Detmer Renaissance

Every Album, Every Song
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-78952-227-3
Verlag: Sonicbond Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 144 Seiten

Renaissance, a much beloved but highly underrated English progressive rock band, began life in 1969 as an offshoot of The Yardbirds. Keith Relf and Jim McCarty, who had recently left that iconic blues-rock group, decided to put together a new band that would differ from its predecessor by being more influenced by classical and folk music. After releasing two albums in 1969 and 1971, The band then quickly underwent a 100 percent turnover in personnel, resulting in an entirely new Renaissance
The new band was distinguished by the astonishingly beautiful five-octave-range vocals of their lead singer, Annie Haslam; their lengthy, multi-movement, classically inspired compositions, and their unusual instrumentation. Renaissance released six classic studio albums, and one live double album, between 1972 and 1978, even scoring a UK hit with 'Northern Lights'. The late 1970s and early 1980s saw the band commercialise with limited success, before folding.
In the 21st century, with Haslam continuing as the band's distinctive voice, Renaissance has returned to its orchestral/symphonic rock roots with two studio albums of new material and multiple live releases featuring contemporary treatments of its 1970s classics. This book, the first ever published on Renaissance, assesses their entire career, covering every song on every album. It is the essential guide to the recorded works of a group that deserves to be ranked among the greatest in the progressive rock genre.

David Detmer is a Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University Northwest. He is the author of six previous books, the most recent of which are Zinnophobia (about the radical American historian, Howard Zinn) and Simply Sartre (on the French existentialist philosopher and playwright, Jean-Paul Sartre). An amateur guitarist, his published essays on The Beatles and Pink Floyd have been translated into German, Portuguese, and Korean. He lives in Munster, Indiana, USA.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Detmer, David

Leseproben

Chapter 1

Renaissance (1969)

Personnel:

Louis Cennamo: bass

John Hawken: piano, harpsichord

Jim McCarty: drums, percussion, vocals

Jane Relf: vocals, percussion

Keith Relf: vocals, guitar, harmonica

Producer: Paul Samwell-Smith

Release date: late 1969

Highest chart position: 60 (UK)

Running time of original LP: 39:21

Note: This album has been released on CD many times, sometimes with bonus tracks. In one case it was released under the title Innocence.

Keith Relf had been the lead singer and harmonica player for The Yardbirds, the legendary English blues and psychedelic rock band that would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. He was also an accomplished songwriter, having co-written several of the band’s songs, including such top- ten singles as ‘Shapes of Things’ and ‘Over Under Sideways Down’. However, toward the end of his time with the band, his songwriting began to move in a new direction, more in the style of contemporary acoustic folk music. The Yardbirds drummer, Jim McCarty, shared Relf ’s interest in exploring that style, so in early 1968, following the break-up of the band, they joined forces in forming Together, an acoustic-based duo. But after recording and releasing a single under that name, they quickly realised that in order to take their new act on the road they would need additional players. Thus the idea for a new band, which would come to be called ‘Renaissance’, was born.

Relf and McCarty agreed that they wanted their new band to take a quieter, more restrained, approach than had been the case with the Yardbirds. They would try to create new folk-inflected music that reflected their admiration for the work of thoughtful contemporary singer-songwriters, like Tim Hardin or Joni Mitchell, but to be presented in a band context, somewhat in the manner of such groups as Fairport Convention and The Incredible String Band.

On the advice of another ex-Yardbird, Chris Dreja, Relf and McCarty invited pianist John Hawken, formerly of the Nashville Teens (a British group, best known for their 1964 top-ten single, ‘Tobacco Road’), to audition for a slot in their new band. His playing was impressive, as was that of another player they invited to audition, Louis Cennamo, former bassist for the Herd (a group primarily known for having been fronted by a young Peter Frampton). Hawken’s aggressive playing brought another element prominently into the new band’s mix – a classical music influence. Indeed, his enthusiasm for classical music was such that he frequently inserted brief quotations from classical pieces into his solos. To the surprise of Relf and McCarty, they found that this worked, and that, as a result, their fledgeling band seemed to be on a path toward creating something new – a melding of rock, folk, and classical – that was unlike anything the world had previously heard.

Only one element was missing. Relf and McCarty had once played a gig in the US in which they shared the bill with the Stone Poneys, a band that featured a young Linda Ronstadt on lead vocals. Inspired by her singing, they thought that a female singer would fit in well with the style they were trying to develop. They decided to give Jane Relf, Keith’s sister, a chance, even though she had never sung professionally before. She was eager for the opportunity, and had a pretty, albeit untrained, voice.

Once the line-up was finalised, and they had a few rehearsals under their belt, the band hit the road and played several live gigs before entering the studio to record their first album. Produced by another former Yardbird, bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, this first effort received many negative reviews upon its release but is much more highly regarded today. While the album is certainly open to legitimate, fair-minded, well-informed criticism, some of the criticism it took upon release was undoubtedly based simply on a failure to comprehend what the band was doing – for this hybridisation of genres, developed in songs of unusual length, represented something radically new in the British rock scene. And what is genuinely new tends, at first, to be seen as a failed attempt to do something already established.

But now that we have had ample time in which to familiarise ourselves with what has come to be called ‘progressive rock’, it is possible to appreciate this first Renaissance album as a pioneering representative of that genre. Indeed, Mike Barnes, in his book, A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock and the 1970s, includes it in his list of just fourteen albums that have a claim on the title of being the first progressive rock album. While he ends up awarding the crown to King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King, released in October 1969, it is noteworthy that the first Renaissance album was released at about the same time.

‘Kings And Queens’ 10:55 (Keith Relf/McCarty)

The album opener impresses on many levels. There is nothing tentative about it – no sense that the band is feeling its way toward a new style. Instead, the classical, rock, and jazz elements are brought together to form a coherent and satisfying synthesis. The several distinct sections that comprise this lengthy piece also flow together well.

The most distinctive part of the song begins at about two minutes in. McCarty lays down a rhythm pattern, in which the first two beats of each measure are accented, while the last two are unaccented. Hawken then reinforces this pattern on piano, playing loud piano chords on the first two beats. After establishing this pattern, he starts to embellish it with a higher, right-hand piano part, as he continues the ‘BANG BANG soft soft’ pattern with his left. A steady, remarkably propulsive, rhythm generated by drums and piano serves as the foundation for Keith Relf ’s vocals, which now enter at about 2:32, and continue to support him as he delivers the song’s lyrics (in a verse/chorus/ verse/chorus pattern).

The other sections of the piece all serve to frame the one just described. Hawken begins the song with a florid, aggressive, classically-inflected piano solo, with Cennamo doubling him on bass. After a brief fast passage, Hawken slows down, and at 0:34 the band comes to a complete stop mid-cadence.

Hawken then crashes back in with a loud piano chord. Adding to the startling effect of this chord is that it is not the Bb minor that our ear has been led to expect, but instead a Gb major. This surprise chord also pivots our ear toward the key of the verses.

Shortly after the entrance of Hawken’s chord, McCarty’s drums come in, to be quickly followed by the other players. The entire band then plays a rather anarchic, jazzy improvisation for a little over a minute. Their busy and fast playing eventually slows down, reduces to just Hawken’s piano, and then, like other segments of this piece, almost fades to a stop. This very free, unstructured section thus serves to emphasise, by contrast, the tightly composed rhythmic pattern that supports the singing of the song’s verses and chorus.

Following the second verse, Cennamo takes over, playing a slow, descending, arpeggiated bass solo, in a new time signature (3/4). After establishing its melody, he is joined by Hawken and McCarty, who repeat the theme several times, but in increasingly elaborate variations, while also playing increasingly louder and faster. Early in the solo, we also hear Jane Relf quietly vocalising wordlessly in the background. Her tempo increases and her part becomes more prominent, as the solo proceeds. After a short interval all of the players but Cennamo drop out, and we hear him softly and slowly repeating the part he had played at the beginning of the solo.

He then transitions to a new section, in which he quietly, and very slowly, plays a simple, two-note back-and-forth pattern. This has an ominous feel, which is accentuated by the soft, rumbling drum accompaniment. (The notes he plays are separated by three whole tones, and this interval, a tritone, was for centuries called ‘the devil’s interval’. Listening to it here, one can understand why!) The tension builds as Hawken joins in, doubling Cennamo’s bass part on his piano; and it builds further as the volume increases and McCarty adds cymbal crashes to the mix.

After a few iterations of this, the rest of the band drops out, and Hawken, continuing to play loudly, begins a solo. At first, he plays a well-defined, presumably composed, melody, but gradually shifts to a free, improvisatory sound, during which he is joined by bass and drums, which are also freely played. Then, led by Hawken’s ‘call’ and Cennamo’s response, the band tightens up again and launches into a new riff, this one in 7/8 time. After a brief episode in which the players explore several variations on this new theme, they once again slow down, and then abandon Hawken, who plays arrhythmically for a few seconds (just long enough to allow the listener to leave the band’s excursion into septuple meter behind), before coming almost to a complete stop. And that is McCarty’s cue to bring back the ‘BANG BANG soft soft’ rhythm pattern, marking the imminent return of the first verse, to be followed by another iteration of the chorus.

After...