This time last week, a passing reference was made to Patrick Moraz, the man who was my final prog fascination before punk came along with its new broom to sweep all that old stuff away - for a few years at any rate. I was introduced to Moraz via the debut (and sole) LP from Refugee in early 1974. The band was put together by Brian Davidson and Lee Jackson of The Nice after Keith Emerson jumped ship to form Emerson Lake and Palmer. Moraz was in turn snatched away later the same year by Yes, following the departure of their keyboard maestro Rick Wakeman, where he contributed heavily to the 'Relayer' LP and accompanying world tour. The prog supergroup merry-go-round came to a shuddering halt for Moraz a couple of years later when he was asked to leave Yes to make way for the returning Wakeman. 'The Story of I' in 1976 was the first LP to be released under Patrick Moraz's own name and in 1978 he commenced a 15 year stint with the tremendously dull Moody Blues. I was long gone by that point though.Somehow, despite many moves and financially motivated downsizes in the interim, after 45 years I still have my original copy of that Refugee LP on the Charisma label. As you might expect it's a record chock full of classically tinged piano passages, impenetrable lyrical flourishes, tricky time changes, sweeping moog set pieces and long 'songs' divided into multiple disparate movements. Here's one of the latter, containing all of the former.
Refugee - Credo
8 comments:
At 18 minutes you don't get many of them to the £
Two on this LP!
Another person I have never heard of Swede. There are worse ways to pass 18 minutes. Thanks
I have to admit that I didn't knew them before. Bombastic keyboard experiments that couldn't be done at these times. Enjoyed what I heard. Thanks for this trip Swede
You just don't get album covers like that any more!
I mentioned this to Mr SDS knowing that you and he have some similar musical timelines - and indeed yes, he said he remembered buying this very album because of the Lee Jackson / Brian Davison connection to the Nice - £1 in a bargain bin, apparently!
Why is David Byrne holding up that Refugee album?
Bloody Rick Wakeman.......Relayer was an absolute peach of an album
An unexpected amount of feedback for this vintage prog gem! Glad you enjoyed it Drew & Walter. Mr SDS had a copy of the Refugee LP C? That's brilliant. I've never met anyone else who's even heard of the band! Brian, thanks for reminding me that I have yet to share my David Byrne story. Softshoebanana, it's my favourite Yes LP too, as you might imagine!
Post a Comment