ALAN PRICE: PERFORMING PRICE (1975)
1) Arrival; 2) O Lucky Man!;
3) Left Over People; 4) Away Away; 5) Under The Sun; 6) In Times Like These; 7)
Simon Smith And The Amazing Dancing Bear; 8) Poor People; 9) Sell Sell; 10)
Justice; 11) Look Over Your Shoulder; 12) Too Many People; 13) Nobody Can; 14)
Keep On Rollin'; 15) City Lights; 16) You're Telling Me / Is There Anybody Out
There; 17) Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo; 18) Sweet P; 19) I Put A Spell On You; 20) It Takes
Me Back; 21) Between Today And Yesterday; 22) Changes; 23) O Lucky Man!
(reprise).
Another year, another pun. Actually, the price
was right on the money here, because it's a double live album which now comes
for the price of a single CD (provided you can find it at all) — and it
captures the man at the absolute peak of his solo career, so much so that he
plays pretty much the entire Lucky Man!
soundtrack, and a huge huge chunk of stuff from Between Today & Yesterday. Indeed, the setlist is the
highlight of the show — 90% is from his last three records (apparently, Metropolitan Man was still in the
works, so there's only four songs from that one as a preview of things to
come), with three hit singles from the 1960s thrown in as golden oldie bonuses,
and not a single Animals song in sight (I'm not sure he ever dared to do
ʽRising Sunʼ on his own, no matter how much the public would probably love to
hear him have a go).
The principal problem is predictable: all the
songs are played relatively safe, sticking close to studio arrangements, and
Alan is so busy trying to get the best out of his weak voice that he almost
completely concentrates on «getting it right». Which he does, most of the time,
but as good as it must have been for the paying audience, I don't exactly see
the performance opening any new dimensions for these tunes. I absolutely do not
mind hearing the songs once again — they're all great, and getting them all
assembled in one place is nice, and you can use it as extra confirmation of
the fact that at least for a three-year period, Alan Price somehow emerged as
one of Britain's top-level songwriters, but that's about it.
Stage-wise, Alan is as humble as ever, usually
cutting the banter down to regular thank you's and occasional brief
explanations of what the next song is about; there's a little bit of audience
interaction for the chorus of ʽIn Times Like Theseʼ, but that's about it.
There are no soloing or jamming detours whatsoever — the band obviously
follows strict instructions to stick to the rules, and the rules are so strict
that they even brought an orchestra along to reproduce all the lush string
parts. (By the way, the concert was apparently held in January 1975 somewhere
in London and parts of it were also transmitted for a TV show — you can easily
catch a few glimpses on YouTube these days). Eventually, it just leaves you in
a situation where the only thing left to do is wonder, «what is he going to
leave out anyway?» And he leaves out most of the weak stuff, yes, but for some
reason they also don't do ʽThe Jarrow Songʼ — considering that it was one of
his biggest hits, that's a tough one to explain.
On the whole, a nice, polite, gentlemanly,
feel-good experience, but not really
worth a thumbs up, unless one wants to specially elevate Mr. Price just for the
sake of his overall nice vibe. On the plus side, the man loyally did his 1970s duty
and left us with a double live LP, even despite never claiming to be a
progressive rock or a heavy metal artist. (Actually, that should have been a triple live LP to satisfy all the
conditions, but for somebody who never engaged in twenty-minute long symph-rock
suites, that'd have been one real tough challenge).
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