WATERLOO LILY

For many aficionados of the creative progressive rock music that surfaced in the heady days of the end of the 60's and the beginning of the 70's, the bands who surfaced from the English provincial city of Canterbury released some of the most consistently interesting progressive rock music of that period. And of all the great bands that emerged from the so-called Canterbury Scene, in my opinion, none of them was so original, so unique and as enduring as Caravan was.

When their previous third studio album 'In The Land Of Grey And Pink' was released, it was received enthusiastically by both, critics and the Caravan faithful fans. Its unique fusion of folk, jazz and rock created an album that, nearly thirty years later, is still highly regarded whilst some other albums of that era are looked upon with derision by some critics. It's usually regarded as their best and most fine album and considered one of the best albums of the Canterbury Scene.

'Waterloo Lily' is the only album of Caravan with Steve Miller as the keyboard player. The keyboardist Dave Sinclair had left the band and was replaced by Steve Miller, a guy who obviously preferred the piano instead of organ. So, the piano was a substitute for the powerful organ. Miller brought a jazzier feel to the sound of Caravan than had been heard on the previous album through his stylings on the Wurlitzer piano rather than the Hammond organ favored by previous keyboardist Dave Sinclair. However and in my humble opinion, the album is ok but is a bit weaker than the two previous albums. A lot of the classic early sound of Caravan was gone too. Anyway, it remains for me as an excellent album too.

So, 'Waterloo Lily' is the fourth studio album of Caravan and was released in 1972. The line up on the album is Pye Hastings (vocals and guitars), Steve Miller (Wurlitzer electric piano, grand piano, Hammond organ and electric harpsichord), Richard Sinclair (vocals and bass) and Richard Coughlan (drums). The album had also the participation of Lol Coxhill (soprano saxophone), Phil Miller (2nd lead guitar), Jimmy Hastings (flute), Mike Cotton (trumpet) and Barry Robinson (oboe).

'Waterloo Lily' has six tracks. The first track is the title track 'Waterloo Lily'. The title track is an obvious highlight. It has a set of really hard rockin' riffs, a vocal melody that defines 'catchiness', and Hastings' ever improving vocals. Here we have an instrumental section where Miller uses sharp, shrill organ tones with his wah-wah pedal. I love when a jazz musician employs the wah-wah pedal on his organ. The second track 'Nothing At All/It's Coming Soon/Nothing At All (Reprise)' is just a blues rock jam. It's very good with imaginative guitar parts, moody blues piano, and a great bass line to hang it all upon. In the middle it goes into the beautiful 'It's Coming Soon' piano interlude for a couple of minutes. Maybe they could have made it a couple minutes shorter, but I'm not really complaining when the music still functions as first rate background music. The third track 'Songs And Signs' has less than four minutes long, opens with very quiet, mellow vocals and a fairly bare musical backing. But, a certain musical atmosphere is created. It's not a song packed with thrills or melody but it does withstand repeated listening, and actually gains from such listening. The fourth track 'Aristocracy' is a nice little piece of funky playing and in fact it would have made a great album's opener, if it was the case. It has indicated a change of style and pace but it doesn't alienate the usual fans of the previous albums of Caravan. The fifth track 'The Love In Your Eye/To Catch Me A Brother/Subsultus/Debouchement/Tilbury Kecks' is a suite with twelve minutes long. It opens with some nice string parts around very quiet and mellow vocals. The bass comes in and with the drums the song picks up pace whilst remaining nicely mellow. The strings add to the track rather than become an unnecessary embellishment. This is an enjoyable listening. It does descend slightly towards a jam to close it. The sixth track 'The World Is Yours' actually becomes a true highlight of the entire album. This is a lot simpler in structure than much else of what is contained on the album. It has a nice melody and comes across as charming within well played instrumental parts rather than relying on well played instrumental parts to carry the track alone.

Conclusion: It's quite interesting how far removed this album is from its preceding album 'In The Land Of Grey And Pink'. Still, 'Waterloo Lily' is another highly competent offering following on from their two previous offerings. The title track has become one of Caravan's most celebrated tracks. The album adopts a jazzier oriented outlook which they cleverly transform into the progressive rock music genre very well. It's complex and not an easy album overall to take too but once you become involved and appreciate the approach it evolves to become a very rewarding, well constructed and satisfying musical offering indeed with some first class musical interplay around the vocals. So, we have here good stuff, indeed. It's true that it isn't as good as the two previous albums and it isn't my personal favourite Caravan's album but it's indeed a very good package full of strong material. Still there is plenty here for the prog fan.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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