Danger Money is U.K.’s second studio album.
The original line-up of the Supergroup U.K. broke up over musical differences shortly after the release of their debut album in 1978. Drummer Bill Bruford and guitarist Allan Holdsworth wanted to make jazzier music, while keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson and bassist/vocalist John Wetton preferred a more rock-oriented approach. As the band’s main composers, Jobson and Wetton came out victorious and Bruford and Holdsworth left the band.
With Bruford and Holdsworth moving to other pastures (to work on Bruford’s One Of A Kind album), Jobson and Wetton were faced with the difficult task of finding replacements for these master musicians.
Terry Bozzio, who played in Frank Zappa’s band at the same time as Jobson, was eventually recruited to play drums. Bozzio was a heavier drummer than Bruford, especially at that time, and although he was a technically very skilled player, his performances on Danger Money are not as personal and interesting as Bruford’s. However, if comparisons with Bruford are left aside, Bozzio’s playing on Danger Money is a powerful piece of work.
What about the guitarist? A virtuoso and extremely original guitarist, Holdworth was a difficult act to replace. The guitarist’s role was offered to Jethro Tull’s ( U.K. had just recently played as Tull’s opening act on tour) long-time guitarist Martin Barre. Barre, who had been little bored with his day job, considered the offer very seriously. In the end he was flattered to be asked but concluded that he had no necessary skills to fill the enourmous gap left by Holdsworth. Despite Jobson and Wetton assuring him that they were looking for a completely new take on the guitar. On the other hand, more Holdsworth-like guitarists were also being considered as young Eric Johnson and Steve Vai also auditioned. In the end, U.K. decided to continue as a trio. Jobson would have to work hard on keyboards and violins to fill the gap left by Holdsworth and that suited him very well.
Danger Money has a heavier and rockier overall feel than the debut. The jazz-rock influences have been largely shunned in favour of a more ”symphonic” feel that strongly hints at the core of 70s progressive rock. At times, it feels as if U.K. is outright trying to pick up the Emerson Lake & Palmer mantle with Danger Money, which was squandered the previous year with the band’s disastrous Love Beach album. Danger Money seems to say: ”Do you miss the virtuosic keyboard prog of ELP’s golden age seasoned with catchy melodies? Here it is!” On the other hand, like the debut album, Danger Money still contains echoes of Red-era King Crimson. The combination of ELP and Crimson is not so surprising in the end: Jobson was a big fan of Keith Emerson and Wetton of course played a key role in King Crimson from 1973-1974.
Where U.K.’s debut album from a year earlier sounded futuristically cold, Danger Money’s sound is warmer and more retro. Jobson plays more Hammond organs alongside the Yamaha CS80 synthesizer that was one of the trademarks of the previous album (and is still very much there), resulting in a much thicker and richer soundscape to fill the void left by Holdworth.
The highlight of Danger Money is its title track ”Carrying No Cross”. The epic 12-minute ”Carrying No Cross” progresses and evolves throughout its duration with satisfying ease and, for all its symphonic nature, feels like a kind of swan song for 70s classic progressive rock. ”Carrying No Cross” is the U.K.’s ”Starless”. ”Carrying No Cross’ has something of the same majestic gravity and sense of finality as that King Crimson masterpiece that closed the 70s. ”Carrying No Cross” describes Danger Money’s music in general in the sense that it is at once very sophisticated and complex, but always easy to listen to. The complexity of Jobson’s compositions is well illustrated by the fact that Trey Gunn, who played in King Crimson and toured with U.K. in the 2000s, said he found playing them considerably more challenging than playing Crimson’s music.
On the other hand, in addition to Jobson’s sophisticated compositions, Danger Money also gives us a taste of John Wetton’s future as the bassist’s mostly self-composed track ”Nothing To Lose” already more or less reeks of his 80s AOR supergroup Asia.
”Nothing To Lose” is a good song, but doesn’t really represent the style I would have wanted U.K. to follow in the future. Jobson apparently agreed, as the Danger Money tour (which resulted in the excellent Night After Night album) wrapped up the band. There were plans for a third studio album, but Wetton’s and Jobson’s interests began to diverge and the label no longer really wanted more U.K. music, as neither album had been able to live up to the sales expectations in the new musical climate.
Read also: King Crimson: Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (1973)
Jobson talked about a return of U.K. with a new studio album in the late 90’s and the album was almost finished with a Bulgarian female choir, Bill Bruford, Tony Levin and Steve Hackett, but for one reason or another the album was never finished. In the 2000’s U.K. returned with Jobson and Wetton to tour again. Having played some great gigs (I saw one myself in Amsterdam in 2014), U.K. performed with varying line-ups. Danger Money’s trio played together for a while, but also saw and heard virtuosos like Marco Minneman, Virgil Dunati and Gary Husband on drums. The guitarists role was usually filled by Austrian virtuoso Alex Machacek. Machacek also played on Jobson’s 2009 studio EP Radiation, released under the U.K. name UKZ. Sadly the only UKZ release, however, Radiation didn’t sound much like U.K., its music being more of an interesting mix of 21st century King Crimson and Nine Inch Nails.
Danger Money was a stylistic step into more traditional progressive rock from U.K., which nevertheless succeeded surprisingly well despite the new trio format thanks to their strong songwriting and great playing. It’s a shame U.K. didn’t continue as it would have been interesting to see how the band would have coped in the increasingly commercialised musical climate of the 80s. At best, U.K. could have been an interesting challenger to another trio that successfully played progressive pop in the 80s, the Canadian Rush.
Best tracks: ”Rendezvous 6:02”, ”The Only Thing She Needs”, ”Carrying No Cross”
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI
Tracks
- ”Danger Money” 8:12
- ”Rendezvous 6:02” 5:00
- ”The Only Thing She Needs” 7:53
- ”Caesar’s Palace Blues” 4:42
- ”Nothing to Lose” 3:57
- ”Carrying No Cross” 12:20
U.K.
Eddie Jobson: keyboards, electric violin John Wetton: bass guitar, vocals Terry Bozzio: drums, percussion
Producers: Eddie Jobson ja John Wetton
Label E.G. / Polydor Records
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