Review: Jon Anderson – Change We Must (1994)

Change We Must is Jon Anderson’s seventh solo album.

Progressive rock-inclined bands started experimenting with combining a rock band and a symphony orchestra in the late 1960s. The results were mixed. Deep Purple’s Concerto For Group And Orchestra, for example, was an ambitious attempt, but the result was an embarrassing mess. On the other hand, the more subtle band and orchestra combinations of Camel (The Snow Goose) and Renaissance (Turn Of The Cards) worked reasonably well. Pink Floyd’s more avant-garde interpretation of the theme, the long title track from Atom Heart Mother (1970), also worked well. Occasional attempts to take the symphony orchestra on long tours were boldly attempted, but attempts by the likes of Emerson Lake & Palmer and Mike Oldfield to do so led to major commercial losses. By the late 1970s, the enthusiasm for symphonic experimentation waned as the musical climate changed and the recording budgets of progressive bands began to shrink. On the other hand, perhaps there was a weariness with the concept on the part of the musicians themselves. It was time to try something new. Or at least to survive in a brave new world where music videos and the image they created were more important than the musical content.

A completely different aspect of this combination of rock and classical music is the subsequent adaptation for orchestra of records originally played by rock bands. In the 1970s, there were only a few experiments in this sector, the most successful being The Orchestral Tubular Bells (1975) and especially the orchestral version of Oldfield’s second album Hergest Ridge, which unfortunately has never been released on disc. After the mid-1980s, these rock goes to classical tunes really began to take off. They were often backed by the same woman, Dee Palmer, formerly of Jethro Tull. Under her direction, the Jethro Tull-themed A Classic Case (1985), the Genesis-themed We Know What We Like (1987) and Symphonic Music Of Yes (1993) were produced. The most successful of the prog bands, Pink Floyd, was also ’honoured’ with Us And Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd (1995), Jaz Coleman’s interpretation of Floyd’s music, which was one step more successful than Palmer’s efforts, but remains mainly an interesting curiosity.

One of the worst entries was the aforementioned Symphonic Music Of Yes. Jon Anderson was also involved in that project, but in practice his contribution was only vocals on a few tracks and the arrangements were done by the aforementioned Palmer. I don’t know what Anderson thought of the end result, but I’d like to believe that he wasn’t happy and perhaps Change We Must is even his attempt to do better. And fortunately it’s not just an attempt; Change We Must is one of the most successful albums to combine rock instrumentation with classical music resources.

Read also:

I’m simplifying a bit, but I think the typical way to do orchestrated versions of rock songs is to have a big symphony orchestra playing the main melodic line of the song with all its might. This is not very interesting, nor is it where a symphony orchestra would be at its best. Ultimately, however, these projects fall into the tantalising thought that ”we should make this thing rock somehow”. The solution is almost always to add a drum kit to the side of the orchestra. However, it’s quite difficult to get a symphony orchestra to groove like a rock band, especially with the fast schedules these records are made on for cost reasons. This in turn seems to lead to the drummer having to straighten out his playing. Even a virtuoso like Bill Bruford, who is also a relatively orchestral drummer in style, sounded very stiff when he was made to accompany a symphony orchestra on Symphonic Music Of Yes. And when the drums are finally mixed quite superficially as a completely separate element from the orchestral orchestra, the end results are woeful to listen to.

For the most part, Anderson and his arrangers avoid these traps with Change We Must. With Anderson’s help, orchestrators Matt Clifford, Nick Ingram, Geoffrey Alexander and Tim Handley vary the arrangements from song to song, choosing the instrumentation that suits the song in question. Even within a single song, there can be refreshing variations in how the available resources are used.

Most of the 12 compositions on Change We Must are previously unreleased. Exceptions are the Jon & Vangelis songs ”State Of Independence” and Candle Song (originally called ”Anyone Can Light a Candle”), Yes’ ”Hearts”, John Adams’ version of ”Shaker Loops” and two songs ”Hurry Home” and ”Under The Sun” (originally called ”It’s On Fire” taken from Anderson’s solo album In The City Of Angels (1988). There are also two songs ”The Kiss” and ”Change We Must”, apparently written with Vangelis around the time of Page Of Life (1991), which were never released. The latter, however, was later released as a demo version on Page Of Life’s 1998 US edition.

The songs on Change We Must can be loosely classified into three different types: 1) symphony orchestra meets rock, 2) romantic chamber music and 3) piano driven instrumentals.

The songs in the symphony orchestra meets rock section are mostly what you’d expect from these orchestrated rock albums, but ”State of Independence”, ”Hearts”, ”Hurry Home”, ”Under The Sun” and ”Change We Must” are all more successful than average combinations of two (or in some cases more than two) different worlds. It is also worth noting that these songs are not blasted through with a large symphony orchestra either, but the rock instrumentation is backed by the London Chamber Orchestra, which I estimate to be around 20-30 strong.

The weakest moment of the whole album is ”Hearts”, originally heard on Yes’ 90125. Change We Must’s interpretation is not bad, but it drifts closer to the typical rock-meets-classical sector, bringing synthesizers, bass guitar and of course that damn drum kit to the fore alongside the orchestra. The relatively restrained choir that appears alongside Anderson raises the stakes a bit, but in the end ”Hearts” remains too similar to the original version. In itself, it is surprising that Anderson has chosen this song from the Yes repertoire as his version. Well, thank God it’s not ”Owner Of A Lonely Heart”! Now there’s a song that doesn’t need a symphony orchestra to support it. Trevor Horn proved this in a sad way with his flat version on Echoes: Ancient & Modern (2023).

The most successful of these symphonic rock songs is the title track ”Change We Must”. The song, sure to please Yes fans, builds towards the end with the orchestra and choir backed by Milton McDonald’s electric guitar and sounding like an appetizer for some of Magnification’s best tracks. This version is completely superior to the original version with Vangelis, which can only be heard on Page Of Life’s 1998 version. Much the same can be said of ”State Of Independence”, originally heard on The Friends of Mr. Cairo, which has since been covered by Donna Summer. Change We Must’s powerfully forward stomping interpretation with its gloriously humming drums mops the floor with both Summer’s version and the original.

Romantic chamber music is represented by the subtle songs ”The Kiss”, ”Chagall Duet” and ”Candle Song”. All three are excellent songs, but one of the most delightful moments on the album is ”Chagall Duet”. It’s a gentle floating ballad accompanied by strings, flute and harp, ”Chagall Duet”, which Anderson performs as a duet with the French opera soprano Sandrine Piau, who sings so beautifully. The funny thing about the combination is that Piau’s trained and highly skilled singing makes Anderson’s voice sound for once very down to earth and even conventional! Incidentally, it is worth noting at this point that Anderson sings superbly throughout the album. ”Chagall Duet” was originally composed for a musical Anderson wrote about the painter Marc Chagall. Anderson has been talking about the project since the early 80s and the dream is still not buried, as in 2023 the San Francisco Conservatory of Music held a public workshop on the project, apparently performing live some of the songs from the musical. Perhaps one day it will be heard in its entirety and even made into a record.

The third sector of the album is piano driven instrumentals. It includes three pieces composed by Anderson together with American pianist/composer David Tolley: ”Alive & Well”, ”Run On Jon”, ”A View from the Coppice”. Gwendolyn Mok plays the piano with virtuosic touch. ”In the arrangement of ”Alive & Well” the piano is accompanied by a beautiful chamber music arrangement with flutes and violins, but in the modernist ”Run On Jon” the piano dominates and is accompanied only by strings in a small role playing counter-melodies. ”A View From The Coppice” is somewhere between the two songs in terms of arrangement.

The rhythmically striking ”Run On Jon”, with its captivating kinetic energy, is a particularly compelling track. I’ve always wondered how ”Run On Jon” came about. As a composition, it seems very much out of Anderson’s comfort and skill zone. Not to belittle Anderson, but the fact is that he can’t play any instrument particularly well, he can’t write music in traditional notation, and I don’t think he mastered 90s midi/sequencer technology well enough to program a credible demo of this piano composition on his own. So how did it come about? Did Anderson hum the music to Tolley, who then painstakingly iteratively notated it and edited it into its final form? Probably, because Richie Castellano, frontman of The Band Geeks, revealed that their collaborative album True (2024) was largely created through this method. Anderson was reportedly able to very spontaneously come up with melodies that he hummed to Castellano for the final arrangements and was also reportedly very careful to ensure that the end result matched his original hum.

There is also one cover song that does not directly fit into any of the three categories described above. ”Shaker Loops” is Anderson’s interpretation of the first movement of a four-part composition of the same name by American composer John Adams (b. 1947). Written in 1978, the composition belongs to Adams’ minimalist period and Anderson’s interpretation is very interesting. Especially as he has added the vocals to what was originally an instrumental composition! The mystical lyrics, typical of Anderson, seem to describe a contact with extraterrestrial space aliens through crop circles. The spiralling, twisting vocals fit perfectly with the modernist soundscape of strings buzzing, alternately enigmatically and oppressively. A really interesting piece and it would have been great if Anderson had done a whole disc of modern art songs of this type.

Read also: Review: Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks – True (2024)

Probably made on a very substantial budget, the sound of the album is excellent. However, Change We Must, released by EMI, was not a great success and remains Anderson’s last solo album for a major label.

Change We Must contains music performed by several different line-ups across a wide range of genres, so you might think that the album would be fragmented as a listening experience, but in fact it’s a surprisingly smooth whole where the different styles complement and support each other.

For Jon Anderson, 1994 was a hugely productive year. March marked the release of the Yes album Talk, July saw the release of Deseo, a solo album flirting with Latin pop, and October culminated in Change We Must, a truly beautiful piece of music which, alongside Olias Of Sunhillow, is in my opinion Anderson’s most successful solo album and one of the best albums ever to combine rock instrumentation and symphony orchestra.

Best tracks: ”State Of Independence”, ”Shaker Loops”, ”Chagall Duet”, ”Run On Jon”, ”A View Trom The Coppice”, ”Hurry Home”, ”Change We Must”

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI

Tracks

  1. ”State Of Independence” Jon Anderson, Vangelis 5:37
  2. ”Shaker Loops” Anderson (sanoitukset), John Adams (musiikki) 5:31
  3. ”Hearts” Chris Squire, Anderson, Trevor Rabin 5:03
  4. ”Alive & Well” David Tolley, Anderson 4:43
  5. ”The Kiss” Anderson, Vangelis 3:51
  6. ”Chagall Duet” Anderson 3:31
  7. ”Run On, Jon” Tolley, Anderson 2:46
  8. ”Candle Song” Anderson, Vangelis 3:36
  9. ”A View From The Coppice” Tolley, Anderson 2:46
  10. ”Hurry Home” Anderson 6:52
  11. ”Under The Sun” Anderson 5:01
  12. ”Change We Must” Anderson, Vangelis 5:39

Musicians

Jon Anderson: vocals and orchestration Matt Clifford: keyboards, orchestration (7, 9) Opio Singers Choir: choir (1-3, 10, 12) Nick Ingram: orchestration (1, 4, 12) Ian Thomas: drums (3) Milton McDonald: guitar (3, 12) Steve Pearce: bass (3, 11, 12) Toby Alington: synthesizer (3) Gwendolyn Mok: piano (4, 7, 9) Geoffrey Alexander: orchestration (5, 6, 8, 10, 11) Sandrine Piau: vocals (6) Tim Handley: orchestration (7) Jade Anderson: vocals (8) Christopher Warren-Green, Rosie Furness, Roger Chase, Steve Trees, Jonathan Williams : string quartet (8) Skaila Kanga: harp (8) Nadya: Sun Chant (11)

Producer: Jon Anderson, Tim Handley
Label: EMI

Jätä kommentti

Website Built with WordPress.com.

Ylös ↑