Welcome to the Album Nerds podcast with your hosts, Andy, Don, and Dude.
Hello, hello, hello.
Is anybody in there?
The Album Nerds podcast.
I'm Dude, I got Andy and Don with me.
Andy, what the hell is happening, my friend?
I'd love to tell you, buddy, but after this week of listening, I think it would take me
about 18 minutes and I'd have to break it into about five different parts.
It might be a sci-fi theme intertwined somewhere.
Sweet.
I'm in.
Skip it for now.
Professor Don.
What's up?
Because it's time, it's time and time with your time and its news is captured.
You know that song?
No.
Yes.
I gotta do it in the voice.
No.
Because it's time, it's time and your time with the...
That song.
That Mickey Mouse song.
All right.
So we are the Album Nerds.
This is the Album Nerds podcast.
We got a great show for you today.
We're going to be musing about the progression through progressive rock that we took throughout
the week.
We're going to each pick an album and discuss it.
We're going to be answering a question that's loosely related to the topic of today's show.
We're going to talk about what we learned and then we'll spin the wheel of musical destiny
to find out what kind of albums we'll talk about next time.
But here we go, folks, 70s progressive rock.
That's what I'm talking about.
Progressive rock is a broad genre of rock music developed in the UK and the US in the
mid to late 1960s and it kind of peaked in the 1970s.
Would you say it progressed to its highest pinnacle in the 70s?
Yes, thank you.
Epidemic bands abandoned standard pop traditions in favor of instrumentation and compositional
techniques more frequently associated with jazz, folk and classical music.
Lyrics became more poetic and technology was harnessed for new sounds.
The studio became a key instrument.
Stereotypically, progressive rock involved long solos, long albums, fantasy lyrics, grandiose
stage sets and costumes.
Many artists have donned the progressive label, including King Crimson, Genesis, Emerson Lake
and Palmer, Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd.
Today, each of us will present a progressive rock album from the 1970s.
Yeah, that's a daunting task.
Because of the time period, the albums themselves aren't super long unless they're a double
album.
So that's a bonus.
If we did 90s progressive rock like Dream Theater or something, we'd be in big trouble,
which that may come.
Who knows?
The Wheel knows, that's who.
Yeah, I had already had an album in mind.
And so when this came up, I just jumped to it.
I didn't really navigate those waters.
I was counting on you guys for picking two classics for me to digest.
So thank you for that.
How'd you guys do?
Looks like you were really working the list.
Yeah, there's a lot to pick from this.
I knew this was like the peak of the genre, but man, there was a plethora of bands going
at it, at the sound in the early to mid 70s.
So yeah, I listened to a bunch of Genesis, Selling England by the Pound, and Foxtrot
specifically, a bunch of King Crimson records, Supertramp, a group called Gentle Giants.
I did listen to that one, yes.
Octopus, yeah.
A lot of these records, I gotta be honest, were really cringy and sounded super dated
to me.
I don't know how you guys felt similarly about some of the topics if not age too well.
Well, that's what I'm counting on.
I'm counting on that sound though.
I expect it and that's what I want.
If I'm listening to 70s prog, that's what I want.
If I find something that holds up, that's great, but I go into it with this is gonna
be cheesy.
Well, I was not disappointed to go into that mindset.
Hopefully, we found one that does hold up pretty well.
I don't know if you guys are aware, but I'm a Pink Floyd fan.
I mean, I think there's a large number of albums from their catalog that would apply.
I had actually thought about doing Adam Hart Mother, which came out in 1970.
It's a pre Dark Side of the Moon album, but in typical progressive style.
The opening cut is like 18 minutes long and has an orchestra and all that.
Also spent some time with Genesis, Selling England by the Pound.
Then also Mike Oldfield has an album called Tubular Bells.
The one cut was actually the music for The Exorcist.
That was an interesting record.
Yeah, sounds like, well, you guys in particular had quite a journey and we narrowed it down
to three.
Why don't we get into it?
Well, we don't have to rush.
Hey yo.
You choo choo choos me?
Modern day warrior named Tom Sawyer.
He loaded down a river on a raft with a black guy.
That's not Tom Sawyer, that's Uncle Barry Fitts, stupid.
I am Tom Sawyer.
You're a fool.
I am Tom Sawyer.
That's not Tom Sawyer, that's Uncle Barry Fitts, stupid.
I am Geddy Lee and I will sing whatever names I will.
That's great.
All right.
Indeed we are talking about Rush and their 1976 album 2112.
This is the fourth studio album for the Canadian three piece featuring Geddy Lee, Alex Leisson,
and Neil Burt.
It was kind of a make it or break it album for the band.
One of the band's labels was considering dropping them because of their previous records performance
and then they put out this masterpiece.
So let's play a little bit of the opening cut.
This is the section called The Temples of Syrinx.
I think that's a reference to you, dude.
No idea.
Isn't that the girl on the iPhone?
Hey Syrinx, play Rush.
I don't know what Rush is, but I'll read you this article from Wikipedia.
Well that song in particular is tied to some elements of a book by Anne Rand called Anthem
tells the story of the city of Megadon.
Megadon.
Yeah.
Yes, Megadon.
I thought that's my transformer name.
Megadon transformer.
Yeah, so there's a cabal of benevolent priests who live in the Temple of Syrinx where creativity
is outlawed.
So there you go.
Now you know.
And also the plot to Footloose.
Pretty close actually.
Oh, okay.
My three words describe this record are still years ahead.
I think as futuristic as this music sounded in 1970 and I think it still sounds pretty
modern today.
You know, as we're talking about some of these prog records from the 70s have not aged too
well.
I think this one still sounds great to me, especially that side A, that really lengthy
20 minute opener.
You could say maybe it's a bit uneven at times, but there's so many cool parts to it and it
really does unfold kind of like you're watching a sci-fi movie.
You know, like a lot of cinematic qualities to it.
I really appreciate it on Headphone Listen.
That is one requirement I think of progressive rock from this era at least.
Have headphones on then you hear little things, whispers and stuff that might take you by
surprise.
Yeah.
There's so many little details and studio effects sprinkled in here that really do make
it feel cinematic, I think.
So yeah, once you get past that long opening cut, which is the entire side A of the original
release, you get into a collection of more traditional lang songs that are a little bit
tighter.
More rushy, you know, more of their standard stuff.
More standard rush style.
Yeah.
Let's play one of those next here.
It's a little bit of a passage to Banker.
I saw someone describe the lyrics as being about like drug tourism.
Yeah.
Actually, Alec Lifeson said, this piece is about a fun little journey to all the good
places you could go to have a puff.
We thought it would be kind of fun to write a song about that.
Sorry, is have a puff Canadian for smoke weed?
It might be.
I think so.
Yeah.
So that's a nice little rock tune to start off side B. The words I chose to describe
the album are the holy triumvirate.
I believe among Rush fans, I don't know what they call themselves, Rush heads or Russians.
They use that expression to characterize the three members of the band.
And it makes sense because the three of them are just kind of masters of their crafts,
right?
I mean, Neil Peart is considered to be one of the great drummers.
Lifeson is a really innovative guitarist.
And you know, Geddy Lee is, well, I mean, he's a vocalist.
It's very unique those lyrics.
Yes.
He is a vocalist.
Well, it's weird because he's got the high pitch sort of, you know, you would think Led
Zeppelin E. You would think kind of like what, you know, Judas Priest and metal voices, but
not really.
It's a little more nasally, I would say, than Led Zeppelin or Judas Priest.
There's less machismo behind it, I think, because that's not the intent.
That's not what this band is.
They're just following the muse, right?
Also Geddy's bass playing is very...
Oh, sure.
Very good.
You know, there's some really cool licks in there that I keep saying, oh, the bass player's
good.
I'm like, oh, wait, that's Geddy.
I picture him using like the double neck bass where he's using six string bass and four
string bass.
Yeah.
So, I mean, you know, despite them just being this tight and innovative rock band, you know,
I do think maybe the barriers to people listening to Rush are often, I think, Geddy Lee's voice
and maybe, you know, Peart's some of the kind of sci-fi fantasy style lyrics.
Just the discography is like super dense and there's a lot going on in each record.
Even 2112, there's only six tracks, but there's a lot to absorb.
A lot of space and time.
Yeah.
But yeah, I understand why, you know, this is viewed by many as being their best record,
even though like none of the hits that I know that used to be played on like classic rock
radio and stuff are on this.
Yeah, it's just an excellent album.
I think all the songs are solid.
Once you embrace Geddy Lee, you know, you're good.
I think that's true for a lot of singers.
And of course, I appreciate the use of analog synthesizers and Mellotron.
Maybe it's because you have more artists now that have kind of gone back and done some
of those early synth sounds.
But you know, if there was anything that was kind of dated about Rush, I think it would
be the Mellotron usage.
But now I think maybe it fits again with what's out there now.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Let me play the next cut from the record.
This is a little bit of The Twilight Zone.
Yes, classic Rush.
So The Twilight Zone was an homage to Rod Serling, the creator of The Twilight Zone
television program that was popular in what, the 60s?
Love that show.
Every Halloween, I'll just put that on in the background.
I think I've seen all of them.
But you know, if I had known, as when I was younger, if I had known about Rush's love
for The Twilight Zone and sci-fi stuff, I might have actually dug in.
I didn't know any of those elements were there because I think people weren't talking about
that as much.
The three words I used to describe this album, geek gods on high.
Yeah, the geekiness is what I've finally really figured out here.
I've always preferred moving pictures, but listening to this album and kind of digging
into the lyrics and understanding that there's a story and then Twilight Zone references
where, I mean, they did it so well in that song because they actually, like at the beginning,
that clip we played is kind of the intro that Rod Serling would have done.
And then they actually are referring to, will the real Martian please stand up and stop
over in a quiet town two episodes of The Twilight Zone.
Their love of it is like, it's a bonding moment.
And I think that's what Rush is able to do in this area.
No wonder why their fans love them because they're them.
They're their friends.
And then you can look up to these guys, but they're the same as you, right?
And I think that's part of what makes it so appealing.
Yes, they fund a little nerd subculture.
They're all into these same ideas.
I just think that's awesome.
And I didn't get it before this week.
I didn't get that part and now I do.
And I think I'm going to have to dig in a little bit more.
I mean, I listen to, I think I've listened to all their records over time, but I haven't
done it from a perspective of connecting.
It was always from trying to connect.
And this time, because we had to listen to things so many times and had it in my headphones
and in The Twilight Zone song, I've got Geddy Lee giving me the ASMR treatment in the left
channel.
Like he's whispering some of the lines.
I was like, the hell?
So yeah, it's digging into this stuff.
Sometimes this show helps me probably more than it helps our listeners.
And I hope they're listening carefully right now.
Go listen to these records that we're talking about because sometimes you're just going
to find stuff that really surprises you.
So that was my experience.
It was great.
Yeah.
I think, you know, 2112 and Green Pictures, they both have those iconic nerdy elements
you expect with Rush, but they're, at least in my experience, they're both accessible
enough and have enough, you know, tight tracks and catchy melodies and enough things you
can relate to, to make them pretty accessible, at least in terms of Prog Rock goes.
This is the one I usually come back to the most.
Yeah, I think I'm going to nominate this for the Elm Nurtz Hall of Fame.
For me, it's like kind of a toss up on whether this or Moving Pictures is their masterpiece.
This opening cut here, I think is the best thing they've done.
So what do you guys think?
Yeah, I think it's a Hall of Famer.
You know, I mean, Rush is a legendary act.
They're their own sound.
So even though they're kind of lumped into this progressive era, you know, I think they
do stand out from the other artists.
And you know, if there is a Rush album to go in, I think this is it.
So I vote yes.
All right.
Yes.
I don't think that they're a Prog Rock band.
I think they're a rock band that can do progressive rock and they have those elements throughout
their other albums.
And this one is the most fully progressive rock in my limited exposure.
I don't put them into the same like genre as like a Pink Floyd.
I think that they'll use different colors and paint different pictures.
It's not always in that same path.
So I appreciate this record and I think it's definitely Hall of Fame worthy.
All right.
Well, congratulations to the Triumvirate.
Welcome to the Ain't Hops guys.
Finally living in the limelight.
Yes.
So proud.
So that is Rush, 2112.
I'm good enough.
I'm smart enough.
And doggone it.
People like me.
If you're enjoying the show and we hope you are, do us a solid and leave a review on Apple
podcasts or your favorite podcast app.
Maybe we made you laugh or you discovered an album you enjoy.
Leaving a review keeps the show going and helps other music fans find us.
Yes.
I'll have what she's having.
The Progressive Rock album I chose from the 1970s is Close to the Edge by the band Yes.
This is their fifth studio album by the group founded in London in 1968.
Yes has changed their lineup many times.
The lineup at this time featured John Anderson on lead vocals, Steve Howe on guitars, Chris
Squire on bass, Rick Wakeman on like every type of keyboard you could possibly imagine.
All at the same time.
And Bill Bruford on drums.
So let's hear the opening cut, the title track.
In fact, the entire side A is 18 minutes of this song, Close to the Edge.
Typical of prog rock, this opening cut is all over the place.
There's some kind of improvisational stuff mixed in.
And then there's some good kind of progressive E pop in there, some sound effects.
But somehow it all ties together pretty well.
The whole album, Close to the Edge is supposedly inspired by the book Siddhartha.
Siddhartha.
Yeah.
By Herman Hess, which is a spiritual journey of self discovery.
Actually, you know, one of my favorite parts of this album, there's actually four movements
to it.
But in the final movement, there's this late jam where Wakeman is on the keyboards.
I believe he's actually playing a pipe organ at a local church.
And that's, yeah, there's some really good instrumental parts to that track.
So the three words I chose to describe the album, Close to the Edge indeed.
That's more than three words.
But it is sort of teetering or straddling kind of that line between like really good
experimental rock and kind of like overdone cheese.
They remain on the good side of that, but they're dangerously close to slipping over
that edge.
Interestingly, so the producer they worked with, Eddie Offord, actually handled the live
sound for them on tour.
And in order to recreate sort of the live experience in the studio, he actually built
a stage for them in the studio so they could perform as if they're at a concert, which
is interesting.
Apparently, the recording process was a big struggle.
You've got four creative types all kind of attempting to dominate.
I guess they were meticulously going through every instrument and every part and debating
it.
But I think they do a great job of still maintaining a true rock and roll performance.
It doesn't succumb to, I don't know, studio trickery or something like that.
This is still just four guys playing their instruments for the most part.
Plus they're cutting tape, right?
This was before all the Pro Tools and all that stuff.
So even if you are manipulating things, you still are cutting pieces of tape, taping little
chunks together.
And it's artistry regardless.
Okay, well, let's hear some more artistry.
Here's the first cut on side B, And You and I.
Okay, so And You and I, another long one of the three tracks on the album.
I chose the movement part three, the preacher and the teacher.
It kind of addresses the role of religion and spirituality in our lives, criticizes
the division between science and religion.
And I think it's shining light on this sort of holistic integrated approach to understanding
the world where we all kind of try and see things from each other's perspectives.
Or it's just a bunch of rhyming words strung together on a super long track.
He does have kind of a stream of consciousness style to his lyric writing, I would say, reading
through them.
And there's a natural flow to them.
Yeah, but the whole song is a multi-layered piece with these sections where it's a chord
of life, eclipse, the preacher and the teacher, and apocalypse.
And my question is, why don't just make them four tracks?
Right.
That's a good question for a lot of these records.
And that's kind of where sometimes it loses me with progressive rock of this era where
it's like, are you stringing them together, making it one piece because it has to be?
And that's the artistic question.
I mean, are these chapters of a book as opposed to individual short stories?
So I think that's the part that's sometimes hard to parse when it comes to this music.
The three words I used to describe this album are what she's having, because this is not
something I would have gone out of my way to listen to, mostly because of Owner of a
Lonely Heart, and that's all I think of Yes being is an 80s kind of corny.
I mean, it's okay, but I'll go, bam, bam, so 80s and splashy.
So I've known that Yes and Rick Wakeman are like a big deal in the space, but I've never
listened to those albums.
And Yes, again, like The Rush, I'm starting to get it.
I'm getting the appeal.
And so if someone else was playing this, they would say, yes, yes, yes, because they're
so into it.
And then I'd say, I'll check out what she's having.
So again, open up, learn something.
And I love that.
Okay, well, let's since there's only three official songs on the album, let's listen
to the final one.
Siberian Tattoo.
Damn you, Andy, you got your song picking before me.
This was my choice because it's the most like regular song.
Guitar riff, man.
I love that little thing.
So good.
My three words for this record are shit.
I guess I like Yes, No.
Hey.
I like the dude is saying I kind of also had similar ideas in my hands about what Yes sounded
like mostly tainted by their eighties output.
But I really enjoyed this record.
It's got a lot of stuff that I appreciate as kind of like a nerdy technical guy.
I found a lot of the especially the opening cut close to the edge.
I thought it was just like a small miracle in some ways that they were able to pull off
all of the technical wizardry at the beginning and then develop some themes and then bring
them back later on.
I just thought that actually worked really well.
Yeah.
And I guess the other thing that really impressed me by them, you can hear a lot of like folk
influence on their music, maybe from like the sixties.
I'm not exactly sure where they were getting their influences from, but a lot of these
songs were a lot softer and a bit warmer than I expected from like a, you know, usually
Prague is very technical and just cold sounding.
You and I, I thought it was pretty grounded sounding and, you know, had some real warmth
to it, kind of gentle.
But yeah, lots of interesting moments on this record and I, you know, I'll probably listen
to Fragile a lot.
They wrote their album before this growing up.
I might revisit that a little bit now and kind of dig into this era of yes, because
I think they were really doing something pretty interesting.
I don't know if you guys remember the guitar solo at the end of that track we just played
there.
It is this kind of bizarre guitar solo that doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the song
or even the rest of the album.
Did you guys know that?
No, I mean, I just assume everything fits in with the song or album because they put
it there and this was all so deliberate, right?
So you're, we're just, if you think it doesn't belong, you're missing something.
Go back and listen again.
Right.
It was probably written on a tablet somewhere that they discovered a guitar solo must sound
like this.
Yeah, they are.
I mean, similar to Rush.
You know, I think this really is a great collection of musicians, right?
I mean, I think Steve Howe is another kind of innovative guitarist.
You know, of course, Rick Wakeman is a great keyboardist and then similar to Rush, I think
John Anderson vocally might also be a barrier for some people.
I thought he was less off putting on this album than others.
Yeah, totally agree.
Yeah, it's always smooth.
It's always smooth from him.
Which I kind of like now, I'd say there's more precision here everywhere and comparing
it to Rush, 2112, there's still that rock band mentality, even though there's a lot
of really purposeful stuff, there's still a little bit of that looseness and yes, nothing's
loose.
Okay.
So from September, 1972, that was Yes with Close to the Edge.
Excuse me.
I'd like to ask you a few questions.
Okay, it's that exciting time on the show when we ask ourselves a question.
One of the biggest critiques of progressive rock is its over complexity and lengthy track
runtimes.
What else do you guys partake in that others might perceive as being overly complex?
Yeah, I'll mention a nerdy video game I was into for a couple of years called Path of
Exile, which is like a PC game where you develop a character and you have all these different
traits and stuff.
It drives me nuts.
It is one of those games you could literally spend the rest of your life playing and learning
all the intricacies and details of and all the different systems and whatnot.
No, it's one of those games you could definitely lose yourself for a long time or get really
deep into something and then realize it really has no bearing on the rest of your life or
any realities.
Yeah, you look down, your nails are three inches long.
It's like, what the hell just happened?
Totally.
But yeah, I mean, the depth of video games nowadays is definitely so much more than when
I was growing up and it's pretty impressive.
I like those kinds of games, but I don't like it when there's too many attributes and things
that I want it to be.
I need simplicity, except for when it comes to fantasy football, which I've been playing
for over 20 years and it has evolved.
Everyone is familiar with, you pick players from real teams and then each week you get
points based on what they do in real life.
But for the overly complex people, the people that can't get enough and want to be involved
in fantasy football year round, there's dynasty leagues, which basically you draft a team
and you keep those guys forever.
And then every year there's a rookie draft and you draft rookies.
But throughout the off season, there's constant chatter where you're trading future draft
picks for players.
It's just like, I did a draft in March, a startup dynasty, and I've made a bunch of
trades.
There's this constant chatter among my league mates all year and I love it.
But it is certainly more complex when you've got to think about age.
Do I want Tyreek Hill or do I want a younger Amon Ross St. Brown because I'll have him
for more years?
Is he going to develop into something more?
Like a lot more of that, like you can sort of pretend like you're a team owner or a coach.
Sounds like a full-time job, man.
It's a little in depth, but I'm really loving it.
It's keeping me satisfied as far as year round fantasy football.
Yes.
Well, my answer is a game as well, but it's more aspirational because I'm terrible.
Andy recently kind of reintroduced me to the world of chess.
I think my dad showed me how to play when I was a kid and I've basically stayed at that
skill level since then and I barely ever played.
But I decided maybe because I'm a professor or something, I feel like I should be decent
at chess.
Yeah, you got those elbow patches.
You got to play chess.
Exactly.
So I've been trying to get better.
What I like about chess as compared to other board games is there's no chance involved
at all.
There's no dice.
It's all just...
It's very even.
Yeah.
And the piece of it, some of the movements are kind of complicated.
It's sort of a simple game, but it's also complex, right?
Well, you got to do a lot of...
Depending on your opponent, like with me, it wouldn't be complex.
You would destroy me.
I don't like that.
If you have a strong opponent, then yeah, you're playing mind games.
You're trying to look at their style.
What move did they make?
Why did they make it?
What are they thinking?
What are their next five steps that they might take?
And yeah, that's why I don't play.
I'm not there yet, but Andy's actually the chess master of the album nerds.
Oh, well, that's not saying much.
I would play it if they developed a kind of a die that's like the one for Dungeons and
Dragons and you roll it and it tells you what piece to move where.
Then I would play.
If it was all random chance, I would play.
If you turn chess into life, then...
Okay.
So what other complex things are you guys into?
Let us know.
Reach out on the socials, Facebook, Instagram and threads.
Also discord, albonderds.com slash discord.
If anything should happen to me, you must go to God.
You must say these words, clatul, berada, nicto.
So that was a little something from the day that Earth stood still from 1951.
It's a film.
There was a remake with Keanu as well.
So I went with Clatu for my 1970s prog rock pick.
Clatu is a Canadian rock band formed in 1973 by John Woltzchuck, Dee Long and Terry Draper.
Dubbed the Canadian Beatles and we'll get into that in a bit.
But this album is their debut.
It's called 347 Eastern Standard Time.
In America it was just called Clatu.
So why don't we jump in with the opening track, Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft.
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft.
Kind of sounds like a sneeze.
Gesundheit.
Thank you.
Yeah, there's a whole story here that I don't want to get too deep into because we should
talk about the music.
But essentially they were on Capitol Records.
They decided they wanted the music to speak for itself.
So there's no pictures of them in the album art.
There's no mention of their names.
Just all songs written by Clatu.
So this came out in August of 1976 and there was an article written.
The reviewer said, hey, because there's some really Beatles moments on here, could this
be a secret project of the Beatles?
And then they found all these reasons as to why.
Clatu is the character from When the Earth Stood Still and then Ringo Starr had an album
cover that had the robot from that movie on it and a spaceship.
And there was a bunch of other goofy reasons that people decided that was what was going
on or could be.
So there's a lot of chatter.
Capitol took advantage of it and said, oh, they're very mysterious and wouldn't say,
and they're the same label that distributed Beatles records in America.
And the band was actually in London recording their second album at the time this was going
on with the London Symphony Orchestra.
And the rumor mill took off and then it got discovered, the truth, and it kind of died
off.
So this had a little burst of popularity, so much so that the song Calling Occupants
of Interplanetary Craft was covered by the Carpenters and was a minor hit.
The three words I used to describe this album, psych, prog, casserole, lots of influences.
It's kind of like ELO on acid with the Beatles-esque undercurrent.
So we got Beatles queen, King Crimson, Beach Boys, little ZZ Top Boogie Rock.
It's progressive and psychedelic, but it's really a mixed bag of things.
It's more of a psychedelic or just a rock band that fiddled in progressive rock and
other areas.
Very creative chaps there from Canada.
Yes, another Canadian band.
Also same producer for this record, Terry Brown, produced it with Clatoo and he produced
2112.
So why don't we check out a little bit more of these kooky Canadians with, God, why Andy,
by Sir Bodsworth, Rugglesby the Third.
So the album podcast was brought to you by the letter C and the number 12.
Yeah, definitely has some Oscar the Garage vibes going on there.
Yeah, that's Sesame Street.
Like I don't get it.
Well, why would I pick a song like that to play?
I think I just want to show the breadth that this album goes through over the course of
its 35 minutes.
There's such a variety or a smattering of different psychedelic related sounds happening
here.
The three words I use to describe this album are Beatles from Mars.
It's a very strange record.
I mean, I definitely enjoyed moments here.
I think the opening cut is very good and there's a handful of other kind of like surf rock
related psychedelic jammy things happening that are cool.
There's Anus of Uranus, which is the sort of ZZ Toppy boogie rock thing.
It's again about an alien, right?
Of course.
There's definitely this sort of like sci-fi theme here.
It's inescapable in this genre.
There are those couple of songs that are super Beatle-y though, Sub Rosa Subway, which is
very McCartney-esque and Dr. Marvelo, which is I would say has a lot of George Harrison
sound, even the way they pronounce words.
It's a little suspect.
Yeah, I could definitely see why that rumor would start.
There's moments on here that sound very Beatle-esque for sure.
But I don't know.
There's so many other weird moments that don't sound like something the Beatles would do.
I could see, this is definitely its own thing.
I mean, the closing track I think is something the Beatles could never pull off.
That's much more in line with something like Pink Floyd would do.
Yeah, more progressive.
But I don't know.
It's an interesting little bit of history, but as an album as a whole, I felt like it
was pretty inconsistent for me at least.
It's fun, but it's weird and I enjoy the story behind it and I really like some of the songs.
That's something I will continue to listen to just because it's so kooky.
But they did made I think five albums total and their second album, Hope, is much more
developed and it's more progressive and it is a concept album about, again, aliens.
But it's got real orchestration and I think it's a better album, but by that time the
hype had already died.
So, why don't we explore the closing track that Andy alluded to?
It's called Little Neutrino.
I like that song.
I do too.
I love it.
I like it too.
Yeah.
That one was written by Dee Long.
I assumed the voice effect, I assumed that it was like the talk box thing that Peter
Frampton made famous.
And Bon Jovi.
Oh, right.
But it's actually just one of those artificial Lernixes, but I feel like this could be one
of those anti-smoking PSAs.
Well, yeah, I think the first time I listened to this album, I was getting angry by the
Beatles cuts because they were just so blatantly Beatles.
So, I wasn't pleased with that.
But then finally, I think this last song cut through and maybe it was appealing to that
Pink Floyd sensibility that I have.
But it's a darker song.
Used to be about loneliness, like he's a lonely neutrino or something.
From what I read is a journey of the neutrino from the sun.
So, solar neutrinos traveling to the earth, making its way to us and becoming a part of
us.
Again, the sci-fi spacey stuff.
But yeah, a really cool way to end the album.
I did warm up to it over time.
Just like all these, all three of these records I think required some breathing space or something.
The three words I chose to describe the album, again, not three words.
The day rock stood still.
All right.
So, I did see this more as like a regressive album than a progressive album.
Because I think for the most part, they're just kind of emulating others.
Like you said, there's the Beatles obviously and ZZ Top.
They managed to be good enough at all of it that it's still like a good record.
I wouldn't say it's like an all-time great, but it's a good record.
It's entertaining and fun to listen to and there's a lot to imagine when you're hearing
it.
Yeah.
Yeah, I agree that they do a great job with kind of emulating their influences.
There's some good songwriting here.
The Carpenters don't just cover anything.
Yeah.
So, I mean, overall, I'm happy with the listening experience.
I see it kind of more as like a novelty record or whatever with a cool story.
But I mean, I'll probably listen to it again at some point.
If the spirit of progressive rock is to kind of advance things or take music in different
directions, they're not really doing that.
Maybe they were trying to progress the sound of the Beatles, which really needed some adjustments.
Yeah.
I mean, when I first heard of this a couple of years ago, I've wanted to talk about it
on the show just because that's what I think the best part of this record is, yes, it's
enjoyable.
You can get into some of the songs and it's fun, but it's the kind of thing that you get
to go talk about and tell people about and they're like, what the hell?
And you can get people to listen to it and it sparks conversation and that's what I really
enjoyed the most about this record.
Clatou, depending on if you want to just call it Clatou or you want to call it 347 EST,
go check it out.
It's weird.
It's only 35 minutes of your life and I think it'll be a good 35.
George Washington, man.
He was in a cult and the cult was in the aliens, man.
You didn't know that?
All right.
So we progressed through progressive rock of the 1970s.
What did we learn?
Well, as an album nerd, I guess I really appreciated the nerdiness of this music, especially all
of the little in-jokes and references to sci-fi and other nerdy kind of things.
Like that Clatou record, he mentioned the title of 347, apparently a reference to the
time that the aliens attacked and the day they were stilled still.
I thought that was kind of a cool nod to sci-fi.
All these albums are very soaked in sci-fi and storytelling and I love that shit, the
concept records and all that.
The genre itself is pretty dense and can be hard to get into, but I think we found a way
in there a little time, a little patience.
Yeah, it was kind of the same for me where the sci-fi elements, I really hadn't connected
that so much.
I always thought it was just too much.
If I wanted orchestration, I'd go listen to classical, but listening to these records
really did open me up to playing around in the genre a little bit more.
I mean, there are a lot of bands from the 70s, 80s, 90s, 60s and beyond that I just
haven't given a lot of time because that progressive rock label just made it seem like it'd be
too complicated.
It can be, but sometimes the reward is so great that it's worth wading through it and
seeing if there's something special there.
Yeah, and the beauty of progressive rock is just that there's more to it usually than
the surface.
This was a tough week even though I think I listened to these albums as much as I ever
do in preparation for a show, but I still don't feel like I listened enough.
And they're short records, but it's just dense.
The lyrics are usually something interesting that I have to look up to make sense of.
I also decided that I prefer Pink Floyd.
Oh, God.
Give it some more time.
You said that you didn't get enough, so maybe it's time.
I mean, I'm not saying stop loving Pink Floyd, but sometimes it's best for the things we
love to leave them alone, leave them behind.
Maybe it's time for something else.
Yeah, you know, if Pink Floyd loves you, it'll let it go and it'll come back.
Yeah.
And that's one to grow on.
I'm your density.
I mean, your destiny.
All right, boys and girls.
Time to gather around and give that Wadbot a spin to see what we'll be listening to.
Next week.
You better check the weather.
The forecast calls for a quiet storm.
This week, you will be exploring albums featuring songs that could be included in the Quiet
Storm Radio format.
Lay back and enjoy.
Oh, lucky us.
Lucky me, because I just put this on the wheel.
Quiet Storm.
Is that wheel weighted over there?
What's going on?
It's not weighted.
It was really close to being metal guitar shredders, but it went one more stop, which
was what I was really hoping for.
We got Quiet Storm.
Quiet Storm.
All right.
So some easy listening for late night.
Potentially sexy soul music.
Sounds good for these cool autumn nights.
Maybe.
Don't forget, we do have two ongoing Albinards Hall of Fame votes in progress.
You can vote for Slana Tommy Stone.
There's a rock going on and Roxy's Music Avalon on our website, albinerds.com and on our Discord,
albinerds.com slash Discord.
What's your favorite 70s progressive rock album?
What the heck is Quiet Storm?
Let us know.
Join fellow Album Nerds on Discord at albumnerds.com slash Discord.
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support.
Thank you so much for joining us on the Albinards podcast.
We'll catch you next time with Quiet Storm.
Thanks for listening everybody.
We'll catch you next week.
Though his mind is not for rent, don't put him down as arrogant.
How's that?
It's up there even for you.
What?
Not bad.
Salesman.
I know.
We can appreciate that.