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Rick Wakeman — The Myths and Legends of Rick Wakeman
(Purple Pyramid CLO 3072, 1976/2022, 4CD)

by Jon Davis, Published 2023-03-04

The Myths and Legends of Rick Wakeman Cover art

Tales from Topographic Oceans was the last album Rick Wakeman played on with Yes during his first tenure in the band, and his dissatisfaction with that album’s challenging music has become the stuff of legend. Wakeman’s first post-Yes project was the concept album Journey to the Centre of the Earth, basically a musical retelling of Jules Verne’s 1864 adventure classic. Wakeman had been planning the album since 1971, but finally had the time to realize his dream once he was free of Yes. It was a bombastic blend of orchestral and rock music featuring narration by actor David Hemmings and a band of relative unknowns supporting Wakeman and his battery of keyboards. Due to the prohibitive cost of recording a symphony orchestra and choir in a studio, the album was recorded live, with only a few post-concert fixes. While his English record label was unhappy with the result and refused at first to release it, the album went on to sell well and turn a profit. The first disc of this set features recordings from the North American tour of 1974, including the complete Journey album with an orchestra and choir composed of session musicians based in New York. Aside from the inferior sound quality, the music is mostly the same as that on the original album, though it runs a bit longer. There’s also a live version of “Anne Boleyn,” which to my ear is not improved by the additional instrumentation. It finishes off with a track called “Concerto for American Commercial TV,” a track where Wakeman’s flashy keyboards are a bit better integrated with the orchestra.

On disc two, we move to 1975, when Wakeman again toured North America with a setlist featuring an abbreviated version of “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” along with selections from both The Six Wives of Henry VIII and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. This is an expanded version of the same concert that was released in the King Biscuit Flower Hour series back in the 90s and has shown up under various other titles over the years. Here Wakeman appears sans orchestra and choir with just his English Rock Ensemble, which does include two brass players to fill out the sound. “Catherine Howard” is expanded into an epic over eleven minutes long by the interpolation of all sorts of random musical quotes, from Classical music to Led Zeppelin. The crowd noise is fairly prominent here, though the band generally sounds better than on the earlier tour. The King Arthur material, reduced to three individual tracks, comes off well.

The third and fourth discs bring us to 1976, and incorporate material from No Earthly Connection. Two parts of “Music Reincarnate” and “The Prisoner” are presented along with some of the same selections from the earlier albums from two different concerts. All in all, you’ll get three different versions of “Catherine Parr,” “Sir Lancelot and the Black Knight,” and “Merlin the Magician,” plus two takes on several other pieces. It’s a lot of Wakeman, and will probably be a welcome addition to the collection of hardcore fans, especially those who love Ashley Holt’s singing, though casual listeners will be satisfied by the original studio versions. Aside from the first disc, the recording quality is decent considering the vintage.

Filed under: Archives, 2022 releases, 1976 recordings

Related artist(s): Rick Wakeman

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