BEFORE I FORGET

I am a huge fan of Jon Lord's work in all his various band projects and I wish him well in his new ventures, but "Before I Forget", made around a time when many big band members and session musicians/technicians were making their own albums and including all their rock star friends to guest on them (most notably the best of these were Jeff Wayne, Alan Parsons and even good ol' Mick Jagger didn't put in too bad an effort on his first solo album!), isn't one of his best projects. Unfortunately the vast bulk of these solo efforts weren't usually up to the same standard as the band work and most sunk without trace - resigned to the bargain bins of history being regarded as second rate musical notebooks to be valued by the solo musican only.

Most of the material on "Before I Forget" is embarrasingly poor - was this the same man that played on the DP masterpiece "Lazy"..? Even the early Purple pop stuff was better than this. Jon Lord, Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke, Boz Burrell , Bernie Marsden, Neil Murray, Ian Paice, Cozy Powell - when these guys got together one would have expected some magic ( I visualise them all turning up at the studio in their flash sports cars, shades and snakeskin shoes, some accompanied by a leggy blonde) but sadly the first three tracks on this album "Chance on a Feeling", "Tender Babes" and "Hollywood Rock and Roll" are cheesy forgettable AOR pop funk throwaways - except "Bach Onto This"...! Now this is more like it - this is what I paid 20 pence good bargain bin money for - a gem in a sea of yawn, a Rock intrumental based on Bach's most famous "Toccata and Fugue" - it lacks the grandeur of a Rick Wakeman workout but is an enjoyable piece nicely recorded, it was actually released as a single to promote the album which I bought in 1982 and will keep, but the album may go back to the charity shop, but let's see what's on side 2 first...."Before I Forget" is a slow ponderous instrumental using synthesised cello - a nice enough piece that would possibly fit into a larger work, "Say It's Alright" is a slow soulful love song which features Vicky and Sam Brown on vocals, "Burntwood", a haunting instrumental, could be a theme for an unwritten musical and the last track "Where Are You" features gravelly vocals by Elmer Gantry, another ponderously slow song.

For die hard JL fans only or lovers of wallpaper/dinner party music, this does not demand to be listened to.

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