My favorite Mahavishnu album. One of my favorite albums by anybody.
Don't sleep on Inner Worlds, either. It has its weak moments, but it also has some great material on it. I'm an R&B fan, so the vocals didn't bother me.
My favorite Mahavishnu album. One of my favorite albums by anybody.
Don't sleep on Inner Worlds, either. It has its weak moments, but it also has some great material on it. I'm an R&B fan, so the vocals didn't bother me.
I love this album, but it doesn't top Birds Of Fire, IMO.
Sorry it took me eight years to respond to this, grego, but I've been cogitating on it all this time and finally finished.
I think you're on to something. To me, Eternity's Breath Pt. II sounds very Zeuhl. Has C. Vander mentioned Mahavishnu Orchestra as being an influence on Magma, or was Mahav Orch influenced by Magma?
Last edited by JKL2000; 08-27-2022 at 01:13 AM.
^^^ EB2 is strikingly Zeuhlish from a (relatively) mainstream group. The only example I know of in that regard. Vander had been doing Zeuhl for several years by the time Visions came out, so probably that is the direction of influence. OTOH, is it possible Vander and McLaughlin were separately influenced by the "spiritual jazz" movement?
Some of Magma Live sounds to me like ideas from Mahavishnu taken in a more extreme direction. I don't know if Vander himself heard Mahavishnu but it seems very likely members of his band had. No idea if McLaughlin would have known about Magma. They would have had the influence of Coltrane and Stravinsky in common as well.
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
‘Bathed in Lightning: John McLaughlin, the ’60s and the Emerald Beyond’ by Colin Harper is available again, but in limited numbers (only 80 copies). Harper writes really well and apparently this is a very good book (I read his follow-up to this one, called ‘Echoes From Then’, and it was really informative). As Harper says of ‘Bathed in Lightning’: “I don’t believe you need to be a McLaughlin diehard to enjoy it – it’s a sort of rags to riches adventure story by stealth that passes through lost lands that now seem magical.”
The initial print run of 3,500 books sold out and it has become very hard to find. The reprint is now reselling on Bandcamp for £17. For US buyers there is good and bad news: the bad news is that postage to the US costs £23; the good news is that there is almost parity between sterling and the dollar at the moment. Postage is £4 in the UK.
We walked arm in arm with madness, and every little breeze whispered of the secret love we had for our disease
I have this- it is a great read. But do you have a source on Vander playing Johnny Mac? I've never read that before, and CV has been clear that he shoes away from listening to most modern music. Coltrane remains his muse.‘Bathed in Lightning: John McLaughlin, the ’60s and the Emerald Beyond’ by Colin Harper is available again, but in limited numbers (only 80 copies). Harper writes really well and apparently this is a very good book (I read his follow-up to this one, called ‘Echoes From Then’, and it was really informative). As Harper says of ‘Bathed in Lightning’: “I don’t believe you need to be a McLaughlin diehard to enjoy it – it’s a sort of rags to riches adventure story by stealth that passes through lost lands that now seem magical.”
I'm not lazy. I just work so fast I'm always done.
Has anyone ever noticed that the song that ends the "Visions" album "On The Way Home To Earth" ends the "same way" as the song "This Is Where I Came In" by Richard Harris?
During the sustained guitar line at the end the music fades out until they both end at the same point,,,,, and during the sustained vocal line at the end by Harris the music fades out until they both end at the same point. Weird but true I think...
"Lila's Dance" is beautiful! The composition and the style of it transitioning from one particular part to the next is definitely skilled writing.
The middle section or ( jam section) is reminiscent of the jam section in the center of Dance Of Maya . John McLaughlin plays an insane guitar solo in the center of "Lila's Dance" where he is on fire, out of this world, and not human..Lol! He uses the same effects on his guitar as Frank Marino. For example...Marino's scorching lead on "Dragonfly"
The sound is not too distant from the way Jimi Hendrix sounded on "Astro man" ...but McLaughlin is all over the fretboard playing some really strange stuff. Very inspiring.
John McLaughlin plays without distortion on The Heart Of Things and if you've never heard his soloing on that album ..you should check it out. It's insane and I love it. He is a virtuoso type of player.
On "Be Happy" from Visions Of The Emerald Beyond ..Jean Luc Ponty plays some very wild kind of improvisation. Ponty and McLaughlin have a little interplay on this and their soloing is outstanding. You won't be disappointed.
I am still amazed by the Apocalypse tour which I saw at the Spectrum in Philadelphia during the 70s. Amazing musicians!!
Not to go off topic, but I could not follow that exchange. What was asked and how did CV respond?This must have happened on 22 september 1978.
I'm not lazy. I just work so fast I'm always done.
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