---------------------------------------------------- JUNE 16, 2001 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: New Gibralter Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock http://www.gepr.net/wfram.html Rick Wakeman By Fred Trafton  Rick Wakeman, keyboardist extraordinare, has had a quite prolific and varied solo career. Most are familiar with his first, and possibly best, the Six Wives of Henry VIII. Recorded when he was in Yes, it showcases his ability as a keyboardist, writer, and arranger.  His second and third releases are also considered classics of his repetoire, but denounced by some as being too "pretentious," since they use full orchestra and choir. Journey to the Center of the Earth is based on the Jules Verne novel of the same name, and was recorded live. It mixes instrumental tracks, vocals, and narration to form a grand concept album. One weakness felt by some is Wakeman's poor choice of vocalists. Arthur, while similiar in scope, is a studio recording.  It is musically strong, recounting tales of knights and such. Some great keyboards here. Lisztomania is the soundtrack to a film by Kurt Russel, starring Roger Daltry. It is a rock opera about Liszt. White Rock is the soundtrack to a film about the 1976 winter olympics. This is one of his stronger efforts, made up of all instrumental keyboard type pieces. Great minimoog jamming on the title cut. In '76, his group was called the English Rock ensemble, and was pared down from a full orchestra to standard rock instrumentation plus a few horns.  No Earthly Connection is a strange album. It is supposed to be about the universality of music, or something like that. It's kind of strange, and musically kind of cheesy. However, in '77 saw him return to Yes and return to form. Criminal Record is one of his best releases, helped by Alan White and Chris Squire. Six pieces having to do with criminal justice, it showcases Wakeman at his best. A great keyboard album. His swansong with A&M records, Rhapsodies, is a mixed bag. It has some great uptempo keyboard songs (including his version of "Rhapsody in Blue"), and a couple nice piano ballades, but also included are some cheesy/goofy pieces that you'll want to skip over. Since it is a two album set, he should have put the best cuts onto one record. Would have made it much better. Throughout the '80s and '90s, he has put out many things ranging from concept albums, modern rock, new age keyboards, and solo piano. Here are descriptions of most of these albums, by a few different people: 1984: This is a conceptual album based on the novel of the same name. One of the tracks features vocals by Jon Anderson, and the lyrics are, as below, by Tim Rice. The music has a "rockier" edge than Cost Of Living, but there is no shortage of Wakeman's lead and chord work on keyboards. Features full orchestra on some cuts. Vocals provided by Chaka Khan and Jon Anderson, a few instrumental. One of his better '80s output. Cost Of Living: This effort seems to somehow bridge the gap between the earlier symphonic, conceptual works, and the later, keyboard-rock releases. The music contains snatches of vintage Wakeman, with dramatic keyboard passages, and wall-of-chords. The lyrics are by Tim Rice, and reflect his background in composition for theatre/musicals. The CD concludes with a narration of Thomas Gray's "Elegy - Written In A Country Churchyard" over a keyboard background, and makes for a compelling ending. In conclusion, anyone who enjoys Wakeman's work will probably enjoy this CD. Black Knights At The Court Of Ferdinand IV: Featuring the operatic Italian vocals of Mario Fasciano and the multi-keyboards of Wakeman, this work is quite reminiscent of much of the Italian progressive music of the seventies. The keyboards are much in the forefront, with echoes of Wakeman's work on Six Wives ... and ... King Arthur... coming to mind, with a more digital sound, on certain tracks. Parts of the CD also sound like PFM-meets-Tangerine Dream (I kid you not!). An excellent piece of work that should not disappoint Wakeman-philes. Night Airs: The final work in his trilogy of solo piano excursions, providing conclusive evidence of Wakeman's virtuosity on the piano. All the tracks are very well developed, with a strong nod to classical composition techniques, mixed in with melodic rock influences. Family Album is a simple, new age album. The pieces are named after all the members of his family (wife, mom, dad, kids, pets). They are based around piano, with simple synth orchestration. One piece (NIna) would later be re-done with lyrics as "The Meeting" from the AWBH album. Phantom Power: "The music on this CD was composed and recorded especially for a 1990's relaunch of the 1925 Universal Screen version of "Phantom Of The Opera"...operatic rock to fearful ballads, covering the spectrum of moods that encompassed the 90 minute epic," (quoted from the liner notes) describes the music on this CD quite well. There are tracks with vocalists, and short instrumental tracks, all of which are dominated by the melodic keyboard work of Wakeman. It is similar in spirit to the recent Freudiana soundtrack by Eric Woolfson and the Alan Parsons Project, and at times is reminiscent of mid-to-late-period Mike Oldfield, a la Five Miles Out and Islands. The Classical Connection: Fusing the concepts of his piano solo trilogy with his past, Wakeman presents virtuosic piano arangements of many of his classics, augmented by the spare guitarwork of David Paton. Including many of his "hits," such as "Catherine Of Aragon," "Merlin The Magician," and a couple that I cannot recall seeing on earlier releases, such as "Elgin," this is the latest offering from Wakeman on the UK Ambient label. Aspirant Sunrise/Aspirant Sunset/Aspirant Sunshadows/Classical Connection II/African Bach: the "Aspirant" series consist of more ... er ... meditative music, gentle compositions featuring keyboards and piano. Classical Connection II is a follow-up to the first one, and features piano with minimal accompaniments, except on a couple of fully orchestrated tracks and also includes a version of "Birdman Of Alcatraz" from Criminal Record. African Bach features vocal-fronted keyboard rock, similar in style to the 1984 and Cost Of Living releases, but seemingly more aggressive. The Private Collection: As the title implies this is a collection of Wakeman's music. However, only two of the titles are from releases that I know, while the remaining seven are new to this CD. The music varies between fully orchestrated and symphonic pieces, such as "The Battle" from Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, to solo piano pieces, a couple of which are in excess of 10 minutes apiece. This collection sums up much of what Wakeman has been involved in during the eighties, and is a fine addition to the collection of anyone who enjoys high-quality, technically brilliant, keyboard music. 2000 A.D. Into The Future: Features a Roger-Dean'ish cover. To quote the liner notes "...is a collection of virtuoso digital and analogue keyboard playing...and was originally conceived for a series of futuristic films...." The music does convey that theme fairly well, and is at times similar to others in the genre, such as Yanni, without the latter's tendency towards sameness. One of the tracks even sounds as if it were inspired by Mark Shreeve! Softsword (King John & The Magna Charter): Based on music composed for the grand finale of a UK Dickens Festival. This CD features regulars Chrissie Hammond, Stuart Sawney, and David Paton. The music, as usual, features the keyboard pyrotechincs of Wakeman, and combines the symphonic aspects of his earlier works with dramatic vocals. Five of the eleven tracks are instrumental. Wakeman With Wakeman/A World Of Wisdom: The collaboration with son Adam is well crafted keyboard rock along the lines of 2000 A.D., while World Of Wisdom features tunes sung by comedian Norman Wisdom set to the music of Rick Wakeman, perhaps of most significance to Wakeman- collectors. Crimes Of Passion: A somewhat obscure 1986 soundtrack. Most of the tracks are instrumental, and have Wakeman accompanied by Tony Fernandez and Rick Fenn (of Mason/Fenn fame). Musically, this release is not one to blaze new trails in the jungle of keyboard rock, but is, ultimately, listenable, comparable in style to 1984, Cost Of Living, etc. Rock 'N' Roll Prophet: "It takes an album of music such as this to really know who your friends are...," an appropriate observation under the circumstances. The combination of a steady beat, bass, and vocals seem to indicate an attempt to make a dance album, and on that basis, this is a reasonable piece of work, I suppose. However, coming as it does from Wakeman, this is more of a curiosity, or to be less charitable, an aberration. The music has its moments, but I would personally recommend this only to inveterate Wakeman-philes. The CD reissue has four bonus tracks, all instrumental, recorded in 1993, which are more along the lines of the recent works such as 2000 A.D. and the like, and do rescue this CD to some extent. Classic Tracks: This is a German release featuring a re-recording of three prime Wakeman tracks from the seventies. They are "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" (just under 32 minutes in length), "Catherine Howard," and "Merlin The Magician." Wakeman plays keyboards with all the flourishes and solos that harken back to his glory days, accompanied by four, relatively unknown, American musicians. The contemporary interpretations are pretty energetic, and manage to maintain the spirit of the older compositions, and should be quite acceptable to anyone who enjoyed the originals. Suite of Gods: A bit of Wakeman new age stuff with a pretty good opera singer. It took me a while to get used to the bombastic singing on this, but other than that, it's pretty good, although not one of my most listened to Wakeman discs. No Expense Spared: A weak follow up to his first album with his son Adam, who is a decent keysman in his own right. Basically Rick let his son write most of the stuff, and it tends to be a bit more in the straight pop/rock type vein, although Rick does grace the disc with many of the solos. Personally, I'd say get this one near the end of your collection unless you've heard and liked Adam Wakeman's solo stuff (Soliloquy I think his album is). It is NOT like the first WwW disc which in my opinion kicks serious ass. Greatest Hits is a two disc recording, basically re-recordings of older tunes. They differ from Classic Tracks in that everything is instrumental. Disc one is his versions of various Yes tunes, while disc two are some of his best known works, like "Journey," etc. Great, lush, keyboard album, IMO. It blurrs the line between progressive and new age, so if you don't like that, stay away, but a definite must for all Wakeman fans. Time Machine is a slick rock production. It features a few different vocalists. The tracks with Ashley Holt can be unlistenable (why does Rick keep using this guy?), but three of the tracks feature Tracey Ackerman, a great female vocalist. Modern, uptempo rock with some good keyboard action sums this one up. Silent Nights is another more accessable album. Features mostly uptempo rock vocal tracks, with a few new agey instrumentals to balance things out. Not bad for this type of thing, but a couple of tracks are on the cheesy side. Live at Hammersmith is obviously a live recording, from 1985, with the same bandmembers as on Silent Nights. However, all the pieces are from Six Wives, Journey, and Arthur. I think it's a great live recording, with updated renditions of his classic pieces. The Official Bootleg is a two disc recording of the tour. It features selections from Journey, Arthur, Six Wives, a couple from the WwW studio albums, and a couple rock covers. Great keyboard artistry from father and son, backed up by Tony Fernandez and Alan Thompson. Solos galore. Zodiaque is a simple new age album, with 12 pieces based on the signs of the zodiaque. I really like this disc to relax to. It is made up of simple synthesizer arrangements, with electronic percussion ably provided by Tony Fernandez. All instrumental. Heritage Suite: The prolific keyboardist emerges again, with a collection of piano compositions, in the style of Country Airs and Classical Connection. The pieces herein vary from the upbeat to the introspective, with scattered riffs that recall passages from his solo works from the seventies. The concept underlying this release is the inspiration that Wakeman has drawn from the natural splendour and cultural heritage of the Isle Of Man, a place which he calls home. Light up the Sky is a four song EP. The first two are vocal tracks, which are nice and upbeat. The third and fourth are instrumental, and I like the fourth one in particular, "The Bear." Shows echoes of his glory days, and shows he's still got it. -- Alan Mallery, Ranjit Padmanabhan, John Santore I was around when Wakeman was with Yes the first time, and it was during this time that he released The Six Wives of Henry VIII. I played that album to death, learning every note, every nuance of the album. I even tried to play some of it (badly) on piano by ear. If I had met Wakeman in those days, I would have fallen on my knees and grovelled before him, like Wayne and Garth before Alice Cooper: "We're not worthy!". I waited with bated breath the release of his follow-up album Journey to the Center of the Earth. I heard he was going to use a symphony orchestra to go along with his multi-keyboard setup, and I just couldn't imagine anything cooler than that. To say I was disappointed would be perhaps a bit too strong. But it certainly didn't meet up with my expectations. The songs were a bit boring and simplified compared to Henry VIII to accomodate the vocals, the synthesizers too "live" sounding and buzzy, the lyrics were cheezy beyond pardon, and that vocalist made me want to barf every time I heard him. I thought "nice try, Rick, but no cigar". My grovelling days ended. After this, Rick did Myths and Legends of King Arthur, which I thought was sort of OK, and then several more which I found to be very boring. Rick sort of fell off my radar screen, and I hadn't bothered to listen to anything he'd done in the last 20 years or so. But recently I read a review in a gamer's magazine (of all places!) extolling the virtues of playing the new Rick Wakeman album while playing Dungeons and Dragons. The new album was named Return to the Center of the Earth. The reviewer talked about the original Journey album and obviously felt the same way I did about it, so I figured that if he disliked the old one for the same reasons I did, I might enjoy the new one as he did. So I "hinted" to my wife and got it for a birthday present. The bottom line is: it's actually pretty cool. It's more new-agey than the original, not as progressive to be sure. But, the narrator is Patrick Stewart of Star Trek The Next Generation fame, and he can make even the most silly and purple prose (which this certainly is) sound very important and compelling. The vocalists are far more well-matched to the pieces than on the original recording, and the recording quality is ... well ... 25 years ahead of the original recording, and sounds like it. The buzzy synths are gone, and the keyboards now actually integrate well with the orchestra and choir. OK, the lyrics and narration are every bit as cheezy as the first time around, but this is supposed to be bombastic and overdone. I really think that Wakeman pulls it off this time. I would recommend this album to most symphonic prog lovers, and Wakeman fans in particular. And to gamers? That reviewer was right ... this album kicks butt as background music for playing Dungeons and Dragons. Like you care. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com