•
Rating:
The Canterbury School was prolific with artists, each characterized by their own particular style, although the sound remained unmistakably the same. The progressive of Caravan fused rock, jazz, and psychedelia into a delicate combination of harmonies and visions, and moreover, already from the enchanted grey and pink landscape on the album cover, we can imagine which dreamy atmosphere we are about to immerse ourselves in: indeed, unreachable peaks of prog and melody, this is the product of Caravan.
It is one of the foundational albums of progressive, but it's also one of those albums that captivates you on a full listen and enters you immediately without asking permission. Here a personal judgment is warranted: well, in a possible "value scale," I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to place this album on the same step (the highest, of course) as "Third" or "Close to the Edge" or some works by Pink Floyd and King Crimson. It must first be highlighted that the technical and compositional prowess of Caravan is certainly also due to the knowledge and influence of the greatest musician of the modern era: sir Robert Wyatt, Canterbury master and father of the genre, with whom, among others, R. Sinclair had played in the Wild Flowers, together with Hugh Hopper and Kevin Ayers (the crème of Canterbury). But what characterizes Caravan? How was it possible that they created such a masterpiece, capable of transporting us so far from reality, to discover the hidden world where each of us has always wanted to live? It’s their enchanting cadence, that makes even a 23-minute piece seem very short, keeps us listening closely to avoid missing even a single note of trumpet, mellotron, guitar, or bass.
However, be careful not to misunderstand: listenability is not synonymous with simplicity nor banality, rather it must be acknowledged Caravan's rare ability to make melodic even what is in itself complex or strictly technical, though never for its own sake. The Caravan playing in "In the Land of Grey and Pink" are Richard Sinclair, singer and bassist, cousin David on keyboards, singer and guitarist Pye Hastings, drummer Richard Coughlan, and there’s also the backing of Jimmy Hastings on winds (sax and flute). So capable of transporting us truly into a grey and pink world inhabited by fairies and elves, Sinclair’s pure voice is endowed with a tone of soothing melancholy that wraps the surreal lyrics like a honeyed veil. The album, released by "Deram" in 1971, starts with the compelling "Golf Girl", which tells of Pat, a girl dressed in PVC, selling tea to Richard as in the strangest dreams. From the start, it’s easy to notice the completeness of the sound, especially due to organ and wind interventions, which, together with R. Sinclair’s vocal purity, reach peaks worth noting. The next track is the delicate "Winter Wine", whose best expression emerges in the melodic moment; it almost seems to describe a medieval dream but, unfortunately, "dreams are always ending far too soon."
The cheerful freak-song "Love to Love You (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly)" by Pye Hastings is certainly the most banal track of the album but still with significant moments, see the final flute solo. The fourth track "In the Land of Grey and Pink" fully reflects the group's humor, with seemingly nonsense lyrics; the piano and winds interludes are remarkable, and I agree with Sgrignoli about the rainbow that might peek out while this music flows! A sublime masterpiece of Caravan and a manifesto of progressive as a whole is the monumental suite "Nine Feet Underground", 22.44 minutes of pure musical ecstasy, a shocking flight with closed eyes in the vast and boundless skies of prog, jazz-rock, and melody. It culminates with various transitions between instruments, every time the solar voice of R. Sinclair enters, and the continuous rhythm changes, like an unpredictable wind that gently lulls us until it lays us down slowly or throws us away. A curiosity: the title is inspired by the room where R. Sinclair lived, which was, indeed, nine feet underground. The artistic evolution of Caravan reached such a high level, never again attained by themselves, due also to subsequent line-up changes.
The reissued CD edition by "Decca" in 2001 contains 5 additional tracks, including some prototypes of already released songs. With the dawn of the new millennium, "Nine Feet Underground" shines ever more brightly, and its fairy-tale conceptions of time and place permeate the generational sensitivities of those to come, sealing the timelessness of such a nobly purposed art, and, far beyond, the perennial human quest for inner freedom.
A unique and superlative album, "In the Land of Grey and Pink" is recommended for those with refined palates but especially for those who want to approach the genre.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Golf Girl (05:00)
Standing on a golf course
Dressed in P.V.C.
I chanced upon a Golf Girl
Selling cups of tea
She asked me did I want one
Asked me with a grin
For three pence you can buy one
Full right to the brim
So of course I had to have one
In fact I ordered three
So I could watch the Golf Girl
Could see she fancied me
And later on the golf course
After drinking tea
It started raining golf balls
And she protected me
Her name was Pat
And we sat under a tree
She kissed me
We go for walks
In fine weather
All together
On the golf course
We talk in morse
02 Winter Wine (07:35)
Winter wine...
How you're always flowing, blowing in my mind?
Like a stream...
These magic waters move me to a dream
Of travelling with you, drifting carefree, dropping downward through fresh grasses
Bubbles merrily as it passes, never knowing where you're going
Carry me with you, carry me with you
Be conjured up in a midnight dream, ancient castles dark
As wandering minstrels play tunes of yesterday
When dragons roamed the land, knights in armour cold
Charged on horseback bold
The maids were saved, the dragons slain
Sail scene, sea green - sailing forward to a new land
Treasure waits, paradise gates, for the taking, don't start waking
All you need, but take heed, remember it pays to pay the sandman well
Make no fuss, for you must - in stardust, he puts all the colours in your dreams
Bells chime three times, naked dancers enter slowly
Smoky room, scented gloom, audience eating, fat men drinking
Candles burn, a dull red light illuminates the breasts of four young girls
Dancing, prancing, provoking - dreams are always ending far too soon
Life's too short to be sad
Wishing things you'll never have
You're better off not dreaming of the things to come
Dreams are always ending far too soon
Sounds of a distant melody
Once played, lost from memory
Funny how it's clearer now, you're close to me
We'll be together all the time
03 Love to Love You (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly) (03:03)
I dreamed of all the magic things that be
When we'd ride to a dock on bended knee
But you'd just smile and gently shake your head
And put a hole through me so I was dead
Oh, I'd fall down and I was left alone
With a feeling of you still that was my own
Oh, I would love to, love to love you
Yes, indeed, I do love you, love you
My, my, pigs might fly, that can't be bad
How you have the cheek to smile and tell me I'm mad
A man came through the wall and stood by me
Complete with bag of nuts and fancy free
He said without a tonal fleeting glance
I'd like to get deep down inside your pants
How you opened up his head and smiled
And rubbish from your mouth you ticked inside
Oh, I would love to, love to love you
Yes, indeed, I do love you, love you
My, my, pigs might fly, that can't be bad
How you have the cheek to smile and tell me I'm mad
04 In the Land of Grey and Pink (04:59)
In the land of grey and pink where only boy-scouts stop to think
They'll be coming back again, those nasty grumbly grimblies
And they're climbing down your chimney, yes they're trying to get in
Come to take your money - isn't it a sin, they're so thin ?
They've black buckets in the sky, don't leave your dad in the rain
Cigarettes burn bright tonight, they'll all get washed down the drain
So we'll sail away for just one day to the land where the punk weed grows
Won't need any money, just fingers and your toes
And when it's dark our boat will park on a land of warm and green
Pick our fill of punk weed and smoke it till we bleed, that's all we'll need
While sailing back in morning light, we'll wash our teeth in the sea
And when the day gets really bright, we'll go to sea drinking tea
So we'll sail away for just one day to the land where the punk weed grows
Won't need any money, just fingers and your toes
And when it's dark our boat will park on a land of warm and green
Pick our fill of punk weed and smoke it till we bleed, that's all we'll need
They've black buckets in the sky, don't leave your dad in the rain
Cigarettes burn bright tonight, they'll all get washed down the drain
05 Nine Feet Underground: Nigel Blows a Tune / Love's a Friend / Make It 76 / Dance of the Seven Paper / Hankies / Hold Grandad by the Nose / Honest I Did! / Disassociation / 100% Proof (22:39)
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By uboldri
This is an album that captivates the listener and brings them back to reality only at the end of the last note.
If we were indeed in that place, this would undoubtedly be the music we would hear, a muffled sound to which the flute-like voice of the singer perfectly harmonizes.
By embryo
"Caravan's music is not as intricate and complex as that of King Crimson and Genesis, although their toolkit consists of the same elements."
"The summa of their balanced and romantic art which alternates between serene and vaguely nostalgic tones, ending with a surprising almost hard-rock finale."
By belerofonte
"Twenty-four minutes of dazzling melody have cradled and bewitched me."
"Caravan’s work is so pure that it rightly places them in the Olympus of progressive and rock music as a whole."
By tonysoprano
If I were asked, during a medical check-up, if I take drugs, I would answer yes, but it’s a more pleasant drug to take, it lasts for only 43 minutes.
'Nine Feet Underground' is one of the greatest suites in the history of progressive, my eternal love for this genre that has long since conquered me with its greatness and expressive complexity.
