Tuesday, November 26, 2019

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.

12 comments:

  1. I am requesting your generosity in this matter. I used to have the original on glorious vinyl and would love to listen to it once again...

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    1. I'll be delighted to shovel all relevant files up into the dumpster of the internet tomorrow (my time), Mr. P.

      They're fine examples of albums I feel fondly towards yet wouldn't recommend to anyone who wasn't one of the four or five guys. I play these albums - and the hundreds like them - more than the "iconic classic" albums of the time. Do I really want to hear Dark Side Of The Moon again? Probably, but right now I'm cueing up The Paupers. Or Beacon Street Union. Or Tommy James & The Shondells, or ...

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  2. Both thumbs hailed in the upwards direction.

    I'll just wait here....

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  3. (impatiently taps his fingers on table). geez, the service in this place ... am i right?!?! *sigh*

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    1. Maybe Cody can bring us some cold frothy ones while were waiting?

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    2. we're that is, as in we we're waitin' but now were leavin'

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  4. Well, this is timely, as I have just seen the keeper of the prog rock flame - Mr Steve Hackett - and his sensational band - in Manchester this evening. Selling England by The Pound in all its glorious entirety. I will never tire of it. Even Lennon liked it. But I digress. Ford Theatre sound like my cup of tea, and I'm right on it once this Hackett reverie subsides.

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  5. Hello FTIII!

    I'd really like to hear this 1968 classic again. Any chance the linx may appear soon?

    Thanx,

    tsi&hrjs

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  6. Thank you very much!

    tsi&hrjs

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  7. Got this for $1.99 back in the day and also the 2'nd LP.
    One of my desert island discs, for sure.
    As a side note, a conversation with R. Stevie Moore from WFMU back in the day, revealed to me Harry Palmer is his uncle!

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