See, even the title of this entry has sent my street cred plummenting. Now watch me completely destroy what’s left of it.
I’ve never really enjoyed the “classic” Rick Wakeman albums like Journey to the Centre of the Earth or The Myths and Legends of King Arthur. They’ve always seemed like they are trying to be classical symphonies and if I want to listen to a classical symphony then there are far better ones to list to.
I do, however, really like No Earthly Connection which I bought on vinyl when it first came out in 1976. Looking back, the subject matter is complete tosh – it’s all about how music was a gift from spacemen to us humans and how they might want it back some day. But, hey, I was 14 and still reading Von Daniken back then!
Although I still have my vinyl copy, it’s been ten years since I played one of my records and probably much longer since I listened to this particular record. And although I’ve looked occasionally I’ve never found it on CD.
But a couple of weeks ago I found a CD copy being sold on Ebay. And I won the auction (it cost £15). It arrived yesterday. Although the pseudo-religious spaceman stuff now sounds like complete bollocks (ok, it is complete bollocks) the music and the overall sounds stands up rather well. I really enjoyed listening to it again after all these years.
And I still remembered all the lyrics.
Ok. Let the piss-taking commence…
Rick Wakeman is great! I like quite a lot of his stuff, but the best album for me is Return to the centre of the earth – the music is superb and the guest musicians are brilliant! Plus it’s narrated by Patrick Stewart, who just has the best voice ever!