On Track – Magnum, Procol Harum / Rock Classics – Bat Out Of Hell

Author:Matthew Taylor, Scott Meze, Geoffrey Feakes

Following the recent passing of leading light Tony Clarkin, Magnum are sadly no more although they did manage one final album. However, for me their best work came early in their career with the excellent On A Storyteller’s Night album, which is the set most people immediately bring to mind, An ill advised and unsuccessful attempt to break through into the lucrative US market with the poor Goodnight LA record failed miserably though, and the switch of focus also meant they lost ground in Europe which they never quite recovered – they were one of those bands who weren’t able to graduate from the city hall circuit to bigger venues. I always found their output a bit inconsistent but there were usually some good songs out there – Just Like An Arrow, Vigilante, How Far Jerusalem and Don’t Wake The Lion come to mind. The author does a good job of going through the 17 studio albums song by song in this well researched book and offers some interesting insights into their composition and recording, as well as discussing the band’s ups and downs career wise. Well worth a look if you’re a fan of this band who will be missed by many and who retained a devoted hard core following in Europe right to he very end.

Of course when you think of Procol Harum you can’t but help bring to mind that song, but there was far more than that to this fine band, just listen to songs like Conquistador, Homburg and A Salty Dog for instance, Gary Brooker’s soulful vocals always hit the spot and the interplay of instruments and the integration of an orchestra in many ways paved the way for the prog scene of the 70’s and beyond. In fact the band seemed to touch on many bases in their storied career – pop, psychedelia, rock and prog. The book follows the tried and trusted approach of examining the albums song by song while simultaneously telling the story of the band’s lengthy career, with Brooker aided by the likes of Keith Reid, Matthew Fisher and Robin Trower. I really enjoyed reading this, and it’s a great excuse to listen to and indeed rediscover some of their classic seventies records.

Released in 1977, this album, which eventually became one of the best sellers of all time, was initially something of a left field release in an era dominated by punk and disco, Produced by Todd Rundgren, it showcased the grandiose song writing skills of Jim Steinman and the powerhouse vocals of Meatloaf, and it certainly struck a chord with the record buying public, with pretty much every track becoming a rock classic.
Even now, almost fifty years later it still stands up as a great piece of work, The author traces the back stories of the principals as well as the album’s conception and recording, and additionally looks at their post Bat work, both together and apart, including the two sequels and the subsequent stage musical. An interesting in depth look at this stone cold classic piece of work.

Length of Read:Short

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Learning more about the work of these artists.

One thing you’ve learned

As always, these books are written by fans for fans, but they also provide a good introduction for the newcomer.

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