------------------------------------------------------- APRIL 1979 ------------------------------------------------------- Source: Press Release, Archived by Paul Adams http://groups.msn.com/pauladams1/rickssecondmiscellanypage3.msnw The Six Lives of Rick Wakeman: Wakeman on Wakeman By Rick Wakeman Wakeman on the new album "Rhapsodies" and self-indulgence It's well over the top. I actually sing on it which is quite amusing. It's a double album, all short pieces, between three and five minutes. It's my "stuff the industry" album. Let me explain that phrase! I'm not doing what anyone expects me to do anymore. All the things I used to say I wouldn't dare to do, I've done. It's total self-indulgence, very kindly helped by my producer Tony Visconti who said, "Yeah, go on do it!" All my normal stuff I brought to him, he said, "Right, you can throw that away" and I needed someone like Tony to say "Enjoy yourself". It contains a reggae version of "Swan Lake", a disco version of "Rhapsody In Blue", a trad jazz track with all keyboard instrumentsand an out-and-out, almost Vanilla Fudge rock and roll thing. It's not a send-up, I've just never had the nerve to do what I want before. Out of that, I've decided that from now on I'll be purely self-indulgent. I've always been honest in what I've done before and if someone says, "You can't, that's dreadful!" I'll say, "Yeah, it's good isn't it?" I enjoy being dreadful. Wakeman on Showmanship, Life on a Pedestal and the desire for immortality I've only realised just recently that the word show man is totally and utterly about insecurity. It's purely an insurance policy. It's only when albums like "Journey To The Centre Of The Earth" and "The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur" sold well that I realised that I needn't have put on such a show. But I'd sit down and think, "I wonder if people will understand what I'm getting at here? Maybe I ought to show them this", and you start adding things. I think I went too far to a certain extent, bit I'm glad I did it and I'd do it again every time. The people in the street, who you really want to be a part of, come along to a concert and put you up on a pedestal, they expect something so you have to provide it. The trouble was that the spectaculars and the cost of putting them on got more write-ups than the music, so I destroyed what I was trying to do in the first place. People expected the showmanship thing, but I wanted to get out of it so I made "No Earthly Connection" and the weird thing was it was one of the worst record sales I'd ever had. I made a fatal error because i put too much of myself and personal thoughts into the music and came down off the pedestal. But I'm glad I did it and I like that album an awful lot. Eventually, when I croak or when I'm ninety, I wouldn't give a toss if nobody remembers the stupid shows but I'd really like just one piece of music, whatever it was, to live on. It's very egotistical, but not as egotistical as wanting my own name to be immortal. Wakeman on Greenbacks, Axing the Taxman and Life on a Mountain Top If you want to work hard and keep the rewards, you can't do it here, it's sad. There are people who have left because they want to be millionaires. I'm not a millionaire. In assets I'm a rich little fella, but not in cash. The money I save on tax by living in Switzerland goes straight back into music. If there are two keyboard instruments coming out, I can buy them both which helps me musically. What the taxman forgets is that I employ my road crew abroad, buy my instruments abroad, so one person leaving affects a lot of others. I went to Switzerland originally to do some work on the Yes album "Going For The One" and I loved it. I'm eventually hoping to buy the old farmhouse where I live, right up in the mountains. It's great for working and I'm mostly undisturbed because it's almost impossible to find. I like to have a peaceful, quiet home and go to the city when i want a good time. It's only 15 minutes to Lausanne, 10 minutes to Montreux and a couple of hours by air to London which is not that different from driving up to town in the rush-hour. I'm about to become a Swiss resident and the main thing I'll miss about England is how it was when I was a little boy, when everybody was extra-ordinarily proud of their country. Wakeman on Brentford and Balinloning Soccer was always my thing. I'm still very much vice-president of Brentford. One day I'd like to be a director but I haven't got the time to devote to them at the moment. They mean an awful lot to me, that club, and every time they play I phone up and find out the results from the papers. Many times I've left my house in Switzerland at 1.00 o'clock, been at Brentford for kick-off and got back to the local pub in Montreux by 8.00 o'clock. It works out at about £400 a game, but I've done it lots of times. My involvement with horse-racing began when I acquired "Tropical Saint". When he died, I literally cried. We did everything for him but he had a heart attack. Now I've got this tiny little horse called Balinloning. He'd never won a race, nobody cared about him when I bought him. We gave him the best of everything for about a year and then entered him for racing. Last year he had about three firsts, two seconds and a third. He gives all he's got, he just goes to sleep for two days after a race. He's a smashing horse, but the most I'll put on him is a fiver. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, inquiries, corrections, or additions, contact yitp@yesservices.com