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Rating:
The Captain Beyond are a genuine Californian prog-rock musical meteor formed way back in 1972 and perhaps yet another demonstration – if any were needed – that in the '70s there was a creativity and an incredible poetic power in the musical field impossible to put into words.
It's as if a graceful female creature – music as imagined by every musician – was kidnapped by flowers, by the dream lights of thousands of young people, by their poetry made of passion and life on the road. It's as if she had loved them madly, because perhaps she was and perhaps still is like them, and in the momentum infused in every atom, in every note, she had given them droplets of her vitality and "timeless" identity.
I know, I can't capture it, but I think it will suffice you to listen to these Captain Beyond to realize how only the bad luck they had in the commercial field kept them away from the lights of notoriety but certainly not away from musical maturity with a sweet, sincere, and measured sound that blends a healthy streak of hard rock with progressive hints and all this in their debut album.
Moreover, how could it have been otherwise! Reading the line-up, it would certainly not escape those close to the '70s music scene some pleased expression of surprise. Rod Evans on vocals (whom some may remember from his experience with the early Deep Purple in "Hush" and "Kentucky Woman"), Bobby Caldwell on percussion and piano (drummer of the group of albino bluesman Johnny Winter), Lee Dorman and Larry "Rhino" Rheinhardt on guitars (of the legendary Iron Butterfly) who form a kind of supergroup ante-litteram that combines the power of hard rock with the refinement of progressive.
The music expressed seems to almost wind sinuously and decisively through the ethereal worlds of expanded consciousness, a journey in a labyrinth of delicate arpeggios and captivating riffs that chase each other, delve into one another, that – animated by an evident progressive verve – have fun creating a sort of intriguing, almost enchanting continuum. And it is precisely this sort of so skillfully arranged musical plot, this sort of brilliant dissolving and recreating that makes Captain Beyond’s music so vivid and direct, that captivates from the first listen, all always supported by truly inspired songwriting.
Brilliant also is the artwork featuring a sort of hero with a crystal ball depicting the symbols of fire and water, an ideal ferryman towards dreamy and timeless idylls ("Dancing Madly Backwards" and "Thousand Days Of Yesterday"), towards sudden rainbows ("As the Moon Speaks"), but in doing so invites us to reflect on human issues ("Raging River Of Fear" for instance).
My last comment I would like to make is on the dedication made by Captain Beyond on the back of the album to a great man of rock music: Duane Allman, "Skydog" to those in the know, founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, unmatched with the slide, an exceptional sessionman, a unique touch on the six strings, who died in a disastrous accident on his Harley Sportster at the age of 25.
See Ya!
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
04 Mesmerization Eclipse (03:49)
See the bright chipper in the harbor, hey
Making irridescent waves
Need to try a little harder
On the voyage to better days
Sun and moon in the valley
At the same time
Bringing out the golden braid
Yes we're gonna reach
The peak in no time
I think earth just a runaway
Mesmerization eclipse's move me
Desperation is setting in, baby
Erratic movement to and fro
Need your love to make it right, baby
Cause I have no place to go
Sun and moon in the valley
At the same time
Hey, baby, you know it's true
Cause we're gonna reach
The peak in no time, yeah!
I think earth is a crazy fool, hey!
Oh earth, sun,
Daylight blew my time
Things got lost
Oh so lost
Trying to hide inside
Mesmerization baby (x8)
Oh, you got!
Pulled you in like the ancient Sirens
Everybody said disguise me
Here's mesmerization eclipse till mornin'
Never quite deserved to be
It's a mesmerization eclipse...
05 Raging River of Fear (03:51)
There's strange feeling coming down
It's moving (swooping?) deep inside us
Turbulent smoke the signal(s)
Sirens sound around us
Push and pull, man, pull them back (Pushing forth and pulling back)
Twisting farther and near(er)
In a blood cold reality
Flows a raging river of fear
I've been captured by the river of fear, listen
Where it comes from and why it's here
Is a mystery to us all
A black night cocktail (drug chase) storms the land (starts so late)
Rush to meet the dawn
Hazy place there, where things are phased (change of pace)
Sounds ring out of the clear
I won't drown as it pulls you in
The raging river of fear
I've been captured by the river of fear
Oh, oh... river of fear
*The raging river of fear my friend
Is running through us all
The mind is just a mental battlefield
Memories full of thought
Raging river of fear
Questions to us all
Feel it, can't you feel it
(6 times)
*repeat
The raging river of fear
Questions to us all
07 Frozen Over (03:46)
The lady said
I just can't wait
To see your face again I know
The lady said
I just can't wait to see your face again
Moving faster
The lady say
Open the gate
The path that's leading up to my door. I said
The lady say
I just can't wait to see your face again
Frozen over!
The lady say
Can't you see
The past is catching up to you
The lady say
Please don't wait
You can't conceil a thing that you do
The lady say
Can't you see
That death is moving up more and more
The lady say
I just can't wait
To see your face again
Frozen over!
Ah, your face is frozen over
It's not the one I knew, no, no...
Honey, your face is frozen
Frozen as could be
Baby, your face is like a block of ice
Cold as the deep dark sea
11 Astral Lady (00:16)
Astral lady, girl (how) I love you
Gonna get you making time (Gone, I catch you making time)
Silk is ultra (Silky sultress) high above all
That is out of time (line?)
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