Discuss...
Discuss...
The one with Bardens and members of Pilot/APP? By most accounts, not so super.
Very, very dull at that. Forgettable, like most so-called "supergroups" with former "prog" musicians.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
I like it.
I never heard of Keats.
Some supergroups are greater than the sum of their parts. The finest example of this is CS&N/CSN&Y.
Others are less than the sum of their parts, and sometimes less even than any individual part. Example: the Traveling Willburys.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Rather a fine collection of musicians than a supergroup. Nice and mellow, with some good moments from all. I got the Renaissance Records-version which contains a 26 minutes interview-track, featuring Alan Parsons and Ian Barnson. It's funny to see that Colin Blunstone selected a couple of tunes for his recent "Collected" compilation. Main reason for me to buy the latter album was the inclusion of Dave Stewart's version of "What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted", to my knowledge the first time to appear on CD in its original form. (Stewart did a remix with his wife Barbara Gaskin lately for the special edition-version of "As Far As Dreams Can Go".)
Yes, and Colin Blunstone, vocalist from The Zombies. And produced and/or engineered by Alan Parsons. But I really meant a supergroup on paper, not in actuality based on the resulting album, which was pretty lame.
I guess I wonder if there were thoughts it could be an Asia type of thing.
One of those hard to find cd's that you looked for it for years and when finally found it, you couldn't wait to here it. Then you heard it, you were very disappointed.
Early use of the term definitely meant a group composed of members who were already famous as members of other successful groups. So the members of CSN came from The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Hollies, all of which were highly successful acts, therefore CS&N qualifies as a supergroup.
Possibly the most quintessential "supergroup", almost the very definition of the term:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dirty_Mac
It also nicely illustrated the point I made above, about being less than the sum of the parts. For their one-off performance, they chose to perform one of the dullest numbers in the Beatles' canon.
I enjoyed it.
I think if they had made a second album, free from all the old APP influences, it would have been great.
They had some guys who were fantastic musicians, some guys who were excellent singers (particularly Blunstone and Patton) and a few guys who had written some great songs (esp Bardens). Given a little time, I think they would have hit their stride and come out with some great music.
I have the Renaissance version as well and enjoy it quite a bit. Not as good as it could have been but still more enjoyable than anything I have heard on the radio in years.
Although the other APP related album Freudiana, I searched for a decade and found it on vacation in New Zealand (I'm from the USA). Really wasn't looking for anything in particular, just stopped into a local record store to see what they were playing. Actually, they had the empty case only and they said 'sorry' but I wasn't leaving until they found the disk. It took about 15 minutes but it felt like an hour. While Freudiana isn't everyone's cup of tea, I really enjoy it to this day.
"The Dirty Mac recorded a rendition of the Lennon-penned Beatles track "Yer Blues" and then went on to back up Yoko Ono and violinist Ivry Gitlis on a track called "Whole Lotta Yoko" (essentially an extended blues jam on top of which Ono improvised free-form vocalizations)."
Yeesh. Sounds awful.
I really like this one, too. It was worth the difficult search.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
Freudiana, while not everyone's cup of APP tea, ranks close to the top for me. Some of Eric's best songwriting in my opinion. All over the map but no loss of quality.
^^ I found a download of this once, but as I recall it was a bit too Broadway for me. And I like Broadway!
Listening to "Avalanche", excellent Pete Bardens pop! This is a fun record, thanks for reminding me.
I also love Freudiana, but you have to be careful where you listen to it.
4 or 5 times over the years I have had it playing in the office, or in my car only to get the obligatory "What the F*#%k are you listening too?" It is a bit weird, but love it. Some great writing and some outstanding melodies.
I had never heard of Keats (the group...) before this thread. Kind of ironic. Hadn't many of these same APP folks just played with Latimer in Camel before this?
As for Bardens solo, I can tolerate quite well the new age-ness of it. I pulled out my copy of Water Colours for the first time in a long while a week or two ago, and heard a lot to like about it. As long as you don't mind the production and everything, that is... But I imagine Keats may be similar.
Some time ago I recalled how much I enjoyed a couple of tracks from Seen One Earth at the time of its release, and managed to track down a site from which I could buy the CD without - ahem - paying the earth for it. It wasn't as good as I remembered, but there are still some great moments on it.
"Seen one earth, you've seen them all." I like that quote.
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