Prog Rock Rhino Records 5 CD Box Set: Supernatural Fairy Tales, The Progressive Rock Era

January 4, 2024

#473

Gentle reader, 

It truly warms my heart when one of you, dear readers, reaches out to me and we become friends. Two people, in this case, are Bruce Woodrow and Bob Berne. The latter lives out west, "The Far West."* 

*Still image is from the 2011 Paramount film titled, RANGO. Which featured the voice and talent of Johnny Depp as the title character. If you have not seen it, well, DO SO!

Bob is a very giving guy and he has sent gifts to Bruce and I. The latest sent to me is a CD box set from 1996 by Rhino Records, titled, Supernatural Fairy Tales, The Progressive Rock Era. 

This image is of the bottom of the box and lists all the tracks on the five CDs.

What one finds after removing the box top, above.

The box, book and CD liners are all beautifully illustrated by Roger Dean.

I have heard of some of the bands featured in the box set, but some, mostly European, are unfamiliar to me. I do own some LPs or CDs of some of the bands included, however.

There are period black and white photos of each of the bands as well as histories of each including band member's previous and later band membership.

There are extensive stories as well. 

While I would liked to have scanned every page...

that would violate copyright laws.

However, since this is a review of the box set...

I feel that they will not have a problem with my...

photographs and scans of the pages...

listing the song's titles as well as...

band members and the instruments...

which they played in the selected songs for purposes of this review. 

I'm 67 years old now, and have lived in eight decades. That being said, I have heard a LOT of music over all those years. Growing up, it seemed there was always music of some kind playing in the house. Our parents eclectic musical taste rubbed off on all of us.

I'm back row, left, in this early 1970's photo of my siblings and I outside of our house in Denver, Colorado. While I miss that hair, if I still had it, it would be mostly grey, so I will stick with genetics dealt me.

I loaded this image below at original size so that you can get a better look at the songs and band names within each of the five CDs.

Rhino Records is a US company, so their compiling a group of bands to represent what was largely a European phenomenon was a leap of faith on their part.

The book devotes forty-five pages to images of the band members and in-depth descriptions and histories of each of the bands chosen for this compilation. The author opened with, "The progressive era of rock for the purposes of  this compilation is that window in time between the twilight of psychedelia in the late '60s and the development of AOR in the mid-1970s. This was a period when the special configuration of positive ions in the air and minds expanding on the ground converged into a musical kaleidoscope that most likely will never be repeated." 

He continues, "For the sake of definition, progressive rock is more than a specific style. Generally it has be characterized as having a classically influenced, symphonic, keyboard-dominated sound." I can attest to that. He goes on, "In a broader sense, however, it was state of mind that was shared internationally by a group of musicians. They all started with the beat, a guitar, and a keyboard, then grafted their own cultural influences onto that foundation. The results were distinctive and varied, but all shared the same open compositional style that allowed this new musical mode to mutate into many different sounds. By the time they were through experimenting, rock had indeed progressed. In addition, the music and society itself had been transformed."

Historically, rock and pop music have made profound changes, over several decades, to society through those (mostly young people) willing to part with their money to buy their favorite artist's LPs and concert tickets. And that such (previously staid) television shows here in the US, such as The Ed Sullivan show, had the courage to invite the likes of Elvis Presley, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to play live to a nationwide audience further cemented such band's place (especially if they were from foreign lands) in the hearts and minds of the "younger generation" of American, much to the consternation of their parents.

The author also wrote, "Different people have different opinions about what went on musically back then. The one thing that stands as definitive is the music that was recorded. Everyone has their favorites, and no doubt some will disagree with those included herein. The point of this set is to illustrate just how broad was the spectrum of music in the genre now known as progressive rock."

They continued by whitling a list of several thousand albums of that era to their top 100. After critically listening (and likely much arguing among themselves) to all 100 band's output, they chose the featured bands and specific songs for this compilation.

Of the bands on Volume One, I knew of, have albums by and liked TRAFFIC, PROCUL HARUM, THE MOODY BLUES, and RENAISSANCE. And some of the band members of the bands, then unknown to me, went on to further fame (and widespread acceptance) on their own. Examples on Volume One are: Steve Winwood and Arthur Brown. Of those on Volume Two, only EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER and HOCUS POCUS  was I previously familiar with. On Volume Three, YES, ARGENT, ROXY MUSIC, GENESIS, ELO and, again, ELP are familiar. Volume Four has, GENESIS again (and, of course Phil Collins) YES again, ROXY MUSIC again, and WISHBONE ASH are the only ones I previously knew about and/or have some of their records. Volume Five's bands are all previously unknown to me.

Musical "taste" is usually subjective. Which is why there are, and have always been, SO many different types of music produced for hundreds of years. In listening to the entire set, I heard some songs which immediately appealed to me. Many others however, had the opposite effect. 

Do I like this compilation? Absolutely. And I will return to it and listen again and try to determine what others found appealing in the music of so many bands from the Prog Rock era. 

Lastly,  the following bands which fit within the genre of Rhino Records criteria, were not able to be licensed by their respective labels: KING CRIMSON, PINK FLOYD, SOFT MACHINE and CAMEL. I've heard of the first two, but not the last. In fact,  decades ago, I went with my then-girlfriend to see Pink Floyd in concert at the now-deserted Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy (RFK) stadium in Washington, D.C.  RFK was once the home of the Politically Incorrectly named American Football team the Washington Redskins. 

My second and final visit to RFK, was in 2002 to attend the Inaugural Cadillac Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. The premier race was  from the now defunct American Le Mans Series series. The scan above shows the stadium and outlines the race course, grandstands and other facilities created in a former parking lot. It was supposed to be a ten-year series, but the neighbors complained about how LOUD the cars were. The then-mayor caved to their complaints and cancelled the series. I'm glad that I went and that I bought the program and a polo ALMS shirt.

Here is one of those coincidences that occur in life. Bruce Woodrow, a former racing driver was working as a Corner Marshall for the weekend's races. Decades later, thanks to him reading and liking what I write, he reached out to me and we became friends. Real face-to-face, hugging friends.  Small world.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to read my humble blog. Feel free to leave a comment below or on Facebook. 

Scott Robb

January 4, 2024

#473

Recreating Iconic Porsche 917K with 914 Photograph in 1:18th Scale

 December 26, 2023

#472

Gentle reader,

    I'm in my 68th year on this earth and I was born a car guy. According to my mother, I could identify any car I saw, year, make and model, by age three. Methinks she exaggerates. But then, at that age we were living in rural Kansas, so how many different cars could there have been?

Dad was a preacher and most of our youth, we were quite poor. Yet, they still managed to get what we wanted for Christmas most years. One Christmas, to my brother's and my delight, they gave us an Aurora Model Motoring slot car set! It had two Jaguar XK120 cars, fixed head and roadster. Both featured drivers figures.

They read to all of us from a very young age, so all five of us are still avid readers. Weekly trips to the library were always fun. I loved books on cars and racing. So, I learned about Le Mans and it's 24 hour race and devoured books and magazine articles about sports cars and racing.

Have you ever seen these images?

The one directly above, I have known about for years. The one at the top, I had not seen until getting ready to do this article.

The images clearly show just how SMALL the fantastic Porsche 917 race cars are. The 914 was Porsches first mass-market mid-engine model. Jointly developed with Volkswagen, it was the entry model after the original 912 was dropped from the lineup.

Now, here's the funny thing. I staged my 917K #2 with my new 914 model, BEFORE finding the images above.

See what I did? I had them reversed! I had a good laugh over my foolishness, then had a thought:

I reversed the original images! Yes, I could restage and reshoot all the photos. But chose to go ahead with what I produced. Enjoy.

Both of these model do not open. The top does come off the 914, however.

The 914 is marked VW Porsche which is how they were sold in Europe. In the US, it was only marketed as a Porsche.

One can really see just how narrow the cockpit roof is compared to the 914. It is my understanding that the 917's passenger seat was only bolted to the fiberglass floor and not secured to the tube frame like the driver's seat is. All to save weight for racing.

Oh, those sexy 917K hips!

This image clearly shows just how low the 917's drivers sit. Even with the headlights of a 914! This 914 has the 911's five-lug Fuchs wheels only used on the 914-6.

This is a good image of the "Kurtz" tail which JW Engineering mechanics came up with to tame the original long-tail 917's frightening handling at speed.

While the 917K is marked #2, the model's makers did not add the window let into the roof for the drivers to be able to see ahead while on Daytona's banked curves.

Sister 917K at Daytona for testing. Note the added window cut into the roof.

So, there you go. A brief look at my restaging of the two photos from 1970.

Below, some of the hundreds of racing images I have gathered over the years. 

My first new car, a 1979 Chevrolet Monza, had a collapsible spare similar to the one Porsche mounted to the car to meet ACO requirements then. Each car must have a spare tire, tools and trunk or boot space. The latter is above both rear wheels.

Great shot which also shows how low the 917 prototypes are compared to a 911.

One of the 25 original 917s built to satisfy homologation requirements. They split the exhaust then. The front three cylinders on each side's exhaust exited the body in front of the rear tires. The rear six at the rear of the car.

This 914R finished 6th overall in the 1970 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Quite impressive results!

John Wyer himself flagging #21 to a stop in the pits at Le Mans, 1970.

The only known image of an original 917 being transformed to Kurtz tail. Note the side exhaust outlet.

And, finally, a Porsche advertisement in German and English, for those looking for a new race car in 1969.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my article. It means the world to me. Feel free to leave a comment below or on Facebook.

Scott Robb

December 26, 2023

#472

VOLVO THE ALL NEW V50!

 October 22 2023

#471

Gentle reader,

The title, while true in 2004, does not apply almost twenty years later. However, you longtime readers will remember my series (which I have not finished yet) about real cars I have owned in miniature. My current and lifetime (I hope) car is one of these which I purchased in 2014.

The four images above are of the very first (teaser) brochure Volvo of North America put out about the forthcoming V50 wagon. It replaced the smaller and less capable V40, which in North America could be had ONLY with an automatic transmission. Volvo fixed that with their new P1 cars: C30, S40, V50 and C70. All of which could be had with either a 2.4i naturally aspirated engine or the turbocharged T5 which is larger at 2.5 liters and far more powerful. 

Below are scans of the entire 40 page North American Volvo brochure for the inaugural year 2005 V50.

The two pages below have central pictures which are split in the scanning process. While I could have merged them, they would be too wide for most readers to see, especially if they are reading this on a cell phone.

These two pages are also split, as you can see.

As are these backlit images designed to dramatically show the waterfall stack.

While I like that everything inside the V50 which looks like metal, IS metal, that "wooden" piece must look nice as well.

Above is shown the optional child seat.

I seriously think more US drivers would buy wagons if they only realized that they are just as versatile as crossovers and SUVs. But far more cool.

Seeing the audio choices, I wish my V50 had the 6 CD changer and more speakers. But, when one buys used, one has limited choices.

That tiny turbine wheel is why the T5 engines have almost zero "turbo lag".

See the width difference between this and the photo below? My scanner insisted upon "thinking" the one above was two photos, and scanned it that way. Obviously, this is another pair of images which are together in the brochure.

Above, is another example of my scanner, an Epson Perfection V500 Photo Scanner, decided the surfer was a separate photo. I was able here in Blogger, to put them back together.

Mine does not have this roof spoiler. I have a friend who has one for sale, but so far, we have not gotten together to seal the deal.

I initially had scanned just this page to put on Facebook Volvo groups I belong to. To show that Volvo calls light grey, silver.

Below are some photos of mine, after I had given it a good cleaning. When the crappy Michelin tires it came with wore out, I outfitted it (and since, our other two cars) with Pirelli Cinturato P7 all-season tires. They are THE highest rated all-season tires on Tirerack.com. They transformed my V50 from a fun car to an awesome one!

Did you know that Ferrari was not able to trademark the Prancing Horse emblem? They could not. In fact, Breda, an Italian train car builder, uses it too. Above is a "Prancing Moose" which is a company of Volvo lovers. Volvo invented the "Moose Avoidance Test" in the name of safety. Other car makers have tried to make their cars pass the test as well.

I removed the factory fog lights and replaced them with HELLA driving lights.

V50 and the other "Sleeper" we own, it quickly became Nancy's car: A 2013 Cadillac ATS 2.0T Performance. It too has a six-speed manual transmission.

Above is a replica of the ATS' window sticker. We paid $7,995 for it ten years later!

Above is a data sheet I made up comparing the two cars. I did not have the window sticker at the time I created it, so the ATS' retail price is $5,000 too low. Very impressive performance for a compact station wagon, wouldn't you say?

We love our cars and hope to keep them running for the rest of our lives. The ATS, which I say stands for Awesome Transportation System, is a fantastic car, but not as smooth operating as the V50. So, I have no problem with Nancy enjoying it. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my humble blog. Feel free to comment below or on Facebook.

Scott Robb

October 2, 2023

#471