CAMEL: THE SNOW GOOSE (1975)
1) The Great Marsh; 2)
Rhayader; 3) Rhayader Goes To Town; 4) Sanctuary; 5) Fritha; 6) The Snow Goose;
7) Friendship; 8) Migration; 9) Rhayader Alone; 10) Flight Of The Snow Goose;
11) Preparation; 12) Dunkirk; 13) Epitaph; 14) Fritha Alone; 15) La Princesse
Perdue; 16) The Great Marsh.
I confess that I have not read anything by Paul
Gallico — I also confess that the basic plotline of The Snow Goose does not impress me nearly enough to seek it out,
nor do the occasional critical slashes at the sixty-four page novella that
accuse it of excessive sentimentality. Nevertheless, I would also think that a
profound acquaintance with this literary work is not totally necessary in order to enjoy Camel's third album for
what it is: the quintessential, if maybe not the best, Camel album that only
Camel could have made.
Ironically, it was the success of the lengthy
suites on Mirage that led the band
to considering making a record that would be fully based on a piece of
literature; but that piece of literature was not a Tolkien epic, but a modern
time fairy tale with a sad ending, sort of a cross between Hans Christian
Andersen and Erich Maria Remarque. The fairy tale has three characters — the
loner Rhayader, the innocent girl Fritha, and the symbolic Snow Goose — who are
so self-sufficient, it seems, that the entire world, from the marshlands of
Essex to the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940, just acts as a canvas for their
triangularity. That was exactly what
Latimer and Bardens needed to set them back on the right track and recreate the
atmosphere of dark-beautiful loneliness that they originally generated on Camel, but sort of dissipated on Mirage.
The album is completely instrumental, and its
full title is, in fact, Music Inspired
By The Snow Goose; both of these things are due to Gallico's disapproval of
the project and the necessity to avoid copyright infringement lawsuits. The
lack of vocals does make the experience a bit more demanding: the tunes are
generally very similar in mood, and the emphasis is on texture rather than
flashy, distinctive hooks. But The Snow
Goose really has to be assimilated as one 43-minute suite with a bunch of
separate movements, even though some of the songs had to be pulled out as
singles; in concert, they tended to play it complete whenever possible, and
even the titles clearly hint that they're all part of a whole — I mean, ʻFlight
Of The Snow Gooseʼ, when issued as a single, probably made people not-in-the-know
think it was a parody on ʻFlight Of The Bumblebeeʼ or something.
The music in general is fairly typical for Camel,
incorporating elements of jazz fusion, folk, «art-pop» hearkening back to
Sixties' psychedelia, and first generation symph-prog. Everything is handled
very delicately: despite the sentimental potential, this is not really the kind
of music that will tear and rip you apart with sonic passion — most of the
themes are played quietly, without rising to breathtaking heights or plunging
to abysmal depths. For instance, ʻRhayaderʼjust hops along at a moderately fast
tempo, with pretty flute and keyboard melodies creating a cheerful atmosphere (too cheerful, I'd say, for a loner like
the title character); ʻRhayader Goes To Townʼ slightly increases tempo and
fuss, throws in some shrill guitar solos, then becomes a blues jam for a few
minutes, then just sort of fizzles away. Always pleasant to hear, rarely
memorable.
In my opinion, this «pleasantness» only becomes
to gradually evolve into something grander with ʻFlight Of The Snow Gooseʼ —
all those short bits when Rhayader and Fritha save the bird and help it to convalesce
are cute, but it is only when the main theme of ʻFlightʼ emerges out of the
synth bubbles that the album starts building a bit of epic muscle. ʻDunkirkʼ is
the second big success, though probably not as big as it could have been: the
jazz-rock interpretation of the big event is quite furious for Camel, but
surely Yes or ELP would have raised even more tension. And then there is the
stately finale of ʻLa Princesse Perdueʼ, built around a simple, but beautiful
«friendly-sad» guitar figure from Latimer, reminiscent of either Harrison or
Gilmour, depending on your immediate associations. The musical ideas contained
in these three tracks are like pillars on which everything else is resting.
That said, I would not have given the album a thumbs up
for just three tracks. In reality, it is the kind of record that I like more
when I am not listening to it too
closely. When I try to do that, I usually get bored quickly; but if I do not,
eventually it grows into something bigger and more mysterious than simple
background music. Believe it or not, it does
feel like some strange and sentimental happening, taking place somewhere in a
far away marshland: lonely place, lonely people, spiritual isolation, the
works. You might have to wait a little for the humble magic to start happening,
but eventually it will, maybe with a little active help from the imagination.
And maybe it is a good thing that
this album was not made by the likes of Yes or ELP, because they would have
made it all on a grand grand scale, which would be all right for ʻDunkirkʼ but
certainly not for any other tracks. The subject, the atmosphere, the vision — this
all perfectly suits the talents and characters of Bardens and Latimer.
Part 2 of the Sandy Trinity of classic Camel albums (Mirage through Moonmadness), and one of my all time favorites from the Hooved Wonders of mello-prog (TM). Hard to pick a highlight, although "Rhayader Goes To Town" is the obvious "hit." It's all extremely even, extremely pleasant, a tiny bit cold, and a trifle uninvolving, but who needs their ears peeled back by excessively passionate screams and guitar shenanigans every time they turn on their iPod?
ReplyDeleteIt's a lovely little book, and I think the music and text match the other quite nicely. Interesting thing about Gallico is that he's about the opposite of Ernest Hemmingway. He tells you all about his character rather than allowing/making you piece it all together from the action, which I guess can be good or bad. In this way the music is kind of a foil to the narrator, but giving the story a read may give you further insight into the appropriateness or purpose of the tunes.
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