087: Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning (1973)
“Well, sometimes you think, we should've been bigger than we were, because we were so unique. We haven't got anybody to blame except ourselves.”
—Annie Haslam
Renaissance formed in 1969 as the classical-folk-rock brainchild of two former Yardbirds, turned over its entire lineup by its third album, and spent the bulk of the 1970s churning out a brand of prog rock that brought them a devoted cult following but nothing like the commercial success of peers like Yes, Genesis, or ELP. This cult following, however, includes John, who has loved their 1973 album Ashes are Burning for over 20 years and successfully roped Amanda, Mike, and Phil into letting him wax rhapsodic about it and about the angelic vocal gifts of Annie Haslam. Join us as we cover an album and band that may borrow extensively from other prog rock bands (when they’re not borrowing from classical composers of all eras) but that still carved out its own unique identity and created some of John’s very favorite music.
Miscellany
The band history section, in which John had to give an explanation of how Renaissance turned over its entire performing lineup in a pretty brief period of time, actually left out a lot of detail from the period between Illusion and Prologue. Favorite additional details: John Wetton (later of King Crimson and Asia fame) played bass for them from summer 1971 to early 1972; Terry Slade and Anne-Marie Cullom got married and Anne-Marie then left the music industry.
This album has two album covers, which are essentially the same but different in a way that made us crack up. Both album covers feature Annie Haslam and Jon Camp, but where the UK cover has them looking happy, the US cover has them looking angry. Maybe the record executives thought that would help it sell better.
Mike went and listened to the title track on headphones after recording, and determined that Annie Haslam isn’t double-tracked after all, but her dry vocal is panned to one side and all the reverb is on the other, and the delay between them makes it sound like there’s two of her. (She totally could have sung it the same way twice if she’d wanted to, though.)
Ashes Are Burning was produced and engineered by Dick Plant, who went on to engineer the albums On the Third Day, Eldorado, and A New World Record by the Electric Light Orchestra. That explains why it sounds so good.
Regarding the subject of “The Sunken Cathedral,” the specific inspiration for the piece (or at least as specific as Debussy used for any of his preludes) was a myth concerning an underwater cathedral, located off the coast of the island of Ys, which would periodically rise from the sea on clear days.
Peter Sinfield wrote the lyrics for King Crimson’s song “Islands,” which includes the line “Islands join hands.” This line bothers Amanda deeply and she’s been yelling at her cohosts for years that ISLANDS DON’T HAVE HANDS.
Maurice Jarre is the father of Jean-Michel Jarre, whom we talked about in our first Pure Moods episode.
Other links
List of Renaissance Members (Wikipedia)
Discord & Rhyme Roll Call
John McFerrin (host)
Mike DeFabio (moderator)
Amanda Rodgers
Phil Maddox
Ashes Are Burning tracklist
Can You Understand?
Let It Grow
On the Frontier
Carpet of the Sun
At the Harbour
Ashes Are Burning
Other clips used
Renaissance:
Prologue
Island
Carpet of the Sun (early demo with Jane Relf)
Sounds of the Sea
Ashes Are Burning (live at Carnegie Hall)
Others:
John Dowland - Mr. Knights Galliard
Focus - Hocus Pocus
Genesis - Firth of Fifth
Maurice Jarre - Tonya and Yuri Arrive at Varykino
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
The Moody Blues - Higher and Higher
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Take a Pebble
Tortoise - Prepare Your Coffin
Noreaga - Blood Money, Pt.3
Green City - Dope Game
Donnie Darko - Intro
Lil Bibby - If You Knew
Yes - Heart of the Sunrise
King Crimson - I Talk to the Wind
Patricia Taxxon - Kissing Ancaps
Shoot - On the Frontier
Joni Mitchell - Big Yellow Taxi
The Fifth Dimension - Up, Up and Away
Johann Sebastian Bach - Fugue in D Minor (BWV 565)
Ulver - It Is Not Sound
Howard Shore - The Sacrifice of Faramir / The Edge of Night
The Decemberists - Eli, the Barrow Boy
Sandy Denny - Late November
Nick Drake - At the Chime of a City Clock
Glue - Goodbye
The Alchemist - Acts of Violence
Eddie B- Heavy Bars
Steeleye Span - Seven Hundred Elves
iamthemorning - 5/4
Fairport Convention - Tam Lin
Genesis - Counting Out Time
Band/album personnel
Annie Haslam - lead and backing vocals
John Tout - keyboards, backing vocals
Jon (John) Camp - bass, electric and acoustic guitars, co-lead vocals on “On the Frontier,” backing vocals
Terrence Sullivan - drums, backing vocals, percussion
MIchael Dunford - acoustic guitar
Andy Powell - electric guitar solo on “Ashes Are Burning”
Richard Hewson - string arrangements on “Can You Understand?” and “Carpet of the Sun”
Credits
“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning (this episode only)
You can buy or stream Ashes Are Burning and other albums by Renaissance at your local record store, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Twitter @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and be ever wonderful.