As the rushing hand of fate swoops in to firmly strike the pertly dimpled bottom of eternity, it’s time, in the barrel of laughs that is the 2016 Blogathon, to enjoy a little musical interlude.
Rick Wakeman has been in my musical library since shortly after the first time I heard the ‘Close To The Edge’ album, by Yes.
Their follow-up, album (if it’s possible to even follow up ‘Close To The Edge’) was the brilliant lump of prog rock that is ‘Tales Tales from Topographic Oceans’.
But this post isn’t about Yes, awesome though they were.
This post is about cornerstone Yesman, Rick Wakeman.
With his 1973 solo album ‘The Six Wives of Henry VIII’, Rick became a musical hero in my eyes and ears (and in the eyes and ears of many other people).
Fast forward far more years than is actually good for us, and we come to the sad loss of David Bowie.
And inevitably we come to Rick Wakeman, once again.
It was Rick’s keyboards on the 1971 Bowie album ‘Hunky Dory’ (on the tracks ‘Life On Mars’ and ‘Changes’) that added a level of extra distinction to what is, by any standards, a classic album.
Not wishing to take anything away from Bowie’s legacy, but to hear so much of Rick’s work, in these post-Bowie days, has been lovely.
And it has been great to have heard Rick speaking about – and playing the music of – David Bowie, on Simon Mayo’s show on Radio 2.
Although Rick’s most iconic work has been cloak-clad, standing in front of a full set of synthesiser keyboards, I have always enjoyed his solo/orchestral work.
I still get shivers when I hear the opening of ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ (but I feel it would have been so much better if the narration had been undertaken by Welshman Richard Burton, instead of by Englishman David Hemmings).
But one of the happier discoveries I’ve made, in the last few weeks is Rick playing this solo (grand piano) version of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’.
Ah yes, Mr Wakeman. The first concert I ever went to, and the only “festival” I’ve ever been to was the Crystal Palace Garden Party 1974 where Rick headlined with Journey to the Centre of the Earth plus a few other bits such as the Pearl and Dean Concerto. Also on the bill was a new young singer dressed as Pierrot called Leo Sayer.
Not bad… for a Grumpy Old Man.