Lambe Focus In The 1970s

The Music Of Jan Akkerman and Thijs Van Leer
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-78952-452-9
Verlag: Sonicbond Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 144 Seiten

Reihe: Decades

For a few short years in the 1970s, the unique music of Focus entertained the world. Built around the prodigious instrumental talents of Dutch masters Jan Akkerman (guitar) and Thijs van Leer (keyboards and flute), the band produced three classic hit albums in quick succession, at the same time scoring two worldwide hits with 'Sylvia' and 'Hocus Pocus'. The latter piece is as ubiquitous as tunes from the 70s get, distinctive for Akkerman's famous riff and van Leer's yodelling. Musical and personal tensions between the two lead to a split in early 1976 and the band limped on until 1978. However, the decade also saw other many projects, with Akkerman moving into jazzier territory while van Leer had huge success with his Introspection series of light classical, flute-orientated albums.
Stephen Lambe's book guides the reader through the band's early history year by year, dealing with all eight Focus albums song by song, while also giving the same treatment to Akkerman and van Leer's other work during the decade. It is an important potted history of the band and an insight into the tensions which lead to such a creative - if short lived - peak. But it also acts as an essential guide to the astonishing music the two men made while at the apex of their powers.
Stephen Lambe is an author, publisher, festival organiser and journalist. An acknowledged expert on progressive rock, his books include: Yes - on track (Sonicbond, 2018) and the best-selling Citizens Of Hope and Glory: The Story Of Progressive Rock (Amberley, 2011). He lives in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, UK.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lambe, Stephen

Leseproben

Chapter 3

1970 – Focus Play Focus

If we were to stumble across the members of Focus in very early January 1970, what might be their circumstances? For a start, it’s most likely they would be freezing. The four members of the band were acting as the pit band for the Dutch production of Hair in a tent near the Olympic Stadium on the outskirts of Amsterdam. This was not ideal for any of them, least of all, one must imagine, Jan, for whom playing the same mundane arrangements night after night must have been something of a trial. But it was a paid gig, and it did allow them to rehearse their own live set during the day – and all day on Monday, which was a day off for the show.

Those who have heard the Dutch soundtrack to the 1970 production of Hair (the author could not track it down) suggest that there’s almost nothing of the Focus that we would come to know and love in these recordings. The show did allow a free-for-all improvisation with the audience allowed onstage at the end of the show, however, allowing the band to let off steam. It was around this time that the group name of Focus was first coined. As Thijs told Peet Johnson:

My mother was reading a philosophy book to me when I was young, and she said, in English, ‘to focus upon’ and I asked her, ‘what is ‘to focus upon’? She said it means ‘to direct, to concentrate’.

It’s a beautiful name. It creates an image of a nice, warm, cosy family, but I also wanted to focus on the human mind. I thought that there is perhaps a form of music that can be a catalyst to help people focus and deal with their own problems [as opposed to music that acts just as a way of blotting them out].

These were high ideals indeed and not lacking in pretension. But there is little doubt that no band has ever sounded quite like Focus, even if – ultimately – such ideals were only occasionally fulfilled in practice. The book his mother quoted from was written by Hazrat Inayat Khan, the Indian-born musician, teacher and founder of the Sufi order, who we will meet again as the lyricist of ‘Moving Waves’ via one of his poems.

‘The Shrine Of God’ (Shaffy) b/w ‘Watch The Ugly People’ (van Leer, Shaffy) – Ramses Shaffy With The Focus Band

Personnel:

Ramses Shaffy: vocals

Thijs van Leer: keyboards, flute

Jan Akkerman: guitar

Hans Cleuver: drums

Martijn Dresden: bass

Produced by Hans van Hemert

Recorded by Albert Kos at Phonogram Studio, Hilversum, 6 and 16 October, 25 November, 4 and 16 December 1969, 7 January 1970. (Thanks to Wouter Bessels for credits)

Available as part of the Focus 50 Years Anthology

The first official usage of the name Focus was on a single release by Thijs’ old boss, Ramses Shaffy. Recorded at the end of 1969 and completed in very early 1970, ‘The Shrine Of God’ b/w ‘Watch The Ugly People’ was released later in 1970, before the band’s debut. It was credited to ‘Ramses Shaffy Met Band Focus’, so it warrants a proper entry here.

Despite having their band name on the cover of the single, there’s very little on ‘Shrine Of God’ to mark out Focus as the startlingly original outfit they were to become. Shaffy’s vocals, too, are decent but do not suggest that he was anything except a fairly standard baritone crooner of the type so often found at the time. Indeed, he’s often on the verge of losing pitch during the song. It’s Jan’s work – prominent if untypical – that stands out, his jangly guitar very much ‘of the time’, with some very fine lead work buried on the mix towards the end of the song, including a few licks that sound very similar to his work on the first Focus album, for which the band were rehearsing at the time. The song itself is hardly distinctive – a somewhat repetitive plea for religion to be found in the hearts of men rather than in formal places of worship.

Both Thijs and Martijn are more prominent on the B-side ‘Watch The Ugly People’, with Thijs far more involved. This is hardly surprising since Thijs wrote the music for this rather better – if short – song. He features on organ and Mellotron, giving the track a spacey feel, while Martijn’s bassline is also crucial, and Jan plays rhythm guitar throughout. The lyric implores the listener to avoid those that are ugly – ugly on the ‘inside’, of course. No self-respecting lyricist would have a pop at physically ugly people in the late 1960s!

Focus Play Focus / In And Out Of Focus (1970)

Personnel:

Jan Akkerman: electric and acoustic guitars

Thijs van Leer: piano, Hammond organ, Mellotron, flute, lead vocals (except ‘Happy Nightmare’)

Martijn Dresden: bass, trumpet, lead vocals on ‘Happy Nightmare’, backing vocals

Hans Cleuver: drums, percussion, backing vocals

Wouter Moller: cello on ‘Happy Nightmare’

Produced by Hubert Terheggen

Recorded by Jerry Boys at Sound Techniques Studio, London in January 1970

Highest chart placings: Netherlands: did not chart, UK; did not chart, USA: 104

Available as part of the Focus 50 Years Anthology or on Red Bullet CD

The band’s debut album was recorded at Sound Techniques Studio in Old Church Street, London, in January 1970. The dates had been set up by Hubert Terheggen, who acted as de facto producer on the album, although it is clear that his role was much more of an executive producer’s one and that – in effect – the band self-produced the album with the help of engineer Jerry Boys. This was probably not a good idea, and the album production feels mushy – very much a product of the 1960s rather than the 1970s.

Not unlike the debut Genesis album From Genesis To Revelation, this formative recording, which was somewhat unsuccessful, has had many re- reissues over the years. Your author’s vinyl copy is the 1973 Sire US edition, which misses out the vocal track ‘Sugar Island’ completely. This seems to have been due to its rather disparaging view of the ‘Sugar Island’ in question – Cuba – at a time when US relations with Castro’s Communist regime were beginning to thaw. As a result, I had never heard the track at all before researching this book!

It is very clear that at this stage of their early development, Focus were not quite sure what sort of band they wanted to be. Of the seven tracks released initially, five have traditional ‘song’ structures of sorts, although the vocals – shared between the band except for Jan – are most definitely a weak link. Although Thijs was later revealed to be a better ‘vocaliser’ than a singer, per se, there are no vocals even to rival the confidence of his performance on ‘Moving Waves’ (the song). Instead, the ‘strength in numbers’ principle is adhered to, with vocals shared or double-tracked throughout. However, on the two instrumental pieces, there are some powerful suggestions of what was to come just a year or so later. The rhythm section is impressive, and Martijn Dresden, in particular, can consider himself very unlucky not to have been in the revamped band formed at the end of the year – a victim of circumstance rather than lack of ability. However, both Jan and Thijs show what fledgling talents they were, with terrific performances. One aspect of the album that is impressive – but didn’t really carry across into later performances – is how well Thijs uses organ and piano in combination, particularly in the longer instrumental pieces.

Eight tracks were recorded during those January sessions in London. One, ‘Spoke The Lord Creator’ was not released until the 1975 out-takes compilation Ship Of Memories. The 1971 Dutch reissue replaced ‘Focus (vocal)’ with ‘House Of The King’, of which more in a moment. The CD issue begins with ‘Focus (vocal)’, whereas the vinyl versions open with the instrumental version. Wouter Bessels finally produced the definitive running order in the Focus 50 Anthology Box with ‘House Of The King’ as a bonus track, whereas other CD versions include it in the main running order – although that track wasn’t released on vinyl in the UK until Focus 3 in 1972. Confused? We’ll use the current CD version of the album as our guide, with ‘House Of The King’ as an ‘official’ bonus and ‘Spoke The Lord Creator’ added for convenience. If you have the CD, you can play the album in any order you like!

‘Focus (Instrumental)’ (van Leer)

This track set the template for the regular Focus pieces that graced most of the band’s albums up to the present day. It takes the melody of the main song, which we will look at shortly and improves it considerably by giving it to Jan’s lead guitar – which makes the first couple of minutes a restful delight – over Thijs organ and piano. The first transition arrives thereafter but just teases us before a repeat of the main melody. It’s stirring stuff, very much in keeping with the band that we know and love. The piece develops pace eventually into something of a jam, with Jan soloing powerfully and with considerable skill around a specific guitar figure, even if his guitar...