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Not sure how many of you know this song, but it certainly was a big hit back in the 70s. This is Marshall, Hain, with “Dancing in the city”.

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I suppose, back when I went for this album, I should have thought about it, should have known better. I'm no fan of Bob Dylan, really don't like Roy Orbison and I can really take or leave George Harrison. I am, however, a fan of Jeff Lynne, being a big ELO follower (they were the first band I ever got into seriously) and though I wouldn't class myself as an actual fan, I do have some Tom Petty albums and I do like a lot of his music. I'd heard the leadin single and thought the album was going to be great. The idea was great. The theme was great. The whole thing looked like it could really work.

But it didn't. Not for me anyway, despite the album being very successful and well-received.

I personally think the whole problem was down to egos, although according to Wiki there wasn't too much of that, just five guys having fun making music. It shows though in the track selection. Whereas “Handle with care” and “End of the line” were pretty much a team effort, every other song was helmed by one or the other of the guys, leading to a, to my mind, disconnect from the album. Instead of being ten tracks by the band it ended up being mostly individual efforts, minus the two mentioned. If you don't like a particular singer you might listen to him singing with others (look at Band Aid; how many of them would you listen to on their own?), but you won't particularly want to hear them singing their own song, and that's more or less what happened, which is why I count it as a failed effort, as far as I'm concerned, and why it's here, in this section.

Traveling Wilburys Volume I --- The Traveling Wilburys --- 1988 (Warner Bros)


The whole idea was clever: get five rock legends, put them together to do some recording, make up a pretend “family” they can all be part of and record the album under that name. That way, there's no squabbling about whose name goes on the album first, last or at all: everyone's a Wilbury, and no-one's more famous than anyone else. In theory.

The actual lineup of Wilburys was:
George Harrison --- Nelson Wilbury
Jeff Lynne --- Otis Wilbury
Roy Orbison --- Lefty Wilbury
Tom Petty --- Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr.
Bob Dylan --- Lucky Wilbury

For once, this was not a media publicity idea or that of a record label or producer. It all came about from happenstance and serindipity: George Harrison needed a B-side for a single, meanwhile Jeff Lynne was in town producing an album for Roy Orbison. Needing a studio, they met over dinner and decided to call Bob Dylan. While picking up his guitar from Tom Petty's house after dinner, Harrison invited him along to the session the next day, whereafter they recorded what would become the album's lead single, “Handle with care”.

Seen as too good to just be a B-side, the guys got the idea of recording a whole album together, and so the Traveling Wilburys project was born. The album opens on that track, which is great, with all five of the guys taking a few lines, a part of a verse, and it's a very collaborative effort, but then things change when Dylan takes lead vocals on “Dirty world” with the others singing backup. As I say, I've never had much time for Dylan (is that a torch-bearing, pitchfork-waving mob I see in the distance, approaching angrily?) and this track doesn't change my mind. Not a fan of Dylan, and there's a little too much brass in this for my tastes.

So after a very decent start, I found this a letdown, but maybe it's an isolated incident? Well, “Rattled” has Lynne on lead vocal, but it's one of those early rock'n'roll songs I really don't like, similar to when ELO did “Hold on tight” and “Rock and roll is king” --- songs I grew to like, but when I originally heard them they almost spoiled the album(s) for me. Not a fan of 50s rock and roll, either. And this is Jeff Lynne, one of two in the quintet whom I would have expected to have rescued this album for me. Very disappointing, and very ordinary. “Last night” starts off a bit better, and with Petty on lead it's not too bad, but it's still pretty mundane compared to the opener, or indeed the closer. More damn horns, and they could even be mariachi, as this track has a sort of Mexican/South-of-the-border feel to it. Orbison's vocal coming in halfway does nothing to improve the song, and then we're onto his solo effort.

I've never liked Roy Orbison's voice. Where others (millions probably) will describe it as heavenly, dreamy, soulful, smooth, I hear it as whiny, and “Not alone anymore” is, for me, just one big long whine from start to finish. Oh, sorry, didn't I mention? Hated it. The more annoying as it starts off well for about three seconds with decent ELO-style strings, but then Orbison opens his mouth and the whole thing goes downhill, for me. It has to be said though, it's not as bad as the absolute dirge that is “Congratulations”, with the lead vocal again taken by Dylan. Hell, it's just depressing, and as I've already said all I'm going to say about Bob Dylan I'll say no more, but you can guess I do not like this track.

There's a huge lift then with “Heading for the light”, a Jeff Lynne vehicle that just stands head and shoulders above the basic mundanity of the rest of the songs, opener and closer excluded, and at least gives me a third song to rate on the album. It's very ELO, boppy and with some great guitar and some really effective backing vocals from the rest of the Wilburys. Yes, there are horns in it, but the sax is used to great effect and really works well for the song. It's almost a surprise that the track is so good, considering the so-so fare that has preceded it. We're soon back in that territory though, with “Margarita”, with Petty on the mike. Well, to be fair, it's not that bad, mostly instrumental really, with the singing only coming in after about a minute in a three-minute song, then a sort of tribal chant in there somewhere, good keyboard intro with some decent guitar and some nice bass; it's not as good as “Heading for the light”, but it's not too bad.

The longest track, unfortunately, has Dylan on lead, and though in fairness “Tweeter and the monkey man” is not a bad track really at all, with a lot of ELO in the chorus, it's hard to enjoy it while being totally distracted by Dylan's terrible attempt at singing --- that mob is getting closer! --- which thankfully doesn't happen in the chorus, and keeps the song from falling apart. Damn, if they only had Lynne or Petty, or even Harrison singing this I could have rated it a lot higher.

The album closes on the other single, “End of the line”, where again the Wilburys all get together and take a few lines of the song, and it works really well. If you haven't heard the single (come out from under that rock, wouldya?) you may know it from the finale of “One foot in the grave”. It's a great song, the more poignant that Orbison died before it was released as a single, and so in the video in place of him while his part is being sung they show a guitar in a rocking chair. Very moving.

But as an album, I really feel this failed for me. More songs of the quality of the three mentioned, the replacement of Bob Dylan with someone who could actually sing (Was that a rock being thrown against my window?) and this album could have been a real classic. As it is, it survives held together by a few decent tracks and a lot of filler, mediocre at best and not representative of the artistes. Surely they could have come up with something better?

The death of Roy Orbison put paid to the original lineup, but they were back for another album --- curiously titled “Volume 3” --- with just the four remaining Wilburys, but I never checked it out. To be honest, until I started researching this I thought there had only ever been one album from the Traveling Wilburys. Whether “Volume 3” was better than “Volume 1” or not I neither know nor care to know. For me, it's all one big, fat meh.

TRACKLISTING

1. Handle with care
2. Dirty world
3. Rattled
4. Last night
5. Not alone anymore
6. Congratulations
7. Heading for the light
8. Margarita
9. Tweeter and the monkey man
10. End of the line

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

You'd have to wonder if James Brown would still say “I feel GOOD!” about “Living in America” these days. Good song though, and who can resist the godfather of soul?

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Sorry to hear that. I think "The Robe" is a great album, with the title track, "Standing on the edge of time" (surely that was single material, even chart?), "Arcadia" and "Fly like an eagle" particular standouts. Still, we can't all like the same thing, as I never tire of saying...
Yeah, I've been into Marillion since the beginning and I'd definitely put them as probably ny favourite artiste, at least in the top three but probably number one. There's only one album of theirs I don't like, and it's "Somewhere else". Tried and tried to get into it but had to give up. But I love everything else by Marillion, unreservedly. Oh and the Fish/Hogarth thing doesn't bother me: I listen to all the FIsh solo stuff too.
I was never a huge Lizzy fan, but I do love Gary Moore's work, as you'll see at some point when you come across my week-long tribute to him on the anniversary of his passing. As for Lizzy, I'd have to say it's between "Renegade" and "Thunder and lightning" for me.
That album is pure gold, and the only one they ever released. Absolutely worth listening to. Who doesn't love Steinman?

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Road to darkness --- Gandalf's Fist --- 2011 (Gandalf's Fist)


Now, I know what you're thinking: with a name like Gandalf's Fist, and an album cover curiously reminiscent of Genesis' seminal “Nursery cryme”, this has prog rock written all over it, right? Well, this will stun you rigid, but you're right. Gandalf's Fist is essentially two guys, Dean Marsh and Luke Severn, who have been together and making music since 2005. They do indeed draw heavily upon prog rock influences, so heavily in fact that it's tantamount to copying in places, as I found when I listened to this, their second full album. Which is not to say that it's a bad album, just not very original, when I believe it could and should have been.

This is a concept album. Remember them? Gandalf's Fist aim to bring back the pure joy of listening to an album all the way through, which Bill Bailey recently remarked has become something of an oddity in these days of ipods, playlists and single-downloadable-tracks. No more do we have to suffer through tracks we don't like, skip or move past them. Nowadays we can select what we want to hear from an album and ignore the rest. Or we can add the tracks we like to a playlist, leaving the ones we don't languishing in the land of seldom-played-songs. Some software will, if we tell it to, ensure we never hear track A again if we don't want to, cutting it out of its algorithm so that it is never selected.

But concept albums, by their very nature, demand and require we listen to every track, as (if the album is constructed correctly) each song, piece of music, instrumental or spoken passage is there to advance the narrative, take us along the storyline and make sense out of what we're listening to. Would you even think of taking a novel, reading the first 100 pages, then skipping over the next 40 and trying to pick up the story after them? You'd be hopelessly lost. Now imagine playing “The lamb lies down on Broadway”, but missing out tracks like “The lamia” and “The colony of slippermen” (those of you who are familiar with that album know what I'm talking about; those who are not, I recommend you make its acquaintance without further delay!) or “The wall” without “One of my turns” or “Mother”. Just wouldn't make the same sense it does if you go all the way from opening track to closing track. You get much more of a feel for, and an understanding of, what the artiste is trying to get across to you when you listen all the way through.

So it is with this album. The basic story is set on Io, (one of the moons of Jupiter, if you didn't know) to which one Lucy, a young girl intentionally meant to resemble Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz”, is transported by an evil sorcerer. The plot will (hopefully) unfold as the album progresses, but this is one album that needs to be listened to all the way through. The music encapsulates, apparently, seventies progressive rock like Yes, Genesis and Rush, as well as blues, folk, instrumental of course and even spoken narrative. To quote the band, ”the sound could be roughly categorized as Arthur C Clarke taking guitar lessons from David Gilmour before jumping into a Delorean to kidnap L Frank Baum.”

Sadly, I found as I listened to it that "Road to darkness" failed to live up to that rather grandiose and exciting premise. I also found the plot hard to follow, but that could be down to the inordinate amount of instrumentals on an album of 10 tracks.

So, still interested? Oh, you know you are! Comfortable? Well, then, we'll begin.

It opens on what sounds like a jews harp (but is more likely to be a synth), then weird, spacey noises on definitely a synth and heavy drumming cuts in as “No place cyclone” begins. It's a short track, just over two minutes, and with no singing yet I have to assume it's going to turn out to be an instrumental. The basic theme repeats and echoes through it, giving me a sense of Vangelis' “Beauborg”, though without the hard percussion. Creepy, for sure. Thing turn decidely proggy however with the arrival of “Emerald eyes”, with a very Genesis/Marillion feel to it, lovely lush keyboards and now we hear the voice of Luke Severn, and comparisons definitely have to be drawn with Roger Waters; even the melody sounds a little like the opening of Floyd's “Echoes”, no surprise as GF revere the pink ones.

Lovely breakout guitar solo then from Dean Marsh which stands on equal ground with the best of Gilmour, and more Floyd comparisons rise with the Clare Torry-esque female vocal more than halfway through the track. Personally, I'd hope GF establish more of their own identity on this album, as it's just a little too close to Floyd for my liking at this particular moment.

Harpsichord opening to “Conjurer of cheap tricks”, another instrumental, sets a totally different scene, with hard guitar joining warbly keyboard and solid organ in a mid-paced piece that takes us towards the longest track, but not before leaving us with a soundclip from the movie (real or created I don't know) “The Wizard of Oz”, then guitar and keys intro pull us, “Into the dark”. Some very Rushesque guitar about a minute and a half in, then Luke is back with his soft and dreamy vocal, the rhythm settling down into a lazy, slow tread, my only problem being that I find it a little hard to make out what Luke's singing here; whether that's a production problem or an issue with his voice I don't know. Maybe they're trying to copy Floyd so much that they're putting too much echo/reverb/whatever on his vocal track?

Some nice, unexpectedly Iron Maiden-style guitar then, though not in the heavier vein of Bruce and the boys, more like in their power cruncher songs, and some nice soloing too. A title like “Twilight at the gates of the prism moon” is never going to avoid being labelled as prog, (really though? Could you guys have screamed “PINK FLOYD!” any louder?) but really it comes over as more space rock, seems to be another instrumental, with ethereal keyboards sort of reminiscent of ELO's “El Dorado”, then weird little guitar effects and audio tracks, with a lovely little guitar solo that then gets harder and more urgent, as piano keeps the counterpoint, and it ends as it began, on spacey synth and wind and choral effects.

That takes us into “The sulfur highways of Io”, opening with a really slick little bass solo and then chunky guitar with nice synth backing and measured drumming. Really nice piece of proggy swirly keyboard work then, a breakout guitar solo and as we're now halfway I'll have to assume this is yet another instrumental, which is all very fine, but I'm finding it hard to follow the plot, the concept as it were. And now, nearly three minutes in and taking me quite by surprise, here's Luke singing again, and again I'm having a little trouble making out what he's saying, though I think it may be double-tracking or something that's responsible. Not to say I can't understand what he's singing, just that it's difficult. This part of the track takes us firmly back into Pink Floyd territory, which while always welcome is a little disheartening, as I believed GF were just beginning to establish their own sound.

Well, “Untrodden ways” goes all medieval, with whistle opening and acoustic guitar, then Luke sings in a far different voice, not the falsetto he's been using up to now, and I have to say it's easier to hear what he's singing now. Elements of Tull and Zep in this, nice change of pace, close enough to being the ballad on the album perhaps. Flute accompaniment is nice, and I'm not normally a flute guy! Good deep backing vocals, or choral vocals on a synth perhaps.

Suddenly then an electric guitar attacks like a woodcutter kicking in Granny's door, and the drums pound as the song turns into something very much not a ballad! Interesting: it's always good to be surprised, for something different to happen and send you off on a tangent musically. Stops very abruptly though and we're back into keyboard noodling for the title track, some very exquisite piano and powerful organ (more Floyd I'm afraid in the organ, but that soon disappears as the track goes all Marillion on the keys), and then good hard guitar work cutting in. There's a spoken vocal then over the music which seems like a narration, and (again, sorry for the comparisons, but they're very clear) sounds like Rush's “The necromancer”. Back to Floyd then with Luke's vocal, and then back and forth between the singing and the narration. Nice melody and nice tone indeed. Probably the best track so far.

This brings us to “The council of Anderson”, which had a nice guitar opening, with acoustic and electric, and maybe mandolin as well? Good heavy keyboard sound, light percussion for now then it gets heavier and more pronounced as the vocal comes in, and without the double-tracking (or whatever) Luke sounds a lot better. Great jangly atmospheric guitar work from Dean, a nice half-ballad it would appear. Halfway through it kicks up a gear and speeds up, dragging in more Alex Lifeson-style guitar. Damn, I wish I could give these guys the credit they deserve, but they're so derivative at times it's hard to, well, not to take them seriously, but to take them on their own merits. Which is not to say they're not good musicians --- they are, but I just would rather they followed their own path than retreading ways others have already travelled.

The album ends on “Assorted lunatics”, a nice atmospheric ballad with some great vocals and some mesmerising guitar. Oh no! They even used the laughter at the end of the track, a la “Brain damage”! See, this is what I mean: this album is virtually a cobbling together of not only influences and styles of other bands, but almost slices of their work. It's hard to see it as a new, vibrant, hopeful work when there's so much not ripped off from, but taken from other prog rock bands.

And I found it impossible to follow the storyline. Again. Guess it must just be me.

I like this album, but I do find it hard to reconcile with how so many people have hailed it as one of the best discs/prog rock discs of 2011. I find it terribly derivative, almost a copy in some ways of parts of “Dark side of the moon”, in fact I'd possibly (if I were a cruel man) call it “A caress of dark side of the 2112” or something: there's just too much in it I recognise from other albums/artistes. Maybe that's just me but I tend to call them as I see them. Reading about this album I was really looking forward to something totally innovative and new, while retaining the old prog sensibilites, but what I seem to have found is a band who want to be Floyd with some Rush, Genesis and Marillion thrown in. Nothing wrong with that, but I think it's important to carve your own persona on your music, and I really don't feel that Gandalf's Fist have done that.

TRACKLISTING

1. No place cyclone
2. Emerald eyes
3. Conjurer of cheap tricks
4. Into the dark (containing “Emerald eyes reprise”)
5. Twilight at the gates of the prism moon
6. The sulfur highways of Io
7. Untrodden ways
8. Road to darkness
9. The council of Anderson
10. Assorted lunatics

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Faith and begorrah! 'Tis only a little over a week to go till Paddy's Day, and sure don't we all want to be just a little Irish at that time? As me old mother used to say.... er, sorry about that. Bloody stereotypes!

Anyway, what we're trying to say is that next Saturday being St. Patrick's Day, our national holiday here in Ireland, the Playlist of Life will be going even more Irish than usual. We'll be devoting the whole week to Irish artistes, legends, albums and features --- though I can promise no dancing leprechauns, at least, not in reality: what you see when you've had one too many is outside my control!

So get out the green dye and prepare to Irish up those coffees, and grab one of those extremely tacky green top hats before they're all gone! If there's one thing we Irish love more than the drink, it's the music and the craic, so get ready for both. From Planxty to Paul Brady, from Rory Gallagher to Mary Black and from Lir to Little Xs For Eyes, we're going to feature what we consider to be the best past, present and indeed future Irish music, starting Monday March 12.

Be the hokey, sure it'll be grand! What? Get outta here, you! If I've told you once...

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Go on, the worm dares ya! See if you can listen to this song without saying “No, he's not!”

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018