I was answering a comment the other week on one of my Manfred Mann posts and it reminded me that the 1973 hit single 'Joybringer' was based on the melody from 'Saturn:The Bringer Of Joy' from Gustav Holst's 'The Planets Suite'. It's always been my favourite piece of classical music - one of the few pieces that I can listen to regularly - and I wondered if any other rock songs were based on sections of it. I know that when Gustav Holst died his daughter Imogen took over looking after the copyright of his music, and one thing she was very insistent on was that no other form of music other than orchestral was to be used while it was in copyright, so I've often wondered how King Crimson got away with using 'Mars:The Bringer Of War' as the basis or their 'The Devil's Triangle' from their 'In The Wake Of Poseidon' album in 1970, but somehow they did, and so I now had two pieces. The rest of the album took some research, as those did seem to be the two most popular pieces, but once I found Cailyn Lloyd's 'Voyager' album from 2015 I had the choice of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, all of which he'd covered in a progressive rock style, with organ and guitar well to the fore. Jeff Wayne and Rick Wakeman had also decided to record an album based on 'The Planets', but they covered the whole suite, using keyboards and orchestra, and so I chose what was generally considered to be the best track from that recording, 'Venus:Bringer of Peace'. When Holst wrote the suite, he originally intended the whole thing to be played on two pianos, and it was later scored for orchestra to become the classical piece that we know today, but I thought it would be interesting to hear at least one piece in its original form, so 'Mercury:The Winged Messenger' is played on two pianos by Richard Markham and David Nettle. On my trawl of the net in search of new interpretations, one of the most unusual that I found was a Youtube video of a concert by a jazz trio, led by pianist Ryan Skiles. He's scored the whole thing for a jazz trio, and it was something of a triumph, with many complementary comments, so I decided to use 'Saturn:The Bringer Of Old Age' from the concert for this album. To round it all off we have Neptune:The Mystic' from probably the most famous modern interpretation, by Isao Tomita, who recorded the whole suite on keyboards and synthesizers in 1976. This was the first time that Imogen Holst became infamous in the rock world when she forced the withdrawal of all UK copies of the album, although I managed to get my hands on one just before they were recalled, as did a number of other fans of the Japanese synth wizard, and the album is more freely available now since the copyright expired. If you haven't heard 'The Planets' played by an orchestra then I do recommend it, and you'll recognise at least a couple of the pieces even if you aren't into classical music. If you are already a fan then I hope that this rock version shows it in a new light.
Track listing
01 Mars:The Bringer Of War (King Crimson)02 Venus:The Bringer Of Peace (Rick Wakeman & Jeff Wayne)03 Mercury:The Winger Messenger (Richard Markham & David Nettle)04 Joybringer (Manfred Mann's Earth Band)05 Saturn:The Bringer Of Old Age (Ryan Skiles Trio)06 Uranus:The Magician (Cailyn Lloyd)07 Neptune:The Mystic (Isao Tomita)
Rachel Flowers was born in 1993 in National City, California, arriving 15 weeks prematurely, and weighing just one pound five ounces. She lost her eyesight at three months due to retinopathy of prematurity, but from a very young age she exhibited an extraordinary musical talent, being able to pick up melodies immediately, and was soon playing by ear every song she heard. As what you are about to read might seem a bit unbelievable, then before you carry on, check out this Youtube video of her playing Emerson, Lake And Palmer's 'Tarkus' entirely from memory at age 19, on Emerson's actual Modular Moog, which I believe was being renovated by her family at the time. Rachel has perfect pitch, and at four and a half years old she began her formal music training through the Southern California Conservatory of Music, where she studied piano, music theory, ear training, music history, Braille music code, and adaptive computer music applications. While studying, she learned to play the flute and saxophone, and some mallet instruments, and is also proficient on piano and keyboards, and can play guitar, chapman stick, and bass. Her great musical loves are jazz and progressive rock, but she can also turn her hand to classical, soul, and R&B, but it's her superlative interpretations of classic prog rock that I'm featuring here. There are a number of videos of her playing on Youtube, and many other songs posted on Soundcloud, so do check them all out, and she is currently working on her second album of original songs. The cover is based on the poster for the 2017 film of her life, 'Hearing Is Believing'.
Track listing
01 Red King Crimson)02 Trilogy (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)03 Larks Tongue In Aspic Part I (King Crimson)04 Larks Tongue In Aspic Part II (King Crimson)05 2nd Bridge from 'Five Bridges' (The Nice)06 Starless (King Crimson)
Due to potential licencing issues I've been asked by Rachel to remove the links to this album, but she's happy for you to listen to the music on her Soundcloud page, so links are now the song titles.
