Me and my journey through life, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows and all wacky, funny, deep, depressing and interesting points in between. My interests are varied from one end of the spectrum to another. Basically, the disappointing side of mediocre.
When YES was on hiatus in 1975-76 each member of the band (Howe, Squire, White, Moraz) released a solo album. All would fail in comparison to Jon Anderson's Olias of Sunhillow, released on this day in 1976. Actually, in my opinion, this is the best of all of Anderson's solo albums to this day.
Olias of Sunhillow is a progressive rock concept album which tells the story of an alien race and their journey to a new world (the story printed in the LP jacket calls it "the earth", lowercase 'e') due to a volcanic catastrophe. Olias, the title character, is the chosen architect of the glider Moorglade Mover, which will be used to fly his people to their new home. Ranyart is the navigator for the glider, and Qoquaq (pronounced 'ko-quake') is the leader who unites the four tribes of Sunhillow to partake in the exodus.
The album's concept was inspired by the cover art by Roger Dean (!) for the 1971 Yes album Fragile, which depicts a tiny planet breaking apart and a glider escaping into space. Another link to Fragile lies in the fact that both albums have pieces (Fragile's "We Have Heaven") consisting of multiple vocal parts, with Anderson singing all of them. Anderson has stated that works by J.R.R. Tolkien and Vera Stanley Alder were also an influence, underlying the epic scope of the narrative compressed into the album. The album represented 8 months of physical work, but it took two years from conception to release. Anderson used more than a hundred tracks in putting the album together, overdubbing strings, organ, harp and percussion.
Since Anderson produced Olias soon after Vangelis had auditioned to be a part of Yes, there has been widespread speculation that Vangelis contributed to the album, with some fans going so far as to say that Olias represents the kind of sound that Yes would have created if Vangelis had in fact joined the band. However, both Vangelis and Anderson have denied that they collaborated on the album.
Another week has gone by but this time I'm feeling good due to the recent change in my job situation! This random list has got to be a good one right? RIGHT?!? As usual, the rules are over there → along with descriptions of awards and some inside jokes.
Alright! Let's rock this joint!
1) Red Hot Chili Peppers/Falling into Grace - Starting off funky. Cool.
2) Jon Anderson/My Sweet Jane - His Celtic solo album. You know, there were actually some rumors of Jon and/or Yes doing the soundtrack for Lord of the Rings back in the day. Yeah, I know.
3) Led Zeppelin/Hot Dog - I think LZ basically sucked after IV.
4) Jon Anderson/Meeting(Garden of Geda) - From the best solo work he ever did, Olias of Sunhillow. I have always thought that if I ever got a tattoo it would be the symbol from this album.
5) Van Halen/Hang 'em High - Yeah, kick it boys!
6) Emerson Lake and Palmer/Pirates - I know pirates are all the rage now, but this is an older song before all those movies came out. And it's long and awesome. (TWSS)
7) Chicago/Over and Over - And over to the wimpy love song side. Move over Journey, we have someone to join you in the zone of shame for bands that never survived the 80's.
8) King Crimson/Fracture - Exactly.
9) The Beatles/She's Leaving Home - Not exactly awesome but at least it's from Sgt. Peppers.
10) Chicago/Once or Twice - Hey guys! Remember when you used to make music like this? Neither do we.
Well that's it for another week. I think I am going to institute a rule that says if you show up twice in one countdown then you're ineligible for the next week. So no Jon Jon or Chicago next week. Sounds like a plan. To wrap things all up, the STCS is Billy Joel/The Stranger. Not bad.
