Beggars Opera
Pathfinder

"The Passenger" is a well-known punk song, undoubtedly one of those that over the years has become a true symbol of the genre and is still easily heard on the radio, in advertisements, and in TV theme songs. It was released in 1977 on Iggy Pop's album "Lust for Life" and its lyrics, as well as the invaluable baritone voice that sings them, are the work of the fascinating Iggy, while the music, including the epochal offbeat riff that opens and runs throughout the song, belongs to his guitarist at the time, Ricky Gardiner.

It was the album's producer, David Bowie, who "passed" this musician to him, after Gardiner had played lead guitar on the acclaimed "Low" by the White Duke. A native of Edinburgh, Scotland, Ricky had in his DNA a taste for that particular accent of Celtic jig bars, with the characteristic syncopation on the first beat, and the unsuspected rhythmic origin of the aforementioned famous punk anthem. This demonstrates how, with the right voice and spirit, a traditional country dance accompaniment can perfectly adapt even to a diametrically opposed, urban, and transgressive genre.

Bowie, always very attentive and demanding about the guitarists to bring into his entourage, came to Gardiner through his wife Angie, who became friends with Virginia Scott, the guitarist's partner and "mellotronist" of his group Beggars Opera (oh, we got there!), the only or at least the greatest progressive Scottish band in history!

Gardiner formed the band in Glasgow in 1969. The debut album "Act One" came out the following year, decidedly dominated by its organist Alan Park, then a nineteen-year-old fresh from graduating with honors from the conservatory, giving him the opportunity to unleash his training and dexterity in substantial reinterpretations of famous classical passages. The subsequent "Waters of Change" in 1971 restored balance, with Park still prominent but subject to team play. This third release "Pathfinder" (1972) finally sees Gardiner fully come to the forefront: he is the most brilliant musician on the album.

The original LP cover was eccentric and spectacular, unfolding into six panels and revealing how the beautiful drawing of the knight/astronaut in the foreground was part of a fantastic 60x90 cm poster. The musical content was certainly more frugal, with only seven tracks lasting just over thirty-eight minutes.

The highlight of the album is the cover of "MacArthur Park", the classic by Jimmy Webb known for its length far exceeding the standards of light music at the time of its release (over seven minutes, year 1968). In this regard, one of the many anecdotes about the Beatles is that they deliberately extended the arrangement of the endless coda of their "Hey Jude" so that it would last a few seconds longer than "MacArthur Park", thus setting the new record...

A substantial pop song, ideal for being covered by a progressive group due to its four almost suite-like movements and strong romantic charge, "MacArthur Park" makes a great impression in the hands of Beggars Opera, highlighting the powerful voice of singer Martin Griffiths, who sings without hesitation, as well as the lush, baroque keyboard crosscuts organized by Park, with organ, piano, and harpsichord taking turns at the forefront, along with the cyclic mellotron sweeps by Scott for good measure. For the record, Webb is "avenged" on this occasion as this cover lasts almost nine minutes, thus surpassing the old Beatles masterpiece (the times had changed by then, and even forty-minute suites had been around for a while...).

Gardiner's guitar reveals all his talent, in some ways comparable to that of the much more famous Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and in other ways to the equally famous Jeff Beck, especially in the second part of the album. Starting with the exciting march that titles the album, conducted with wah-wah in full swing and with barking two-guitar arrangements plus wild three-voice choirs, with a delightful Hadrian's Wall flavor and reminiscent of the then much more established colleagues, Wishbone Ash.

In the instrumental "Stretcher", Park's sumptuous piano accompanies Gardiner in a long and rich guitar theme full of expression, where his ability to simultaneously control and dose the wah-wah pedal and the vibrato lever is magical.

"From Shark To Haggis" is a progressive blues, a kind of heresy, therefore, which the guitarist skillfully remedies after a couple of minutes by deconstructing it with very long notes that, having dramatically changed the rhythmic pattern in favor of a Scottish jig, prove to be a perfect surrogate for the typical and traditional bagpipe sound, for a thrilling and frenzied final crescendo.

Both "Hobo", placed at the beginning, and "The Witch" are less pretentious progressive pop songs: The former exalts Griffiths' baritone, the latter is elevated by the sumptuous, authentically '70s sound of Alan Park's Hammond. The only song with insufficient substance is the final "Madame Doubtfire" (no reference to the film with Robin Williams, of course, which was made many years later).

For many fans of the group, "Pathfinder" is their best record because it's the most distinctive, having definitively sharpened their specific progressive: round, accessible, and... Scottish. Unfortunately, it's undoubtedly also the last of the excellent Beggars Opera albums... From there on, internal tensions and significant lineup changes led to the disappointing fourth album "Get Your Dog Off Me", the termination of the contract with the prestigious Vertigo label, a significant reduction in ambitions with a couple of records distributed only in Germany, and a prelude to the definitive breakup.

The fact remains that their first three works are must-know and, for progressive music enthusiasts, indispensable to own.