Compilation By Jon Dolan, Dan Epstein, Reed Fischer, Richard Gehr, Brandon Geist, Kory Grow, Will Hermes, Ryan Reed, Jon Weiderhorn (rolling stone)
For close to a half century, prog has been the breeding ground for rock's most out-there, outsized and outlandish ideas: Thick-as-a-brick concept albums, an early embrace of synthesizers, overly complicated time signatures, Tolkienesque fantasies, travails from future days and scenes from a memory. In celebration of Rush's first Rolling Stone cover story, here's the best of the deliciously decadent genre that the punks failed to kill.
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RENAISSANCE
''ASHES ARE BURNING''
1973
40:32
1 Can You Understand 09:48
2 Let It Grow 04:11
3 On The Frontier (Jim McCarty, Betty Thatcher) 04:53
4 Carpet Of The Sun 03:31
5 At The Harbour 06:48
6 Ashes Are Burning 11:19
Tracks By Michael Dunford & Betty Thatcher, Except 3
John Camp/Bass Guitar, Guitar, Vocals
Michael Dunford/Guitar (Acoustic)
Annie Haslam/Percussion, Vocals
Richard Hewson/Strings On 1, 4
Andy Powell/Guitar On 6
Terence Sullivan/Drums, Percussion, Vocals
John Tout/Keyboards, Vocals
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ABOUT THE ALBUM/WIKIPEDIA
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REVIEW/AMG
by Bruce Eder
With electric guitarist Andy Powell sitting in on the title track, Renaissance delivered its best, and first fully formed album, mixing Russian, French, and Indian influences in musical settings that are both lively and elegant. The title track is one of the few lengthy progressive-rock pieces of the era that holds up, and the rest of the material runs the gamut from folk ("Carpet of the Sun") to Impressionist ("At the Harbor"), all of it hauntingly beautiful and enlivening. Reissued in 1993 by One Way Records, with excellent sound.
**********
BIOGRAPHY
by Bruce Eder
The history of Renaissance is essentially the history of two separate groups, rather similar to the two phases of the Moody Blues or the Drifters. The original group was founded in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds members Keith Relf and Jim McCarty as a sort of progressive folk-rock band, who recorded two albums (of which only the first, self-titled LP came out in America, on Elektra Records) but never quite made it, despite some success on England's campus circuit.
The band went through several membership changes, with Relf and his sister Jane (who later fronted the very Renaissance-like Illusion) exiting and McCarty all but gone after 1971. The new lineup formed around the core of bassist Jon Camp, keyboard player John Tout, and Terry Sullivan on drums, with Annie Haslam, an aspiring singer with operatic training and a three-octave range. 
Their first album in this incarnation, Prologue, released in 1972, was considerably more ambitious than the original band's work, with extended instrumental passages and soaring vocals by Haslam. Their breakthrough came with their next record, Ashes Are Burning, issued in 1973, which introduced guitarist Michael Dunford to the lineup and featured some searing electric licks by guest axeman Andy Powell. Their next record, Turn of the Cards, released by Sire Records, had a much more ornate songwriting style and was awash in lyrics that alternated between the topical and the mystical.
The group's ambitions, by now, were growing faster than its audience, which was concentrated on America's East Coast, especially in New York and Philadelphia -- Scheherazade (1975) was built around a 20-minute extended suite for rock group and orchestra that dazzled the fans but made no new converts. A live album recorded at a New York concert date reprised their earlier material, including the "Scheherazade" suite, but covered little new ground and showed the group in a somewhat lethargic manner. The band's next two albums, Novella and A Song for All Seasons, failed to find new listeners, and as the 1970s closed out, the group was running headlong into the punk and new wave booms that made them seem increasingly anachronistic and doomed to cult status.
Their '80s albums were released with less than global or even national fanfare, and the group split up in the early '80s amid reported personality conflicts between members. During 1995, however, both Haslam and Dunford made attempts to revive the Renaissance name in different incarnations, and Jane Relf and the other surviving members of the original band were reportedly planning to launch their own Renaissance revival which, if nothing else, may keep the courts and some trademark attorneys busy for a little while.
**********
BIOGRAPHY/WIKIPEDIA
**********
WEBSITE
**********
TO THE TOP
For close to a half century, prog has been the breeding ground for rock's most out-there, outsized and outlandish ideas: Thick-as-a-brick concept albums, an early embrace of synthesizers, overly complicated time signatures, Tolkienesque fantasies, travails from future days and scenes from a memory. In celebration of Rush's first Rolling Stone cover story, here's the best of the deliciously decadent genre that the punks failed to kill.
**********
RENAISSANCE
''ASHES ARE BURNING''
1973
40:32
1 Can You Understand 09:48
2 Let It Grow 04:11
3 On The Frontier (Jim McCarty, Betty Thatcher) 04:53
4 Carpet Of The Sun 03:31
5 At The Harbour 06:48
6 Ashes Are Burning 11:19
Tracks By Michael Dunford & Betty Thatcher, Except 3
John Camp/Bass Guitar, Guitar, Vocals
Michael Dunford/Guitar (Acoustic)
Annie Haslam/Percussion, Vocals
Richard Hewson/Strings On 1, 4
Andy Powell/Guitar On 6
Terence Sullivan/Drums, Percussion, Vocals
John Tout/Keyboards, Vocals
**********
ABOUT THE ALBUM/WIKIPEDIA
**********
REVIEW/AMG
by Bruce Eder
With electric guitarist Andy Powell sitting in on the title track, Renaissance delivered its best, and first fully formed album, mixing Russian, French, and Indian influences in musical settings that are both lively and elegant. The title track is one of the few lengthy progressive-rock pieces of the era that holds up, and the rest of the material runs the gamut from folk ("Carpet of the Sun") to Impressionist ("At the Harbor"), all of it hauntingly beautiful and enlivening. Reissued in 1993 by One Way Records, with excellent sound.
**********
BIOGRAPHY
by Bruce Eder
The history of Renaissance is essentially the history of two separate groups, rather similar to the two phases of the Moody Blues or the Drifters. The original group was founded in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds members Keith Relf and Jim McCarty as a sort of progressive folk-rock band, who recorded two albums (of which only the first, self-titled LP came out in America, on Elektra Records) but never quite made it, despite some success on England's campus circuit.
The band went through several membership changes, with Relf and his sister Jane (who later fronted the very Renaissance-like Illusion) exiting and McCarty all but gone after 1971. The new lineup formed around the core of bassist Jon Camp, keyboard player John Tout, and Terry Sullivan on drums, with Annie Haslam, an aspiring singer with operatic training and a three-octave range.
Their '80s albums were released with less than global or even national fanfare, and the group split up in the early '80s amid reported personality conflicts between members. During 1995, however, both Haslam and Dunford made attempts to revive the Renaissance name in different incarnations, and Jane Relf and the other surviving members of the original band were reportedly planning to launch their own Renaissance revival which, if nothing else, may keep the courts and some trademark attorneys busy for a little while.
**********
BIOGRAPHY/WIKIPEDIA
**********
WEBSITE
**********
TO THE TOP
2 comments :
Fifty GRAND THANKS (and two bottles with red wine) ESPECIALLY FOR OLD-ROCKER.I take all the 50 LP's ....but i said thanks only here. I play the list in my radio programme. Thanks again dear Oldrocker. I said you memo when i play the radio programme to listen.of course SPECIAL FOR YOU!!
Ok greenlight, good, I have a great satisfaction to hear the program. I await your notice. Thank you.
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