Review: Caravan - If I could do it all over again, I'd do it all over you

If I could do it all over again, I'd do it all over you
(Decca 1970)

1. If I could do it all over again, I'd do it all over you
2. And I wish I were stoned - Don't worry
3. As I feel I die
4. With an ear to the ground you can make it / Martinian / Only cox / Reprise
5. Hello Hello
6. Asforteri 25
7. Can't be long now / Françoise / For Richard / Warlock
8. Limits

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Now we're talking! Full frontal prog, with song lengths setting a standard that in 1970 was still to be assimilated by the prog community. Of course, song length is not a value in itself and if you can't justify it with good melodies and/or intriguing instrumental passages then it's just grating. Thankfully, Caravan at least partly succeeded in this respect from the very beginning although I feel that the closing suite consists too much of uninspired jamming and little actual songwriting, but up until then we're sorted.

The overall atmosphere is somewhat lighter than on the debut, despite the even more bombastic approach with all the multi-part suites because basically every song on here is built upon melodies lighter than a feather. Kinda reflective of the forest grove on the cover with all the 'foresty' organs and flutes abound. This atmosphere is especially present on "And I wish I were stoned", "As I feel I die" and "With an ear to the ground you can make it". Well, there's half the album already! However, it all begins with Caravan's already established brand of quirky pop in "If I could do it all over again, I'd make the title even longer", but I honestly don't think that it's very good. The looping melody with interweaving harmonies is inventive for sure, but I don't really care for the actual song.

But then we're going places, supposedly into that aforementioned forest. "And I wish I were stoned" is one of my favourite tracks on here, essentially just two oh-so-obvious pop ditties merged together with some tasteful organ-led passages and what is actually the first real guitar solo from Hastings. Then, still in the forest, we have "As I feel I die" beginning as a slow, almost unbearably quiet melody (that nonetheless rule) building up tension, only to suddenly shift gears and tipping its hat to their jazz-tinged legacy. Can't you imagine the elves skipping around in the morning sun finding its way down through the green foilage? Or yourself, for that matter.

But then we are ever so slightly running into trouble. The, once again, multi-part "With an ear to the ground" begins on a similarily quiet note, then gradually picks up steam but its first part (reprised at the end) doesn't really cut it. It gets better in the mid-section though, and as it slows down we are greeted with lush harmonies and a lovely flute solo so all in all it qualifies. "Hello hello" continues the line of the title track, although in a minor key this time and noticeably better. But then we have that closing suite which just seems to go nowhere. There are a few moments which approaches 'decent', like the reocurring organ theme that concludes the measures in the second part about four minutes in and onward, as well as after the sax/flute solos. I also like the part which follows, with that four-chord organ swirl adding at least some power to an otherwise lame exercise in pointless noodling. Why couldn't they make a proper song out of these neat little ideas instead of trying to one-up the... oh wait! This piece is actually breaking some new ground. Like I said, the side-long prog suites were still to be taken up by contemporaries like Genesis, King Crimson, Jethro Tull and Yes (who at the time hadn't even released "The Yes album" which even there didn't boast anything longer than ten minutes. "For Richard" is over fourteen).

So that somewhat ruins the experience since it takes up way too much of the overall running length. Too bad, since some of the other tracks manages to surpass the quality of the debut. Their best work was yet to come.

Review: Caravan - s/t

Caravan
(Decca/Verve 1968)

1. Place of my Own
2. Ride
3. Policeman
4. Love Song with Flute
5. Cecil Rons
6. Magic Man
7. Grandma's Lawn
8. Where but for Caravan Would I?

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Somwhere around 1967 after the Wilde Flowers had withered, half of the crew proceeded to invent a soft machine in order to explore the depths of the London underground. When the other half heard about their venture they decided to scrap together yet another band and dub it Caravan, and listening to this debut sure makes you feel that the very name is sensed in the music. It's nothing short of a caravan of massive sounds stately and steadily proceeding through your speakers and into your subconsciousness. That statement may seem somewhat exaggerated now but consider that this was 1968, before all the crimson kings and armadillo tanks and ready suppers and all that. The closest equivalent I can think of at this point is Procol Harum, but they were still sporting a more soulish brand of baroque-tinged rock whereas Caravan went down the majestic route as well as spicing it up with playful folk-jazz passages, like in "Love song with flute", one of the best tracks on here.

You might as well already get adjusted to the weak singing voice of Pye Hastings (very weak actually, in places sounding like on the verge of cracking, carefully balancing on the right note) which would get better over the ensuing albums, but personally I don't really mind (I've heard much worse, especially considering the swedish indie scene) as it suits the songs well. He's occasionally assisted by Richard Sinclair who technically has got a better voice but there's something about it that ever so slightly annoys me. It's a bit meek and syrupy, but I'm not really complaining as it works as a good counterpart to Pye's whiney falsetto.

The songs cook however, and it starts off with a true highlight in "Place on my own" where the aforementioned grandness, emphasized by the echoey production and the somewhat foreboding intro/verse parts and the organ-led interlude make for a great contrast with the uplifting chorus. "Love song" is, like I said, another favourite with its wonderfully sharp transition into the chorus, as well as the closing "Where but for Caravan would I" showing the first signs of true prog dexterity, not least in its multi-part structure. "Magic man" is also a highlight, effectively working its way through three looping chords on which they weave several different melodies.

Out of the rest of the tracks I feel "Grandma's lawn" and "Policeman" to be a bit iffy even if the latter sports an obvious nod to Beatles in its McCartneyesque melody. (And it's always fun to bash the law enforcements every now and then). "Cecil Rons" is a lot of fun though, with a faux-scary organ arrangement underpinning a nursery rhyme not unlike The Who's "Silas Stingy". Finally there's the conga-driven mantra "Ride" that surely conjures the feeling of a caravan making its way out from Canterbury to wherever they ended up. Or more figuratively, from the humble beginnings of artrock into the vast and yet unknown terrain of progressive rock. Groovy!

In the land of grey and pink: Caravan reviewed

Where but for Caravan would I?

Introduction

Caravan is probably my main candidate for being the nicest bunch of artsy dudes of the prog movement in the early 70's. Their output simply reeks of sunshine and you can't go wrong with just about any of their records for breakfast as the start of a much better day than it would have been otherwise. For some reason they seem to have been overlooked, not only among the general public (as always) but in the art/prog community as well and that's really a shame. Because not only were they there from the very beginning, releasing their first album even before King Crimson had the chance of blowing our minds with their apocalyptic chops. They were also a force to be reckoned with among the other giants of the era and, taken as a whole, their output is actually far more even than most prog bands.

True, that sort of vouches for mediocrity and I admit that nothing in their catalog ever really woos me over like, say, "Close to the edge" does, but on the other hand Caravan has actually pulled off the feat of having virtually no serious duffer on any of their records (bar a couple of tracks which I'll get back to in due time, but who's perfect besides Columbo?). Pye Hastings proved to be quite a songwriter and combined with his thin and shakey voice he sort of underlined Caravan as one of the most perfect implementations of a white-ass nerd band not having neither the capabilities nor aspirations to rock the house down and get into girl's knickers (figuratively speaking of course, and being a white-ass nerd myself I mean that in a positive way).

As you all know they began in a local band called The Wilde Flowers together with to-be-members of Soft Machine, and were one main force in the so-called Canterbury scene. That term alone won't reveal much though and apart from the organ and some jazzy passages Caravan really didn't have anything in common with the fellow Canterbury colleagues musically. Their approach were just as much lush pop as it was jazz-tinged prog rock and in stature I'd say it's more appropriate to compare their music to baroque-influenced bands like Procol Harum and Zombies rather than the progressive contemporaries like Yes and Genesis. But they sure could prog out when they wanted to; They have several tricky songs as well as multi-part epics in their backpack and I believe they are definitely the best of the Canterbury bunch. Later on they more or less abandoned the prog route and went for the pure baroque pop sound instead, which they stuck with until they disbanded in the late 70's.

Lineup then: Pye Hastings - guitar and vocals, Dave Sinclair - keyboards, Richard Sinclair - bass guitar, Richard Coughlan - drums. That's basically what you need to know although some member changes took place down the line, with Hastings being the only consistent member together with Coughlan as his trusty sidekick.

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Oh, and after the band broke up, Pye Hastings would go on to become a successful talkshow host.