It's EPIC! Or is it?

Pet peeve time. Here's a transitive logic puzzle. If all epics are long does that make all long songs epics? Of course not. There are plenty of songs fans or the artists themselves label as Epic--with a capital E-- that are simply tedious and long for the sake of being long. These are those songs that are supposed to give an artist serious "prog cred" (is there such a thing?) just because their damn song clocks in at 24 minutes and has subtitles for each of the section they believe are unique parts of a "suite."

So what makes a song "epic?" Well, it's not length. It's not throwing in some deep poetic narration. It's not an overlong dueling xylophone and mandolin solos. It isn't some grand overture (but, sometimes that helps!). My personal answer finds there's one simple rule. You don't create epics...the label must be earned. It is an eye of the beholder thing. Yes, many (well, actually quite a few) epics are long. Take Yes' Gates of Delirium (21:54), for example. It's not the length, it's the quality. It gives you nearly 22 minutes of sublime quality. They can be short...like Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (6:02). They can be somewhere in the middle like Genesis' Firth of Fifth (9:37) Size doesn't matter. It's feeling. It's affect. It's a personal experience that is meant to transcend. An epic simply means the experience is bigger than the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJRVBQtKltM

The novel Moby Dick isn't epic because it is long (it's about 585 pages). Stephen King's The Stand is much longer...does that make it epic-er? Lord of the Rings is only 173 pages...less epic? Twilight is just 100 pages shorter than Moby Dick, so where does it rank in epic-ness?? The point being, Moby Dick is an epic novel because it is an expansive tale. Because readers ascribe that label to it. It is as long as it is because that's how long it took to create the world and the myth....it's the content not the amount of pages.

It is an organic process. You can't set out to "create" an epic. It is not that crass of an artificial construct. With music, it is the same. A song needs to be as long as it needs to be. If you just extend and expand for the reason to lengthen it, doesn't necessarily make it better, more significant or...epic.

And what is epic to me, might not be an epic to someone else. I simply know it when I hear it. I read reviews on a progressive rock site and the word just gets thrown around as a euphemism for length. I just have a problem with the labeling of a song "epic" based on length and not quality and expansive content.

An epic doesn't need to have 70 moving parts including French horns and a timpani solo. Simple can be epic...take Hey Jude for example. Even removing the seeming unending repeated Na-na refrain...it is still epic. Some songs I consider epic stitch together disparate ideas into a longer form. Technically that is a suite, but a suite can be epic,---but not because of its construction. And, sometimes it works well, sometimes it seems desperate. The progressive super-group Transatlantic (made up of members of Spock's Beard, Dream Theater, Flower Kings and Marillion) is guilty of both (sometimes on the same album!). Sometimes they seem to have said, "hey, let's make a 30 minute epic!!!" Then they force together a song, like Stranger in Your Soul, that has way too much filler and very little coherence. However, conversely, Duel with the Devil works in the same way Stranger doesn't. Editing goes a long way fellas.

In the end, what is an epic. It simply lies is in the ear of the beholder. For me, they are typically, but not exclusively anthemic. Blowin' in the Wind is not anthemic, but it is epic. My Heart Must go on is anthemic, but it is not epic.They, in there own way, move me.

So here is a list of some of MY favorite epics...that I haven't mentioned earlier in the blog...and don't judge me if many of them happen to run a bit long (and I am trying not to repeat the same artist, which would be very easy to do). They are all worth a listen:

• Close to Edge (Yes)

• The Great Nothing (Spock's Beard)

• Supper's Ready (Genesis)

• Karn Evil (Emerson Lake and Palmer)

• Layla (Derek and the Dominos)

• Family Snapshot (Peter Gabriel)

• Song for America (Kansas)

• Beneath the Brine (The Family Crest)

• Bring Out the Sun (Von Hertzen Brothers)

• Salvo (Moth Vellum)

• Stardust We Are (Flower Kings)

• Scheherazade (Renaissance)

• A Kid Called Panic (Moon Safari)

• Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)

• Children of the Sun (Magenta)

• Luminol (Steven Wilson)

• Thick as a Brick (Jethro Tull)

• Losers Day Parade (Kino)

• All of the Above (Transatlantic)

• Mei (Echolyn)

• Grendel (Marillion)
  

WHAT I AM LISTENING TO THIS WEEK:

Cirrus Bay Search for Joy (US) 2014 -- Gorgeous female fronted prog. A hybrid between Renaissance (not only because Anisha Norflet has a similar vocal inflection as Annie Haslam) and mid-period Genesis. Compositionally gets a bit samey-same about halfway through, but the structures and palette are really enjoyable. The added touch of viola on top of the Tony Banks type keyboard tones really make this a keeper. Several places throughout I like the mid song key changes, multiple layers or the style pivots while keeping the coherence of the song intact. that It's a sconche derivative, but if you're going to copy a style, might as well do it well. Best song on the album Me and Wokara.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxXA98H9LXg

Jon Anderson Watching the Flags that Fly (UK) 2006 -- I should love anything he does, right? Lead singer of Yes, some excellent solo work...but really nothing to speak of in over 20 years (except for his collaboration with Roine Stolt last year). And that's the thing, Anderson, as a primary melody writer, is not particularly interesting or clever. His best work is when he collaborates. Now granted, most of the stuff on this album were half-baked demos meant for a second Anderson Wakeman Bruford and Howe album. But that's the point...given input with the others in that band could have improved the bare bones of what is here. This is not to say it never raises above middling new agey plonking, but it is a significant step down from his solo work in the 70's and 80's....it's even a step down from his collaborations with Vangelis (too new age for me!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg8PglHf2Kc

Rush Clockwork Angels (Canada) 2012 -- This was the exclamation point for the end of a great 40 year career. Huge improvement from the weak albums of the late 80's to the early 2000s. Whereas it reintroduced the heaviness of Alex Lifeson's guitar, it still lacked the heavyweight punch of the albums from their golden age of 1976-1982. It is missing the sharp edges which are generally dulled by that synthesizer sound that dominated everything post Moving Pictures and Geddy Lee's aging voice. This is not to say this album is anything but good, it just doesn't grab me as much as the golden age. This is their best output since 1982's Moving Pictures and there is a lot to like. While so many 70s bands slink away with poor imitations of their past selves, the Rush boys delivered a brilliantly played swan song. A song like The Anarchist really shows off they still have the musical chops. BU2B and Headlong Flight are also excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO0ikbGvIY0&list=PLXPYMcRIi2fGxhShBJ-l9mId8Yf3_UBEc

Supertramp Supertramp (UK) 1970 -- Like many others, I associate the Supertramp sound with their 1974 album Crime of the Century, so this album took me by surprise. It has been ages since I listened to it, and I heard things that really sounded like they could have been on an early Yes (the Tony Kaye/Peter Banks era). Lots of textured Hammond organ by Rick Davies and a bit more psychedelic bluesy guitar touches from Richard Palmer-James (who left soon after this album). Whereas there is no hummable hit like the dozens that come later, there is some great moments like Bird of Prey and Maybe I'm a Beggar. And, "Try again", clocking in at over 12 minutes, includes a lovely, Tony Kaye-like organ backed guitar solo, which builds from a fragile start to a full on jam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwRAirTgT9w

Green Day American Idiot (US) 2004 -- It's not quite all out punk, but has all the elements of the Ramones, the Buzzcocks and the Crammps. It is much more song based, muscle chord dependent and melodic. I think someone once said they are the perfect suburban punk rock band which put apathy on display instead of outright Black Flag styled anger. It's a rock opera, but forget that, I found it energetic, and somewhat ambitious and a bit more mature than earlier work found on Dookie. Billy Joe Armstrong comes into his own as a songwriter. Of course I like the trio of hits, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Holiday and Wake Me When September ends, but think they really strike a Tommy-esque chord with Jesus of Suburbia and We are the Waiting/St Jimmy. What I enjoyed is that it kept my attention for the entire 58 minutes of the disc.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeOcdrU0X-oCr4AntArSMK2uzAJ5Qfu2G