But the organ is the best part of "Parallels"!
Type: Posts; User: SongForAmerica
But the organ is the best part of "Parallels"!
The Moody Blues' Long Distance Voyager at 40
The album starts strongly with its two best songs, "The Voice" and "Talking Out of Turn," and "22,000 Days" is also decent--all surprises when you...
By far the best song is the first one, "Picking Up the Pieces." A mix of Kansas, Saga, Hydra-era Toto, plus a female singer.
Without the vocals, both "Narnia" and Lunatic Soul's "The Fountain" would be much lesser songs than they actually are.
Thanks for the fast reply! :)
Are there any vocals on these songs? And if so, does Steve Hackett sing them?
I hope the answer to the first question is yes and the answer to the second is no. So many otherwise good songs of...
I will probably discover the best album of 2020 several years hence. For now, though, I really like two songs on Lunatic Soul's Through Shaded Woods: "The Fountain" and "Transition II"; the latter...
Was Phil in the band at the time of Trespass? In any event, his vocals on "More Fool Me" are weak and tentative. I suspect he did take voice lessons to become the tremendous singer of A Trick of...
Thank you for those answers. I like Tony Banks' voice! Yes, it's tentative, but that's typical of untrained singers, and there's a delicate, innocent timbre to his voice that fits the music well. ...
The 28-minute song "Transition II" is also very good. Although occasionally repetitive, it contains some passages of amazing beauty.
Who is the second singer, who enters after Peter Gabriel?
I confess that "Yours Is No Disgrace" and "Heart of the Sunrise" were the first two Yes songs I heard and loved, and I had no idea they were done by the same band. All I knew was that they were...
"Take a Pebble," the very first song I ever sang in my very first voice class. The sheet music freaked out my teacher. "Um, is it OK if I don't play all these notes?" she asked.
The new album's sixth song, "The Fountain," is stunning--beautiful but melancholy. Excellent singing, thoughtful lyrics, and glorious strings. Very emotional. I discovered it last night and spent...
The obvious answer is Kansas, which has both violin and viola. The midsection of "Miracles Out of Nowhere" and "Dust in the Wind" both have viola, the former as part of a fugue in 7/8 time.
If...
... and is impressed. Fortunately, he chose one of the band's very best albums, Clutching at Straws:
https://vimeo.com/442917597
https://vimeo.com/443143965
Strangely, although he praises the...
Excellent opening tracks on debut albums:
Kansas: "Can I Tell You"
Starcastle: "Lady of the Lake"
GTR: "When the Heart Rules the Mind"
I agree. The whole "Poor Boy Blues/Mill Boys/For No One" suite is the band's pinnacle.
And leaving out "Hymn" is also absurd.
So Rick, what do you think of Starcastle?
Terrible newspapers both.
The first employed Walter Duranty and has never returned the Pulitzer Prize he won for his lies.
The second published a story in the 1980s falsely claiming a...
Are there any parts of "Roundabout," "South Side of the Sky," "Heart of the Sunrise," "Close to the Edge," "And You and I," or "Siberian Khatru" that you wrote? If so, which parts and how did they...
No, the first Starcastle album is great!
"Diamond Song (Deep is the Light)" is way better than anything on Drama. For one thing, the singer can sing.
What was it like working with Steve Walsh and Phil Ehart?
What inspired "In Memoriam"?
1974:
The Strawbs: "Autumn"
Rare Bird: "Peace of Mind"
Renaissance: "Mother Russia"
Kansas: "Death of Mother Nature Suite"
Rick Wakeman: Journey to the Centre of the Earth--the whole thing
1976:
Kansas: "Miracles Out of Nowhere"
Starcastle: "Lady of the Lake"
Renaissance: "Ashes Are Burning" (live version)
Genesis: "Ripples" (though I didn't hear it until the 1980s)
Al...
Supertramp: "It's Raining Again"
Kansas: "Taking in the View"
I think children's choirs work great when there's a logical reason for those particular lyrics to be sung by children, as there is...
Thank you very much for posting this. It was good to see the interview with Steve Howe and hear the interview with Jon Anderson.
Kansas is nothing without Kerry Livgren.
So I'd ask: Is there any hope that Kerry Livgren can write the next album?
Nope, can't do that. There's already a band named Missouri. Hear them here: Missouri: Movin' On
Mine too.
Just think, the violence it talked about was then ongoing but is now so ancient that most young people don't even know it ever existed.
In my wayward youth, I spent a decent amount of time contemplating whether there was some profound meaning behind these two facts:
1. The first song on side one of Leftoverture spells COWS.
2. ...
There are good songs on each of Rare Bird's five albums, but Epic Forest has the greatest amount of good material. It's considerably more mature and sophisticated than the first two albums. The...
Progressive rock has featured some of the best vocalists ever:
Steve Walsh
Jon Anderson
Annie Haslam
Justin Hayward
Greg Lake
Tommy Shaw
Also, keep in mind that progressive rock is...
Speak to me of summer,
Long winters longer
than time can remember
setting up of other roads
to travel on in old accustomed ways
It's 1971. He wants to hear the fresh voices of the younger...
Would you believe the world is calling?
A cry without a sound.
--Rare Bird
Knowledge and reason
Change like the season,
A jester's promenade.
--Kansas
Don't surround yourself with yourself.
I think The Ladder is the freshest, although not the best, Yes album since Fragile. The better songs have vigor and vitality: "Face to Face" is a five-minute masterpiece, with more going on there...
What?????
The only songs that belong on that list are Easter and maybe Kayleigh and Man of a Thousand Faces.
Where is Estonia?
This Strange Engine?
Afraid of Sunlight?
...
The first album is by far the best, with an exotic and unique sound. "Tinseltown in the Rain" is one of the best songs ever written; "Stay" and "Heatwave" are also good. I found subsequent releases...
Check out "Otriad," song 4 from Evan Carson at ProgStreaming.
Incredible.
The Dream Academy: "Indian Summer":
https://invidio.us/watch?v=3_O3pKrzOiM
And I second "Autumn" by the Strawbs.
Rare Bird: "Peace of Mind": https://invidio.us/watch?v=hVEQPvMSscc
Songs from 2019:
RPWL: "What I Really Need": terrible video, very good song. Audio only: https://invidio.us/watch?v=mKdGacEUhGM
RPWL: "A New World": in all honesty, the video is better than...
Kerry Livgren, prior to 1980.
Lucia Hwong: https://invidio.us/watch?v=As-PvyA1QMY
"Lunar Seas" is especially good.
A melisma occurs when a singer sings more than one note on a single vowel; Kansas does it on "son" and "done" in "Carry On Wayward Son."
Avantasia's "Raven Child" has an absolutely stunning...
There are lots of hooks in Univers Zero's "Falling Rain Dance," an excellent song.
Steve Walsh, Schemer Dreamer: handsome guy, great body, shirtless...what's not to like? :) Oh yeah, this is supposed to be about music.
The eight-minute "Every Step of the Way" is a very good...
Various and sundry:
"All the World" is a very good song. Other good songs by Steve Walsh are "Can I Tell You," "Lonely Wind," "Point of Know Return," "Closet Chronicles," and "Back Door." "Every...
The problem with Monolith is that the songs are divided 50-50 between Kerry Livgren and Steve Walsh. Livgren's songs range from very good ("On The Other Side," "A Glimpse of Home") to quite good...
RPWL's song "What I Really Need" is quite good. It reminds me of Marillion's "Cover My Eyes," which in turn reminds me of U2.
It's not that bad. Reminds me a little of "Lightning Strikes," though not as well-produced. The lyric about this being the first day of the rest of your life is completely unoriginal and should...
If you want to watch the song with Candice Night without falling into the clutches of the tentacular G**glemonster (which owns YouTube), do this:
1. Go to StartPage: http://www.startpage.com
2....
By the way, the video of the Candice Night song is incredibly good. I just wish the music were a bit softer.
Way too heavy for me. Even the song with Candice Night, which seems to be a good song, is rendered too dark and heavy by excess metal. If they could dial back the heavy parts 50%, it would be a lot...
Both versions of "Estonia" are on my copy of This Strange Engine. The shorter version is track 4; the longer version is track 9. Both are incredible.
There are two versions of Estonia; both are excellent. The first is nearly 8 minutes long; the second is nearly 12 minutes long.
In historical order:
Warm Wet Circles/That Time of the Night
The Last Straw
Easter
The Great Escape
Gazpacho
Afraid of Sunlight
Estonia (both versions)
This Strange Engine
Time to graduate to "Miracles Out of Nowhere." Or "Hopelessly Human." Or "Song For America." Or "Incomudro--Hymn to the Atman."
No. There is no Robbie Williams in Kansas.
The original Kansas had a Robby Steinhardt, the violinist, and a Rich Williams, one of the two original guitarists.
The 8-minute title track to Graeme Edge's album Paradise Ballroom is quite good.