Shameless appreciation for Saga!

aginor wrote: or A.C.T is closer to a band like Saga, if you go by the logic of ether bands origins in date,

yes i thought about that statement after making my post. I think they have taken the guitar work of Saga in many places and, use also Queen's influence, in their own way. They are a underrated band in my opinion.

....and BTW...wait 'til you hear Saga's new drummer Mike Thorne:

Saga fan here. Worlds Apart, Silent Knight, and Images At Twilight are favorites of mine.

Saga fly under the radar in the prog community, but they still have consistent quality in their albums. 

Actually can any Saga fans recommend their best albums? There are so many and i have heard only a few and am genuinely interested in expanding my knowledge of their music.

rushfan4 wrote: I would say that their debut through Behaviour are their best.  Their debut, Worlds Apart, and Heads or Tales are probably the top 3 from that batch.  The next 4 albums are OK but can be skipped until later.  Generation 13 is a good concept album and probably a good album to check out.  The Pleasure and the Pain is OK but can be skipped.  I enjoy the rest of them quite a bit for Full Circle through 20/20.  The Human Condition is good, but with a different singer, so may not be as representative as the rest of the albums.    As you may be aware, Saga has a theme going with their albums.  They would have 1, 2, or 3 songs on an album that were a "chapter" of a concept story (Saga) that they created.  The first 8 chapters came from their first 4 or 5 albums.  They abandoned the concept for a few albums and then came back to it (on Full Circle I think) and did 8 more chapters.  The songs were not in order though so the idea was to anticipate the next album to get the chapters.  At any rate in 2005 they played a concert where they played the songs in order and released it as The Chapters Live.  This might be a good album to check out too.

rushfan4 wrote: AtomicCrimsonRush wrote: rushfan4 wrote: I would say that their debut through Behaviour are their best.  Their debut, Worlds Apart, and Heads or Tales are probably the top 3 from that batch.  The next 4 albums are OK but can be skipped until later.  Generation 13 is a good concept album and probably a good album to check out.  The Pleasure and the Pain is OK but can be skipped.  I enjoy the rest of them quite a bit for Full Circle through 20/20.  The Human Condition is good, but with a different singer, so may not be as representative as the rest of the albums.    As you may be aware, Saga has a theme going with their albums.  They would have 1, 2, or 3 songs on an album that were a "chapter" of a concept story (Saga) that they created.  The first 8 chapters came from their first 4 or 5 albums.  They abandoned the concept for a few albums and then came back to it (on Full Circle I think) and did 8 more chapters.  The songs were not in order though so the idea was to anticipate the next album to get the chapters.  At any rate in 2005 they played a concert where they played the songs in order and released it as The Chapters Live.  This might be a good album to check out too. Thanks I have some listening to do then! Our tastes seem to be quite similar, so I think that you would like a lot of their stuff.

Network was their first new release that I ever bought and I remember really enjoying it from the get go.  I am listening to it right now for the first time in a couple of years, and I am still enjoying it.  It is a really good album.  I definitely enjoy all of their latest albums as well. 

Well when they did Worlds Apart there was nothing left of prog at that time! Kansas, Yes, Genesis, etc. had all entered sellout eras--heck even Gentle Giant had sold out by that time. 

Edited by axeman - March 28 2013 at 22:16

A few comments...

Saga was scheduled to play on Cruise To The Edge, but Jim Crichton's son died (car crash, I believe) a few days before the cruise.  Nonetheless, Michael Sadler (with Jim's blessing) went ahead on the cruise.  He did not play any Saga songs, but he did participate in a "meet & greet" and he did a set (along with Randy Jackson of Zebra on acoustic guitar, Saga's drummer, and another player on acoustic guitar and piano; Jim Gilmour maybe, but I didn't actually catch his name) of Beatles' songs (and Lennon's "Imagine"), and spoke some and answered questions.

Even with the recent tragedy he says the band intends to work on a new album later this year.

He was asked if they might tour the whole Generation 13 album, and answered that there has been some talk about doing something with it.  More than just playing the songs, it sounded like.  Cross fingers they get something good put together!

I personally have Generation 13, Network, Full Circle and 20/20.  While I would not put any of them in the "upper tier" of prog releases, I find them all to be quite worthy.  20/20 certainly is better than its star ratings here might indicate.

They also have yet another new drummer!  Sadler says he must stick around for at least ten years.