About to begin (Robin Trower) (LP 4733 - 4740)

Robin Trower  Twice Removed From Yesterday (CD, Chrysalis Records, 1973) ***  

Robin Trower  Bridge of Sighs (Vinyl and CD, Chrysalis Records, 1974) ***** 

Robin Trower  For Earth Below (CD, Chrysalis Records, 1975) *** 

Robin Trower  Long Misty Days (CD, Chrysalis Records, 1976) ****

Robin Trower  In City Dreams (Vinyl and CD, Chrysalis Records, 1977) *** 

Robin Trower  Caravan to Midnight (CD, Chrysalis Records, 1978) ****

Robin Trower  Victims of the Fury (Vinyl and CD, Chrysalis Records, 1980) ***** 

Robin Trower  Back It Up (CD, Chrysalis Records, 1983) *** 

Robin Trower  Live! (Vinyl, Chrysalis Records, 1975) ***** 

Genre: Rock, Blues rock, Hard rock

Places I remember: Sister Ray Records in London for the CDs, Real Groovy Records, Marbecks Records (Victims of the Fury).

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Victims of the Fury

Gear costume: Day of the Eagle (Bridge of Sighs)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8

Active compensatory factors: This and the following post answers the musical question: What did Robin Trower do after he left Procol Harum?

The man goes back a long ways, starting with Procol Harum in 1967 (you can read my PH reviews here) and he's still at it! In 1971, driven by a desire to forge a new path, RT took his leave and picked up his Fender Stratocaster to relaunch himself as a guitar god.

Twice Removed From Yesterday was the appropriate album title to launch his new sound - a bluesy Hendrixian style that is still all Robin Trower. This is a very different sound to the prog rock guitar style he used in Procol Harum, which was always going to be keyboard driven thanks to the brilliant Gary Brooker. 

He is joined in this new (for him) power trio format by Jim Dewar on bass and vocals and Reg Isidor on drums. Right from the off, it's a magic combination, particularly the Dewar/Trower one (drummers would come and go). Robin's melodic guitar playing makes him the standout star, but Jim's vocals and muscley bass are a perfect foil. 

Second album, Bridge of Sighs, is where the real deal starts after the debut, but I've already written about it in this blog (here), so I won't include it again in the numerical countdown. Suffice to say it's a superb album that never puts a foot wrong. The album also includes the mighty Too Rolling Stoned, which I also have as a single, reviewed here.

For Earth Below was his third solo album in three years. It continued the high quality of those earlier ones, while also delving deeper into the bluesy edge to Robin's playing. It's good, but without the standout songs that populated Bridge of Sighs.

Next up was Long Misty Days in 1976. American drummer Bill Lordan had replaced Isidor for the previous album and he'd be a mainstay until 1981. The trio crank out an excellent set of melodic rock songs on Long Misty Days. Highlights are the title track, and Caledonia.

There was a slight change in style from In City Dreams in that a more varied pop/rock stance was undertaken. For this purpose Robin brought in a different bass player with a funkier shade to his playing. In the main, this evolution works but the songs overall weren't as strong as on Long Misty Days.

Caravan to Midnight continued in this vein (again with Rustee Allen on bass) and it feels better to me. In fact, this album is one of my favourites. 

The songs have a funkier fluidity thanks to those basslines. It's definitely a departure from those earlier hard rock albums and as it proved, it was relatively short lived as the band returned to that style for 1980's Victims of the Fury. What a mighty return it is too. I can remember listening to it in Marbecks (where I had a holiday job) and being floored by the power and grace in the songs and how they are played.

As it happened it was the last to feature the Trower/ Dewar/ Lordan lineup (the trio format being dropped for the next album). 

It's a fitting farewell to Bill Lordan as the drumming is terrific, the songs are great, the playing is great, and the production great (helped by the presence of Geoff Emerick - Beatles' engineer who was also there for Caravans to Midnight). For me, every song is top notch but that could be because I've played this album an awful lot over the years. So, I have a definite preference for it over other albums (apart from Bridge of Sighs).

It had been an album a year since 1973 until 1980 which is mightily impressive. Robin's next move was to get together with Jack Bruce and Bill Lordan for a couple of albums. I'll address these in a separate post as it's a tangent to the Robin Trower solo albums.

He reconvened with Dewar in 1983 for Back It Up - his last album for Chrysalis. Robin still plays some superb guitar but the album isn't as strong as Victims. As AllMusic said: the songwriting had been reduced to pedestrian hard rock, with only occasional flashes of the old cosmic brilliance.

It's after Victims of the Fury that I lost touch with Robin Trower. I'd gone teaching, met my wife and we started having babies in the eighties. Sadly, I didn't have the time or energy to keep up to date with a lot of music during that decade.

The Live! album comes from a concert in Sweden in 1975. It's a cracker of an album - showing that the boys could deliver the goods in a live setting as well as in the studio. As AllMusic correctly states, the album highlights 'not only Trower's virtuoso Stratocaster licks, but the soulful vocals of bassist James Dewar and the polyrhythmic drumming of Bill Lordan'.

Where do they all belong? Next up - The Robin Trower/ Jack Bruce albums.

The walls of doom (Triumvirat) (LP 4732)

Triumvirat  Spartacus (CD, Capitol Records, 1975) ****  

Genre: Prog rock

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Capital of Power

Gear costume: Spartacus

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8

Active compensatory factors: Triumvirat is a prog rock band from Germany and the Emerson Lake & Palmer comparisons can't be denied. The band is a trio - bass, drums and keyboards by Hans-Jürgen Fritz, who plays keyboards according to the Keith Emerson school of rock.

Spartacus was their third album, and the only one I've ever found. I'd buy others for sure because I love ELP and this style of prog.

The concept here is to centre the album on Thracian gladiator, Spartacus. It works too, as the music conjures up images from 73BC!

Terrible cover though. What was the idea?

Where do they all belong? A great addition to the prog ranks.

Cosmic dancer (T. Rex) (LP 4730 - 4731)

T. Rex  Electric Warrior (CD, Fly Records, 1971) *****  

T. Rex  The Slider (Vinyl, Fly Records, 1972) *****  

Genre: Pop, Glam rock, rock 

Places I remember: Taupo music shop, World Record Club (The Slider)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Get it On (EW)

Gear costume: Jeepster (EW)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8

Active compensatory factors: T. Rex formed a key part of my entry into teenagerhood with two massive singles (read about them here) and these two albums. Electric Warrior I came to after the singles, but The Slider was a purchase in 1972.

Electric Warrior was a change in style for Marc Bolin as he embraced glam rock with this classic album.

I bought The Slider on release back in the early seventies. It was my first T. Rex album. Up to that point, i.e. 1970 - 1971, I had been buying T. Rex singles pretty regularly. Hot Love, Jeepster and Bang a Gong (Get It On) were early purchases when I was 12 - 13. Singles cost a little over a dollar so they were accessible, whereas albums took a bit of saving up for so I had to be picky. For that reason I didn't buy Electric Warrior until after The Slider. 

It would be fair to say that I know this album inside out, having owned it for 50 years, and played it a lot - especially back in those early days of collecting when I only had twenty or so albums in the collection. Putting it on this week took me back in time and place - to my teenage bedroom at 18 Korma Ave.

The crisp production by Tony Visconti is particularly stunning. It still sounds like it was recorded yesterday!

The songs? Each one shines a different light on Bolan's weird world. His word play and love of language is there for the world to share. I don't think it's dated one jot either. Given it's deeply embedded in the glam genre of the early seventies - that's pretty re-marc-able (geddit?).

The two stunning hits lead off each side but it's the deeper cuts like Ballrooms Of Mars (the only song title that's not a two worder) that keep rewarding with every play - I mean 'John Lennon knows your name and I've seen his'. What does that even mean?? I've often wondered. Endless speculative fun.

Where do they all belong? I do have a couple of el cheapo compilations as well and although they are quite spotty they are helpful and worthwhile for the early stuff.

Bach porch bluegrass (Paul & Colleen Trenwith) (LP 4728 - 4729)

Paul & Colleen Trenwith  Fresh from the Country (Vinyl, Kiwi Records, 1976) ***  

Paul & Colleen Trenwith and Friends  Brand New Day (Vinyl, Kiwi Records, 1985) ** 

Genre: Bluegrass, country, NZ music

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records, Viking Haul

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Back Porch Bluegrass (Fresh from the Country). Only available on vinyl. 

Gear costume: Bluegrass Breakdown (Fresh from the Country). Only available on vinyl.

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8

Active compensatory factors: These are two albums from the stalwarts of The Hamilton County Bluegrass Band (you can read my reviews these legends of the NZ music scene here). Paul plays the banjo and Colleen the country fiddle.

The first album is from the mid-seventies after Colleen and Paul had left the band. It's okay as it goes, but the other contributing musicians aren't in the same league as the HCBB. So it's pleasant with some good moments but lacks edge and grit.

The second album is from the mid-eighties and has a Christian centric approach, which lends the album an even more polite sheen that was never present in the HCBB sound. I'm not a huge fan but you can't doubt their sincerity.

Where do they all belong? I'll continue to shell out for anything this pair produced - you never know. There are two Trenwiths and Friends albums still out there in the wild.

She moved thro' the fair (Trees) (LP 4726 - 4727)

Trees  The Garden of Jane Delawney (CD, CBS Records, 1970) **** 

Trees  On The Shore (CD, CBS Records, 1970) *****   

Genre: Folk rock

Places I remember: FOPP

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Soldiers Three (On the Shore)

Gear costume: Geordie (On the Shore) 

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8

Active compensatory factors: I was fascinated by the cover of Trees' On the Shore album when it was featured in a Hipgnosis album cover book that I still gaze at from time to time.

I was thrilled to track down that album and the band's debut album on a visit to FOPP.

Trees is a folk rock band, active from about 1969 to 1972. They only released the two albums and...they are superb. The band's five members for that first album sound very accomplished. They were bass and keyboard player Bias Boshell, lead guitarist Barry Clarke, acoustic guitarist David Costa, drummer Unwin Brown and singer Celia Humphris. 

Celia is basically the reason they were labeled as folk rock and it's her superb vocals that make the band stand apart from the others (yes even from Fairport Convention).

Both albums are great, with On the Shore being the better album as it sounds more confident and more coherent as a complete album.

Where do they all belong? Love both albums and they sit in an elevated position in the folk rock section.

Driftwood (Travis) (LP 4724 - 4725)

Travis  The Man Who (CD, Independiente Records, 1999) ***** 

Travis  The Boy With No Name (CD, Independiente Records, 2007) *** 

Genre: Pop 

Places I remember: Music shop in St Lukes, The Warehouse.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Why Does It Always Rain On Me?

Gear costume: Turn, Writing to Reach You

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8

Active compensatory factors: Travis are a band from Scotland composed of Fran Healy (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Dougie Payne (bass guitar), Andy Dunlop (lead guitar, banjo) and Neil Primrose (drums).

Most people were alerted to the band's presence by the single hit, Why Does It Always Rain On Me? I was no exception. It's a wonderful song and as it turns out, it was one of many wonderful songs on their second album, The Man Who (daft title), like Writing to Reach You, Driftwood and Turn. 

Fran Healy sells these often moody, melancholy songs in a thoroughly convincing way throughout. So much so that I bought other Travis albums as a consequence, only to be disappointed by them. Seems like they peaked on that second effort.

I have continued to hang on to their fifth album, The Boy With No Name, even though it's not as strong as The Man Who. It's a much more indie rock sound, with eclectic songs which is fine, but I prefer the softer sounds of The Man Who.

Where do they all belong? The Travis singles from The Man Who period are fantastic. I've written about them previously and you can find them here and here.

Crash and burn (Pat Travers Band) (LP 4723)

Pat Travers Band  Crash and Burn (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1980) ***  

Genre: Rock

Places I remember: Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Snortin' Whiskey

Gear costume: Crash and Burn

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8

Active compensatory factors: I had a thing for Canadian rock guitarists like Pat Travers and Frank Marino for a while in the late seventies.

Crash and Burn was his sixth album and the most successful, thanks to the song Snortin' Whiskey. It's easily the best thing on the album but most of the rest is damn fine as well. That includes the two covers - Born Under a Bad Sign and Bob Marley's Is This Love.

Things go slightly astray towards the end of side two when synths rear their ugly head. Nevermind. The album has managed to survive various culls over the years.

Where do they all belong? Along with Neil Young, Randy Bachman and Frank Marino, Pat Travers flies the Canadian guitar hero flag with honour.