Rick Beato · Rick Wakeman on Prog Rock

moshkito wrote: Catcher10 wrote: I thought this was a great interview, I learned some stuff that gives me some added appreciation for Rick Wakeman. Pretty funny guy too......I don't feel this was the content that RBeato initially wanted but RW then started talking about how he started, which RB let him talk, and I for one am glad. I'm not sure I wanted to hear about CTTE stuff, there are tons of interviews about that. Or hear him rant about Tales. This was good! Hi, The stories are great, and only Brian Eno, has ore stories about that early time in his book. Robert Wyatt has some but not as much ... we didn't get a whole lot about The Soft Machine ... and I think it was just "respect" to make sure that folks did not get alienated from the band. The time, and folks he was with ... needs a much better history telling book ... it includes the likes of Jimmy Page, Jeff BEck, Rick Wakeman, and a few others, and George Gomelski was at the helm, and was with GONG for a long time, and we met him in SF with GONG at the SF International Progressive Music Festival. He was very nice at the party after it all. And fun ... but there seems to be no interest in him, and his name is on many works ... and works and works ... and even goes to Gentle Giant ... it's almost insane the listing of folks in his barn. Sadly, I don't think we will get much on that at all ... almost all of the folks involved are gone, specially those related to Soft Machine, and what went on to be Canterbury ... and the names ... are just so many, that we have a hard time discussing it ... and BTW, no one has even noticed the Soft Machine with Robert (at that time) in "Tonight We All Love in London" ... I don't even know if there are any videos or shows with Robert Wyatt ... have to check ...  But some folks that could add to the whole thing that Rick Beato won't do ... Julie Christie, Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt, Marianne Faithfull, Edgar Broughton, Roy Harper, and PO (Hipgnosis) if he is still with us ... his special on Hipgnosis is beautiful but terribly sad in the end, as he looks at so much work and all he can do is cry!

I thought this was a great interview, I learned some stuff that gives me some added appreciation for Rick Wakeman. Pretty funny guy too......I don't feel this was the content that RBeato initially wanted but RW then started talking about how he started, which RB let him talk, and I for one am glad.

moshkito wrote: Hi, Nice ... and the stories alone are worthy of the fun in it. BTW, the title is not quite right ... this is not really about "prog rock" at all but about RW and how he handled a lotof situations but the ones that you will remember are the history of his early days and what he learned. I was thinking that is some ways, it shows how/where RW came from ... it was mostly pop music, and I never thought of him as a classical musician at all, and his albums as ... maybe ... something that just went a few steps further than pop music. The sad part is enjoying all this stuff, but not be able to get a good feel for his ideas in music and specially composition ... and how TFTO can't be accepted by him, but we are supposed to think that the wife's stuff is better composition. I think the free form material was the part that threw him off. Creativity just being there for the sake of it being there sort of thing according to his thoughts about music? This was good and nice to hear ...  BTW, make sure you check out the interviews that RW did with several folks ... to my knowledge these have never been "released" but some of them are on the toob ... there are some good ones in there and the Ian one will throw you for a loop, as will the one with Tony ... I would have liked to be able to find/see several of the others as well, but have never found them!

Saw this the other day. I knew Rick had done some studio work, but I did not know he was as prolific as he said in the interview.

As far as the classical music, he stated in an interview many years ago that his Dad told him to learn to play classical music as it would give him the technique to play anything. Rick stated he liked classical, so that was not an issue. Wakeman attending the Royal Academy of Music, he was certainly learning to be a classical musician.

As he stated in the Beato interview, his excellent sight reading skills, keyboard talent, as well as some luck allowed him to get a good bit of studio work. If I remember correctly, Rick said in another interview that he was doing pretty well and talked to his Professor if he really needed to stay at the academy. Essentially, the Professor told him unless he wanted to be strictly a classical musician, no. The musical opportunities were already there, he had a good grasp of musical theory and excellent technique that there wasn't much more the academy could teach him.

As far as Tales is concerned, there was another interview with Rick where he said if CDs existed during the 70s, that Tales would have been great, because there was 50-55 minutes of good music. Unfortunately, in his opinion, that was to much for a single album but, not enough for a double, which resulted in an album that had about 25 minutes of padding because, the band ( ok, mainly Anderson and Howe) wanted a double album.