GREENSLADE

An excellent introduction to Greenslade their captivating blend of classic, jazz, rock, blues and symphonic rock is this live- album simply entitled Live, it contains tracks between 1973 and 1975. The 9 compositions are tastefully arranged, like Sundance, Feathered Friends, Bedside Manners Are Extra and Joie De Vivre and feature lots of inventive and exciting dual-keyboard play by Greenslade and Lawson. The omnipresent Mellotron delivers majestic waves of Mellotron violins (like early King Crimson) and glorious Mellotron choir eruptions, really a strong bonus for the Tron-maniacs! This live-CD also contains some spectacular play on the Minimoog synthesizer, with use of the spectacular pitch bend wheel.

Listening to the keyboard work the music has hints from Rick Wakeman, Manfred Mann's Earth Band and Supertramp but in general Greenslade have succeeded to create an own musical identity by incorporating many different styles, along Dave Watson his distinctive vocals. Especially on this live CD the band rises to the occasion, a kind of Best Of Greenslade, performed on stage, and with a more lush keyboard sound than on the studio-albums.

Greenslade is a band to discover, especially for the vintage keyboard aficionados, but in my opinion on their live albums Greenslade deliver more of their huge potential than on the studio-albums, just look at the higher ratings of the live- albums here on PA.

Their next release, Time and Tide, would show a mild stylistic shift, and whilst that had a bit of a mixed reception, on balance that was probably a sound move, because four albums in this approach would be stretching it - and for some listeners, three may already be pushing it a bit.

If anything, the fact that the album is very short (a little bit over 30 minutes) and has ten songs already tells something about what Time and Tide has to offer. It could have worked, though, if there wasn't only one song with prog credentials. The instrumental Catalan is not the most inventive thing made by Greenslade, but at least it has some great solos, although the repetitive main theme is a bit boring. If the album had three or four songs like it, coupled with short instrumentals like Time (not really a instrumental since it has a choral), Tide and Gangsters, it could have been a great album.

However, the only other song that is really interesting apart from the aforementioned ones is The Ass' Ears, which is not long, but has great playing. The rest ranges from failed experiments to straight pop songs with occasional five second instrumental flourishes that add nothing really important.

Maybe the best thing about Time and Tide is that the band broke up afterwards, since, while still mostly enjoyable, Time and Tide shows that Greenslade (the band, the musician would release a better solo album in the following year) had ran out of ideas and was not able to work on the songs enough to make a consistent release and even the short instrumentals, barely filled the record with 30 minutes of music. As they proved that pop rock was not their thing as well, the best thing was to call quits.

It is not a bad album, and maybe except for a couple of songs, the prog fan will not ask himself "why I am even listening to this?", but it is not something essential either.

There is a good mix of singing and instrumentals although pretty much every song is to short on here. The singing has backup a lot of the times and is less loud then on previous albums. If you disliked lawsons vocals on other albums this one might acclimate one to his voice as it is quite tame. Honestly the whole album is tame, very inoffensive music which is saying alot as Greenslades other works are also very safe. The album has a good flow, alternating well between instrumental tracks and singing tracks. Recommended for fans of the more lighthearted side of music/noodle free.

Overall it's pretty average Greenslade and pretty average music overall thus three out of five.

Feathered friends opens the album with a minute long instrumental opener that is soon joined by the singing of Dave Lawson. Delivery his lines with their own intonation, his voice is absolutely hit or miss and this song will allow one to see if they can tolerate his voice at its most unhinged. I think this is the best song on the first side as it feels the most complete.

An English Western is a short one that shows Greenslades love for westerns. This song is probably the most representative of the Keyboardists later years as sound track musicians. The song is okay and has neat key lines, still pretty forgettable.

Drowning man opens with deep keys that soon becomes a very old timey song with string synth, stately percussion and anthemic singing. I don't think this song really goes well on the album.

Temple Song is a very calm song with chimes and vibes.

Melange is cool song that kind of reminds me of a condensed Valentyne Suite, present bass, great keyboard playing and a little bit of vocalizations for the right flavour.

What Are You Doin To Me is rather similar to Feathered Friends and quite good. The vocals work well the music, driving home the melody/emotion. (Lawson sounds a bit like Mick Jagger on this one and the sequel from chorus to verse is superb)

Sun dance has some sublime piano playing, very pretty. After about a minute the band comes in to allow for lovely keyboard leads to soar. Eventually the music becomes quieter so that when it comes back, it comes back more energetic and thunderous. (Tempo change?) The section is followed by a return to the opening piano theme, just beautiful. Wonderful closing to the first chapter for the little green man, Greenslade.

Overall I think this is a great album that is definitely lopsided, side two being much stronger.

If you've heard Greenslades follow up release or debut the music here is in the same vein, although Lawsons voice have achieved a nice in between of those albums styles (not as over the top as on the debut or subdued like on Spyglass). What separates this album from Greenslades other works is the uniform strength of its compositions all are thoroughly excellent. The tracks are also bolder with drum solos on Drum Folk adding a wonderful character to the track and good length to really complete each song to its best version.

Overall this is an excellent album, that handles the flow of tracks perfectly, alternating vocal track/instrumental thrice and going into one another smoothly. Recommended to fans of more laidback melodic music like Camel, Rare Bird or Caravan.

The album takes flight with "Feathered Friends". Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it's a bluesy Jazz-Rock number. If you listen carefully, you can hear the mellifluous sound of a Mellotron in the background, which comes as no surprise, when Greenslade are often referred to as a Mellotron band, alongside other melodic Prog-Rock luminaries such as The Moody Blues, Barclay James Harvest and Genesis. Next up is "An English Western". What's it all about you may well ask. Well, it's impossible to say, because it's a bright and breezy, proggy instrumental with not a cowboy or indian in sight. And now we come across a "Drowning Man", a sad lament, which is only to be expected with a song title like "Drowning Man". Although we may have arrived too late to save him, the music is saved by some uplifting and rousing keyboard virtuosity from Dave Greenslade. "Temple Song" closes Side One. We're getting all flowery with this pleasing little Jazz-Rock ditty, as these lyrics reveal:- "See the flowers in the garden, All the petals there are falling, falling, falling." ..... This charming song sounds as English as, well..... an English country garden!

Side Two opens with "Melange", which IS a bit of a melange, which can't be a bad thing as variety is the spice of life, or so we're told. It's seven and a half minutes of Jazzy prog, underlaid with the gorgeous sound of the Mellotron, so relax and enjoy "Melange", while you eat a blancmange. Onto the penultimate and sixth song on the album now with "What Are You Doin' to Me", a rollicking, rock & rolling, Jazz-Rock barnstormer of a song. The album is brought to a radiant close now with "Sundance", the stunning highlight of the album. At nearly nine minutes long, it's the longest song on the album, which gives Dave Greenslade time to really get into his element and let loose with some very impressive keyboard dexterity. Take it away Dave!

If you're in the mood for some melodic and Jazzy prog, imbued with the mellifluous and hauntingly beautiful sound of the Mellotron, then "Greenslade" might be just the album you're looking for. It's a worthy addition to the progosphere and after listening to this first album, you may be inspired to check out Greenslade's later albums too!

Greenslade (the man) was working more on his own, while some of the songs with vocals seem very at odds with what the band had been playing previously. "Waltz For A Fallen Idol" could have been produced for Rod Stewart, and it certainly doesn't seem like a Greenslade track at all. The backing vocals and falsetto just doesn't make sense at all, and the use of electric guitar also shows a band moving further away from their roots. Of all of the original Greenslade albums, this is the one I play least as while there are some delights to be heard, they are mixed with others which I can gladly skip.

This is the Esoteric reissue, which means there are some additional songs on the CD, one a single edit of "Catalan" while the other is a B-side. But we also have another disc, a Swedish Radio show which was recorded in March 1975, prior to the release of the album, and given this contains songs from other albums as well, this is the one I have been playing most. Opener "Pilgrim's Progress" is still a powerful, dramatic number and one can only wonder what would have come of the band if they had stayed together for another album. With an essay from Malcolm Dome inside, this is yet another powerful reissue from Esoteric, but it just doesn't have the punch and panache of 'Bedside Manners'.

This was the second album by Greenslade, who were formed by Dave Greenslade after the break-up of Colosseum. He brought on board fellow Colosseum founder member bassist Tony Reeves, who had left after contributing to just one song on 'Daughter of Time', along with Lawson (Samurai, and had also been a member of The Alan Bown Set and Web) along with drummer Andrew McCulloch (King Crimson, Fields). Many fans say the debut Greenslade album is the best, while the third 'Spyglass Guest' was the commercially most successful, but this is always the album to which I turn. It captures a time when anything was possible, and the band certainly felt they weren't restricted on what they were doing. At this point within the British music scene there was the feeling that boundaries were there to be broken and pushed aside, and while Greenslade never really managed to capture the fan base of their contemporaries, to my ears it was never due to lack of songs or ability. Listening to this album on headphones, some 35 years on from its original release, still fills me with a great deal of pleasure and I know that many progheads who have overlooked this in the past will also feel the same way.

But wait, there's more! I have been fortunate enough to have in front of me the reissue on Esoteric, and as always, they never feel just making an album available again is enough. So, firstly we have three additional songs which were recorded for the Radio One 'Sounds of the Seventies' series, from October 1973. Then there is a second disc, a DVD featuring five numbers. The first three are a live in the studio promotional film, while the other two are from the wonderful OGWT. It has been a hard choice for me as to what to play most, and in terms of pure listening it is the CD, but the films are also well worth watching. This is a superb set, which has been making its way repeatedly back to my player, and deservedly so.