But an even greater song was the closing track Starless, which I placed third on the Top 20 Long Prog Masterpieces list. You can read more about that right here. This impressive work of art served as the ending for this incarnation of King Crimson, just like Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part 1 had served as its beginning the previous year. Robert Fripp decided to disband King Crimson once again, and this time the recording hiatus would take all of seven years. Perhaps Bill Bruford shouldn't have quit Yes so hastily, after all.
14 October, and it was time for Jethro Tull to say goodbye to prog and the long song format. The new album War Child comprised of shorter songs that weren't particularly proggy. Unfortunately, this also meant that the end result was clearly inferior to a couple of its predecessors, but in any case I took a liking to three songs. Two of them represented the more acoustic end of the Tull spectrum: Ladies and Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day both relied on melody and were not particularly rocking tracks. But perhaps my number one favorite was the title track.
Three other October releases were also great: two of them were albums, one was a single. In their case, I haven't found out the exact release dates, so let's discuss them in alphabetical order. For the first time in this blog we mention French-British Gong, one of the most eccentric prog groups of the 1970's. They had been making music quite obviously inspired by marihuana since the beginning of the decade, and even though I didn't point it out at the time, Angel's Egg (1973) was already a pretty decent record.
The October 1974 album, called You, completed their Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy that had been started with The Flying Teapot (also 1973). It contained an incredible first eleven and a half minutes that immediately secured the group's place among the greatest prog bands of the seventies. These comprise the first track of the CD version of the album, although actually there are four separately named songs contained within that single track. They are called Thoughts for Naught, A P.H.P's Advice, Magick Mother Invocation and Master Builder (in case you are wondering, a P.H.P. means a pot head pixie). There are no pauses between the songs, and together they form one hell of an unmissable track! Please do check it out below.
Next up is Man, the Welsh group we already mentioned in connection with The Bystanders in 1968. Their October 1974 album was called Slow Motion and there was one certain track on it that I thought was an instant classic. Grasshopper is a marvelous, bittersweet song about the end of a relationship that is considered by many to be the highlight of the group's entire career. Apologies for the silly image in the background of the YouTube video below; someone has been in a playful mood but the song itself should be taken quite seriously.
And finally, there is the single. It was the last moment of greatness for Mott the Hoople, the group we have mentioned several times before. On their new single, they chose to reminisce the times when they were still at the beginning of their career, playing in small clubs and other similar venues on Saturday evenings. Saturday Gigs is, in my opinion, easily the second best song they ever recorded, immediately following the unbeatable classic All the Young Dudes. Listen to it below, and then we say our goodbyes to the group. They made some great songs in a limited time period. The video below has been made by a fan.
Following this, we move on to November. Sparks did not simply decide to rest on their laurels. Instead, they released another album during the same year. Again, I don't have an exact release date. Propaganda wasn't quite as unforgettable as Kimono My House, but a truly fine piece of work nevertheless. Album standouts include At Home, at Work, at Play; Thanks But No Thanks, and particularly one unmissable track called Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth.
The end of the month saw one more standoff between prog favorites Yes and Genesis. Yes had selected the Swiss keyboard player Patrick Moraz to replace Rick Wakeman while he concentrated on his solo career. On 28 November, the new lineup released a new album called Relayer in the UK. The US release followed on 5 December. The album remains the group's most challenging and was definitely a huge improvement over the fiasco that was Tales from Topographic Oceans.
The unbelievable opening track, over 20-minute anti-war orgy The Gates of Delirium was discussed at more length over here, back when it took the ninth place on the list of the Top 20 Long Prog Masterpieces last year. And, like I mentioned already back then, the album was actually a commercial hit which seems incredible considering that its content was pretty difficult even compared to the rest of Yes's output.
Only one day after Relayer's UK release, Genesis struck back. 29 November was the big day for their new double album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, a recording that is once again considered by many to be a classic, but which I have some serious problems with. The magnum opus is based on an incomprehensible storyline by Peter Gabriel, about a New York street punk that has a strange, surreal trip inside his own head. This is not, however, the real problem with the album, although it does make it seem a bit artificial to begin with.
The real problem is that Genesis doesn't have enough musical ideas to carry a full length double album. The first two album sides are mostly very good but following that we encounter problems. Side three is hit and miss, and side four is completely useless. Overall, the final Peter Gabriel album doesn't live up to its potential. Exhausted after the tour that followed, Gabriel decided to depart in 1975, leaving the group's future to question. How would the remaining four members be able to replace their figurehead?
The title track embedded above is in any case an outstanding piece of work and definitely an unmissable track of this year. Other highlights include Fly on a Windshield, Broadway Melody of 1974, Cuckoo Cocoon, Hairless Heart, Counting Out Time, The Carpet Crawlers, Lilywhite Lilith and Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats. The high number of good tracks should already indicate that while there is a lot to complain about the album, there is also plenty of reason for praise.
December saw only one further significant album release that concludes the music year 1974. The second album by the British singer David Essex was self titled and successful enough to make it to #2 on the British Christmas album chart. This was largely due to the extremely popular single hit Gonna Make You a Star that opens the album.
However, the truly great song was the second track on the album that also served as the B side of the single. Window is an unbelievable thing: a genuine, scary horror story that not only tries to horrify the listener but actually ends with children screaming at the top of their lungs. I don't think this would be considered very politically correct nowadays. A great song that really fueled my young imagination: at age eleven and a half, I was unable to fully understand the lyrics, yet understood what they meant.
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
Mike Oldfield: Hergest Ridge
Sparks: Kimono My House
UNMISSABLE TRACKS OF THE YEAR:
10cc: The Wall Street Shuffle
David Essex: Window
Electric Light Orchestra: Can't Get it Out of My Head
Electric Light Orchestra: Eldorado
Focus: Hamburger Concerto
Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Gong: Thoughts for Naught / A P.H.P's Advice / Magick Mother Invocation / Master Builder
John Lennon: #9 Dream
King Crimson: Red
King Crimson: Starless
Man: Grasshopper
Mike Oldfield: Hergest Ridge, Part 1
Mike Oldfield: Hergest Ridge, Part 2
Mike Oldfield: Mike Oldfield's Single
Mott the Hoople: Saturday Gigs
Sparks: Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth
Sparks: Thank God It's Not Christmas
Sparks: This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us
Yes: The Gates of Delirium
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