{"id":11165,"date":"2016-02-11T09:53:39","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T09:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=11165"},"modified":"2016-02-11T19:57:55","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T19:57:55","slug":"blogathon-1116-tinkling-the-ivories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=11165","title":{"rendered":"Blogathon 11\/16: Tinkling the Ivories"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

Rick Wakeman has been in my musical library since shortly after the first time I heard the ‘Close To The Edge’ album, by Yes.<\/p>\n

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’.<\/p>\n

But this post isn’t about Yes, awesome though they were.<\/p>\n

This post is about cornerstone Yesman, Rick Wakeman.<\/p>\n

\"Yes\"
Yes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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).<\/p>\n

Fast forward far more years than is actually good for us, and we come to the sad loss of David Bowie.<\/p>\n

And inevitably we come to Rick Wakeman, once again.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Rick
Rick Wakeman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u00a0the narration had been undertaken by Welshman Richard Burton, instead of by Englishman David Hemmings).<\/p>\n

\"Rick
Rick Wakeman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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’.<\/p>\n