The list goes on...
30. Donald Fagen – The Nightfly
Walter Becker & Donald Fagen brought their particular
brand of music to our ears in the early 70s, and over the course of the decade
Steely Dan brought us seven albums mostly of exceptional quality, before the
band went into hiatus in 1981. They reformed in 1993, and produced two further
albums in the early noughties, the excellent Two Against Nature and the
slightly sub-par Everything Must Go. But shortly after their breakup, Donald
Fagen released what I still consider to be his best solo effort. There’s a much
clearer jazz influence here than with Steely Dan, and it was one of the first
albums to be completely digitally recorded. There is a kind of naïve nostalgia
to many of the songs, as well as a bright, optimistic feel which fitted the
mood of the 1980s well.
29. Weather Report – Heavy Weather
To call Weather Report a ‘supergroup’ may be stretching a
point, but they certainly drew in some of the best performers from the jazz
world during their years of operation. Constant members Joe Zawinul and Wayne
Shorter could trace their pedigree back to Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey
& Miles Davis, both in his ‘pure’ jazz and fusion years, and they drew in others
including Alphonso Johnson, Chester Thompson and Jaco Pastorius. The band’s
style adapted to many changes in their line-up, but for me they peaked
musically and compositionally with Zawinul, Shorter, Pastorius, Alex Acuña
& Manolo Badrena on the band’s 8th studio release, Heavy Weather.
Pastorius brought his own unique way of playing electric bass to the band’s
sound in a way that transformed them, and brought them huge critical and
commercial success. Birdland, the opening track, was my introduction to
their music and it has always brought me much joy, but the album contains other
gems too: the sublime A Remark You Made, and Jaco’s two compositions, Teen Town
and Havona, particularly stand out, but it’s all good!
28. Janis Joplin – Pearl
The legendary 27 Club gave Rob Reed the inspiration for a
collection of songs for the band Magenta. This album commemorated a number of
musicians who have all lost their lives at 27 years old: Robert Johnson, Brian
Jones, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Others sadly
have been added to the list, notably Amy Winehouse, who became only the second
female member after Joplin. It’s probably fair to say that Joplin has been a
great influence on a number of female rock vocalists: Florence Welch, Stevie
Nicks & Pink all cite her as an enormous influence, and her affect on
Winehouse and on Christina Booth of Magenta is clear. Tina sang of Janis on the
song Pearl, Janis’s nickname and also the title of her final album, released
posthumously in 1970. There is so much power and passion in her voice here; a
heady mix of blues and soul from a young lady in love with life yet
paradoxically tortured by her drug and alcohol addictions and her traumatic
childhood back in Texas. But this pain and pathos has left us a legacy of some
of the most powerful songs I know.
27. Brand X – Unorthodox Behaviour
As a teenager, I was drawn to Brand X for one reason, and
that was the presence of Phil Collins in the band. I was an unashamed
‘completist’: anything that the band or its members were involved in I wanted
to listen to. So I gave Unorthodox Behaviour a listen, and it was quite unlike
anything that I’d heard before, and certainly not at all like Genesis! This
was, I suppose, my introduction to fusion, and it showed just what a varied
genre it is: conventional rock band make up of guitar, bass, drums &
keyboards, yet a very different groove. Collins was joined by John Goodsall on
guitars, Percy Jones on bass and Robin Lumley on keyboards in a collection of
quite stunning tunes that go all over the place musically, from the sublime
Euthanasia Waltz to the scatty Running On Three, and demonstrate the sheer versatility and
virtuosity of all concerned.
26. King Crimson – Red
King Crimson are seen by many as having been at the
vanguard of what we now call Progressive Rock, with their first album - In The
Court of the Crimson King - regarded as the first of that genre (though there
are cases to be made for Sergeant Pepper and Days of Future Passed to hold that
honour). Robert Fripp certainly never wanted to stay in one place musically,
and consequently the band went through many changes in personnel over the
years. They were gradually whittled down to a trio by 1974 – Robert Fripp, John
Wetton and Bill Bruford, and for me produced their best work in ‘Red’. The
almost metal feel of the opening instrumental title track assaults you from the
off; Fallen Angel brings things down a little, but the intensity soon builds
again, and One More Red Nightmare carries it on, albeit with a slightly funky
edge. Providence is a much more thoughtful, almost ambient in places,
instrumental piece featuring David Cross on violin as well as the others, and
Starless, the album closer, is perhaps one of the best things Crimson have ever
done. The band would go into a hiatus immediately after the album’s release,
due to Fripp’s disillusionment with the music business, and if this was to have
been their Epitaph, there could have been no finer one.
25. Yes – Close to the Edge
The term ‘epic’ is used frequently in Progressive circles,
usually in reference to a song of around 10 minutes or more, and Yes have had
their share of these throughout their career, notably on their sixth studio
album, Tales From Topographic Oceans – a double album with 4 tracks in total.
The band had been developing this longer form of song over the course of a few
albums, but it took off on Close to The Edge which had one song on side one and
two on side two, all 9 minutes-plus. This gave the band more scope to explore a
more symphonic style of rock music, and opened the door for Jon Anderson to
experiment with some very esoteric lyrics – something that would become a
trademark of the band’s style in years to come. Close to the Edge as an album,
and as a song, is considered by many to be the band’s pinnacle, but I actually
think that they have done better albums both before and after this one – as
will become clear. So, this one sits mid-table for me, but among such great
company that that shouldn’t be seen as in any way disparaging the album.
24. Caravan – In the Land of Grey & Pink
As a resident of Sheffield, I’ve noticed that the city
has been a particularly productive place for music over the years: Joe &
Jarvis Cocker (not related); Paul Carrack; ABC, Human League & Heaven 17;
Def Leppard; Arctic Monkeys, to name just a few. All good and popular in their
own particular way, but apart from their place of origin there’s no obvious
musical link. Canterbury in the late 60s and early 70s however produced a slew
of bands with a quite distinct ‘sound’, possibly due to their being able to
trace their origins back to The Wilde Flowers: Matching Mole, Soft Machine,
Hatfield & the North, National Health (among others) all had a particular
‘Canterbury’ sound, but perhaps the most original and enduring were Caravan.
Their third album, In the Land of Grey & Pink, is a wonderful example of
this originality: quirky, inventive, sublime song-writing; at times quite
pop-y, at times quite surreal, and the epic on side two – Nine Feet Underground
– is a jazzy, rocky, symphonic, mellotron-heavy delight.
23. Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy
Growing out of the Yardbirds towards the end of the
1960s, Led Zeppelin brought the guitar talents of Jimmy Page from a blues
background to the burgeoning heavy metal scene that was growing around the West
Midlands, and coupled them with Robert Plant’s soaring vocals and the
rock-steady rhythm section of John Paul Jones & John Bonham. It was this
mixture of rock and blues along with some psychedelic elements that grew the
band’s fan base over the course of their first four albums, culminating in the
trippy epic that is Stairway to Heaven. By then the band’s repertoire was
diversifying, and on the follow-up fifth album, Houses of the Holy, they
clearly demonstrated that diversity, placing the rocking ‘The Song Remains the
Same’ alongside the mellow ‘The Rain Song’, the silliness of ‘The Crunge’ with the
almost pop-y ‘Dancing Days’, and the cod reggae of ‘D’yer Mak’er’ with the
trippy ‘No Quarter’. I don’t think there’s as much variety on any other of the
band’s albums, and that’s what attracts me to it: for the thrash of Immigrant
Song on Zep 3 and the pomp of Kashmir on Physical Graffiti, there is the
subtlety of No Quarter and The Rain Song. For me their best album.
22. Genesis – Wind & Wuthering
Losing a key member is always a defining moment for a band:
it can make or break them, because for some the band just isn’t ‘complete’
without a certain individual. Witness the debates over Yes without Jon Anderson
or Chris Squire; Marillion without Fish; or in this case Genesis without Peter
Gabriel. The internal discord that surfaced during the recording of The Lamb
Lies Down on Broadway came to a head during the album’s tour, and Gabriel
departed to a diverse and successful solo career, but where did that leave the
band? As we know, Phil Collins stepped up to the mic, and the rest, as they
say, is history. As a four-piece Genesis produced two very good albums, A Trick
of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering, but it has always been the latter which
has appealed more to me, possibly due to Steve Hackett’s greater prominence
musically on the album. It’s not a perfect album: Your Own Special Way is a bit
twee, and why they opted for Wot Gorilla? ahead of Inside and Out I have no
idea! But the openers of Eleventh Earl of Mar and One for the Vine always send
a shiver down my spine, and similarly the closers of Unquiet Slumbers for the
Sleepers…, …in That Quiet Earth, and Afterglow – the perfect end to an almost
perfect album. And I’ve not mentioned the comic relief of All in a Mouse’s
Night, or the sublime beauty of Blood on the Rooftops. As a swan song for
Hackett, there couldn’t have been a more fitting end, and musically the band as
a threesome never scaled these heights again.
21. Big Big Train – The Underfall Yard
Proving that it can sometimes take an age to become an
overnight success, Big Big Train finally broke out of obscurity and into the
Prog mainstream – admittedly not much more than a shallow trickle in the grand
musical scheme of things – with their eighth studio album, The Underfall Yard,
in 2009. By then their music had evolved and achieved a distinct and unique
sound, combining as it did the style of English bands of the 1970s, most
noticeably Genesis, with tales of English history, cultural and industrial
heritage, and, most strikingly, the English brass band. All of this gave the
band, clearly, a very ‘English’ feel, but with it was a technical mastery, a
wonderful narrative ability to tell stories, and the newly acquired vocal
talents of David Longdon, which lifted than band to a different level from
their previous works. The band’s reach and popularity began to flourish from
this point, helped in no small measure by them allowing the almost 23-minute
title track to be distributed free on the cover disc of Prog magazine. This is
music on a grand scale, multi-layered both musically and vocally, and although
the band are only credited as a three-piece, most of the songs are enhanced by
those who would soon be recognised as full members of the band, notably Dave
Gregory & Nick D’Virgilio. Almost 20 years from their first recording, this
album would see them grow in stature and creativity.
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