The Album.
For some reason, first of all I've noticed that John's vocal tone was obviously much lower at his tender 18 than now - at his 50, though I find his current, kind of neuter, polished vocals very
original, that sound especially impressive to the accompaniment of strong, heavy guitar riffs. But I have to admit that anyhow John had excellent vocal qualities more than 30 years ago too. The human's nature (at least Earthly) is simple: either you have a talent or this thing is not destined for you at all. Talents are not of those things that people call "acquired". Most of the seven "Out of the Blue" songs have practically the same structures that I've found on the band's latest "Mirror of the Stars" album, though the way the early songs were
constructed is different. First of all, there are much less vocal parts on "Out of the Blue" and
compositions contain much more instrumental canvas. While I find John's early guitar riffs practically the same as on "Mirror of the Stars" (of course, minus the quality of guitar sound), his solos on "Out of the Blue" are simply outstanding with their positive 'wildness'. Each of the three band members worked on this album to sweat his guts out and their long and highly diverse arrangements are the most ungovernable I ever heard. On the first two or three songs vocals appear just in the very beginning and then only the instruments travel the length and the breath of the compositions with all the conceivable and even inconceivable arrangements, jams, crossing solos of guitar, bass and drums, all simultaneously. The overall sound of the album is incredibly heavy and harsh for 1968. There is lots of heaviness and psychedelics throughout the album, though few arrangements are more variegated in mood, and then these not too long episodes are filled with acoustic guitar passages and a few more or less gentle solos. There is probably the only song on the album that has a clear spacey feel almost throughout - Kill You Lie. All the six other songs are of the same true Space Rock 'quality' as such Hawkwind's albums, for example, as "Hall of the Mountain Grill" and "Warrior At the Edge of Time" We don't have here, on the other hand, such ungovernable heaviness even in the band's heaviest albums such as "Levitation" (their best, IMO), "The Chronicle of the Black Sword" and the likes. I have no idea how (and how long) sound on Clear Blue Sky's official debut album their four original live versions that I hear on "Out of the Blue". Frankly, I liked all the seven studio tracks (a whole album actually) more than the four bonus live tracks though all of them contain excellent prolonged arrangements. I just didn't find there that wonderful furious rage I hear on every track of Clear Blue Sky's real debut album of 1968 called "Out of the Blue". Not as heavy as previous studio songs, these four live tracks represent rather a mix of psychedelics and space music (in its more traditional sense reflected by such performers as Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra and lots of the likes) with an obvious progressive 'approach' to arrangements, than what we used to call Space Rock - with accent on the second word. Maybe, I've got such an impression just because these tracks were recorded live, and, perhaps, their studio versions sound radically differently - I just don't know. Though, I won't be surprised if the band's official debut album consists of only these four songs since on "Out of the Blue" they sound
about the same 36 minutes as an original studio album. This is quite usual playing time for most of
the LP-albums in general, and 'the question of time' was decided in the favour of prolonged albums just with the invention of another 'medium' - CD, though even presently many performers still consider it unnecessary to use new possibilities just in order to make an album as long as possible. That's for sure. I'd always prefer to listen to a 45-minute album which is excellent from beginning to end than to program (to 'castrate', maybe?) some songs from a 80-minute CD since these (good) songs sound about the same for 45 minutes if not less.
Summary.
It's a great feeling to know that there was (is!) another one, the third truly progressive album following the first two genial Pink Floyd albums, with the first marking the birth of Progressive Rock in June 1967, being "hidden" from us up to now, by the way. "Out of the Blue" is not just one of the most revolutionary works in the history of Rock Music, this is also a real progressive killer and (I dare say) the very first Progressive Hard Rock album (in other words the first pre-Prog Metal album), whose elements are obvious among all the other ingredients of mostly truly progressive styles and genres. More. Seven original "Out of the Blue" tracks that Clear Blue Sky had recorded almost two years before the Hawkwind guys were just in work on their debut album are actually the very first full-length work of this exact style. If you still aren't sure that Hawkwind's debut album is far from what we call Space Rock, especially with regard to Hawkwind itself - I'm sorry to remind you about this axiom once again. So the star of real psychedelically progressive Space Rock had risen at least three years before Hawkwind began to perform the very kind of music Clear Blue Sky played on their real debut album in 1968. You don't have to believe me this time (though, I hope so) - anyone who like Hawkwind can just compare the albums of the band's most successful period to "Out of the Blue" and even to Clear Blue Sky's debut official album of the same 1970 because I know that Hawkwind released their first brain-child only by the end of that year. My thoughts by no means reflect my chilled attitude to Hawkwind, as I really like this band very much. I just think that the truth is the only thing to triumph always... All in all, Clear Blue Sky created their own, highly original and innovative, potent mixture of Psychedelics and Progressive Hard Rock, which later will be called Space Rock, far back in 1968, i.e. earlier than any other band or performer of the same style.
) album of 1970 had been released
on the "swirl Vertigo" label. The scheme of placing the tracks on "Destiny" and
all nuances of the
musicianship of the (same) band members (as well as the guys' faces in the
album's booklet) approach
on the whole the level that I've heard (saw) on "CBSII". There is, however, a
major difference in sound
between these two albums, as all the nine (1 to 9) original songs on "Destiny"
were recorded and mixed
properly, though back then the album was privately released on cassettes for
demo purposes only.
Most recently, first Hi-Note has released (more than just historically
significant) "Destiny" on LP,
and later on CD, too.
The Album.
The first two songs on the album, the title-track and Pick Up, are simply
wonderful, by all means.
Especially impressive is that they not only follow the vein of the best tracks
from the previous album,
but also show a logical compositional development in comparison with them and,
most importantly,
in terms of diversity of themes and arrangements. There are more than enough
progressive things in
Destiny and Pick Up to regard them as real progressive killers, though the
presence of brilliant keyboard
parts and solos (by an unknown yet very talented keyboard player) on the
title-track makes it a winner.
(To this very style Hawkwind came in 1974 on the "Hall of the Mountain Grill"
album.) In all other
respects Destiny and Pick Up are like twin progressive brothers, whose place is
exactly at the head
of the album's track-list. Although other songs are also very good on their own
right, the first two tracks
surpass all of them in all senses. In other words, the further development of
events on "Destiny" isn't
too rich on events as such, as it was the case with the previous album, too,
when The Journey To the
Inside of the Sun was just finished. In respect of musical progressiveness,
tracks 3 to 6, Bottom of
Your Soul, Follow the Light, Back On the Road Again, and Vagabonds, have more or
less the same
characteristics as Mystify, Tools of My Frade, and I'm Coming Home from the
swirled with Vertigo's
indifference (to its real status) "CBSII" album. The only detail (which is
major, though, - with regard to
the band's firm style, formed already during the "Out of the Blue" recording
sessions), that differ from
most of the "Destiny" tracks from the "CBSII" album almost as a whole, is the
presence of a solid
number of elements that make up the Space Rock sound. Of course, it also feels
great to hear John's
wonderful solos (as well as a lot of other musical moves) firmly backed by his
own heavy and strong
riffs. The closing three songs of original "Destiny" album are the shortest
tracks here. The 7th track,
When I Call Your Name, with another invisible guest (or were these two guests
just ghosts?), performing
a couple sax solos, is the most mellow song on the album, whose stylistic
"sister" may be the previous
album's closing track. Both the following songs Waiting for the Day and Killing
Time structurally are,
in itself, similar to the Four that go right after the two opening masterpieces,
but there is too little playing
time in each of them to stretch a more or less large-scale musical palette.
While the first of the two live
bonus tracks, Could This Be the Way, whose compositional and performing
qualities can touch the best
tracks on "Destiny", could have been a very good ending to the album if only it
had the same quality of
sound, Big City Man just catches up with You Mystify, Follow the Light, etc.
Summary.
A great step forward (return to form, keeping in mind "Out of the Blue"?) that
the band took on the first
two tracks of "Destiny" is, unfortunately, marred with a series of more
accessible songs in the way
typical for Clear Blue Sky's previous album, though I really like this good,
original, hard-edged
proto-progressive. There are, however, as many as three songs that are too
simple to these ears on the
band's third album (tracks 7 to 9), so even counting Could This Be the Way, I
can't estimate "Destiny"
higher than just a very good album and only as a whole. Actually, I think at the
time of "Destiny"
the band already showed signs of stagnation. Destiny is the word. But Destiny
loves those who can
find the strength to bounce back and the return of the mighty Clear Blue Sky is
really glorious. Just have
a look into the next review:
