HYMN / OUR KID'S KID

'Hymn' is the opener of the album Gone To Earth (1977), which was (and perhaps remains?) BJH's best selling album. The single release preceeded the album by a couple of months and featured slightly shortened version of 'Hymn' and another John Lees composition 'Our Kid's Kid', a non-album track which has been added into the album's CD edition in 2003.

'Hymn' is a gorgeous, anthem-like song that lingered in the band's concert sets for a good reason. The lyrics give a warning about drug addiction and make an analogy between being "high" by drugs and spiritual high. "Don't try to fly, dear God, you might not come down." The lush arrangement reveals it's a product of a prog band even if the song itself is quite simple in structure, almost a sort of a singalong tune. The production is very clean but not sterile. One of the better tracks from BJH's Polydor era (since 1974, that is).

'Our Kid's Kids' hardly has anything that would hint at any progressive background of the band. It's more like an American country rock song by the Eagles or someone in their ilk. Well produced again naturally, but I doubt it gives big pleasure to a prog listener, or even to a casual BJH fan. Frankly I don't find much point in the lyrics either. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (The line above was typed by my 4 year old daughter.) The cover art suits nicely to the title track, giving it some religious connotations in addition to the majestic nature of the song.