ROCKET MAN / GOD SAVE THE CHILD

This single contains two strong songs from PBS's fourth album The Use of Ashes (1970) which is their best rated here. With my compilation-based knowledge I tend to agree on this matter, and these songs together form a very dynamic and convincing pair indeed.

Ah, 'Rocket Man'. The actual reason why I found this band in the first place. In a Facebook conversation about literature-inspired music I mentioned Hungarian band Solaris and their prog album "The Martian Chronicles" inspired by Ray Bradbury's science fiction classic of the same name. I was told that this American band, ie. their front man Tom Rapp, has also been inspired by Bradbury. The day I got the compilation containing this song I picked up my Finnish copy of The illustrated Man -- one of my dearest books from my youth, together with three other Bradbury books -- and read once more the story about a family man working as an astronaut, before listening to the song. Rapp's lyrics deal with the final outcome of the emotionally moving story, the narrator's father having killed by the sun. The music is soft and delicate, featuring classical instruments such as harpsichord, oboe, cello and other strings. Rapp's voice has just the right amount of sadness and frail emotion, and female backing vocals sound nice. The chorus about "My mother and I (...) We only went out when it rained" gets several repetitions but that doesn't do harm for this lovely little song.

Some years later Elton John made his famous song of the same subject. It is great too, quite different from this one really.

'God Save the Child' is a relatively rocking song from this band, with stronger playing. I like this song almost as much, albeit for very different musical reason. The arrangement is again full of nuances. If you're new to Pearls Before Swine, you could start by listening these songs from the Internet.