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Rating: Return to Youth...
For some time now, there's been a sense of revival in the music scene.
Numerous artists, in recent concerts, have been resurrecting material from their early years of career or even entire albums: we had witnessed such an operation in ''Holy Diver Live'', where Ronnie James Dio serves his fans his first album (precisely ''Holy Diver'').
This trend has evidently infected Derek Dick, aka Fish... voice of Marillion from 1982 to '88.
The concert celebrates the twentieth anniversary of ''Misplaced Childhood'' (1985), the most famous LP of Marillion, as well as one of the best concept albums of the '80s: the title ''Return To Childhood'' and the cover designs are, in fact, evident references to the past.
The entire performance (a full two hours!) is divided into two parts, corresponding to 2 CDs. The first retraces Fish's solo career, from 1989 up until the latest ''Field Of Crows''; the second represents ''Misplaced Childhood'' in its entirety, followed by other Marillion classics.
Let's go in order...
The opening is entrusted to Big Wedge, dating back to the first album ''Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors''. Despite its rather pop flair, the use of a brass section and backing vocals, as well as a very evocative text (I found a new religion yesterday, I'd just cleared immigration JFK / a priest got in a Cadillac, the shoe shine boy sang gospel [...]) make it one of the best compositions of the Scottish singer. It is followed by Moving Targets, a piece from the latest ''Field Of Crows'', which testifies to the regained creative streak after a rather uneven decade.
Brother 52 alternates progressive moments, with keyboards in great evidence, to others of melodic hard rock. In the same genre is also the next Goldfish And Clowns, which also contains an excellent guitar solo. After two good but not essential songs, here is another gem: Raingods Dancing, a poignant prog-ballad with magnificent background keyboards...
Another pleasant quarter hour passes with the blues-rock of Wake Up Call (Make It Happen) and with the powerful AOR of Innocent Party and Long Cold Day. The last piece of the solo repertoire, before making a leap into the past, is another Fish classic: it is Credo, a superb, exciting, and profoundly march-like song that mixes prog, hard rock, and vaguely Celtic sounds.
After presenting us with his selection of songs, here comes the main event... ''Misplaced Childhood'' in its entirety (which had not been presented by the post-Fish Marillion).
Pseudo Silk Kimono serves more than anything else to rest our artist's now tired voice: in fact, it's more of an acting exercise than actual singing. The audience applause marks the start of Kayleigh, a pop song that at the time made Marillion much more famous and marketable than their neo-prog colleagues. It's a much softer version compared to the original: an effect especially due to the use of backing vocals. The same rearrangement is used in the following Lavander.
Bitter Suite and Heart Of Lothian are instead played in a slightly confusing manner, which makes them less digestible compared to the corresponding studio versions. Another experiment, this time fully successful, is performed on the short Waterhole (Expresso Bongo), transformed into a hard rock piece where guitars and percussion are emphasized. The lovely Lords Of The Backstage is another resting moment and acts as a springboard for a version of Blind Curve, where the claustrophobic central piece is stretched out immeasurably. Masterfully interpreted are also the last two Childhoods End? and White Feather.
Once ''Misplaced Childhood'' is completed, the time for encores arrives...
The first, unfortunately interpreted in a debatable manner, is Incommunicado: the slightly transformed keyboard parts, and above all the vocal performance of Fish, tired and worn out after giving 110%, penalize it considerably. But here comes the reversal of trend immediately with Market Square Heroes (contained in the first EP of Marillion, dating back to 1983), so powerful and perfect as to make the original disappear... and finally, it closes in the best way with Fugazi.
In conclusion, I feel that this ''Return To Childhood'' is truly an excellent live... high-level music interpreted by musicians of equally high level.
Particularly recommended for fans of Fish and Marillion, for the nostalgic, and above all for those who appreciate the less extreme and more melodic side of progressive rock.
And as usual... enjoy listening...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Big Wedge (06:25)
I found a new religion yesterday, I'd just cleared immigration JFK
a priest got in a cadillac, the shoe shine boy sang gospel
as God and his accountants drove away.
You'll see him coast to coast on live tv, in a stadium
rocked by Satan just the night before
the collection from the faithful is tax free
it'll pay for his presidential campaign and his yacht
And we all bow down, we bow down to the big wedge
and we'll buy ourselves some heaven on earth
we sell our souls, sell our souls for big wedge
are we selling out tomorrow for today?
A surgeon checks your plastic on the telephone
a casio concerto entertains you while you hold
your credit rating's good for a Madonna or a Bardot
a Dali or a Picasso for his wall.
You're looking good, looking good with big wedge
are you holding back tomorrow for today?
they're driving in, driving in with big wedge
are we selling out tomorrow for today?
You'll sell the ground beneath your feet
you'll sell your oil, you'll sell your trees
you ideals and integrity your culture and your history
your children into slavery to labour in their factories
your mother and your family
you'll sell the world eventually.
The IMF and CIA; there's just no difference they're all the same!
It just depends on what's your point of view
America, America the big wedge
and they're buying up your tomorrow with promises
the promises of big wedge and they'll break them
like your hearts another day
when you find out that you've left it just too late
and find that you're the only one to blame
that you sold out your tomorrow for Big Wedge
03 Brother 52 (05:00)
Doc: "Tattoo Shop"
Fish: "Hi Doc"
Doc: "Hey Fish, what are you doin'?"
Fish: "If you don't mind, we're gonna record this. Is that cool?"
Doc: "Oh that's cooler 'n hell. Hell yeah, 52's biggest dream man.
You know his biggest dream was, me and him go party with you."
On the trail of torn-out twisters, two angels on a mission came
Dust devils danced before them in the path of the hurricane.
On the road to Oklahoma, through the flatlands from L.A.
From the shadows in the valley, from a country where the lizards play.
While they drove they kept the radio on, why don't you singalong, singalong, singalong.
(Chorus:) Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo Brother 52
Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo Brother 52
I don't think so.
A man stands behind his shadow, a man stands behind his words.
These men are together with family to defend their rights in another man's world.
Most people stood against them, most people disagreed
With the need for all those weapons in our safe, secure society.
Paint the words and the pictures on another man's skin
We are lover, warrior, magician kings.
(Chorus):
Doc:"Fuckin' brilliant, man. OK, here's what happened. 52 barred the door shut from the inside. A gunfight started on the front porch. 52 shot back. You know...they come into his home with it, so he's protecting himself. The guy inside the house blew his brains out. Yeah, they made it look like he killed himself. But, no one believes he would, 'cause he's not that kind of man. That's all, I think, he wasn't afraid of death. You know, he believed in something to die for, that's what he did."
Some say he had it coming, others say he was sole to blame
But who says they've got the rights if any at all to blow the brothers away.
A man got a right to wonder, a man got a right to dream,
Without looking over his shoulder to choose the manner of the life he leads.
One man's thoughts on another man's skin
We are lover, warrior, magician kings.
(Chorus):
Doc: "What they have done, was they've come in and murdered him, for his bombs and his ammunition. Just like that Waco Texas or any of these other things, over here in the United States. Anybody that's stockpiling firearms and ammunitions is a threat to the government, so the government wages war against us. They tortured him, he went out but I'm sure he stood up like he was supposed to, you know? They smashed all the rings shut on his fingers with a hammer. It was all an orchestrated plan, man. The more.. the closer I was getting to it.. to the truth, the more they got everybody looking at me as being the guy that pulled the trigger. And what they did when they killed 52, is they broke the whole family up.
That's exactly what they wanted to do.
They wanted to break all of us up."
09 Credo (08:04)
(Dick/Simmonds/Boult/Usher)
I watch the TV every night,
I stay awake by satellite,
I hope and pray the nightmares,
Stay away today.
An oily shroud on a coral reef,
A black cloud's hanging over me.
When I hit on the remote,
The programmes stay the same.
Credo, credo, credo, credo.
An assegai slick with sweat and blood,
A shotgun barks at a rabid dog,
A shallow grave hugs a highway,
Beneath a bleaching sun.
chorus:
Credo, credo, credo, credo,
It don't mean nothin'; it don't mean nothin'
It don't mean nothin'; it don't mean nothin' to me.
When cancer sucks a young girl's breast.
When a company chains a young man's soul
When the coal dust stole
My grandad's breath away.
(chorus)
A tattered tramp tacks a windy wynd,
To close a crowded circle a brazier's light,
A man becomes a mountain, in the falling snow.
A mother screams and a baby cries.
The memory gone before the blood has dried.
A needle pricks the conscience,
To help it fade away.
(chorus)
The more you scream, the less you hear,
Or that's how it used to be.
But I just can't tell the difference
Anymore these days.
The open lips of an alter[1] boy,
A planet spins in a silent void,
The options are ever fewer
On the ground these days
(chorus)
[1] sic. Is this supposed to be altar? This is how it appears on the lyric sheet.
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