Year: 1977
Country: United Kingdom
Running time: 16 mins. 18 secs.
YouTube link (Part 1)
YouTube link (Part 2)
England is the ultimate fairy tale in progressive rock genre. They came from nowhere! They made one single great album! They disappeared! The album in question is Garden Shed (1977) and the fourth best progressive rock epic of all time is its closing track Poisoned Youth which doesn't quite fill an entire side of a vinyl disc, but clocks well over 16 minutes in any case.
England was: Robert Webb, keyboards and vocals; Martin Henderson, bass and vocals; Jode Leigh, percussion, bass and vocals; and Frank Holland, guitar and vocals. At around the time of their debut album's release, they were briefly the cause of some conspiracy theories. How can a new progressive rock group be so perfect on their first release? It was even suspected that they must in truth be seasoned prog veterans working under pseudonyms.
But no, they really were a new group that had simply been influenced by Genesis and Yes, and amalgamated these influences into an exceptional debut album. There was no conspiracy. And England's true masterstroke, Poisoned Youth was easily the best single progressive rock epic on a debut album of that whole decade. One of the best ever, as it turns out. Come on, it even ends to an explosion! What could be more epic than that?
A good comparison to England would be another group with a similar name: U.K (#14). In a very similar manner, England's prog is very keyboard-driven, although they never had Eddie Jobson's violin to complement the keyboards. Poisoned Youth, as well as their other songs, emphasize melody over other aspects of a composition, and as melody makers they were really, really good. The worst that can be said about England is that they were not very original, which is certainly true, but like I've written before, I absolutely prefer an artist that does the old thing exceptionally well to another that does a new thing with an average end result.
Poisoned Youth is comprised of several movements even though this is not stated on the album cover. Doesn't matter: there is hardly a single uninteresting moment as a debuting group displays endless invention, each individual sequence being at least worthy of the previous one, if not better. This makes you think that maybe England made a smart choice in completing only one album: it already was the one where their talents peaked. Any sequel to Garden Shed would inevitably have been a disappointment.
While the different passages of Poisoned Youth continue a single storyline about an artist's search to preserve and forever maintain his youth, they vary from each other. At times, the composition sounds even like a children's song. Its most striking weakness are the poor production values which are understandable for a starting rock group. Poisoned Youth is one of the weakest sounding tracks in the top 20 in terms of sound quality.
But it is Poisoned Youth's strong points that carry it all the way to #4. Poisoned Youth is a reminder to all beginning musicians that their first inspiration may already be enough to produce a masterwork, and an encouragement to try to reach for no less than that. If you know exactly what you are striving for and know how to achieve it, you can beat many a seasoned veteran in their own game. You don't have to have all the technical skill as long as you have a strong vision, and an endless need to invent, create and excel.
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