Camel didn’t put on flowing, sequined capes, gown up like large flowers, plunge daggers into their keyboards, or take pleasure in any of the opposite outrageous attention-getting antics employed by their 70s British prog brethren. As an alternative, they did one thing equally radical in its personal manner: They only stood there and performed their butts off.
It could have been their distaste for flash and flamboyance that stored them at cult hero standing. It actually wasn’t their music, which might flip gorgeously symphonic, jaw-droppingly difficult, alarmingly infectious, or endearingly odd, because the second demanded. From the beginning of their preliminary run with their self-titled 1973 debut to the top with 1984’s Stationary Traveler, they shifted types and personnel a number of instances, however singer/guitarist/flautist Andy Latimer was the power that maintained that quintessential Camel high quality all through.
Order the in depth Camel better of assortment Air Born – The MCA & Decca Years 1973 – 1984 now.
Listed here are 20 basic Camel cuts from throughout their discography, representing the numerous musical faces of the good, rocking humpbacked beast.
The Rockers
(Arubaluba, Freefall, Manic, One other Night time)
Don’t be misled: Pete Bardens’ fuzzed-out organ and bubbling-lava synth tones and Andy Latimer’s four-alarm guitar riffs evoke photographs nearer to a blazing inferno than the mellow, island trip vibe that the title “Arubaluba” may suggest. Camel’s first album is the rawest, most rocking of their catalog, and this hard-charging instrumental is definitely one of many band’s most barnstorming tracks.
Followers think about the band’s second album, Mirage, the start of the basic Camel interval. The opening observe, “Freefall,” makes the explanations instantly apparent. Musos will moon over the head-spinning compound meters, however all you want is a pair of ears (and even only one, for that matter) to be stunned by the shift between Bardens and Latimer’s churn-and-burn rock riffage and the sneakily refined jazz fusion really feel that bassist Doug Ferguson and drummer Andy Ward slide beneath all of the carnage.
On 1976’s Moonmadness, Latimer and Bardens determined they’d write one music for every band member, impressed by their personalities. For Ferguson, they got here up with “Another Night,” a stomp-and-crunch ode to nocturnal delight. “He was always disappearing at night and walking the streets, doing silly things,” Latimer advised Prog’s Dom Lawson in 2019, “so we came up with ‘Another Night.’” It’s as shut because the idiosyncratic Camel’s got here to a no-frills stomper. “It’s meant to be solid, simple rock’n’roll,” confirmed Latimer. “It didn’t come out like that, but that was the intention.”
Although Latimer was the final remaining unique member by 1982, The Single Issue nonetheless had some fireplace underneath its hood. Each the lyrics and the livid really feel of “Manic” provide a tumultuous journey right into a frantic, fraying thoughts. Latimer’s previous cohorts could also be gone, however he’s surrounded by a prog dream staff together with Genesis co-founder Anthony Phillips, Curved Air keyboardist Francis Monkman, Alan Parsons Undertaking bassist David Paton, and Sky percussionist Tristan Fry.
The Beauties
(Rhyader, Tune Inside a Tune, Air Born, Inform Me, Elke)
Camel’s beautiful melodies and swish preparations made them probably the most influential first-gen prog bands. The luxurious fantastic thing about their all-instrumental 1975 idea album The Snow Goose impressed generations of prog bands to come back. On “Rhyader,” Latimer’s flute expertise come to the fore, gliding over Bardens’ delicate, dreamy piano strains to inform the story of the lonely artist on the middle of the Paul Gallico novel that impressed the album.
Camel made a acutely aware determination to not observe The Snow Goose with extra of the identical, so that they made Moonmadness a vocal-oriented album. However whereas the primary half of “Song Within a Song” runs on a candy Bardens/Latimer vocal concord not 1,000,000 miles from Pink Floyd, the lazy, hazy circulate of Latimer’s lambent strumming and pastoral flute and Barden’s pointillist electrical piano give the earlier album a run for its cash within the dreamy division.
“Air Born” is the Moonmadness character examine meant to evoke Latimer’s persona. The acoustic, neo-classical intro, creamy keyboard orchestrations, and Latimer’s laconic vocals seize the guitarist’s quintessentially British low-key leanings. “I was imagining woods and fields and all that stuff,” mentioned Latimer, “just trying to capture more of an English feel.” Apparently, there have been different contributing components to the observe’s mellow vibe. “Andy was smoking a joint,” mentioned Latimer, “and in the middle section you can hear all this inhaling going on.”
The band’s first large personnel shift got here when former Caravan bassist/vocalist Richard Sinclair took Ferguson’s spot and ex-King Crimson saxman Mel Collins got here aboard on 1977’s Rain Dances. It’s truly Latimer enjoying the buttery fretless bass strains on “Tell Me,” however Sinclair’s heat, wistful singing marks a significant addition to the Camel arsenal.
Brian Eno had but to unleash his groundbreaking Ambient album sequence when he contributed keyboards to Rain Dances’ most impressionistic observe, “Elke,” however the poignantly placid instrumental isn’t terribly removed from ambient territory. Eno’s keys, Latimer’s flute, and visitor Fiona Hibbert’s harp soften into one another on the perfect soundtrack for floating down a river manufactured from plush pillows.
The Prog Bangers
(Girl Fantasy, Rhyader Goes to City, Chord Change, Lunar Sea, Skylines)
The 12-minute “Lady Fantasy” suite from Mirage is among the most beloved Camel items, in all probability as a result of the band throws rattling close to every part they’ve received into it. There’s an ultra-dramatic opening with a synth ostinato over energy chords earlier than shifting right into a lyrical guitar line that prefigures The Snow Goose. Bardens slips some Comfortable Machine-esque organ strains in, Latimer does some shredding over Ferguson and Ward’s galloping beat, Bardens digs into some funky clavinet and whirling Minimoog. By the point it’s over, you’ve absorbed extra concepts than some bands carry to their total discography.
Camel strikes by a number of modes on “Rhyader Goes to Town” as nicely, with Latimer throwing down harmonized guitar strains over a brisk beat, Bardens busting out a complete crayon field’s price of Moog colours, and the band tucking right into a syncopated jam with a whiff of Pink Floyd whereas Latimer reveals why he’s hailed as one in every of prog’s premier six-string stylists.
Returning to the Moonmadness character sketches, “Chord Change” is for Bardens, an homage to his musical and private complexity. “I always found Pete could be very changeable,” mentioned Latimer, “so I thought we needed a piece with a lot of changes in it… with the complexities in Pete’s writing coming through.” Accordingly, the observe bears a few of Camel’s knottiest constructions, however amid the acrobatic leaps, Latimer nonetheless finds time for the beautiful melodic turns that had been shortly changing into his signature.
The album’s closing epic, “Lunar Sea,” was a salute to Ward. “Andy was into a lot of things,” recalled Latimer, “especially jazz. So, when we started writing stuff, we knew that his song was going to be fairly jazzy and fairly complicated. Not jazz in the proper sense, because none of us were proper jazzers, but it was what we considered jazz, I suppose!” Camel was contemporary off a stint opening for Comfortable Machine, and the affect of that band helped push the tune in direction of blurring the strains between prog and fusion, with all members on the fringe of their appreciable talents.
There’s a good bit of fusion occurring on Rain Dances’ closing reduce, “Skyline,” too. There’s even a three-piece horn part including some delicate coloring. Over a counterintuitive time signature, Bardens shakes the rafters together with his Minimoog, inspiring Latimer to indicate that he hadn’t gotten all of the shredding out of his system on Moonmadness.
The Pop Tunes
(Your Love Is Stranger Than Mine, Wait, Distant Romance, In the present day’s Goodbye)
The band took an enormous flip towards pop on 1979’s I Can See Your Home from Right here, instituting some large lineup adjustments on the similar time. Sinclair was changed by the appropriately named Colin Bass, late of Steve Hillage’s band, whereas ex-Completely happy the Man man Package Watkins and one other former Caravan member, Jan Schelhaas, took over from the departing Bardens. (Sure, it took two gamers!) With its insanely earwormy hooks and luxurious harmonies, the one “Your Love Is Stranger Than Mine” ought to have made Camel Prime of the Pops fodder.
Inexplicably, that didn’t occur, but it surely wasn’t for lack of pop potential. “Wait” provides a bit rock muscle to the menu, together with a pulsing tempo, one other insanely catchy refrain, and a few gut-busting synth solos. It’s simple to think about an alternate universe the place it discovered a pleasant residence on American radio alongside the likes of 10cc and Supertramp.
“Remote Romance” reveals that Camel hadn’t been oblivious to latest rock developments, bringing a little bit of New Wave/synth pop to the Camel desk for the primary time. It’s sequencers and vocoders a-go-go, because the prog pioneers come off extra like Kraftwerk than King Crimson, with some technophile lyrics thrown in for good measure. What might have been a catastrophe in lesser palms finally ends up eminently endearing.
Talking of 10cc, the ethereal harmonies and heartbeat rhythm of “Today’s Goodbye” from The Single Issue bear an eerie echo of that outfit’s “I’m Not in Love.” The album leaned even additional into pop territory than I Can See Your Home from Right here. Listening in the present day, it’s tempting to as soon as once more think about that aforementioned alternate realm the place adoring throngs sway with arms aloft whereas Camel fills a late 70s stadium.
The Quirky Cuts
(Down on the Farm, Metrognome)
Camel all the time had their offbeat facet – it was just about a prerequisite for a British prog band of their classic. And that side was amplified within the late 70s when Richard Sinclair entered the lineup. Sinclair wrote and sang “Down on the Farm” from 1978’s Breathless. At first it fakes you out, with an intro that leads you to count on an enormous, flashy rocker. However the observe shortly shifts gears, sounding extra like one thing from Sinclair’s former band, Caravan, with all of the Canterbury quirkiness that means. Sinclair’s agreeably plummy vocal type makes you’re feeling such as you’re starting a P.G. Wodehouse audiobook. His ode to farm life is curiously urbane-sounding, however comes full with animal noises.
Sinclair can also be up entrance for Rain Dances’ “Metrognome.” Although it was written by Bardens and Latimer, Sinclair’s amiably arch singing lends simply the appropriate contact of Monty Python to the vocal sections, whereas the alternating prog bits pop as much as remind us that even at their most eccentric, Camel might all the time play like no person’s enterprise.
Order the in depth Camel better of assortment Air Born – The MCA & Decca Years 1973 – 1984 now.
