Detailed Reviews [Clear Blue Sky - 1970 - "Clear Blue Sky"]

Prologue. Officially recognized as the band's first recording, "Clear Blue Sky" is also the only album in the band discography that is hailed as their classic one everywhere. Meanwhile, I see the Roman numeral II under the band's logo just slightly stylized for design unity's sake, as well as both the other titles of the early CBS albums with the same logos (by Roger Dean). Well, if you don't tend to consider this my discovery (don't believe your eyes man!?), let it be on my fantasy's part. To these ears, especially when they listen to music, I always trust them. They're like locators, imagine that? Looking at the title of the first track and the playing time of it, I thought this was a typical LP's side-long composition in 3 conditional parts that seamlessly flow one into another, as always in such cases. While it's clear that Journey To the Inside of the Sun was the side A of the original "Clear Blue Sky II" vinyl LP (nevertheless I have all rights now to call it the band's second album: can you guess, why?), it looks like these three parts were recorded separately (it becomes clear like the blue sky already after the first listen). While the pauses are generally usual things (for separate tracks, but not for such conceptual pieces as The Journey To the Inside of the Sun), the endings of these parts and some other songs on the LP were roughly buried in the mix as if the engineer, dreaming of seven-league boots in the process of the recording session, were at the same time in a hurry to a mixed funeral procession dedicated to the memory of both his own and his neighbour's old shoes. It's also obvious that the people at "Vertigo" have given Clear Blue Sky too little of the recording time since the band's second album was recorded in haste and carelessly, - actually as "live in the studio". Otherwise, with all the essential overdubs and a proper mix, this album would not just have become a classic, but a Classic for the future, for all times.

The Album. As well as all the other Clear Blue Sky proGductions, the band's second album is way heavy in sound. On the other hand, this one isn't as heavy as all the other albums that are the real Progressive Space Rock heavy-weights. It's because it doesn't contain all those essential overdubs. First of all it concerns all the electric guitar solos (and there are lots of them on the album) because there are no John's heavy-riffing guitar parts that would support his own long, tasteful and virtuosic solos on this album - "thanks" to the same limited studio time. The lack (the absence!) of real heaviness in all soloing parts is too obvious despite the fact that Mark makes incredibly successful efforts to replace all these specific guitar heavy moves with the bass guitar riffs. Ken also does his best to keep an overall sound in a 'heavy key' with using such an essential ingredient of heaviness as energetic, tense, sometimes (positively) maniacal and hypnotic drumming. Bass guitar, however, remains just a bass guitar even in Africa, though if Mark had the Chapman Stick then (didn't you know that Ernest Chapman created that wonderful instrument far back in the mid 1960s?) he could've had more possibilities to play both electric guitar riffs and bass parts simultaneously. Musically, the Clear Blue Sky second album represents, on the whole, a style that became the band's hallmark already on the very first recordings done by this unique trio (see the review above), though there are less spacey episodes on "II" and they are much shorter than those on "Out of the Blue". Although John plays heavy riffs only to accompany his vocal parts, it's obvious that the album as a whole was composed the way to sound heavy and progressive, first of all. I've found no less than eight and ten different themes on The Ride and on You Mystify, respectively, not counting a wide-variety of John's incredibly virtuosic and always tasteful solos. At least at the time, in 1970, John was the best soloing guitarist, without a doubt, while in 1968, at the age of 16, he was the best guitarist in general - at least within the genre. (So I'll have to make changes in "Top 20 guitarists in the 1970s" section on the site as soon as possible.) While The Ride and You Mystify are real progressive masterpieces, the powerful and, on the whole, impetuous - both passionate and speedy - Sweet Leaf, as well as each of slightly more variegated in moods I'm Coming Home, Tool of My Frade and My Heaven contains no less than five different themes, that change one another, again and again, kaleidoscopically sometimes, are excellent examples of early Progressive Rock (exactly). The last track, however, unexpectedly took me by surprise with its contents. This was and still is the only Clear Blue Sky song that sounds almost nothing like them, especially when someone's flute's quite simple roulades play a prominent part in the song's instrumental centerpiece. (Later Birdcatcher was included in one of Vertigo's compilations)

Summary. Frankly, I don't regard as drawbacks all that has been done to the album just through Vertigo's swirl fault because, in spite of all, "CBSII" still sounds excellent (up to now) thanks to the outstanding musicianship of each of the three 18-year old members of the band and their wonderful joint performance as well. I only wonder why the guys reached such a strange decision - to close the album with that strange song. Was it a decision on Vertigo's part, again? I don't know, but it's obvious to me that Clear Blue Sky were probably the only "bad boys" for this quite significant, on the whole, label, since the people there just killed the band whose only "Vertigo"-related album not only had all trumps to become one of the five first Prog Metal albums as it really is in line with Black Sabbath's debut album, Deep Purple's "In Rock", Led Zeppelin's "III", and Uriah Heep's "Salisbury", but also to become as popular as these four other albums are - up to now. PS: Also, I've heard on the album (just in places), someone's brief yet very effective keyboard (especially piano) 'invasions' to the overall heavy structures. While it's not interesting to me who was the flautist on the last track, I'd like to know the name of the keyboardist. PPS: As for Vertigo, I liked the new "sci-fi" one more than the old "swirl" label. As for "the only "Mr. Vertigo" Barry Winton", I believe he was really the only man at the label who was seriosly interested in helping bands that played Progressive Rock. But I also find that he did too little for the Progressive Rock development, especially in comparison with the only true Mr. Progressive Tony Stratton-Smith whose unselfish love for the Genre and Its Entities has resulted in the loss back in the mid 1980s of the only truly Progressive Label to come out from the first wave of international Progressive Rock movement. This was Charisma, led by him.

VM. August 9, 2001