Did you happen to know that Brain Salad Surgery peaked at number 2 in the UK on December 30, 1973, one place behind Yes’ Tales From Topographic Oceans? Well, author and music journalist Geoffrey Feakes knows it and tells us all about these albums and many more in his book 1973: The Golden Year Of Progressive Rock.
As most progressive music fans know, the seventh decade of the 20th century was a very good one for prog music. Bands like Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant, and lesser-known outfits like Nektar and Triumvirat, enjoyed well-attended concerts (some sold-out runs for many tours), and a certain cache prog bands would rightly never see again. And while we do indeed still have plenty of musicians producing various forms of ‘prog rock’ still, the 70s was the best decade for Mellotron flights, yodeling, and lyrics about armadillo tanks, computers and space-age oceans.
What I especially like about Feakes’ book, beyond his obvious deep knowledge of this music he so obviously loves (he writes for “Dutch Progressive Rock” pages as well as authors these kinds of books), is how he interjects his personal connections to this time and the music made during it, growing up as he did in the UK. Here is a guy who lived for these bands he writes about (and to be sure, the twenty ‘key’ albums explored in the near 150 pages, all released in 1973, as much include famous ones like ELP’s Brain Salad Surgery as Greenslades’ debut and Le Orme – Felona E Sorona) and knows well what he delves into.
I’m not going to pretend 1973: The Golden Year Of Progressive Rock will be everyone’s cup of tea, but for those of us who lived through the 70s (and still have the vinyl to prove it), live and die for progressive rock, or those who want to learn some essential popular music history, this is one damn great read.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
