Friday and the Random 10 (Existential Edition)

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Friday and the Random 10 (Friday the 13th Edition)

Welcome to a new and improved, simplified and stripped down Random 10 13! 

Here's a picture.

My Top 10 Favorite Instrumentals

When I first got the idea for this post I just listed a bunch of songs down the page. I noticed a lot of music acts had done several that I like. So what I did was to limit everyone to just one appearance. Get it? Got it? Good.

I'm sure I missed some obvious ones too, but here are my top ten favorite instrumentals:

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10) King Crimson/Red

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9) Kansas/Musicatto

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8) The Alan Parsons Project/I Robot

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7) Vangelis/Chariots of Fire

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6) Rick Wakeman/Catherine of Aragon

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5) Journey/Kohoutek

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4) Trans-Siberian Orchestra/Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24

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3) Rush/La Villa Strangiato

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2) Emerson Lake & Palmer/Canario

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1) Yes (Steve Howe)/Mood For a Day

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Others considered:

Yes (Steve Howe)/Masquerade

Emerson Lake & Palmer/Changing States, Fanfare for the Common Man, Hoedown

The Nice/Ars Longa Vita Brevis (4th Movt.)

Def Leppard/Switch 625

Rush/YYZ

Trans-Siberian Orchestra/Moonlight and Madness

Journey/Topaz

ABWH, and the Aftermath

I have made it quite clear to anyone who has read my stuff, that to me the ABWH album (Side 1, Side 2) was synonymous with a great failed relationship I had. I can't think of one without the other. They will forever be intertwined.

Occasionally, I learn a factoid or two about that album and it seems to still coincide with the real life that I was living. Other times I find a little nugget that brightens my day.

For instance, I never knew that part of "Quartet" (the I'm Alive part) was actually edited down for a single and actually had a video. It was given a second verse and a different ending. How I missed this at the time I will never know.

Even more exciting was that there were OTHER SONGS that were left off the album! One of the was called Vultures, which came from a Steve Howe demo called "Rare Birds". How it didn't make the album and Teakbois did is beyond me.

In 2011 they came out with a deluxe edition of ABWH that I gobbled up quickly. It had a bonus disk with these two songs and also a lot of radio edits and live performances. Typical stuff. But stuck in there at the very end was a hidden track called "Children of Light". It blew me away.

I knew this song from the Yes album Keys to Ascension 2 but didn't know it had originated from a song Jon/Vangelis wrote called "Distant Thunder" that was demoed for the ABWH sessions. Too cool.

But all in all, the most "devastating" information that I learned from all my research into this album, was that there was supposed to be another ABWH album that never came about. There was supposed to be more and then there wasn't. It was like somewhere in another Richard Bach universe things stayed wonderful, my relationship continued with an additional soundtrack, and the play that was my life had a second act. It's out there somewhere else I suppose, being lived out by someone who isn't me.

But that "dialogue" is for another day...

Music Monday (Yes/Relayer, Side 1)

First of all, I haven't done this in awhile. As a matter of fact, the last time was back in June when I covered the last side of Tales from Topographic Oceans. That album caused such a stir in the band that Rick Wakeman left (for the first time).
For the next album, Relayer, the band auditioned several prospective replacements, the closest contender being the Greek keyboardist Vangelis (from Chariots of Fire fame). He did not become a member of Yes, but these auditions paved the way for several future collaborations between Vangelis and Jon Anderson. The band finally chose Swiss-born Patrick Moraz, as a replacement while Relayer was well into production. The album title comes from the lyrics of "The Remembering (High The Memory)" from Tales from Topographic Oceans.

Here is the Roger Dean cover:

Relayer has the same song format as 1972's Close to the Edge - a long epic on the first side, and two nine-minute pieces on the second - but employs a radically different musical style. "The Gates of Delirium" is a dense, 22-minute piece that was inspired by Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. It features lyrics about the futility of war and a lengthy instrumental middle section portraying 'battle' with galloping rhythms, martial melodies, dissonant harmonies, and clashing sound effects. The final section, in which the drive of the previous sixteen minutes is replaced by a gentle melody and a lyrical prayer for peace, was released as a US single under the title "Soon".

Relayer Side 1 

The Gates of Delirium

This song is another epic masterpiece that has to be experienced, not just listened to. To me, this is the first album of theirs that really sounded "futuristic" and in some ways it's a shame it is the only Yes album that Patrick Moraz was on.

The finale section (Soon) may be the most beautiful music Yes has ever produced.

Stand and fight we do consider

Reminded of an inner pact between us

That's seen as we go

And ride there

In motion

To fields in debts of honor

Defending

Stand the marchers soaring talons,

Peaceful lives will not deliver freedom,

Fighting we know,

Destroy oppression

The point to reaction

As leaders look to you

Attacking

Choose and renounce throwing chains to the floor.

Kill or be killing faster sins correct the flow.

Casting giant shadows off vast penetrating force

To alter via the war that seen

As friction spans the spirits wrath ascending to redeem.

Wars that shout in screams of anguish,

Power spent passion bespoils our soul receiver,

Surely we know.

In glory

We rise to offer,

Create our freedom,

A word we utter,

A word.

Words cause our banner, victorious our day.

Will silence be promised as violence display?

The curse increased we fight the pow'r

And live by it by day.

Our gods awake in thunderous roars,

And guide the leaders hand in paths of glory to the cause.

Listen, should we fight forever

Knowing as we do know fear destroys?

Listen, should we leave our children?

Listen, our lives stare in silence;

Help us now.

Listen, your friends have been broken,

They tell us of your poison; now we know.

Kill them, give them as they give us.

Slay them, burn their children's laughter

On to hell.

The fist will run, grasp metal to gun.

The spirit sings in crashing tones,

We gain the battle drum.

Our cries will shrill, the air will moan and crash into the dawn.

The pen won't stay the demon's wings,

The hour approaches pounding out the Devil's sermon.

(Soon)

Soon, oh soon the light,

Pass within and soothe this endless night

And wait here for you,

Our reason to be here.

Soon, oh soon the time,

All we move to gain will reach and calm;

Our heart is open,

Our reason to be here.

Long ago, set into rhyme.

Soon, oh soon the light,

Ours to shape for all time,

Ours the right;

The sun will lead us,

Our reason to be here.

Soon, oh soon the light,

Ours to shape for all time,

Ours the right;

The sun will lead us,

Our reason to be here.

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Friday and the Random 10 (Boston Manhunt Edition)

So as I rolled out of bed hung over this morning I had no idea of what was going on in Boston. Apparently one man down, one to go as I type this. So to keep our minds on more positive things for now, let's play with the gods of randomness. The rules are over there as a link to your right, along with any other awards and trivia. Let's roll!

1) Led Zeppelin/Whole Lotta Love - Good stuff, but I'm not as enamored with them as most people are. Album cover winner too.

2) Aerosmith/Dream On - Dang, two classics right out of the box. And aren't they from Boston?

3) Kansas/End of the Age - Nice sounding song from an album no one ever listened to, Drastic Measures.

4) Asia/Ride Easy - Demo for their second album that didn't make the cut but appears on Anthologia.

5) Rick Wakeman/The Spider Crab - RW! Apparently this is his album about things that you would find on a beach.

6) Styx/Heavy Metal Poisoning - Sung by JY and one of the more interesting songs on the Kilroy Was Here album things that brought us Mr. Roboto. Chills...

7) Yes/America - I recently did a post about this song. This is some random live version though. I've got to go clear out all these live versions of stuff one day.

8) Journey/Look Into the Future - Some great early Journey before SP. This is that early 70's jazz fusion kind of rock that I spoke about before. I love the first few Journey albums.

9) Rush/Need Some Love - From their debut album before they got all progressive. Not that I'm complaining.

 10) AC/DC/Skies on Fire - Anything by them is awesome.

Take a look at the bands that popped up this week. All of them legends in one way or the other (yes, even RW). No riff raff in this countdown. Wait, what about the STCS? Here goes: Jon & Vangelis/Polonaise. Well Jon was in Yes and Vangelis did that Chariots of Fire thing so I'll let them slide. Wimpy song though.

Enough of that, play us out Neal Schon and company!