New Zealand Music Month

I could list hundreds upon hundreds of bands and artists, if I went outside prog.

One of my most favourite more recent Kiwi prog album is Look To Windward’s Fortunes Haze.

The Happy Prince (The La De Da’s)

Well, this is proto-prog, rather than prog, I guess - though it’s still more proggy in some passages than a few other photo-prog bands of this time period. I had never heard any of this album before, even though I had heard some La De Da’s before. But it was in my list of important and influential albums, even if it is probably the least commercially successful album from the band.

This was easily the first step into prog by a NZ band, and is almost universally recognised as the first concept album to come out of the country. It’s a far cry from the R&B that gave the, their success, and it’s easy to hear why it fell flat with fans of the band. The narration alone probably put people off. But it works as perfectly as any narration on a Moody Blues album - and, in fact, to my ears is superior! 😳 The album is based upon the Oscar Wilde story, The Happy Prince, and is narrated not by a member of the band, but by Australian poet, Adrian Rawlins. It is probably because they brought in a performance post that the narration works as well as it does.

The album was a long time in coming, having been vaguely planned and composed almost since the inception of the band in 1964. After the success of their singles, eps and debut album, the band hoped to record The Happy Prince as the second La De Da’s album, but the record company didn’t agree. After the eventual second album (which by all accounts not one of the La De Da’s were happy with) was a similar financial success, the band were allowed to go ahead with The Happy Prince. But the long winded road towards recording it, the difficulties in recording it, and the commercial failure of the album, ultimately led to the demise of the band. It was not their last album, but it was almost effectively the end of the road.

As can be guessed by the cover art, this is a very psychedelic album, and as such has all manner of instrumentation that had never been heard on a La De Da’s album before. Even though 8 track recording was becoming common in the UK and the US, this was not the case in NZ and Australia. Instead the album was recorded on two 4 track tape machines, with tracks bounced off one 4 track onto the other to create additional tracks. Not only the first concept album from New Zealand, but also a contender for the most overdubs at that point in time.

I can’t help but wonder if this had been released a couple of years later, it might have received a far better reception. In a way, the band was ahead of its time. The record company were right, possibly, to not allow the album when the band first suggested it. Then again, if it were released a couple of years later, it might be accused of being a copycat, and merely following a trend. Either way, it’s a shame that this album isn’t more well known, and I’m ashamed I’ve not listened to it until now. It’s really good, and I a, definitely going to try and obtain a copy.

Definitely recommended for fans of Procol Harum and Moody Blues.

I love this album! 🤗🥰

Every year I celebrate it by listening to music from NZ I love, and music from NZ I’ve never listened to, but think I should.

A few years ago, I decided to make a list of 150 important and/or influential Kiwi albums. It’s on Facebook, but I think it can be viewed regardless of whether or not someone is signed up to that platform.

This year, I’ve decided to make my way through the list, as there are still several albums on it that I’ve never listened to.

[2022 Edit] This post and most of those below were written in 2021, but I definitely didn’t pay as much attention to keeping this going as I did on Facebook. I’ve come back to it again today, and most of the 2021 posts I’ve edited/tidied up. The content is unaltered, but I fixed a couple of links, and caught a couple of typos, etc. I see that I simply stopped writing posts, and that seems a shame (even if only to me), so I’m thinking I might try and carry on where I left off. [/EDIT]