CAPTAIN BEYOND: DAWN EXPLOSION (1977)
1) Do Or Die; 2) Icarus; 3)
Sweet Dreams; 4) Fantasy; 5) Breath Of Fire: A Speck Within A Sphere; 6) Breath
Of Fire: Alone In The Cosmos; 7) If You Please; 8) Midnight Memories; 9) Space
Interlude; 10) Oblivion; 11) Space Reprise.
They should probably have retitled the band «Beyond
Captain» for this one. Apparently, by 1976 most of the original members found
themselves with nothing to do, and decided to have another shot — all except
Rod Evans, who went into respiratory therapy instead (giving a whole new meaning
to the words "Hush! Hush!"). So Caldwell, Dorman, and Reinhardt had
to find themselves a new vocalist. His name was Willy Daffern, he came from
nowhere in particular (I think he worked for The Standells a bit in the late
1960s), and he sucked.
Well, maybe not «sucked», precisely, but he
belonged to the same cohort of loud-mouthed, textbookishly «soulful», pompous
(white) vocalists that also included David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Lou Gramm,
miriads of them — at least Rod Evans never pretended to operatic qualities, and
he had a somewhat somber and humble tone that worked well with the band's loud
music, whereas this guy has no subtlety whatsoever, even if in terms of range
and technique he might have been slightly better qualified than Evans.
Most of the complaints about Dawn Explosion, however, are usually
targeted not against the vocalist, but against the music — this is just hard rock without any progressive
ambitions, the fans complain, and the record's intelligence quotient falls way
below acceptable standards. I find these accusations a bit too far-fetched: for
sure, there's a lot of hard rock riffage here, but it's not as if they turned
into Thin Lizzy or AC/DC overnight. There are multi-part suites here, too, and soulful
ballads, and psychedelic interludes, and even a jazz-fusion instrumental. And
even the hard rock numbers are not aggressive, but rather celebratory, just as
they used to be. There's no attempt here to reorient the band in another
direction — there is an attempt to
make it somewhat adapt to the times, with «arena-rock» overtones, but the basic
combination of heaviness, psychedelia, and pop instincts remains intact.
The main problem remains the same — the songs
are just not good enough to warrant an autonomous existence in some personalized
VIP cell inside your brain; and coupled with the issue of a new and annoying
vocalist, and especially if placed in
the context of 1977 with its major changes of musical aesthetics, Dawn Explosion cannot help being
somewhat disappointing. I like the riffs — ʽFantasyʼ kicks ass through all of
its six minutes (although they probably shouldn't have been ripping off Deep
Purple's ʽBloodsuckerʼ), and the opening riff of the ʽBreath Of Fireʼ suite is
like a respectable gentleman's take on Aerosmith's ʽWalk This Wayʼ, and ʽIf You
Pleaseʼ sounds as if it were inspired by the Beatles circa 1965 — but I do not
find them sufficiently inspired or original to last a long time beyond basic
operative memory.
Overall, if you do not mind the vocals, the
entire record is perfectly listenable, and Reinhardt's soloing on ʽFantasyʼ, the
power ballad ʽMidnight Memoriesʼ, and the second part of the ʽBreath Of Fireʼ
suite is genuinely ecstatic-emotional. (ʽOblivionʼ, curiously enough, sounds
very close to the jazz-hard-rock of Gary Moore's G-Force, which Daffern would
be briefly joining a couple years from then). As far as «old school rock» from
the first years of New Wave is concerned, Dawn
Explosion is nowhere near the fat bottom of the list. But it is doubtful
that a record like this could drag even a single young fan away from New Wave's
fresh appeal. Naturally, it sold very little, and the band found itself falling
apart once again in 1978.
The review is more or less spot on. There was no way such an oddly out of time enterprise could succeed in the era of disco, arena rock, and punk. The saddest thing is that this marks the end of Dorman and Rhino as creative artists. From here on out, it's one half-hearted Iron Butterfly reunion after another, all the way up to their deaths in January and December of 2012. But, at least, we've got a few good tunes and memories to attach to their obituaries, which is better than can be said for most of us.
ReplyDeleteIF You Please is Captain Beyond as career counselor. Hilarious!
ReplyDeleteOh, and is the Cap throwing an Infinity Sphere fastball on the cover? Incidentally, Speck in a Sphere is actually a fun example of Grimm's Law.
ReplyDeleteOh, and is the Cap throwing an Infinity Sphere fastball on the cover? Incidentally, Speck in a Sphere is actually a fun example of Grimm's Law.
ReplyDelete