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Thread: Any love for Hamburger Concerto?

  1. #1
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    Any love for Hamburger Concerto?

    A rhetorical Q really, as I know there will be.

    For me Focus' 1974 album is the best they ever made. With the actual Concerto on side 2 being the best piece of music they ever put on vinyl.

    IMO it is the perfect mix of serious, sometimes heavy, rock with great synth, great guitar and great bass and drum playing with minimal vocalising on their own compositions with many killer riffs. Some very Dark Sideish Pink Floyd moments on there in fact.

    For me this is what ELP should have focused on being and tried more to avoid the silly hayride stuff and elevator music versions of classical pieces that they often indulged in.

    This for me is how I would have liked to have seen Ekseption evolve, into a true serious prog outfit writing all their own music rather than doing classical covers.

  2. #2
    I prefer Moving Waves, but it is a fantastic album. Either way, those two beat the rest by miles and miles. I know Focus 3 has its fans, but there's just to much jam and not enough song on it for me, not that it doesn't have moments.

  3. #3
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    Hamburger Concerto and Live at the Rainbow are my Focus favorites !

  4. #4
    For some reason I just have no love for any Focus....

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by progman1975 View Post
    For some reason I just have no love for any Focus....
    Same here!!! Their classical interpretations where not as interesting as ELP's. They were more 'interpratations by numbers' IMO!

    However, if albums sales & concert attendences are a measure than they were 'bigger' than Genesis in the Prog period 71-77. Not as influential by any means!

  6. #6
    You have no love for Focus because your hearts are little, hard lumps of darkness.







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    Quote Originally Posted by Rufus View Post
    Same here!!! Their classical interpretations where not as interesting as ELP's. They were more 'interpratations by numbers' IMO!
    eeemmmm...I wonder how much Focus you've actually heard then? Unlike The Nice, Yes, ELP, Ekseption they didn't do classical interpretations they wrote their own music.

  8. #8
    Member rapidfirerob's Avatar
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    I much prefer Focus to ELP. The second side Of Hamburger Concerto is brilliant!
    I saw Focus in 73 at Carnegie Hall. Big love for Focus.

  9. #9
    Oh yeah, this was a fav album. I remember buying it and playing it to death. Still love it.

    https://strawberrybricks.com/guide/r...urger-concerto
    "Always ready with the ray of sunshine"

  10. #10
    Birth is a good piece, the rest aren't very inspirational. The side-long title theme is incredibly monotonuos.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by gregory View Post
    Birth is a good piece, the rest aren't very inspirational. The side-long title theme is incredibly monotonuos.

    Agree ! Focus defineatly took a quick dive in quality in comparison to other bands . When Akkerman left they should have called it a day !

  12. #12
    Moderator Duncan Glenday's Avatar
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    A desert island disc!

    Quote Originally Posted by PeterG View Post
    ...the best they ever made. With the actual Concerto on side 2 being the best piece of music they ever put on vinyl...
    Completely agree.

    IMO, Hamburger Concerto leaves Moving Waves et al in the dust.
    Regards,

    Duncan

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Rufus View Post
    When Akkerman left they should have called it a day !
    They more or less did for a long while. Though the Philip Catherine stuff beats the hell out of Mother Focus with Akkerman.

  14. #14
    Clearly inferior to moving Waves and Three.About on par with in and out of focus.

    In enjoy it more because i tend to dig Akkerman and Van Leer's playing approach anyway, rather than the album having loads of strong tracks.I do like the side long epic though, mostly for the beastly guitar solo.

    Also an album held back by a basic drummer with little feel.Van der Linden was one of the best of the era...Allen was a hack.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Watanabe View Post
    Also an album held back by a basic drummer with little feel.Van der Linden was one of the best of the era...Allen was a hack.
    That's pretty much how I feel. There's no fire in the rhythm section compared prior albums.
    "Young man says you are what you eat, eat well."
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  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by trurl View Post
    I prefer Moving Waves, but it is a fantastic album. Either way, those two beat the rest by miles and miles.
    I agree. I'd take Eruption over Hamburger Concerto (title track) any day. And aside from Hocus Pocus, the first side of Moving Waves is chock full of great shorter pieces.

  17. #17
    (not his real name) no.nine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Watanabe View Post

    Also an album held back by a basic drummer with little feel.Van der Linden was one of the best of the era...Allen was a hack.
    Agreed. I've always felt that Colin Allen did a decent job on the album, even if he was rather unexciting. However, live recordings from his tenure reveal him to be seriously in over his head. He was handicapped at interpreting the material which van der Linden had previously recorded, almost never getting a decent groove happening, never mind the RIGHT grooves for the songs! You could tell that he just couldn't FEEL their music. As just one example, his drum fills in "Hocus Pocus" were often downright laughable - amateur night defined! Indeed, a big reason he was eventually replaced was because Akkerman got fed up with his plodding, unimaginative style.

    Oh, and live, he usually couldn't even play the HC material as well as he did on the album....
    "I tah dah nur!" - Ike

  18. #18
    Progga mogrooves's Avatar
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    Does nothing for me. Moving Waves, on the other hand, hits all the right notes, so to speak.
    Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes

  19. #19
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Duncan Glenday View Post
    A desert island disc!

    Quote Originally Posted by PeterG View Post
    ...the best they ever made. With the actual Concerto on side 2 being the best piece of music they ever put on vinyl...
    Completely agree.

    IMO, Hamburger Concerto leaves Moving Waves et al in the dust.
    Yup, I'd even place the sometimes meandering Focus 3 between the two... MW never did much for me
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  20. #20
    Member Since: 3/27/2002 MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER's Avatar
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    Focus were a fun Prog band. Not quite the Prog virtuosos of PFM or Return To Forever magnitude but fun and very enjoyable. HC is a classic Prog album in my book!
    Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?

  21. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by PeterG View Post

    For me this is what ELP should have focused on being and tried more to avoid the silly hayride stuff and elevator music versions of classical pieces that they often indulged in.
    Because bug eyed yodelling isn't silly

    I do love focus though and thank you for this post. It's inspired me to spin this one again - next in rotation.

  22. #22
    Member The Wall's Avatar
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    I prefer Jan Akkermans solo album Profile. Fresh Air is sublime.

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Trane View Post
    Yup, I'd even place the sometimes meandering Focus 3 between the two... MW never did much for me
    I'm in agreement with Duncan and Trane.

  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Prog Lives View Post
    Because bug eyed yodelling isn't silly
    Man, that is the pinnacle of prog. No yodelling, No prog

  25. #25
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    I like this album, but I would like it even more if they had given synthesizers a more substantive place in the keyboard arrangements. Constant organ bores me after a while.

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