Carnaval (Santana) (LP 4802 - 4805)

Argent  Circus (CD, CBS Records, 1975) ***  

John Lennon  Johnny Moondog (Vinyl, Bootleg recording) *

Van Morrison  Remembering Now (Vinyl, Virgin Records, 2025) ****  

Santana  Festival (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 1977) *** 

Genre: Prog rock, pop, celtic soul, rock 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Down to Joy (Van)

Gear costume: Let the Children Play (Santana)

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 four albums are from a recent purchase from Real Groovy. I saw they had a copy of Johnny Moondog so I got that and padded that out to get free shipping with three other albums on my list. I lost the Lennon bootleg in that infamous house move, so it's good to find a replacement. The quality is pretty dire at times and the songs have all appeared elsewhere but it repairs a hole in my psyche, so it's invaluable.

I think the only two missing bootlegs I'm still looking for are a Lennon 10 inch called A Guitar's All Right, John, and The Beatles Hahst az Son - made up of Let It Be sessions on a double album.

The Argent album is their sixth album, their last for CBS and their first without Russ Ballad. John Verity is the new vocalist/ replacement for Ballad. 

My reviews of other Argent albums can be found here, here and here. Why so many, and why Circus? I like Argent's unpretentious brand of prog rock. Yes, this is a concept album but it's built around a circus experience as a metaphor for life. As Obi Wan might say - nothing pretentious going on here, move along, move along. It's a solid mid seventies light prog album which does no harm.

I've written about my Van Morrison collection three times so far (here, here and here). He's an artist that refuses to be ignored as the years go by and his releases stack up.

The reviews for Van's 47th studio album, 2025's Remembering Now, were uniform in their opinion that this one of his best ever albums. It's staggering that his first album was released almost 60 years ago. Obviously, given the amount of music he releases (22 albums in the last 26 years), the quality will vary. Plus, being in his eighties - he's no spring chicken. When the inspiration hits, though, as it does on this album, he's in a class of his own.

There's something extremely gratifying when each song starts and then Van the man begins his vocals - that familiar reassurance that comes with his familiar delivery. May he make many more albums like Remembering Now. 

I was alerted to the fact that I failed to own Santana's Festival album when I did the late seventies section of my Santana posts. I haven't been missing much it seems. Only Carnaval/Let the Children Play and Let the Music Set You Free stand out. The rest is slow paced and sludgy. Not Santana's best moment.

Where do they all belong? Back to the countdown next - we're up to Rick Wakeman.