The Renaissance Zone

SteveG wrote: ^ I would have preferred to have heard "Face Of Yesterday" form the mach 1 group's second album. It was Jane's high point and a natural for Annie to do.

^ Are you the bloke that all the women keep looking at?

SteveG wrote: ^ Are you the bloke that all the women keep looking at?

rogerthat wrote: SteveG wrote: ^ I would have preferred to have heard "Face Of Yesterday" form the mach 1 group's second album. It was Jane's high point and a natural for Annie to do. Me too.  Guess Annie chose Island out of sentimental reasons (she sang that track for her Renaissance audition).

rogerthat wrote: kenethlevine wrote: rogerthat wrote: SteveG wrote: ^ I would have preferred to have heard "Face Of Yesterday" form the mach 1 group's second album. It was Jane's high point and a natural for Annie to do. Me too.  Guess Annie chose Island out of sentimental reasons (she sang that track for her Renaissance audition). My recollection as that the version of "Face of Yesterday" on the first ILLUSION album was even better than the original version?  Anyways, to be the first ILLUSION album is one of the most instantly likable albums, and the second album is pretty strong as well Her rendition is better on the Illusion version. But I am still finding her singing to leave a lot to be desired upon this reprise. Could have done so much more with those beautiful lines. Lovely melody too.

To be fair, the song would be nothing without John Hawken's beautiful piano accompaniment! One of Mr. Hawken's finest moments on record.

what about "Beautiful Country" or "Wings Across the Sea"?  More Relf and Hawken magic

Edited by kenethlevine - July 13 2018 at 14:58

kenethlevine wrote: what about "Beautiful Country" or "Wings Across the Sea"?  More Relf and Hawken magic But then there are also "Isadora" and "Madonna Blue", sung my McCarty I believe, and possibly the best Illusion songs (great Hawken work on both).  Then there is "The Revolutionary", like a cross between "Hero and Heroine" and CLANNAD's "Ancient Forest".

rogerthat wrote: Also, SteveG can correct me if I am wrong about this, but always felt mki/Illusion was more baroque while mkii leaned more towards classical composers.  The Indian composer Ilayaraja influenced my listening a lot in my formative years and he was a bigtime Bach fanboy so I guess I find baroque more attractive.

I agree but I think we need to use hyphenated terms like classical-orchestral for mk2 and classical-baroque for mk1 (as Bach was in that band's DNA). 

Edited by SteveG - July 14 2018 at 09:57

yes I had heard those references to the two different lineups of Renaissance - baroque vs romantic.  But the Ren Mach 1 still doesn't do much for me to this day, whereas they really hit their stride when they reunited as Illusion in the mid-late 1970s.  Unfortunately they didn't have the following that Mach 2 had and Mach 2 wasn't huge enough to draw people in based on the tenuous connections.  Suffice to say that, love them, hate them or be indifferent, their intertwined histories are fascinating, not to mention connections to bands like Yardbirds and Strawbs.  I'm also a fan of McCarty's two solo albums, particularly "Out of the Dark" from the early 1990s (which allmusic granted 4.5 stars to) and even RENAISSANCE ILLUSION from the early 2000s.  He should have used Jane a bit more in that latter album.  He has also done some good work in the more new agey outfit called PILGRIM, who have a few great songs like "A Face to Die for" and "A Dream within a Dream"

^Wow, that's fascinating! Love following this band's early history. I also like McCarty's solo albums but I've never heard the Pilgrim material. I'll have to check it out asap.