Rick Wakeman - Journey to the Centre of the Earth

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Music reviews of Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Music Review: An Excellent Children's Album
Rating: 4 Stars

As I grew older, I stopped listening to it, and I don't think it ever really registered that the album was by a guy named Rick Wakeman. How strange is it then, that a decade later I would be exposed Yes' catalog, and consequently Wakeman, by way of "90125"? There's probably a paper in there somewhere about exposure to music and how it shapes the musical tastes of young minds, but it should be written and printed elsewhere.

The immediately relevant point is that I have a unique perspective on "Journey to the Centre of the Earth". At such a young age, I had no problem digesting the lyrics to this album. It's easily digestible, all-visual lyric approach was fertile ground for my young imagination. However, when I rediscovered it in High School, I found myself needing to forgive a lot of the lyrics and the vocal performances. I think I had outgrown them. In addition, vocalists Garry Pickford-Hopkins and Ashley Holt epitomize long-haired, post-hippie, Uriah Heep-sounding, '70's sensitive-macho-male vocal stylings. By today's standards, they come off as embarrassing. In fact, when backed by musical atmosphere, I think Jules Verne's narrative s more convincing than the sung lyrics.

However, Rick Wakeman became my favorite keyboardist of all time. Whether you like him or not, it cannot be argued that Rick is in top form as a player and composer on this album. His creativity, musical concept, and unbridled raw playing ability shines through here. The second that the vocalists stop singing and Rick is in front, the quality of the performance is mesmerizing. Any person that can identify the sounds in Wakeman's keyboard arsenal can hear some of the most aggressive, unique, and passionate rock keyboards ever captured on record.

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" is quite mighty and impressive in its scope. Made during Yes' "solo record" period, of all of them it is probably the most distinctive and adventurous. It's a live recording of a musical adaptation of the Jules Verne book by the same name. Its instrumentation includes your basic rock guitar, bass, and drums, two vocalists, a percussionist, a full orchestra, and a full choir. In the seventies, when stage sound was not as advanced as it is today, such an undertaking was unheard of and probably considered at least crazy, if not impossible. Rick tried it though, and actually toured with this instrumentation quite extensively. All of the orchestral bits are extremely well-composed and powerful, and barring some very minor performance inconsistencies they stand very well on their own. It should be noted that the orchestra probably couldn't hear a note of what Rick Wakeman's band was playing, so one should probably forgive the occasional cracked or out-of-tune note.

As long as no one is singing (choir notwithstanding), the music on "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" is compositionally exceptional and inexplicable. Thematic use, arrangement, and orchestration are all of the highest quality. The introduction and overture section at the beginning is fantastically majestic and well-orchestrated. Personally, my favorite part of the whole thing is the first three minutes of the "second side", referred to as "The Battle". As in many other orchestral/rock collaborations, "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" does not really integrate the two. The orchestra and choir will play a section, then the rock group will play, but generally they do not blend. A big factor of this interaction is most assuredly the limitations of the live performance, and Rick obviously considered this during its composition. However, on "The Battle", we get closer to integration than on the rest of the album. The band, orchestra, and choir interact very convincingly. In addition to this, Rick's keyboard part is blisteringly intense, mind-bogglingly fast, and completely relaxed. Even the vocal melody is relatively accessible here, although the lyrics still come off as a little infantile.

The lowdown: "Journey to the Center of the Earth" represents what could probably be considered the greatest strengths of '70's then-progressive now-symphonic rock, as well as some of its greatest pitfalls. It's is quite bold and very adventurous and can make for great listening, if the listener can just forgive the vocals.

Description of Journey to the Centre of the Earth