Rick Wakeman – 1984 (1981)

Here's another vinyl record that I have gotten from my father's collection. He was really into progressive rock and especially liked the fact that many strange instruments were being used. There are lots of ridiculous elements on this album, but sometimes drawing the line between ridiculous and brilliant is quite difficult. There are amazingly strange synth sounds on this album. Most notably the ones that sound like an electronic pan-flute. The amazingly high-pitched vocals of Chaka Khan further enhance the strangeness of this album. There are some amazing organ solos here though. I especially like the raunchy rock organs. At times this album gets very funky. The album is based on George Orwell's book 1984. Wakeman is known for his concept albums. The album cover kind of looks like modern Soviet art.



As I mentioned already, Rick Wakeman is known for concept albums and he really had a number of over-the-top ideas. The most memorable of these must be his Lancelot and the Black Knight on ice gig at Wembley which was accompanied by live actors on skates. The rumours tell that this was an accident. Apparently the ice rink was already there and when Wakeman heard about it, he just said that it's not a problem and he organised the on ice spectacle of knights and horses on skates.

The opening song of the album is the most ridiculous sounding, but at the same time it's probably the best song on the album precisely because of the amazingly ridiculous sounds. Robot Man is also an amazing song. It has this cool reggae rhythm with incredible pop sounds and it really gets quite funky in places. This album is a great proof that you can do whatever pops into your head when you're making a progressive rock record. Of course there are clear nods to classical music and everything is way over the top.

I had a phase in my life when I was really into progressive rock but at some point it became kind of un-cool. Now that I'm old enough, I don't have to care about what's cool anymore, I can just like the music that I like. And I kind of like this stuff no matter how strange it is. The sounds are already quite 80's even though progressive rock's golden era was in the 70's. This combination of laser sounds and synth explosions with strange chord progressions and rhythm changes is quite something.

Album on Spotify.