allyp
Rocker Rollin'
Posts: 575
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Post by allyp on Oct 12, 2020 17:54:32 GMT
Immediately after Back to Back Alan wrote this And rick wrote this Seems a bit unfair to lay all the blame at Francis’s feet I find it odd that Alan criticised the material which Francis was contributing for being lightweight whilst coming up with songs which were hardly hard rock which was his preference. Ol rag blues and your kind of love were middle of the road chart friendly pop songs. Maybe Alan wanted his songs on the albums so adapted a different approach?
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Post by cammythemortonfan on Oct 12, 2020 18:57:36 GMT
Still hate the awkward "Pictures of Lily" reference and the fact that the title has "blues" in it but no "blues" in the music to be found... always found that disappointing. So this "pictures of lily" thing - i believe Pete Townshend is quoted as saying The Who song of the same name is about masturbation.
So "pictures of lily crying...you know what i mean?" - is that a wink wink, nudge nudge, or is ORB about growing out of younger habits of something, the faded, ragged jeans a metaphor for youth, and maybe a signal of Quo's more AOR/MOR direction - getting older.
I wonder if that was Alan's lyric, or Keith Lamb's? Which one had decided to abstain? I guess we'll never know.
Asking for a friend, btw.
I always took it to be a reference to Rick’s mum perhaps aghast at some of his rock star shenanigans hitting the papers etc?
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Post by cammythemortonfan on Oct 12, 2020 18:58:21 GMT
So after trawling through Andy Bown's 70's back catalogue, i think i might have found the tune Andy re-wrote as "Too Close To The Ground" - it bears some similarities.....see what you think...
This kind of post is this message board at its best. Superb find 👍
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Post by quovadis on Oct 12, 2020 19:29:28 GMT
Has anyone else noticed nuff has a love for saxophone in a majority of his songs post quo it's also a heap of sh!! T those songs are bad I mean bad
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Post by 4th Chord on Oct 12, 2020 19:59:11 GMT
A band that was greater than the sum of their parts.
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matt
Veteran Rocker Rollin'
Posts: 1,010
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Post by matt on Oct 12, 2020 20:28:00 GMT
Parpy keyboards apart, I would take Calling and In Your Eyes over these Alan and Rick tracks.
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Post by Quoincidence on Oct 12, 2020 20:28:18 GMT
3 songs were left off of the album and remain unreleased... 4 if you want to include Ricks vocal take for TCTTG I assume those 3 songs + Rick's version were discover AFTER the release of the Back to Back deluxe. Am I right? Sometimes I dream about the "possible" new box-set. I hope all is unreleased, not like the Rockers Rollin' box or, for example, the Kiss Box Set, which were dissapoiting (to my taste at least), very few unreleased things. Pretty much, yes
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gav
Veteran Rocker Rollin'
Posts: 2,152
Favourite Quo Album: On The Level
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Post by gav on Oct 12, 2020 21:11:59 GMT
Has anyone else noticed nuff has a love for saxophone in a majority of his songs post quo it's also a heap of sh!! T those songs are bad I mean bad It was a mid-80's thing was it not? Although he did end up with a lead vocalist/saxophonist fronting his band, The Bombers.
Maybe the idea was to give the music a bit more muscle at a time when it had none? Although using it for solos doesn't support that theory.
Quo did it too of course around the same time. But the much subtler use on "Hello!" adds something i think, beefs up the rhythm guitars a bit maybe? I think there were 2 sax's employed, alto and tenor, not sure if at the same time though...
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Post by frozenhero on Oct 12, 2020 22:14:29 GMT
3 songs were left off of the album and remain unreleased... 4 if you want to include Ricks vocal take for TCTTG I assume those 3 songs + Rick's version were discover AFTER the release of the Back to Back deluxe. Am I right? I plead guilty! When I sent my fan-made lists to Steve, I made it clear I was only working from what I knew existed, and that they should look into the archives. But it wasn't until Quoincidence gave them a kick in the backside that some real stuff started turning up. Ideally it would've been the other way round, lots of archive research before putting together a tracklist (see the new Tears for Fears deluxe box set for how it's done), but I guess Universal were not too invested in Quo at that point.
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Post by fretbuzzzzz on Oct 12, 2020 22:56:09 GMT
Has anyone else noticed nuff has a love for saxophone in a majority of his songs post quo it's also a heap of sh!! T those songs are bad I mean bad It was a mid-80's thing was it not? Although he did end up with a lead vocalist/saxophonist fronting his band, The Bombers.
Maybe the idea was to give the music a bit more muscle at a time when it had none? Although using it for solos doesn't support that theory.
Quo did it too of course around the same time. But the much subtler use on "Hello!" adds something i think, beefs up the rhythm guitars a bit maybe? I think there were 2 sax's employed, alto and tenor, not sure if at the same time though...
Interesting points gav. Quite a few bands of that era were using brass/sax. One of Alan's favourite bands Toto were very much into brass/sax in the 80s. One of his particular favourites being their track 'Rosanna'. Perhaps he was thinking it would give Quo an air of musical sophistication. Rossi, Parfitt and Pip were dabbling a bit with brass/sax in the mid 80s and a couple of Quo tracks immediately spring to mind, 'Lonely' with the brass effect outro and 'Keep Me Guessing' with the sax being quite a significant part of the track. Perhaps Alan should have sold 'One Of A Kind' to Ian Hunter and Mott The Hoople as think they could have done something much better with it! As for Back To Back, I hadn't listened to it for many years then decided to give a spin over the weekend in the car. Still love the atmosphere of 'Too Close The Ground' though a shame about the gun-shot drums in the guitar solo, completely unnecessary but it was the 80s. 'Can't Be Done' sounds much better now than I remember. With 'Stay The Night' I wonder if Rossi was trying something Squeeze like (one of his favourite bands for a time) but not really working whatever he was trying to do. Could imagine Tilbrook doing it justice vocally though.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 12, 2020 23:11:07 GMT
So after trawling through Andy Bown's 70's back catalogue, i think i might have found the tune Andy re-wrote as "Too Close To The Ground" - it bears some similarities.....see what you think...
Great track and stunning keyboard work, the Hammond is sublime. I don't think Francis has ever realised how lucky he's been to have such a prodigiously talented musician as Andy in the band.
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Post by Quoincidence on Oct 13, 2020 1:46:47 GMT
I assume those 3 songs + Rick's version were discover AFTER the release of the Back to Back deluxe. Am I right? I plead guilty! When I sent my fan-made lists to Steve, I made it clear I was only working from what I knew existed, and that they should look into the archives. But it wasn't until Quoincidence gave them a kick in the backside that some real stuff started turning up. Ideally it would've been the other way round, lots of archive research before putting together a tracklist (see the new Tears for Fears deluxe box set for how it's done), but I guess Universal were not too invested in Quo at that point. The said tracks are on tape anyway, so I don't think they would have bothered with them.
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Post by dennis on Oct 13, 2020 20:43:28 GMT
I've just listened to Back To Back again, & now I'm sad
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matt
Veteran Rocker Rollin'
Posts: 1,010
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Post by matt on Oct 14, 2020 8:58:19 GMT
So can we really not say what the 3 unreleased tracks are?
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allyp
Rocker Rollin'
Posts: 575
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Post by allyp on Oct 14, 2020 10:26:57 GMT
The unreleased Lancaster tracks were put on Alan’s facebook page a few years ago. I always thought these songs were home demos and not Quo tracks as such don't think anyone else in the band played on them? The gaslight studio demos never got as far as being worked on properly and much of that stuff got dumped and resurrected for solo projects after I think???
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