COOK [AKA: LIVE IN THE USA]

Today's only review will be of a live record. I don't use to listen to live recordings but this was so interesting I didn't doubt to buy the vinyl when I say it for a decent price. Perhaps I should listen to more live one's - this one is the ultimate live record for me.It gives me some of the best moments of Premiata Forneria Marconi and a "live only" prog jam of marvelous forms. The cover's front page is so bright and colourful with the pot of snakes over the fire with cosmos around it and a mythological man runs with the PFM Cook sign in a corner. The record was recorded live in Canada and USA the autumn 1974 and features Jan Patrick Djivas on bass, Franz di Cioccio on drums and vocals, Franco Mussida on guitars and vocals, Mauro Pagani on flute, violin and vocals and Flavio Premoli on Hammond organ, piano, mellotron, moog and vocals.

I was happy the LP was so long, such as I got eight bonus minutes of wonderful music. I really feel this music is so perfect. If I could decide, I would have made clearer vocals but that is just a detail. Otherwise this record is so perfect. Premiata Forneria Marconi's music is powerful and hard rock(sometimes) and shows great example of acustic guitar, flute and violin passages. The first side contains four excellent tracks and all those have space for surprises. In between we can hear the group and the audience which makes it even more authentic. "Celebration" is such a wonderful symphony and "Dove...Quando...." is poetry in its best musical form. On the B-side we have the impressing "Alta Loma Five till Nine" which is a progressive jam, showing what rocker's PFM was and in the end they praise Rossini with the Wilhelm Tell-overture. The track is long but the listener is never bored. This is a record you want to listen to with a high volume and spread through the ether. "Cook" is a record that deserves an equal place in PFM's discography. You must hear it!