Published on Oct 9, 2002
By 1975, fans of Rick Wakeman had to be wondering what massive
project he would tackle for his third album. After all, he had done
musical tributes to
The Six Wives Of Henry VIII, and he had adapted a Jules
Verne novel into his
Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, both with personal and
professional success.
The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The
Round Table (hereafter
Myths), Wakeman’s third release, has many great moments on
it, but dares to suggest that such an epic tale could not be neatly
summed up in seven songs and 45 minutes. While it is no failure, it
represents a small step back for Wakeman – and many of the problems
could have been easily fixed.
Now, I’ll freely admit I’m not an expert on the tales of King
Arthur – and I’m sorry, Rick, but every time I hear references to
the “Black Knight,” all I can think of is the one scene from
Monty Python And The Holy Grail. So, while you don’t
necessarily need a history degree to appreciate the music, having
some knowledge of the story line is essential.
Musically, Wakeman again does the wise thing and allows the
ensemble to take center stage, not just his synthesizers and piano
work. When the keyboards need to be up front in songs, Wakeman has
no problem taking the spotlight – but he recognizes that is the
work of the entire band – including guitarist Jeffrey Crampton,
bassist Roger Newell and vocalists Ashley Holt and Gary Pickford
Hopkins – which makes this concept initially take flight.
Indeed, for a good portion of the first half of
Myths, very little goes wrong. My one complaint, though, is
that Holt and Hopkins’s vocals are often buried in the mix, and
should have been potted up much higher than they were. Many times
throughout this album, I strained to understand just what they were
singing, since I could barely hear them over the instruments. I do,
though, now understand why there is a bit of disharmony on
“Guinivere”. If my memory serves me right, both Lancelot and Arthur
were competing for the affections of Guinivere, even after she was
married to Arthur. The fact that there is not perfect harmonization
on the first part of this song echoes the image of the two men
proclaiming their love for one woman. Sorry I didn’t catch that
when I first heard this track on the
Journey To The Centre Of The Earth DVD.
If there is one thing I would have encouraged Wakeman to do, it
would have been to use more of the medieval-sounding chorus breaks
throughout
Myths. It is an effect which works well when introducing
certain tracks, and it absolutely powers “Lady Of The Lake” to 45
seconds of brilliance. (Okay, two things I’d have encouraged – use
Terry Taplin more than just at the beginning and at the end. A
little more narration could have helped people like me follow the
story better.)
Yet
Myths has two flaws, in my eyes. First, it sometimes feels
like certain tracks just don’t fit in with the overall feel of the
album. “Sir Lancelot And The Black Knight” and “Sir Galahad” both
feel a little out of place musically, though I’m positive their
inclusion is essential. Maybe mixing the vocals up would have
helped me appreciate these tracks more – after all, it’s easy to
lose a little interest when you don’t understand what’s going on.
And while “The Last Battle” does fit musically, it too suffers from
a weak vocal mix.
This all kind of ties in to flaw number two – trying to tell an
epic story in such a short amount of time. Sure, Wakeman did it
with
Journey and did it well. But this is something a little
different. One wonders what this work could have been like had
Wakeman been able to turn it into a two-record epic – and why he
didn’t, one can only speculate. But it often feels like we’re only
getting a small slice of the story, and there is much more of the
tale that goes untold past the musical pieces here.
This all isn’t to say that
Myths is a bad album; indeed, it’s still a pleasurable way
to spend 45 minutes. But one wonders what it could have been had
the right cards been played.