Classic Rock And Prog Almanac

This week, Shaun and Tim discussed the fourth album by The Bonzo Dog Band, Keynsham. Topics covered include: whether this is their best album, the relationship between comedy and music, the relationship between The Bonzos and The Beatles, the influence that the band had on the British comedy scene, the band’s musical skills, and their connections to the Monty Python group. Also, who exactly was Horace Batchelor? Was Bryan Ferry ever actually sighted on a ferry? What happened when Tim and Shaun were attacked on stage by some dockers from Tilbury? Were the Bonzos influenced by Marcel Duchamp’s toilet? Should Jimmy Page have used a leg theremin in The Song Remains The Same? And our classic question: is it is or is it ain’t a concept album?

Today Peter gives his ranking of The Incredible String Band albums. Topics covered include: the Edinburgh folk scene, the distinctive String Band cover art, the influence ISB had on other bands of the period, the band’s unusual lyrics and the Williamson-Heron dialectic. Also, who is the worst singer in the band? Exactly how cold is Edinburgh? Who is Wee Tam? Why is The Hedgehog Song so popular? When did the scientology kick in? Who does worse fake laughter, the String Band or Joni Mitchell? And of course, which album will be number one?!

This week Tim had a conversation with himself about Roger Waters’ third studio album, Amused To Death. Topics covered include: whether this is Waters’ best solo album, the subterranean structure of the album, the difference between George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, whether the album is written like a musical, and the debt the album owes to Pink Floyd. Also, how does Roger Waters echo the 19th Century German philosopher Feuerbach? Is TV a good thing or a bad thing? Is Jeff Beck doing Dave Gilmour doing Jeff Beck? Can Dark Side Of The Moon really be played in sync with The Wizard Of Oz? Why is Andrew Lloyd-Weber so bad? And what exactly is basketball?

This week, Tim, Shaun and Peter discussed their top five albums of 1968. Topics covered include: whether 1968 is very different from 1967, whether rock albums carry the day in 1968 or other genres, what role nostalgia plays in the albums, and whether the U.S. or the U.K. had better albums at that time. Also, do the 1970s begin in 1968? Did Roy Wood from ELO invent the general theory of relativity? Do you have to be a musician to make music? How many times did Timothy Leary die? And is Ray Davies Shaun’s own personal Morrissey?

This week Tim did a monologue on the newly-re-released second album by Queen, otherwise known as Queen 2. Topics covered include: whether the critical consensus on this album is accurate, why the band called one side white and one side black, the extent to which the album can be considered a concept album, whether this album is an originator of the later British heavy metal scene, and whether Queen in their turn were influenced by Gentle Giant. Also, has a worse acronym ever been invented than NWOBHM? What was the name of the film whose title track was “Flash”? How many proto-Bohemian Rhapsodies did Queen produce? How bad are the lyrics to Loser In The End? And how much is it possible to complain about Queen whilst both celebrating and lauding one of their key works?

This week, Tim discussed the third album by Kate Bush, Never For Ever. Topics covered include: Kate Bush's harmonic sophistication, the poetic mastery she displays on the album, whether she should be considered an underrated artist, the constant Freudian sexual motifs she uses and the literary and cinematic dimension of the record. Also, why is the angel and the whore motif so popular? Why are the monsters on the cover emerging from Kate’s dress? Has anyone ever sat through a whole Ken Russell film? Are we really all just trying to get back to our mother’s breast? And is Babooshka trying to seduce her husband because she wants to win him back or is she just collecting material for the divorce papers?

This week, Tim and Shaun discussed their favourite prog bands of all time, with the exception of the ‘Premier League’. Topics covered include: what prog actually is, whether prog was superseded by jazz-fusion, the role of the Canterbury sound in the history of prog and the role of humour in the prog genre. Also, what would Genesis have sounded like if they’d come from Kent? What happened to Shaun in Whitstable? What does Richard Sinclair sound like in real life? Is Arnold’s Gift Centre in Brentwood still open? And crucially, who will be number one?

This week, in the second of our heavily-trailed phantasy album series, Tim discussed his proposal for a hypothetical follow-up to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s Deja-Vu. Topics covered include: whether there is a stylistic difference between the Stills-Young axis and the Crosby-Nash axis, which member of the band had the best solo album, whether the first CSN album was definitory of the California sound, why they bothered including Neil Young in the group, and where this hypothetical album would have stood in their canon, had it actually existed. Also, what is counterfactual history? How many grooves can you fit on a side of an LP? Why are there generally no girls in bands? Do all protest songs have to have a geographical name in the title? And how is David Crosby’s first album like The Gettysburg Address?

This week, Tim and Shaun discussed the seventh studio album by Steeleye Span, Commoners Crown. Topics discussed include: the connection between folk rock and prog rock, whether we prefer Steeleye Span or Fairport Convention, the American anthropology of British folk music, what the parallels are between Steeleye and The Wombles, and the prospect of various heavy metal bands covering these songs. Also, is there any album in the history of rock that contains more songs about child murder? What’s a homunculus? Did Shaun really pour tea all over his motherboard? Who made Bagpuss? And crucially, what did an elderly couple say to Shaun when he was coming out of the toilets at a Steeleye gig?

In the first of our mooted fantasy albums series, Tim and Peter each set out their alternative track listings for The Beatles, the band’s ninth studio album, colloquially known as The White Album. Issues covered include: the idea of a non-concept concept album, the contrasts between the band members’ different writing styles, where the band had reached in their career by this point, what we think of the final title versus the working title, and the extent to which the album reflected the socio-cultural context in which the band were working. Also, should Revolution 9 be included? What’s the problem with CDs? Was the protagonist of Mother Nature’s Son run over by a milk van? Why does George Harrison hate other humans so much? And did the band tell Ringo the time signature of Happiness Is A Warm Gun, or just wait for him to figure it out by himself?