RENAISSANCE "SAME" LP 1969 ON ISLAND-87 609 GERMANY EX

	£		17
	$		23

YOU ARE BIDDING ON RENAISSANCE EPONYMOUS SELF-TITLED VINYL LP - ORIGINAL GERMANY ISLAND 1969

CAT No. 87 609.

Condition:

Cover: EX - General wear at corners and edges, minor ringwear, but excellent for a 40 year old cover!

Vinyl: EX - some minor scuffs and hairline scratches that don't interfere with play

Studio Album, released in 1969

Track Listings

1. Kings And Queens (10:55)
2. Innocence (7:05)
3. Island (5:57)
4. Wanderer (4:00)
5. Bullet (11:24)

Total Time: 39:21

Line-up/Musicians

- Keith Relf / vocals, guitar, harmonica
- Jim McCarty / percussion, vocals
- John Hawken / piano, harspichord
- Louis Cennamo / bass guitar
- Jane Relf / vocals, percussion

Progarchives Review 1:-

In my opinion, this is the best Renaissance album ever. The classical arrangements made by John Hawken and Louis Cemmano are really impressive. The album is perfect to the start to the end. Considering the year (1969), the sound is very progressive and ambitions, comparing to the other major progressive bands such as Genesis and Yes, that are starting and doing a proto progressive sound. The first songs, Kings and Queens, a lenghty tracks that starts with a stunning piano introduction by John Hawken. It sounds like Classical music. Then, the whole song has lots of variations and good arrangements, sometimes very rock ´n roll, sometimes very classical, very progressive at all. The second, Innocence, is a beautiful song, with very good keyboards and vocals. The third, Island, is a sweet tune, with Jane´s vocals (I LOVE her voice), the style is close to the Innocence´s style. The fourth, Wanderer, is superb. It is a very beautiful tune based on the harpsichord and has Jane at her best. The last one is Bullet, another lenghty track, with vocals by Keith, is more rock ´n roll at the beginning. The song includes a good harmonica solo by Keith and a incredible bass arrangement is the end, this one unfortunately can´t be heard will if you don´t have a good equipment and a good record (I don´t know if the CD version is well remastered or not, because in some CD´s the bass almost disappears). Although the line-up is completely different from the classic Renaissance albums, this is as good as the others (in my opinion, is the best), as Jane sings so well as Annie, and I personally think that the musicians of the first line-up are slightly better than the others.

Progarchives review 2:-

As memories now fade it is difficult to remember whether this album or King Crimsons "Court" was the first to be released in 1969, (and both by Island Records). However, fans at the time recognised both albums as ones introducing radically new musical ideas which were well played and well recorded LPs. These had moved on in sophisticationfrom the studio-controlled recording of the Moody Blues " Days Of Future Past" - BTW an album largely ignored in the UK at the time in terms of sales- or more roughly provided by Nice.

Whilst the new comer to the Yardbirds, Jimmy Page, had taken the band's name (only to quickly evolve into Led Zeppelin), the majority of the Yardbirds became Renaissance. However, they had abandoned much of the R'n'B and instead discovered Beethoven, in the company Jim Hawken. As a result their music was a sophisticated hybrid of "Beethovenian blues rock".

Renaissance were picked up by the overground media, and to become more than just a band with an underground following. In particular, the previously straight Jim Mossman, presenting the new BBC 2 TV channel's art series, broke the establishment rules by having this group of "pop musicians" on his show, to discuss and play their music. The public became aware that young, long haired musicians were capable of making more than just 3 minute hits, forgotten 3 months later. Renaissance and this album opened doors, to be pushed further open with Crimson exposure to the masses through the Rolling Stones Hyde Park free show.

A groundbreaking album, indeed a seminal album, as nothing like it had been heard before. Hawken's strident grande piano, played mostly in forte is the dominant lead, lifting musical ideas from the likes of Beethoven concertos. Yardbirds' blues tempers this and Jane Relf provides a sort of clarity or purity with the vocals. And that artwork on the LP sleeve: a picture of Icarus's fall, long lingered in the mind.

As a footnote: This line-up of Renaissance did start to record a second album, "Illusion" soon afterwards, some of which was previewed on a BBC Radio One live gig. However, this was not to be an immediate follow-up LP to capitalise on the band's initial success. Renaissance (as they truly were to rock muisic), lost their name and found themselves as Illusion, in competition to the new variant of Renaissance. Keith Relf moved on, did his own thing, formed Armageddon, joined Medicine Head and alas died in a tragic accident.

Progarchives review 3:-

Following the break-up of The Yardbirds in early 1968 drummer Jim McCarty and guitarist/vocalist Keith Relf formed TOGETHER, an acoustic based group. This short lived then became RENAISSANCE in early 1969 with the addition of John Hawken (keyboard), Louis Cennamo (bass) and Jane Relf (vocal). So, this is the PRE ANNIE HASLAM period of the band. Musically, I would say this debut album has significant contribution in laying strong foundation of progressive rock music altogether with King Crimson, ELP, Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd. RENAISSANCE has its own identity than the others. This debut album sets an important milestone for RENAISSANCE music direction in the future.

The opening track “Kings and Queens” proves to be the landmark for future releases of the band. The structural composition of this song is of relevance with later releases compositions. This track is heavily influenced by classical music through its piano sound at intro part. It’s a wonderful and dynamic piano play at intro. The drumming section enters nicely altogether with acoustic guitar fills. When the drumming style change to a jazzy kind of beat it reminds me to JON LORD’s solo album “Sarabande”. (Hey, this album should be in Progarchives page. It’s definitely prog!). You may observe and compare it on the musical segment just before the male vocal enters the scene. I like the drumming style and piano when they accompany vocals. So dynamic. One other thing is that this track is melodious. This track is really prog to the corner! Yeah, it’s a beautifully crafted song, I think!

“Innocence” has simpler composition than the first track. Piano still dominates the music. It has some jazz and blues component in its composition. Are you aware of Dutch’s blues band CUBY + THE BLIZZARDS? If so, this track is composition-wise similar to the works of CUBY. I like the piano solo in the middle of this track. Excellent! (This piece has influenced the music of my home country band BADAI). The end part of this track reminds me to the musical nuances of King Crimson’s “Lizards”.

“Island” is again an acoustic guitar and piano based song with female vocal of JANE RELF as lead with male vocal as backing. The bass guitar play is dynamic throughout the track. Stunning. The inclusion of piano solo in classical style has made this track more attractive. “Wanderer” is a more uplifting track with great piano and harpsichord sounds. I like the melody of harpsichord just before and during the singing of JANE RELF. It reminds me to the kind of RICK van DER LINDEN of TRACE music. It’s not the same, but the musical nuances are similar. This track has great melody!

The album is concluded fabulously with an epic track “Bullet” with 11:24 minutes duration. Again, the band gives a wonderfully crafted composition. This time the opening sound of piano is set to welcome the latin-like voices. KEITH RELF takes the lead vocal function backed with jazzy piano and drumming style. The overall composition of this song is more of in an avant-garde music, I think. It has high and low points with some musical exploration of sounds at the end of the track. I think this album is a masterpiece.

This is an album by an extremely collectable experimental group - one of the 1st to move into the Prog Rock arena!!

An excellent example of King Crimon-esque long blown away tracks!!!