Any Fans.....
Brilliant album, worst album cover ever (apart from Fireballets second).
I like the music & the album cover. It's a shame more never came of this trio.
I've got a bike you can ride it if you like
Yes. Bought it when it first came out. I don't listen to it much today, but I got a lot of mileage from it back in the day. Moraz could hold his own against any of the big keyboard guys from prog's heyday. In some ways, I liked Refugee more than The Nice. Too bad they only made that one album.
Love, love, love it. Jackson's voice destroys "Someday" for me, which otherwise would have been okay. But he's acceptable on the other two epics, and the instrumentals are wonderful. It's totally a blend of solo Moraz and the Nice sensibilities. For instance, in "Grand Canyon," after the nine minute mark, we get a wild, all-over the place musical tour de force, with the rhythm section admirably keeping up, followed by a more traditional Nice-like jam, with Jackson and Davison chugging away while Moraz does his version of an Emerson-like organ solo. As such, though, it's quite cool and entertaining.
Donning some of the dodgiest "simple" outfits possible in regard to coming across as somewhat laughable - the "prog" effect notwithstanding. I'm sure there were even better flix from that photo shoot than this. Still, the cover is so bad that I actually enjoy it - and I would definitely not want anything other to mark the contents here.
I like the album very much; I think it's better than anything ELP managed to put together post-Brain Salad.
"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
Good album. Excellent in places. They did a live session for BBC, i hope it gets released some day.
I too have always found the cover a bit odd, but love the album. One reservation- Lee Jackson's vocals deteriorated even since The Nice (where I could tolerate them most of the time). 'Someday' in particular has some spectacularly awful singing, sorry Lee! Musically though, it is very good indeed IMHO.
There's no doubt listening to this, that Patrick Moraz was destined to become a star. I think he had a jazz/fusion flavour to his playing that marked him out from the crowd, yet had all the classical influences too.
On the opposite note, Davison never sounded as good as this neither before nor after. There are parts on the Every Which Way album that almost came close, but that's about it. And Moraz arguably gives the performance of his life, although he shines as brightly on Relayer and shows some great input on the Mainhorse disc as well.
"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
Jackson's voice never bothered me with The Nice or Refugee. He's not a great singer by any stretch, but I liked his singing; it always made me smile and added some levity to those albums. When I first heard ELP, I thought they were a little too "serious" by comparison, even with their silly novelty songs.
I see ... so it's a "fashion police" thing?
Sorry, but by 70s prog standards nothing really stands out much even in this regard. And I'd venture to say that even for those so inclined to pass judgment on the "garb" worn by 70s "rock stars" that this cover doesn't place Refugee anywhere near the "best of the worst." First of all, the "chest hair factor" is way too low for them to even have a shot at the top, and there is no "sexual" innuendo to boot. Not really any "posing," either.
Sorry, but there just isn't much to discuss about the cover. It's simple and boring, basically. I see no awards forthcoming nor even a mention on any "worst cover" lists.
Last edited by Scrotum Scissor; 08-07-2013 at 06:01 PM.
"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 have the vinyl with 3 members autographs
I didn't really understand why the cover is so bad
I recently found some BBC performance of Refugee - much much better then those horrible live recording released by Voiceprint
Papillon is one of those classic Progressive tracks
The word at the time was that Refugee was going to continue with Annette Peacock replacing Moraz. Don't ask me how that would have worked. Then Brian Davison split to tour with David Essex (who was a massive pop idol in Britain at the time) and the whole thing fell apart.
Had this on LP back when it first came out. Got the CD a few years ago. Always LOVED this!!! Wish they had released more, but as someone else pointed out, Relayer is indeed one of my favorite albums. Any fans out there of "The Story of I"? Again, one of my favorites from that time. "Out in the Sun" was also very good. Other than Moody Blues, are there any other really good Moraz releases? I'd like to check those out as well......
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