Progressing Backwards In Reverse

The pattern from pop to prog/rock was well established by 1969 - groups seeking peer respect, album sales, and exotic tour riders all made the shift from goofing around to dire prognostication. Case in point: Ford Theatre. Except - uniquely - they went against the grain, fashion, and their best interests by starting out doomy and paranoid on their first album ('68's Trilogy For The Masses) and dialing it all back for the decidedly friskier Time Changes a year later, when this kind of thing was beginning to look sexy.

Trilogy - with a superbly paranoid cover designed by (it says here) Frissi Titsworth - uh-huh - betrays little of the Bosstown roots they were keen to distance themselves from. It could well be a concept album - the concept being who's staring at me? I don't feel so great. But the music is melodic, powerful, haunting, and beautifully constructed. It's over-serious, of course, and the brow-knitting vocals ensured no singles bothered the charts. Produced by Bob Thiele.

The only thing wrong with Time Changes is that it didn't come out in late '67. It would have set the stage nicely for Trilogy. The band's signature preoccupation with existential unease is still apparent in the lyrics, but the softer, almost pop approach makes it seductive rather than depressing. "A New Musical" that never got to Off-Off-Broadway, it was arranged by the sub-editor's nemesis Bill Szymczyk [I got this - Ed.]. Both albums appeared on FoamFavorite© ABC Records.

Frustratingly, a third album was begun but never finished; a shame, because given the reverse trajectory of these guys, it would have been twelve frat-rock stompers recorded in a Van Nuys garage.