Dotoar

Where but for Caravan would I?

It's about time I get down to business and start to contribute to this site and what better way to begin with than with Caravan? The update schedule isn't carved in stone, but I'll try to keep up a regular and reasonable pace. And one more thing: I'll refrain from rating by numbers since I don't believe they contribute anything useful to the reviews. (I actually had a recent discussion with a friend at a paper for which I'm writing reviews among other things, where I proposed the absence of ratings, but I won't have that repeated here). Well, enough with the gab, let's proceed to... more gab.


Introduction

Caravan is probably my main candidate for being the nicest bunch of artsy dudes of the prog movement in the early 70's. Their output simply reeks of sunshine and you can't go wrong with just about any of their records for breakfast as the start of a much better day than it would have been otherwise. For some reason they seem to have been overlooked, not only among the general public (as always) but in the art/prog community as well and that's really a shame. Because not only were they there from the very beginning, releasing their first album even before King Crimson had the chance of blowing our minds with their apocalyptic chops. They were also a force to be reckoned with among the other giants of the era and, taken as a whole, their output is actually far more even than most prog bands.

True, that sort of vouches for mediocrity and I admit that nothing in their catalog ever really woos me over like, say, "Close to the edge" does, but on the other hand Caravan has actually pulled off the feat of having virtually no serious duffer on any of their records (bar a couple of tracks which I'll get back to in due time, but who's perfect besides Columbo?). Pye Hastings proved to be quite a songwriter and combined with his thin and shakey voice he sort of underlined Caravan as one of the most perfect implementations of a white-ass nerd band not having neither the capabilities nor aspirations to rock the house down and get into girl's knickers (figuratively speaking of course, and being a white-ass nerd myself I mean that in a positive way).

As you all know they began in a local band called The Wilde Flowers together with to-be-members of Soft Machine, and were one main force in the so-called Canterbury scene. That term alone won't reveal much though and apart from the organ and some jazzy passages Caravan really didn't have anything in common with the fellow Canterbury colleagues musically. Their approach were just as much lush pop as it was jazz-tinged prog rock and in stature I'd say it's more appropriate to compare their music to baroque-influenced bands like Procol Harum and Zombies rather than the progressive contemporaries like Yes and Genesis. But they sure could prog out when they wanted to; They have several tricky songs as well as multi-part epics in their backpack and I believe they are definitely the best of the Canterbury bunch. Later on they more or less abandoned the prog route and went for the pure baroque pop sound instead, which they stuck with until they disbanded in the late 70's.

Lineup then: Pye Hastings - guitar and vocals, Dave Sinclair - keyboards, Richard Sinclair - bass guitar, Richard Coughlan - drums. That's basically what you need to know although some member changes took place down the line, with Hastings being the only consistent member together with Coughlan as his trusty sidekick.

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Dotoar

Somwhere around 1967 after the Wilde Flowers had withered, half of the crew proceeded to invent a soft machine in order to explore the depths of the London underground. When the other half heard about their venture they decided to scrap together yet another band and dub it Caravan, and listening to this debut sure makes you feel that the very name is sensed in the music. It's nothing short of a caravan of massive sounds stately and steadily proceeding through your speakers and into your subconsciousness. That statement may seem somewhat exaggerated now but consider that this was 1968, before all the crimson kings and armadillo tanks and ready suppers and all that. The closest equivalent I can think of at this point is Procol Harum, but they were still sporting a more soulish brand of baroque-tinged rock whereas Caravan went down the majestic route as well as spicing it up with playful folk-jazz passages, like in "Love song with flute", one of the best tracks on here.

You might as well already get adjusted to the weak singing voice of Pye Hastings (very weak actually, in places sounding like on the verge of cracking, carefully balancing on the right note) which would get better over the ensuing albums, but personally I don't really mind (I've heard much worse, especially considering the swedish indie scene) as it suits the songs well. He's occasionally assisted by Richard Sinclair who technically has got a better voice but there's something about it that ever so slightly annoys me. It's a bit meek and syrupy, but I'm not really complaining as it works as a good counterpart to Pye's whiney falsetto.

The songs cook however, and it starts off with a true highlight in "Place on my own" where the aforementioned grandness, emphasized by the echoey production and the somewhat foreboding intro/verse parts and the organ-led interlude make for a great contrast with the uplifting chorus. "Love song" is, like I said, another favourite with its wonderfully sharp transition into the chorus, as well as the closing "Where but for Caravan would I" showing the first signs of true prog dexterity, not least in its multi-part structure. "Magic man" is also a highlight, effectively working its way through three looping chords on which they weave several different melodies.

Out of the rest of the tracks I feel "Grandma's lawn" and "Policeman" to be a bit iffy even if the latter sports an obvious nod to Beatles in its McCartneyesque melody. (And it's always fun to bash the law enforcements every now and then). "Cecil Rons" is a lot of fun though, with a faux-scary organ arrangement underpinning a nursery rhyme not unlike The Who's "Silas Stingy". Finally there's the conga-driven mantra "Ride" that surely conjures the feeling of a caravan making its way out from Canterbury to wherever they ended up. Or more figuratively, from the humble beginnings of artrock into the vast and yet unknown terrain of progressive rock. Groovy!

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Dotoar

Now we're talking! Full frontal prog, with song lengths setting a standard that in 1970 was still to be assimilated by the prog community. Of course, song length is not a value in itself and if you can't justify it with good melodies and/or intriguing instrumental passages then it's just grating. Thankfully, Caravan at least partly succeeded in this respect from the very beginning although I feel that the closing suite consists too much of uninspired jamming and little actual songwriting, but up until then we're sorted.

The overall atmosphere is somewhat lighter than on the debut, despite the even more bombastic approach with all the multi-part suites because basically every song on here is built upon melodies lighter than a feather. Kinda reflective of the forest grove on the cover with all the 'foresty' organs and flutes abound. This atmosphere is especially present on "And I wish I were stoned", "As I feel I die" and "With an ear to the ground you can make it". Well, there's half the album already! However, it all begins with Caravan's already established brand of quirky pop in "If I could do it all over again, I'd make the title even longer", but I honestly don't think that it's very good. The looping melody with interweaving harmonies is inventive for sure, but I don't really care for the actual song.

But then we're going places, supposedly into that aforementioned forest. "And I wish I were stoned" is one of my favourite tracks on here, essentially just two oh-so-obvious pop ditties merged together with some tasteful organ-led passages and what is actually the first real guitar solo from Hastings. Then, still in the forest, we have "As I feel I die" beginning as a slow, almost unbearably quiet melody (that nonetheless rule) building up tension, only to suddenly shift gears and tipping its hat to their jazz-tinged legacy. Can't you imagine the elves skipping around in the morning sun finding its way down through the green foilage? Or yourself, for that matter.

But then we are ever so slightly running into trouble. The, once again, multi-part "With an ear to the ground" begins on a similarily quiet note, then gradually picks up steam but its first part (reprised at the end) doesn't really cut it. It gets better in the mid-section though, and as it slows down we are greeted with lush harmonies and a lovely flute solo so all in all it qualifies. "Hello hello" continues the line of the title track, although in a minor key this time and noticeably better. But then we have that closing suite which just seems to go nowhere. There are a few moments which approaches 'decent', like the reocurring organ theme that concludes the measures in the second part about four minutes in and onward, as well as after the sax/flute solos. I also like the part which follows, with that four-chord organ swirl adding at least some power to an otherwise lame exercise in pointless noodling. Why couldn't they make a proper song out of these neat little ideas instead of trying to one-up the... oh wait! This piece is actually breaking some new ground. Like I said, the side-long prog suites were still to be taken up by contemporaries like Genesis, King Crimson, Jethro Tull and Yes (who at the time hadn't even released "The Yes album" which even there didn't boast anything longer than ten minutes. "For Richard" is over fourteen).

So that somewhat ruins the experience since it takes up way too much of the overall running length. Too bad, since some of the other tracks manages to surpass the quality of the debut. Their best work was yet to come.

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Guybrush

Brilliant and a very good idea for a discography thread. Reviewing Caravan's discography is an idea I've had myself at some point, but never really got started on. I probably wouldn't either, so it's nice to see you're doing it.

I generally agree with what you've written. Their two first albums are very charming, but the best is certainly to come. By the way, whiny falsetto is a good description of Hasting's singing voice. Of course we still love him! There's an Official Caravan Thread, but I see it's in need of a bit of maintenance. I'll brush it up in a bit and add links to your current and upcoming reviews to it.

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Something Completely Different

Dotoar

That is why we love him! Thanks for the regards!

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Dotoar

This may or may not be Caravan's finest hour and it is indeed regarded as such among the general fanbase. I have to admit that I have an ever so tiny issue with it that prevents me from subscribing to that statement, but it is by far their greatest effort up until then and a lot of the mistakes on "If I could..." are corrected on here. Five tracks, all of which rule in one way or another, and all of which paints a colourful picture of a land far away where people play golf, drink wine and watch pigs fly while avoiding pink hippopotamuses. Swell, eh?

It all starts rather homely, with "Golf girl" depicting a victorian backdrop, not unlike what Ray Davies was preoccupied with on "Village green", with the protagonist's encounter with a golf girl selling cups of tea. A rather silly sitting-in-a-tree kind of story that nonetheless fully manages to capture the laid back sunny afternoon atmosphere. In that respect I give it two thumbs up, but as a song I feel the melody is rather tentative and even if it is a slight improvement over "If I could...", I still feel that their early brand of quirky pop is not that great at the end of the day. Maybe it's the trumpet; I played it as a child and it may have resulted in mental scars which I cannot disregard.

The other two tracks in the same vein, "Love to love you" and "In the land of grey and pink" works better. The first one succeeds completely in its bouncy Beatlesque melody and shows Pye in the process of becoming a true popmeister. The title track is in the same style as "Golf girl" but with a better melody that doesn't seem as forced. The atmosphere has more of a grey (no kidding) and wintery touch and I can't help but feel a slight scent of burning firewood from it. It's really cozy and nice. That feeling is effectively carried over from one of the more epic tracks on the album, "Winter wine" with an even more vivid frosty atmosphere. Never have I encountered such a beautiful ode to beverage-induced escapism during wintertime. I am a swede, I can relate! Please let me relate! It's simply one of Caravan's best songs ever, with its driving pace and romantic mood, underlined by the subtle climaxes concluding each verse. Simply breathtaking. Cheers!

After all this, we're still left with their second attempt at creating a true epic, and might I say they learned their lesson and studied hard for this exam! First of all it incorporates a couple of sung passages this time around, both of which rank among the most gorgeous moments on the album, especially the tear-jerking "Disassociation". But even the instrumental passages, and there's a lot of them, are well thought over this time from the very beginning. With no further ado they crash into one of the main themes, once again organ-driven, stretching out in a terrain of intelligent chord changes not just conjured out of the air, spiced with inspired soloing from various instruments. Well, I won't go over every passage here, but let me sum things up with saying that it is very intelligently put together with actual melodies succeeding one another, in contrast to its elder brother "For Richard", and even if it still has its amounts of noodling it has to be ranked as one of their better epics.

So, do indulge! They would never become as consistent in concept-making as on this record.

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Dotoar

Caravan goes m3t4lzzz!!1!11 OMG!! WTF!!1!11!112233

No, of course they aren't, that would be crazy! But nonetheless, this here album greets you with one of their heaviest tracks ever, with a mean descending riff that in the hands of a much more caveman-like band, keen on ledding zeppelins and blacking sabbaths rather than caravanning through Picadilly, would turn into a potential metal feast. What actually happened on this album was that David Sinclair left the group to be replaced by Steve Miller (no, not that Steve Miller) which steered the band in a somewhat different direction. He obviously preferred electric piano over the trusty organ and there is a much stronger funk/jazz-fusion influence on here than on the previous albums. Some may like it because of that but me, I don't really care too much for it. You know what happens when white dudes try their hands on funk, don't you? "Come taste the band", that's what happens! Get me Glenn Hughes for personal execution!

Okay, it's not that Miller managed to ruin the experience or anything. Some of these tracks not only managed to carry on the Caravan tradition of meek baroque pop, but also expand on it and in the process Pye Hastings really started to make good use of his voice, thin as it may be. The lead-in title track, if we may get back to that one, already betrays said funkster tendencies with a bouncy singing part that continues the tradition of "Golf girl" only to give way for a tricky, almost Crimsonian, riff passage. Best album opener since their debut, says I. Have you noticed how peculiar the bass guitar sounds on this album, by the way? That punchy attack working almost entirely in the middle range rather than the bottom. Maybe that helps boosting the funk experience which is carried on to the following track "Nothing at all" which is basically a blues jam and little more. Improvised solo passages abound and it's probably competent and all that but it doesn't do much for me. Neither do "Songs and signs" which is just an uninspired pop shuffle.

"Aristocracy" works better though, since it's built on an airy scat-sung melody that's reminiscent of the "If I could do it all over again..." vibe, but over an almost proto-disco rythm this time around. Could and should have been a radio hit! But it is the closing "The world is yours" that claims the prize for being the best compact pop tune on the album. The melody, intelligently weaved into the slightly prolonged chorus measure, is so simple but oh so effective! Pye shuffles his way through the song with really catchy and rythmic chord-riffs and no funk anywhere to be found!

And finally we've got the by now obligatory epic that precedes it, "The love in your eye", which begins on a really humble note with the quiet but pretty verse lines, but soon picks up steam and emerges into an string-peppered bridge that gives it an almost ELO-like feel. Off we go into a dexterous flute solo, interspersed with orchestral breaks, and then some keyboard solos stacked on top of each other. It all concludes with a reprise of the verse and a - once again - funky, albeit obviously inspired and playful piano/wahwah guitar interplay. The first part of the track is arguably the best, as it's slowly starting to betray the lush pop tendencies of late-period Caravan, but taken as a whole it's not really worse than "Nine feet underground". Especially since it's ten minutes shorter and thus maybe more digestible for those not prepared for yet another onslaught of keyboard noodling.

My final verdict is that "Waterloo Lily" is much of a transitional album for Caravan. Not bad by any means, but overall somewhat let down by the excursions in terrains they were not very well suited for (and that were not very good in the first place, but that's a personal opinion). Thankfully, Miller left right after this album which again left the ivories vacant. Read on to find out for whom!

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Guybrush

Another couple of good reviews In the Land of Grey and Pink is a brilliantly charming little record, I think. I probably have more love for Golf Girl than you do. I even love it's use of the trumpet. The real stars for me are the title track and Nine Feet Underground. Brilliant tunes!

Waterloo Lily is alright too, I think! It's not an imposing album. It doesn't make me sit up, sorta, but songs you mention like the title track, Aristocracy and The World is Yours are good and comfortable listens if not mind blowing (blowing minds isn't a very Caravanish thing to do anyways). I even like Songs and signs! I think Miller leaving again was probably a good thing for the band, though, considering my love for the next in line.

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Something Completely Different

Dotoar

It's one thing to like the same bands and all that, but to actually have similar tastes on the songs by said bands is really something!

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Dotoar

Remember what I said in my introduction, about Caravan being a nice bunch of meek and nerdy dudes, not at all aspiring on getting between the sheets? Well, scratch that! If the album name and cover, making us voyeuring an innocent sleeping girl in progress of pregnancy, alone won't convince you, then perhaps the knowledge of the original intent of her being nude will. And at least one of the songs is approaching almost Zappaesque heights of naughtiness. Have I intrigued you enough? Good!

By this time things started to move about in the Caravan camp; Our old friend Richard Sinclair decided to quit and explore the depths of the Canterbury sound in Hatfield & The North and became replaced by some bearded hipster named John G. Perry on da bass. Plus, they expanded the lineup with a viola handled by Geoff Richardson, and guess what: Dave Sinclair is back! The scene is set, how about that!

But it's not really the change of personell that makes this record stand out. It's that Pye has really seized his chance to prove himself a worthy guitar player. The whole record reeks of catchy, occasionally even heavy, riffs and tasteful solos on courtesy of himself, sometimes intertwined with Richardson's viola, all of which make for a truly intriguing listen. It becomes obvious from the very start with "Memory Lain, Hugh" greeting us with a really tricky guitar riff over a thumping rythm on which they harmonize an airy melody in the best Caravan tradition. The flute break thereafter is really memorable, as is the transition into "Headloss" which suddenly creeps up just as you think the song is about to end. Now the whole thing transforms into a bouncy shuffle with a looping structure very similar to Yes's "All good people", expanding the track into being the best opener on a Caravan album ever. It rules! The following "Hoedown" is the weakest track on here though, being a very rushed exercise in pseudo-country in 7/8 which just sounds forced. Thankfully it's also the shortest so it doesn't manage to do much harm.

But then we're back on track again with "Surprise, surprise". A laid back folksy groove peppered with great harmonies once again, and what seems to be a pedal steel that makes it sound almost like Zeppelin in folk-mode. "Suddenly sunshine" they sing, and indeed it is. It simply rules! Then we switch gears completely with "C'thlu thlu", boasting really heavy riffs, that Pye obviously nicked from Robert Fripp's backpack during recession. Watch out for that guitar break after the second chorus, very much in the style of "Larks' tounge in aspic"-era Crimson. The creeping, almost gothic, verses with their theatrical atmosphere reminding of early Alice Cooper, are juxtaposed with strangely upbeat and jolly choruses in a way that in the hands of a less talented band would just sound out of place. But here, it rules! "The dog, the dog, he's at it again" is yet another typical Caravan popster that makes remarkably good use of its looping chord sequence on which they build catchy and clever melodies that toward the climactic ending climb upon each other in an ingenious way. And David really shines on that sci-fi synthesizer break in the middle. And oh, this is the one with the infamous lyrics, celebrating the joy of copulation in such a filthy way it's just pure fun! Have you seen them perform this? With Pye completely straight-faced announcing that "he's got something that he'd like you to hold"? How the h*ll did he manage to pull that off without cracking up? Or could he have been so desperate in trying to get laid that he actually was serious? I don't know and I don't care. It's a true pop masterpiece and I needn't tell you that it rules!

Off we are to "Be alright/Chance of a lifetime" in which that Perry dude proves himself to be a very good successor to Sinclair not only on bass but in taking the lead vocals as well. It's built on a great guitar/viola interplay culminating in a catchy descending chorus line which all make it sound a lot like Kansas, except that it's better. After all, Caravan wasn't Kansas which is always an advantage and besides, Kansas was yet to be formed. Only to let you know who were first and who were just a bunch of rednecky copycats. And Kansas surely couldn't have pulled off such a beautiful and contemplative second part as on here. Did I mention yet that it rules? And we're still to be blown away by the grand finale "A hunting we shall go". Yet another viola/guitar assault that shakes the house down, albeit even more profound this time. Now they're reaching almost Gentle Giantish heights of dexterity, trading solos over the looping riff as if to convince you of the very origins of prog metal. Then it all dies down with a slowly emerging orchestral suite, constantly building up to a symphonic climax that segues into a reprise of the main part in which each and every instrument play in unison until it all ends with a bang (literally). It freakin' ru - wait for it - les!

Now, I know I said that Caravan isn't really designed to blow you away, but if there is anywhere to look for that kind of thing then this is your best bet. "For girls who grow plump in the night" is the album that finally and firmly places Caravan among the league of prog supermen. Of course, the saga isn't over yet, but it's quite obvious that it just had to go downward from here, even if ever so slightly.

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