Divorced, beheaded, died...
Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts
04/03/73 : The Six Wives Of Henry VIII - Rick Wakeman
I knew of Rick Wakeman from his appearances on various chat and panel shows long before I had the faintest idea he could even play the keyboards, let alone had a long and illustrious career doing so. I'm expecting this to be very show-offy, but in a nice (if somewhat pointless) way.
Yeah, this is all perfectly melodious and obviously features a lot of skill from Rick and others but I've got no idea why anyone would want to listen to it. That's prog for you I guess. It is, however, surprisingly short at only 36:36 long - I was fully expecting to have to give up most of my weekend to listen to his frantic noodling.
We're at #10 in the charts this week on his third week of a thirteen week run (which feels generous) with it having peaked at #7 (ditto). Surprisingly, it then popped up in the charts on seven more runs, only providing nine weeks in total but with it last being seen in October '75 - all very odd. The top five this week were Elton , Strawbs, Focus, Simon & Garfunkel, and David Cassidy with no new entries and nine re-entries - what a peculiar week! Carly was, of course, the highest lady at #22, with only Nana and Carole to keep her company.
Wikipedia has considerably more on the album than I was expecting (158 milliPeppers) and a lot of it feels as though Rick himself is telling his stories on a chat show. Before the album was released he played it to various record company execs and a US lawyer remarked it was a good work in progress and he was looking forward to hearing the lyrics - upon hearing it was to be an instrumental album "the lawyer left the room". The album cover was taken at Madame Tussauds, which is why Richard Nixon can be seen in the background. I also learned that Rick was originally a session musician (playing, amongst others, on Bowie's "Space Oddity") and he was then in Strawbs, before leaving to join Yes - he's also released over 90 solo albums.
It's fair to say the critics were divided on this one though - "whilst the album was seen by some as one of the worst examples of the progressive rock genre, the record was well received by others". It was felt unlikely to be a commercial success, but Rick played some of it on The Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC2 at the same time as a controversial film about Andy Warhol was banned at the last minute from BBC1, so it appears that everyone turned over, watched Rick (who was drunk having spent plenty of time in the studio bar beforehand) and liked it.
"Customers also listened to" Jon Anderson, Focus and ELP - no major surprises there. I think it's an impressive but pointless undertaking, but I understand it has its fans. And if you're one of them, apparently he's playing it at the Palladium next February - so get yourself along there. But you won't be seeing me there.
Comments
Post a Comment