A while back on a SAGA page someone posted a picture of a ticket stub
with the name Starcastle crossed out, and SAGA written in pen. I don't
know why this stuck in my memory, but it did. One day I was looking
through the clearance section at an old video store that had recently
added a record section and I found a couple cool looking albums. Among
them was this Starcastle album featuring a great cover (with the
Hildebrandt signature I'm going to assume this was done by the brothers.
I'll look it up later*) right off a pulpy science fiction paperback.
There was Roy Thomas Baker's name in the production credits, so if
nothing else there was some muscle behind it and someone at Epic
believed in the band.
The back cover shows six rather dashing and very serious looking
fellows, two of whom had fine moustaches, and the guy in the back row
far left could have been the inspiration for Michael Sadler's (lead singer from SAGA) epic
'stache from the '70s.
I was pretty stoked to be honest as this was a band I'd never heard of,
and I'd be coming in fresh. I figured this would be a prog rock album,
and dropping the needle the first song confirmed that I was going to be
in for a rather grand over the top display of mid '70s musical pomp and
excess.
First thing I should point out is I am not a progressive rock
aficionado, but I have over the years picked up quite a bit of stuff
that would qualify as prog. The second thing is that while I may not
have a deep knowledge of prog I know what I like, and so far I'm liking
this.
Musically this was pretty interesting stuff and very much what I was expecting
for mid '70s prog. Meaning it's got all the great prog ingredients:
spacey keyboards and finger dexterity wizardry (oh there were cheesy
sounds too, but this wasn't something limited to Starcastle), a lead
bass player who used all four strings, two guitar players and a drummer
who thankfully avoided overplaying but serviced the songs - which meant
he was plenty busy but wasn't stuck doing a four on floor or a shuffle.
What I wasn't expecting were the Crosby Stills and Nash supercharged
harmonies. I guess if you wanted you could say there are hints of Jon
Anderson as well, but I wouldn't draw out the comparison to Yes, but I
suppose they're there if that's what you want to use a reference point.
Sure this is prog, but not having to be stuck listening to a whole side
dedicated to single track is a positive for me. Of the eight songs here
half are under five minutes, and "Can't Think Twice" is actually under
four - and may have been their shot at radio. It's a decent song, and
may have seen FM play for all I know. Regardless, I guess this caught me
in a good mood, as having played this through a couple of times I've
really enjoyed the album.
Looking up the band it was a surprise to see they were from Champaign,
Illinois, and I'd actually seen Terry Luttrell's name before as he
produced Screams debut album in 1979. I had no idea Illinois was such a
hotbed for rock. I just figured Styx and Cheap Trick was it. Now I find
out that even REO Speedwagon was from Illinois, and Terry was their
original singer and when he left for Starcastle he was replaced by Kevin
Cronin. Goodness there's a lot of stuff on the internet.
Back in a moment, I'm just going to flip it over and play it again.
Oh man, the keyboard part to "Evening Wind" just came on and I thought
for a second, "Hey, that sounds like something by Head East." Hey, weren't they from Illinois too?
Dang, maybe there was something in the water.
*Yes, one and the same.
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