^I find 'A Passion Play' hard-going...but never more so than 'The Hare'. I find it unbearable, and wonder what they were thinking.
^I find 'A Passion Play' hard-going...but never more so than 'The Hare'. I find it unbearable, and wonder what they were thinking.
Amen to that! I've never liked an XTC album in it's entirety, but they still have at least a half dozen albums that I consider to be brilliant. For me, one really strong track on an album negates another weak one.
And before I even opened this thread, I knew there would be a bunch of opinions that I disagree with. One man's trash is another one's treasure, so it's stands to reason that someone's weakest track on an album can be another one's strongest. Trick of the Tail, Fountain of Salmacis, Siberian Khatru... those are all standout tunes in my book.
Now, we're just splitting hares.
Even listening the first time as a kid, that's always been one of my favorite things about APP.
Musically, it works a lot better than the album does.
Maybe it was indeed shoehorned into the middle - but the whole album feels like it was shoehorned into existence.
I also appreciate the fact it pisses so many people off, it's just a quaint, little interlude. Big deal.
You could practically see Ian smiling, while everyone else had been sitting on the fence, scowling!
It also was more of the Pythonesque humor that was utilized to break up the live TAAB concert.
So for them, it felt right.
^The last time I played it, I certainly found it more palatable than before. But that 'Hare' seems to go on longer than the whole of 'Thick As A Brick'!
It's the classic 'shaggy dog story'- or 'shaggy hare story' in this case- of something that really leads nowhere.
I hate 'The Hare', it sucks donkey balls
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
Jeez, do you guys also dislike the middle part of Supper's Ready (ie the "mum to mud to mad to dad" and "dad diddley office" part)? I think the "hare" part of APP is a nice little break from the rest of the album. Yeah it sounds like it is a musical equivalent of a children's novel(well maybe not all of it. LOL)but I think it is a fun little tangent.
I guess it's better to read such nonsense than be blind
1- The Mule is not on Machine Head
2- MMM is wonderfull
3- YOSW is a worthy of a late 80's solo album... It downright sucks
4- Only More Fool Me sucks on SEBTP
===============
- Rainbow Rising's Do You Cliose Your Eyes ruins the album's cohesiveness
- Hackett's Decomposing Man is so sick that it should be retitled Decomposing Brain, but there is at least another weaker track on it.
- They might've taken away Awaken from GFTO, because it stops the album from being Yes' worst crud ever (bar Close Your Ears, of course )
That feels fine in a normal Beatles ambiance... But Within You, Without You is really disturbing the album's course
Yup, indeed the awful Hare is totally out of context, but including some other tune (however excellent) woudn't have saved the album.
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
I lapped up everything Yes did in that classic period when I first discovered them. Looking on it objectively, 'Parallels' really isn't that great IMHO. I think a lot of that track's momentum was robbed by the cavernous production and the decision to play it on a church organ. Nobody can make a church organ rock! I don't skip past it or anything, but it's the weak link on that album by far IMHO.
That's how I feel as well. The live version on Yesshows just blows it away. If only they used a synth on the studio track instead of the church organ. I'm actually not that big on "turn of the century" either but it doesn't ruin the album for me. While GFTO is still a great album it is the beginning of the downward slope for the band. I would say the equivalent for another group would be "Wind and Wuthering" or "Interview" maybe.
Agree with 'do you close your eyes' being a huge weak link on Rising, auto skip
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
Passion Play is my fave Tull album and The Hare is a perfect fit of surreal imagery in an overall surreal work, I think it's one of the most important sections of the album...kind of like the "218 babies wearing nylons" section of TAAB. Further, in the TAAB newspaper there is the article titled "Non-Rabbit Missing", so Tull's "Hare tendencies" had already been established before the Spectacles story. Of course on the Chateau D'Isaster recordings, many lyrics focus on various animals so perhaps "The Hare..." was just the same concept reintroduced in Passion Play
Check out my solo project prog band, Mutiny in Jonestown at https://mutinyinjonestown.bandcamp.com/
Check out my solo project progressive doom metal band, WytchCrypt at https://wytchcrypt.bandcamp.com/
Ian Beabout
Mixing and mastering engineer. See ya at ProgDay !
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...m/bakers-dozen
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...-and-holland-3
colouratura.bandcamp.com
I always found the last track on David Sylvian's classic "Secrets of the Beehive", "Forbidden Colours", to be a real letdown. Just doesn't fit the overall vibe of the rest of the album.
Steve F.
www.waysidemusic.com
www.cuneiformrecords.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin
Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]
"Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"
please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.
Steve F.
www.waysidemusic.com
www.cuneiformrecords.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin
Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]
"Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"
please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.
To my mind, it represents life here and now - before present day, and after we die, all kinds of metaphysical/miraculous/spiritual stuff happened in the past or awaits us in the future - but here, in this brief lifetime, many of us wind up frittering the time away on complete nonsense - and THAT is my interpretation of that whimsical, goes-nowhere, cheeky little interlude in the album.
Groundhogs ~ Hogwash: "Mr. Hooker, Sir John"
Steve Miller ~ Children of the Future: "Key To the Highway"
KC ~ Lizard: "Lady of The Dancing Water"
Stones: Aftermath: "Goin' Home"
Hendrix ~ Axis:....: "She's So Fine"
Trower ~ Twice Removed from Yesterday: "Ballerina"
Last edited by mogrooves; 05-18-2014 at 01:08 PM.
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
Of course it was record company policy at the time to include the hit single on the album, whether the artists wished it or not. I think it's a little out of place, but I like it and don't mind its inclusion too much.
On the other hand, my first vinyl copy of Sunflower included the Beach Boys' version of Cottonfields. It had to - it was a No. 1 hit. It felt totally out of place on that album, but fortunately it was track 1, so after it played I was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the album.
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