Hey everyone, I'm just checking in. I have a musical alert for you, a new prog discovery (or re-discovery): who remembers Greenslade? College Records had their albums in the racks. One or two had Roger Dean covers, which made you think of Yes, and they had not one but two featured keyboardists - Dave Greenslade, who gave the band its cool-sounding name and had formerly played with Colosseum, and the equally adept Dave Lawson, who came from a jazzier background. Greenslade didn't have guitar, it was keys all the way, and they had an awesome drummer and a functional bassist. I actually had their self-titled debut album and another one called "Time and Tide", fifty years ago.
So why haven't I ever mentioned Greenslade, in all my blogs about Prog? I've been asking myself a similar question: why didn't Greenslade catch my ear? I can't explain it. I mean, I've always loved keyboards. I even had jazz-fusiony records when I was fifteen, by groups like Passport, with lead saxophone yes, but also keys aplenty. So, I don't understand why Greenslade didn't stick with me, or for that matter with everyone at College Records. In any case, I now find them fantastic. Maybe I had to wait till I was (almost) 65 to "get" them. What happened was, I got a notion two days ago to Youtube me some Greenslade. Why them? Maybe I was seeking something new. But they were old, and I'd already apparently rejected them five decades ago, by the fact that I've never listened to or mentioned their music. However, I also think Pat Forducci may have had something to do with my sudden urge to Youtube the band...by nudging me from The Other Side. Pat was a Progmeister like myself. I can picture him whispering, "Dude...revisit Greenslade...".
I chose, from their four albums ,"Spyglass Guest", which actually went to #39 in America. And from the first note of the first tune, I was hooked! Again I wondered, "Why weren't these guys huge with the College Records gang?" I thought about it, and remembered the albums I had, and I recalled a "harsh" vocal style (which turned out to be from their debut album, the first one I bought). If you remember The Nice, or the one classic album by Refugee (which was The Nice with Patrick Moraz), the music was great, but you had to contend with Lee Jackson's harsh vocals. The same, I remembered, was true of the first Greenslade album. For some reason, Dave Lawson sang most of that record in some kind of "Court Jester" style, and to 15 year-old me (who was used to Greg Lake), it ruined the whole album. That's what being 15 will do to you, when you are listening to progressive rock. I could deal with some cartoonish British vocals in a Jethro Tull guest spot, but not from a lead singer in a band I'd just heard of. Thus, Greenslade (despite their bitchen album covers) went back into the wooden Orange Crate for LPs, never to be played again.
In retrospect, boy did I blow it! And so did Pat, and all the gang, because Greenslade should've caught on with us.
Well, anyhow - to cut to the chase, my impulse to Youtube Greenslade resulted in me listening intently to "Spyglass Guest", all the way through, and in the comments I saw fans mentioning another Dave Lawson band called The Web, who had an album called "I Spider" in 1970. Seeing the cover triggered a memory of either having that album (perhaps way back in '77) or that Pat brought it to the house. And I not only remembered the cover, but the music as well, even though I probably only heard the album once or twice.
To sum up: Greenslade is my new (old) Prog (re)Discovery! Start with "Spyglass Guest", then go directly to "Bedside Manners Are Extra". Both are money-back-guaranteed great, and there are no harsh vocals to deal with. In fact, Dave Lawson has a pleasant Prog Voice, and the double-keyboard melodies are incredible. "Time and Tide" is also good. The only one that's chancy is the first album, and that's also good if you can deal with the vocals, but again...if you can handle Lee Jackson in Refugee (and you know you can) then Lawson's goofy style on this record won't trouble you as it did me all those years ago.
So, there's four Greenslade records for you. Also check out their live vids on Youtube (from The Old Grey Whistle Test), but wait!......there's more.
I told you about Dave Lawson's other band, The Web. Well, you absolutely have to hear "I Spider". It's one of those great, one-off progressive rock records that's long forgotten, except by those-in-the-know, who I was not among until yesterday. It's a 10/10 all the way, not a bad note or tune to be found - a classic, somewhat in the style of Supersister. The Web morphed into another Lawson project called Samurai. This record is a 10, as well. Hear it on Youtube. That gives you six new classic prog records to check out: four by Greenslade and the two side projects by Dave Lawson. Man...just when you think you've heard it all...
On a visual note, you probably know about Tubi. I discovered it while searching for a live broadcast of the Super Bowl (hooray, Chiefs lost!) and over the last couple weeks, I've checked out a couple of their movies ("Firebase Gloria" and "The Dark Half") and also two Tubi serial killer documentaries under the heading "Evil Among Us". So far, I've watched the Green River Killer and L.A.'s Grim Sleeper, but the reason I'm mentioning Tubi is because of three other independent docs, all covering notable events. Like everyone else, I've been unnerved by the recent spate of plane crashes, starting with the terrible Black Hawk collision over the Potomac last month. I've watched every analysis I could find on Youtube (there's a guy named Jeff Ostroff who does excellent analyses of air disasters), and also for the medivac crash in Philly. Then, I saw that Tubi had an entire documentary on TWA Flight 800, which went down into the ocean off the coast of New York in July 1996.
If you remember that tragedy, many witnesses reported seeing a "missile" that appeared to explode the plane.
The documentary, made by Epix in 2013, leaves no doubt as to what happened. Watching it led me to another doc available on Tubi (for free): "A Noble Lie", about the 1995 OKC bombing. The writer of "A Noble Lie" is Wendy Painting, the same gal who wrote "Abberation in the Heartland of the Real", the definitive book on Timothy McVeigh and the whole OKC story. In my opinion, it is one of the ten most important books on major American terror events. I can't recommend it highly enough.
"A Noble Lie" led me to watch "9/11 Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out". This one (also on Tubi) consists of various architects, engineers and demolition experts talking about the collapse of Building 7, and also the Twin Towers.
You guys know that I don't buy the "official" story for any of these three events. Not with what I've been through in my life, but it's more than that, because even if I'd never had my own extensive experiences, I still wouldn't believe the government versions of these events, because - when properly analysed - they are all patently false.
For me, it starts with the obviously false story of Lee Harvey Oswald as the lone assassin of JFK. If they're gonna lie about that, they'll lie about anything, including RFK, MLK, OKC, Flight 800, 9/11, ad nauseum.
Something to remember about the latter three events (Flight 800, OKC and 9/11) is that they happened in a five year span. That's pretty close together. My whole point here is to highly recommend all three documentaries on these subjects. Check them out on Tubi.
I'm currently reading "The Rialto in Richmond" by Joseph P. Farrell. It's about the Lincoln assassination, the flight of Confederate President Jefferson Davis at the end of the war, and an enormous cache of missing gold. With Dr. Joe (an Oxford graduate), you always get the highest level narrative and, (as he calls it) "high octane speculation". All his books are highly recommended.
And did someone say "books"? My proof copy of "Green Parrots" will be arriving tomorrow (oh boy!). I'm super excited to see what it looks like. I anticipate no formatting problems of the type I encountered the first time (with "Pearl the Wonder Girl"), and if it's "good to go", I'll be uploading an affordable softcover edition within the week.
I'm also five chapters into the framework for "2009", which now has an actual title (but I can't reveal it).
Stay tuned and thanks for reading. Tons and tons of love.
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