“Mr. Pink” by Level 42
From the 1982 album Strategy (The Early Tapes)
Level 42 is a strange band. Immensely talented, but perhaps a decade too late on the scene, they’re best known for their huge 1986 pop hit “Something About You.” That’s a great song, much better live than in the studio (where Mark King’s bass was so processed and restrained that it’s hard to believe it’s not a synth), but the band’s legendary instrumental “Mr. Pink” is where King (along with the rest of the group) really shines.
Like Geddy Lee, Mark King dazzles not just with his bass playing, but with his ability to play intricate bass parts and sing at the same time. But he’s arguably a better bassist (in fact I’d say it’s hard to argue that he’s not) and unquestionably a better vocalist. So why has Level 42 languished in obscurity? This performance from 1984 may hold the key: even at the peak of New Wave synth mania, in a live setting Level 42 sounds almost nothing like it does on record. In fact, if it weren’t for the clothes and hair, I’d say this recording sounds almost like mid-’70s Return to Forever.
The band apparently released a number of albums over the years in the U.K., but failed to make much of a dent here in the U.S. Of the band’s original albums, only World Machine, which contains the hit “Something About You,” is readily available today. A number of low-budget live recordings from the later years are available though, and they show off an immense talent. But if that’s still not enough for you to welcome them into the prog pantheon, consider this: future Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison toured with the band briefly before their initial breakup in 1994.
Kraan was a German fusion band. I don’t know a whole lot about them, but I’m a sucker for electric piano and Rickenbacker bass, so if you put them both together, I am obliged to listen. These guys are pretty tight. But what the hell is up with the mimes?
According to Google Translate, the album title Wiederhören means “listen again.” So… play the video twice.
This is not really prog… really… but as prog was forming, mostly in the U.K., in 1969/1970, so too was the genre of jazz-rock forming, mostly in Chicago. The styles had a lot in common, at least at the time, though they would diverge over the course of the decade that followed.
The band from that era in Chicago that had the most enduring success was, not surprisingly, Chicago, even though their sound was obliterated changed greatly before they attained their greatest success. Put it this way: I bet you didn’t know Peter Cetera was a pretty badass bass player.
Another Chicago band that didn’t last so long, even though they sounded very similar (if not better) at the time, was Ides of March. “Vehicle,” their biggest hit, still shows up on classic rock radio occasionally, which is where I’ve heard it a few times before. But the reason I’m posting it today is that I just heard it in my neighborhood supermarket, which has recently reinvented itself from a dumpy forgotten third-rate chain store to a semi-upscale independent shop. The quality of their meat has certainly improved, as has the quality of their Muzak.
This video is a modern performance, from 2007, but it’s true to the spirit of the original. Certainly it’s better than Bo Bice’s competent but thoroughly unnecessary cover.
One area (pun intended, I guess) of prog I haven’t touched yet is the strange world of Italian prog. Italy produced a lively and enduring prog scene, with Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) being a particularly successful example. But my own favorite Italian prog band is Area, a jazz fusion group with a strange mix of virtuoso fusion jamming and avant garde experimentalism, and some of the strangest vocals this side of the yodeling mountain climber on The Price is Right.
This track is not — at all — what I would pick for a newcomer as an introduction to the band. But it’s what iTunes happened to serve up today on a random shuffle, and besides, this video is the most awesome thing on YouTube not produced by Sonseed.
“Feels Good to Me” and “Back to the Beginning” by Bruford
From the 1977 album Feels Good to Me
Bill Bruford has perhaps the most impressive pedigree of any prog musician: original drummer of Yes, he quit the band on a high note after the release of Close to the Edge in 1972 to join a newly reformed King Crimson, a band he would continue to perform with through the late ’90s. After King Crimson went on indefinite hiatus in 1974, and Peter Gabriel went solo in 1975, Bruford became the touring drummer for Genesis, allowing Phil Collins to step out from behind the kit as the band’s new lead singer. After a couple of Genesis tours, Bruford started his own prog/jazz fusion band, appropriately named Bruford. Dave Stewart (of Egg, Hatfield and the North and National Health fame) was the keyboardist, and for most of the band’s brief life, the now-legendary jazz-rock bassist Jeff Berlin held down the low end. For a time Allan Holdsworth was the guitarist, and the first couple of Bruford albums also featured Annette Peacock on vocals, giving the music even more of a Canterbury influence than Stewart already brought to the proceedings.
In this video, ex-National Health (and future Whitesnake, if you can believe it) bassist Neil Murray appears in place of Jeff Berlin. I’m not sure how the timing of this Old Grey Whistle Test appearance corresponds to the recording of that album — whether Murray was the original bassist in the band and was replaced by Berlin for the album, or if this followed the album and Berlin was, for whatever reason, unable to appear on the show. Neil Murray does a fine job here nonetheless, but the main appeal for me is simply the chance to see Bill Bruford and Dave Stewart in action together.
I’m not sold on Annette Peacock’s vocals here, but at least the mix is a little more balanced than on the album, where her vocals are so inexplicably loud that you can scarcely hear the rest of the band — and, seriously, who’s listening to Bruford for the vocals anyway? It’s worse than the mix on Trout Mask Replica.
