Sunday, May 16, 2021

Bitter Harvest Dept.

Soon after Harvest Records gained momentum in the UK, parent company EMI decided to launch the Prog Rock Masterpiece series in Germany, intended to broaden the appeal of classical music. Wagner's Ring Of The Nibelung was reduced to a double album of highlights and renamed Ringlord to exploit the Tolkien connection. The Wagner estate sued before it left the pressing plant. A few copies escaped destruction, but the series was canceled. Misconceived and misleading, it remains an approachable gateway to Wagner's exhausting opus, and the rarest Harvest release, escaping the attentions of rock collectors.

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13 comments:

  1. Kwai ChangMay 16, 2021 at 3:55 AM

    Better wait for machine guns and helicopters!
    (Apocalypse Rings)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIMay 16, 2021 at 6:29 AM



    Charlie Don't Surf.

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    Replies
    1. Jack Kerouac's CatMay 16, 2021 at 6:50 AM

      Thanks!

      Wagner gets a bad rap, and I'll leave it at that.

      Delete
    2. UncleBMay 16, 2021 at 9:10 AM

      Yeahbut, the Farqheads DO. And they soif on over the the Enchanted shores of FMF Isle, to bathe in the sunny sounds provided here. Sorry, a (Not Phil, my Pretty-thingies...) May Gray Day here in "Sunny So. Cali." Ugh...

      Delete
  3. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIMay 16, 2021 at 6:30 AM

    (Would have made a great single album ...)

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    Replies
    1. UncleBMay 16, 2021 at 9:13 AM

      Izzat what they say about the All Time best seller Fab $our albuyum, "the WHitest ALbum" on Earth...?

      Take out alla the Macca dreck, leave in a Ringo or two, and et tu, Wall-la walla bing bang, ooo eee ooh, a Witch Doctoring if I've ever seen it! Yellow Submariners need not apply...

      Hate '68 if you must. They Marchers did, once they got those nasty bunions...

      Delete
  4. Eric S.May 16, 2021 at 9:33 AM

    "Prog Rock Masterpiece series in Germany." Ima have to sit with that for a few. Somehow brings to mind Brautigan's "Rommel Drives on Deep into Egypt"

    Rommel is dead.
    His army has joined the quicksand legions
    of history where the battle is always
    a metal echo saluting a rusty shadow.
    His tanks are gone.
    How's your ass?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kwai ChangMay 16, 2021 at 9:40 PM

    Thank you, for sharing this.
    I love the PROG ROCK Masterpiece designation on the cover.
    Quite the stretch of poetic license.

    ReplyDelete
  6. HermannMay 18, 2021 at 12:24 AM

    post war major of Stuttgart (Porsche City) was a Rommel ...

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  7. ErnstMay 19, 2021 at 7:07 PM

    Mere bleeding chunks they say.
    True Vahg-nerions dive deep into the Knappertsbusch Parsifal, where the lone female is dispatched early, leaving the knights to howl for another 3 hours in their quest of the holey grail. Hoooley graaaiiil, oh ho-lee grayilll, ho-ho-ho, gra-gra-gra and so on.

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    Replies
    1. Farquhar Throckmorton IIIMay 19, 2021 at 7:18 PM

      Ernst, I am am having your comment worked up in scrimshaw on a narwhal tusk, such is the esteem in which I hold it.

      Delete

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