Punk is incessantly scapegoated for derailing the careers of many a half-decent prog rock band, but it failed to provide Camel the hump. Removed from it. Certainly, in the course of the course of that celebrated three-chord revolution, Andrew Latimer’s much-loved, Guildford-based outfit have been of their absolute pomp.
Using excessive after 1975’s silver-selling, Royal Albert Corridor-filling The Snow Goose, the band breezed by way of ’76 and ’77, and seemingly remained oblivious to punk. They adopted The Snow Goose with the silver-certified Moonmadness after which ’77’s Rain Dances, which not solely cracked the UK Prime 40 but additionally launched Camel to the US Billboard 200 for the primary time.
Hearken to Camel’s I Can See Your Home From Right here now.
The band started to soak up altering tendencies, nonetheless, on the next 12 months’s Breathless, which included concise, pop-oriented tracks akin to “Rainbow’s End” and even a quick foray into disco on “Summer Lightning.” Although accountable for additional UK Prime 30 success, Breathless marked the tip of an period for Camel, as their keyboardist and founding member Peter Bardens stop previous to the band’s tour in assist of the album.
Extra personnel reshuffles briefly hampered additional progress, however with new bassist Colin Bass and two new keyboard maestros, Package Watkins and Jan Schelhaas (ex-Caravan), becoming a member of forces with core members Latimer and drummer Andy Ward, Camel returned refreshed with October 1979’s I Can See Your Home From Right here.
Recorded at a comparatively leisurely tempo over the summer time of ’79, with dextrous producer Rupert Hine (Rush, Kevin Ayers) on the controls, the album proved to be the band’s most eclectic up to now. Each the neo-new wave of “Neon Magic” and the snappy “Your Love Is Stranger Than Mine” (the latter issued because the report’s first single) discovered Latimer and co flirting with the radio-friendly mainstream pop they’d dabbled with on Breathless, whereas the intriguing, Gary Numan-esque electro-pop of “Remote Romance” adroitly envisaged a proto-virtual world the place “push-button passion” was accessible to all.
Regardless of these notable dalliances, nonetheless, Camel returned to their beloved prog and jazz roots on each the majestic “Who We Are” and the LP’s epic denouement, “Ice.” Additionally that includes some lavish woodwind and piano, the previous was topped and tailed by Penguin Café Orchestra’s Simon Jeffes’ superb orchestral association, whereas the widescreen, 10-minute expanse of the latter featured probably the most breathtaking guitar solos of Latimer’s profession – and it was apparently laid down in simply the one move.
Maybe influenced by the (then extremely topical) satirical spiritual comedy Monty Python’s Life Of Brian, I Can See Your Home From Right here got here housed in a sleeve that includes a spaceman nailed to a cross trying down on the earth. Although witty, this controversial picture could, with hindsight, have affected the album’s possibilities within the charts. It nonetheless peaked at a extremely respectable No.45 within the UK, whereas Camel roared the gospel on an enthusiastically acquired world tour that ran from October ’79 by way of to January 1980.
Hearken to Camel’s I Can See Your Home From Right here now.
