I was just a tad too young … it would be five years before I came back to this song and its subject … the month this was recorded (released on the album months later in July), I was just coming out of, recovering from, my first full-on love affair … I was just a tad too young for any of it.
Was watching a reaction video to this clip and the guy thought it was something to do with a Lear jet I suppose, going for trips around the bay. Wonder in which year people would no longer insta-recognise Timothy Leary, what he was about, how he tried to ruin the youth of the day.
Yet it all seemed so innocuous at the time. Even the notion of searching for some lost chord … there’s no lost chord, it’s right there and gives a far better high … but the PTB made us feel our culture was not sufficient, our values not sufficient. Right through the album, they search high and low … in the end trying eastern mysticism … anything to prevent youth finding the chord.
Not unlike Peer Gynt, not unlike the young man searching for the four leaf clover all around the world, only to find it growing at his doorstep once he finally returned, not unlike Wreckless Eric who would go the whole wide world, not unlike Graham Parker searching for that fool’s gold … the motif is ancient and ubiquitous.
Ask and YT often supplies. Earlier writing of musical crossover … when a rock person feels semi-classical is his summum bonum … when a classical person tries to broaden her horizons in a rock direction … YT suggested this (commentary continues below):
Crossover is meaningful to me … hastily adding that this does not mean cross dressing, cross gender nor any other perversion … it means cross cultures, such as when I was in Russia, Latin countries … yet within what we take as the west, which includes this American lady.
Procul Harum were, to me … ok at the time, musically I mean … I was a kid hearing them when the song was first released. Even then, the kids thought the lyrics meaningless, which is what she is finding. In fact they are, essentially gobbledegook. There were (cough) far better bands such as The Moody Blues.
Thus, no matter how good the orchestra or band, the composer vocalist just doesn’t cut it in my eyes … the lyrics are rubbish, the band was trying to be prog and serious … I’m sorry for the lady. She derived something from the music, PH were essentially musical, with obligatory lyrics dropped into it … so that bit was fine.
Just a reminder that this is a recent addition at UHC, a series, and already it has become unwieldy, the first chapter … so think we might have Reader recollections too, three, four etc. over time.
Personally, I love going back through them … one coming up by Steve on motorbikes. Slowly though, as we also have our politics to cover, plus my own little task of proofing “Island” … ongoing, up to chapter fifteen … weeellll, it will be a slow compilation.
(0523) Morning all. The air is truly fetid out there, so many people coughing ..I just opened the window after a good sleep and the coughing started … had to close it. There might be a post later on health, not sure. (0639)
4. IYE and Andy also had something on the topic
… in bold below in Sun 3:
Andy at 1049:
“The crime family body count. This is what made me wake up, way back when the internet was dial up and user groups proliferated I saw a list of mysterious deaths in and around Arkansas. This was just a typed list of names, relationship to the family and circumstances. It made me think that things aren’t always what they seem. When blogs like this one appeared on the scene I took to them like a duck to water. Not long after that I stopped reading newspapers and watching TV news. It’s good to think that one day there will be an investigation into the family’s activities and their efforts to cover them up.”
3. Steve at 1049
Greg Gutfeld on the Joe Biden Mental Decline Scandal
Trump Goes Off on Growing Biden Autopen Scandal
US to Begin European Troop Withdrawal Talks
Trump Brings in Massive Manufacturer That Serves 30 Countries
Trump Posts Video Compilation of Mysterious Deaths and ‘Suicides’ Linked to Hillary Clinton
Military Situation In [The] Ukraine On May 17, 2025
Much, much more.
2. DAD at 1049
a) Who said this? Was it Marine Le Pen, Marion Mariechal, or DAD? “I love France… but I don’t like Emmanuel Macron’s dictatorial tendencies.”
c) Bad blood means bad business, and Algeria is no exception for France. French companies are beginning to feel the impact of the ongoing political tensions between France and Algeria.
d) The Théâtre de la Gaîté Lyrique in central Paris is on the brink of bankruptcy after a nearly 100-day illegal occupation by migrants left the historic venue with over €3 million in financial losses…..
1. “Bloated egos”
The title came to me from this article below from Quora. Quora is one of those escapist, soft left, often Boomer/Gen X fora where they usually discuss slebs, bands and so on … fairly harmless relief from the polit-horrors … occasionally it’s worth posting:
This is about bands who made a few crucial errors and largely lost their followings, written by one Joe Hannigan:
“It was a one-two punch for Emerson, Lake & Palmer ( ELP), spanning the years at the end of the 70s: After a long hiatus (after several hugely successful albums and tours) the English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released a double album on 25 March 1977 called Works, Volume I. This did well in the charts in both the UK and the USA, and a tour was put together to support the release. The album was originally released just as the punk era was getting underway, when bands like ELP were perceived as bloated “dinosaurs”. As a result, Works Volume 1 received mixed-to-poor reviews and is often viewed as marking the start of an artistic downturn in the group’s career, despite the great success of “Fanfare for the Common Man” as a single.
Even so, never shying away from a chance to “Go Big or Go Home”, ELP decided to tour with a 64 piece orchestra. Long story short (You can read more about it in Wikipedia), the cost nearly bankrupted them, not just less-than-stellar ticket sales, but the cost of taking that many people on the road with food, lodging, union wages, enforced days off (Union rules) and a huge crew to put it all together. Before very long (and before they lost their shirts!) they ended up scrapping the orchestra and going to back to just being a 3-piece band again.
After the 120-date tour ended in 1978 with little or no profit for the band in general, they took another break and a vacation in the Bahamas, using the time to record the disastrous and poorly received “Love Beach” which was as much of a contractual obligation to the record company than anything else. (Again, check Wiki for more info on either release).
After Love Beach, they were pretty much done and dusted, and aside from two separate semi-reunions (Emerson, Lake & Powell in 1986) and “Three” (Emerson, Palmer and Berry) after that, they were broken up until the early/mid 90s. Their reunion CD (Black Moon) was arguably as good as they’d ever been, and they reunited and toured for several years after that, but the world had moved on, and Prog bands never quite recovered their place in the R’n’R firmament.
Footnote: Many bands today are able to perform and tour with orchestras, but they hire LOCAL musicians for everything but the first-chair players. (The WHO did this on their last/most recent tour) You simply distribute the parts early to each local orchestra ahead of time (along with MP3 tracks to hear what it should sound like), have a few “reading” rehearsals leading up to a final dress, and then conductor/music director (who is also on tour for every show) easily gets the ensemble together working with the touring group as the backbone.
Too bad ELP didn’t have this business model available to them way back then!!”
……
JH: Aside from the occasional very good articles, that publication is soooo Wokeleft that I struggle to find it bearable. For a start, if you click out, it disappears if you click back in, whereas almost all other sites at least stay open … that’s annoying but worse are articles, e.g. about “stages of a relationship” with a graphic of an upset white girl and a de rigeur “caring” black thug … typical Woke playbook and plenty more too. Yuk.
As for the topic of bloated egos … yes, Fanfare was a good song, as was their version of Jerusalem … they had a few good ones but that whole orchestra bit revealed something to make one sigh … this desperation to be taken as a “serious” artist, able to charge enormous fees … this was Prog rock and as any classical music buff could tell you … crossover ultimately does not work. Rick Wakeman was an example. Sting.
Pink Floyd are an example, even The Stranglers tried to go soft, Steve Harley went the orchestral route near the end … and he really was creative … perhaps the worst in my book was Roy Orbison’s comeback U2 number She’s a Mystery to Me … great rock ballad, atmospheric, probably as good as it gets … except that they set the tone with the ethereal sound, then ruined it with a bang-crash drummer to thump thump thump thump right over the top, utterly destroying the whole mood of the piece.
Drummers are not known for their subtlety, they often look like wrestlers, thinking the same way … perfect for a driving rock song such as the Dire Straits’ Alchemy concert rendition of Sultans … most reviews I’ve seen said it was a perfect mix of all instruments … but firmly within its genre. The moment, when you’re essentially a rocker from the street or garage, making quite commendable songs … the moment you start getting ideas about yourself out of all proportion … it becomes more an Andre Roux “classical” concert.
What of the other way? Classically trained, trying to “crossover”? Sometimes works but largely lacks that certain oomph. Look, there are times that a driving, raw sound does fit the bill, nothing less, e.g. CCR’s I Put a Spell on You …delicate in that instance would have been limp wristed namby pambiness. I’d argue that, within its genre, it was a classic, just as Fats Waller or Domino in turn were right up there in their genres.
Knopfler’s fingerpickin’ power was really something, he allowed himself wry smiles, coz he knew how well it all mixed … but that’s it … he walked away from the mega-spectaculars, admittedly with a healthy bank balance … back to what he knew best. Why not?
Egos kill. Last night, forget who the girl was, some pretty actress in a youtube, but everything had changed … she now strutted, deeply conscious of her “loveliness” in all their opinions … she’d lost all charm in my book. Bloated ego is a killer in almost everything, it alters everything and afa I’m concerned, an egotist can go take a hike.
