Music Blog

I found out from Scott that Neil Morse, singer and main songwriter of the excellent progressive rock band Spock’s Beard is leaving the band “to pursue a spiritual path”.

Spocks Beard have been one of the best bands on the neo-progressive scene in recent years, a band with a distinctive sound with recognisable elements from the likes of Yes and Gentle Giant, and avoiding sounding too much like early Genesis.

The band have pledged to get a new singer and carry on; whether they can retain the magic without their main songwriter remains to be seen.

Let’s also hope Neil continues making music, albeit of a more explicitly religious nature. Shades of Twelfth Night‘s Geoff Mann, who was eventually ordained as an Anglican priest.

Manchester Academy, 6th October 2000

Ronnie James Dio is one of the great voices of heavy metal. His brand of operatic melodrama first came to widespread attention with the three albums he recorded with Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow in the late 70s, before he took on the near-impossible job of following Ozzy Osborne in Black Sabbath. After leaving Black Sabbath he embarked on a solo career that’s now lasted the best part of twenty years.

Up to now I’ve never seen the great man live; I hadn’t really followed his career in recent years until I picked up a copy of his then current album ‘Magica’ a couple of years back on the strength of a sample track on the free cover disk of ‘Classic Rock’ magazine. That album confirmed he was still a musical force to be reckoned with in the studio; I wondered whether he could still cut it live.

The support band were the Oliver/Dawson Saxon, one of the two rival Saxons on the live circuit (the other being Biff Byford’s ‘official’ Saxon). They ran through a set consisting entirely of old Saxon songs, such as “747: Strangers in the Night”, “Dallas 1pm” and of course, “Wheels of Steel” with a lot of energy and panache, and certainly had me flashing back to about 1981, even if the only genuine Saxons were the bass player and the rhythm guitarist.

Dio hit the stage on the dot of nine, and almost immediately dispelled any doubts. Ronnie’s magnificent voice was on superb form, every bit as good as in the 70s and 80s; unlike some he’s clearly looked after it. His band, still with former Rainbow bass player Jimmy Bain, was tight and energetic, and rocked the house. They ran through a set covering Dio’s entire career, from Rainbow and Black Sabbath material such as ‘Man on the Silver Mountain’ and ‘Heaven and Hell’, four songs from his classic solo debut ‘Holy Diver’, and more recent work like 2000′s excellent ‘Magica’ and the newly-released ‘Killing the Dragon’. New guitarist Doug Aldrich was impressive, especially in the second half of the set where he tackled material originally performed by guitar greats Richie Blackmore and Toni Iommi. The set climaxed with ‘Heaven and Hell’ and the encores ‘Last in Line’ and ‘Rainbow in the Dark’, with most of the audience singing along to the surreal, mystical lyrics. Altogether a great show!

Official web site www.ronniejamesdio.com.

There aren’t enough decent guitar solos in rock nowadays – the ‘guitar hero’ has gone right out of fashion, it seems. To many people, especially the cloth-eared British music press scribblers, and those that read them, think solos of any kind are somehow politically incorrect, so we end up with bands endlessly repeating the chorus or putting in inane ‘la-la-la’ sections where the guitar solo is supposed to go.

I’ve listed six of my favourite solos. All of them are from the prog-rock or heavy metal genres, and looking at the list I realise all but one of them are from the 1970s; perhaps I’m showing my age.

Buck Dharma – Revenge of Vera Gemini
From Blue Öyster Cult’s Agents of Fortune. Buck is one of the great underrated lead guitarists of rock. While his extended solo on the live version of Astronomy from Some Enchanted Evening is wonderful stuff, I really love this solo. Short (I think it’s only eight bars long), and simple, but perfect for the song. Not one note is wasted!

Dave Gilmour – Comfortably Numb
From Pink Floyd’s The Wall. This is one of those solos everyone lists, but that’s no excuse for me not to list it as well. A great example of feel and emotion as opposed to pure technique.

Steve Hackett – The Lamia
From Genesis’s Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. While Firth of Fifth was always his live showcase in Genesis days, this emotional solo always causes a tingle down the back of my spine whenever I hear it.

Steve Rothery – This Time of the Night
From Marillion’s Clutching at Straws. Another understated and evocative solo; a truly beautiful piece of playing. One of the rare cases of a solo right at the beginning of a song.

Richie Blackmore – Stargazer
From Rainbow Rising. Richie Blackmore was at his peak in the early 70s, both with Deep Purple and with his own band Rainbow. While much of the time his studio playing lacked the fire of his blistering 70′s live work on albums like California Jam and Rainbow On Stage, the evocative eastern-sounding solo on the epic Stargazer was a notable exception.

Michael Schenker – Rock Bottom
From UFO’s Phenomenon. And Michael Schenker was the phenomenon here. An early example of ‘shredding’, but with a sense of melody that most shredders lack.

What are your favourite solos? Use the handy comments facility!

This Guardian article self-righteously takes the piss out of Goth. While Goth subculture is easily parodied, and the article is vaguely amusing, I sometimes wonder what’s the point. Is it so middle-aged journalists can pretend that they’re still hip? The card game Gother than Thou was much funnier.

I’m still waiting for someone to do a demolition job the obscenely-overrated Morrisey and his drooling fanboys.

On BlogCritics, Bill Sherman muses about Lyrics

Maybe it’s because I’m a writer, but this diminution of words can’t help but irk me. A great pop song works on both musical and lyrical levels, and downplaying either component is a critical cheat. My uncharitable guess is that some of the blogcrits may be attempting to get around an audience that they perceive as predominately neo-libertarian. (You know the type: their idea of individual freedom only extends to those who agree with ‘em.) But perhaps it’s just a variation of the ol’ rock-is-for-dunderheads-so-why-bother? routine.

It often seems to me that strong lyrics often come with weak music, and vice-versa. I do find a lot of critics (being writers) do pay too much attention to the lyrics, because it’s harder to write about the music, and tend to dismiss bands who don’t write the sort of lyrics they can write about. For most of my favourite music, it’s not the lyrics that are important, it’s the music.

This isn’t to say I don’t like interesting and thought provoking lyrics, I just don’t care for those artists that don’t have the music to back it up.

Don’t know about neo-libertarian audiences, though. I always thought Rush were better once they’d got Ayn Rand out of their system; but that’s another subject altogether.

The final installment of my top twenty list.

Rush – Moving Pictures

Rush have always been a favourite band of mine, from the early ‘Led Zeppelin Junior’ approach of their debut album, though the epic prog-rock of “2112″ and “Hemispheres” to the polished stadium-rock of the 80s. It’s difficult to pick a single best album, but Moving Pictures is one of my favourites, catching them at a point of transition, combining the best elements of their ‘prog’ and ‘stadium’ eras.

UFO – Strangers in the Night

From start to finish, this album is dominated by the guitar of Michael Schenker. Although he left the band immediately after this recording, he’s never been quite so good before or since – just listen to his fluid solos on “Out in the Street”, “Love to Love”, “Lights Out” and of course, “Rock Bottom”. If you’re a fan of lead guitar, this album is a must-have.

Uriah Heep – Salisbury

Uriah Heep’s second album, and the most varied and progressive album they recorded. Highlight is the 17-minute title track, a semi-orchestral piece recorded with brass and woodwind sections, a seriously overlooked rock classic.

Yes – Going for the One

While many people say Yes were never as good after “Tales from Topographic Oceans”, this 1977 album is still my favourite. It contains both “Awaken”, one of the best of their lengthy epics with some marvelously dotty lyrics from Jon Anderson, and the storming “Parallels”, one of their few real rockers, with that wonderful intro of Rick Wakeman’s pipe organ and Steve Howe’s rippling guitar.

Frank Zappa – The Best Band You’ve Never Heard in your Life

Frank Zappa has recorded seemingly hundreds of albums, including a great many live ones. This one, recorded on his final 1988 tour with an 11-piece band, includes most of the greatest hits from his 20-year career. It also contains a surreal cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway” with the brass section playing the guitar solo note-for-note.

5 more, 5 to go….

Led Zeppelin – Four Symbols

I thought very hard about not including this album, because it comes up as #1 on all those classic rock lists. But in the end I had to include it here. As for ‘Stairway to Heaven’, the song has only been spoiled by over-exposure. Just try and remember the first time you heard it.

Marillion – Brave

It’s very difficult to choose just one Marillion album; they’ve done many great ones, including all four they did with Fish, and last year’s superb “Anoraknophobia”. In the end, I have to choose “Brave”, their dark and intense concept album that appeared just after so many fans had written them off after it’s blandly commercial predecessor.

Pink Floyd – The Wall

An album which divides Pink Floyd fans; some think this was the beginning of the end for the band. It was reviled by the critics when it first appeared; Sounds notorious punk/indie pseud Dave McCulloch slammed it for containing too many guitar solos and gave it one star. Cloth-eared twit! Whatever I think of Water’s semi-autobiographical concept, I still love the music, especially those Dave Gilmour solos that Sounds’ critic hated so much.

Queensrÿche – Operation Mindcrime

I know I’m a sucker for concept albums, but 80s metal didn’t get better than this. The Seattle-based quintet’s finest hour, the concept is about cyberpunkish tale of an assassin drawn into a cult. Very much a product of it’s time (Cyberpunk was big in the 80s), but the powerful twin guitar attack and Geoff Tate’s distinctive voice passes the test of time.

Rainbow – On Stage

I always felt Ritchie Blackmore was constrained in the studio, and really shone playing live. The late 70s, both with Mk3 Purple and Rainbow saw some of his most ferocious playing. For Blackmore fans, this one is a must-have. It’s not just Blackmore who shines here, just listen to the way Ronnie Dio interprets Deep Purple’s “Mistreated” and makes the song his own. It wasn’t just punk bands that had the energy in 1977!