40 Year Itch: I Hear A Symphony

                       

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    Canterbury art rockers Caravan follow-up one of their finest albums, 1973's For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night, with this live set recorded with the 39-piece New Symphonia Orchestra. Hey, it worked for Procol Harum (whose live album with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra was their top seller) and Deep Purple ( 1969's Concerto For Group and Orchestra). The Caravan offering doesn't have as many fans but I think it's a treat, especially on the longer tracks like "For Richard" from 1969's If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You. A remastered version is longer and much better recorded.

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These Italian prog rockers/ jazz fusionists sported both the softest and most melodic tunes in progressive rock and one of the fastest drummers ever on record : the perfectly named Furio Chirico.

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 Check out the track "Positivo/Negativo" and you too will be wondering why this album is out of print.

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Having broken worldwide with their novelty number "Hocus Pocus", these Dutch masters of progressive rock get serious again and produce the fan favorite Hamburger Concerto. It's a little surprising that a band with a recently inducted guitar god (in Jan Akkerman)  has recorded an album so dominated by keyboardist (Thijs Van  Leer). A grower that requires patience and appreciation.

40 Year Itch : Bonjours Caravan

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On November 26, 1973, to help promote their new ( and some say best ) album, For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night, progressive rockers Caravan allowed French television cameras to shoot their sold out concert at the Bataclan in Paris. A month later the show was broadcast. You'll hear the classic Plump track "The Dog, The Dog, He's At it Again" in its entirety as well as snippets of Plump's "Memory Lain, Hugh Headloss" and their classic show closer "For Richard" as well as all of Plump's epic "L'Auberge Du Sanglier / A Hunting We Shall Go / Pengola / Backwards / A Hunting We Shall Go (Reprise)". Longtime fans were originally suspicious of the new electric violinist Geoff Richardson, but most were sold on the addition thanks to performances like the one below.

  

40 Year Itch : Legs & Thighs, Hellos & Goodbyes

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Though consistently good, Caravan's sound could be so inconsistent  they were often losing fans at every sharp turn in their musical enthusiasms. On 1971's In the Land of the Grey and Pink they were fey and frilly. On 1972's Waterloo Lily, with the addition of keyboardist Steven Miller, Caravan sounded like a jazz fusion band. Miller had left by the time Pye Hastings and his mates entered the studio to record their fifth album, For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night. 

      The result is a more commercial album but not one lacking depth. It's a return to the sound of Grey and Pink but meatier in places, still brimming in silly sexual innuendos ( what is the pretty girl supposed to be holding that's sweet enough to eat in "The Dog, The Dog is at it Again"?) and adorned with newcomer Geoff Richardson's viola playing. Small wonder it's a favorite among Caravan's fans. In fact it may be 1973's ultimate "grower"--the more you listen to it, the more you like it. ( as opposed to Bowie's Pin Ups). 

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Well they've come along way from the Yardbirds. By the time Renaissance recorded their fourth album, the break-out Ashes Are Burning, Birdmen Keith Relf and Jim McCarty has departed, leaving the spotlight to the five octave vocalist Annie Haslam whose operatic training clearly puts her in a league of her own among rock singers. She's earnest. She's theatrical.  And , if you're a punk, she just might put you off Renaissance for good.

 If you want to give Renaissance a chance, as millions of people did, begin with Ashes Are Burning . The title cut is spectacular. As is the single"Carpet of the Sun".

40 Year Itch : A Bra To Fit A Car

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When In The Land Of The Grey And Pink failed to sell in big numbers, Caravan co-founder David Sinclair left the band to join Robert Wyatt in Matching Mole. So the kings of the Canterbury Scene brought jazz keyboardist Steve Miller aboard and made a very pleasant album full of bouncy pop and long Traffic-like jams. For those who might have missed the sex-capades of "Golf Girl", Caravan offers up "Waterloo Lily" herself:

                            Waterloo Lily's got enough to turn us all on/

                            Got a bra to fit a car/ 

                            A port upon her back you warm your feet on

Waterloo Lily didn't sell all that well either but David Sinclair returned to the band for their what is often considered their best album, 1973's  For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night.