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Old 04-30-2004, 08:33 PM
BklynBlue BklynBlue is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 297
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I'd have to give the nod to "In The Skies". It is a shame that Green never recorded with this same group of musicians again.
Peter Bardens on keyboards and Snowy White on guitar, and especially the rhythm section of Kuma Harada on bass and Reg Isidore on drums, who would create an undulating flow that Green could wade into, rather than "rock" solid foundation.
He could float above it, let it carry him along or submerge himself completely.
Lennox Langton's percussion then dapples it all like sunlight on water.
Here are the "African" rhythms that Green tried, unsuccessfully to my mind, to capture on the 1970 singles.
Listen to "Tribal Dance" which he re-recorded with the Splinter Group on "Destiny Road", twenty years later.
The original here is slightly slower in it's pace, its rhythm more human, more closely approximating it's title. The interplay of Green's guitar, Bardens' electric piano, the bass, drums and percussion become seamless, each player complementing and supporting the others.
Compare this to "Proud Pinto". On this track with Godfrey MacLean (who worked with Green on "The End Of The Game"), replaces Isidore behind the drums. The difference is striking: though Green's, playing evokes the strength and spirit of wild horses, the drummer just keeps time, rooted in place as Green romps around him.
I do agree that "Little Dreamer" is a companion piece. To my ears, it is the last album of the that period where it sounds as if the band was playing as a unit.
Too much of the later PVK material seems to have been recorded without any input from Green and then they would bring him in to lay down his guitar parts.
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