet not only has the beast survived, some of its protagonists have notched up multiple decades in the biz, inviting today’s extraordinary mission: Reviewing two albums by the same artist, released four […]
10 RIPPING ROGER DEAN ALBUM COVERS
* Learn more about artist Roger Dean at his official website. The ‘feature image’ is the cover of the Ilex publications book “Roger Dean: Dragon’s Dream” published in 2008. According to the Ilex website, the book “encompasses album covers, paintings, and stage designs; logos and icons produced for computer game companies (such as Psygnosis, Bullet Proof […]
YESTERDAY’S TOMORROW
Named after one of the most odious characters in literature, Britain’s Uriah Heep have been churning out records and touring relentlessly for over forty years. The Allmusic guide lists more than three dozen albums and informs us that there have been over 30 members of the band formed by the wonderfully monikered Mick Box and […]
GUITARISSIMO
Who am I? I was born in London in 1951. My Father was a diplomat. As a result, I grew up all over Latin America. Guitar is my instrument. The first band I was in was called Pooh And The Ostrich Feathers. For the world of performance I chose my Columbian Mother’s surname over my […]
DON’T WUTHER, BE HAPPY
Coming off the success of A Trick of the Tail, Genesis did not loiter long before staring recording sessions for their eighth studio album. Perhaps they were trying to consolidate the new Peter Gabriel-less quartet or maybe there was material left over from Trick. Or it was simply a period of great creativity. Whatever the motivation, Wind […]
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