The Light is the debut album of Spock’s Beard.
Born in California in 1960 into a musical family, Neal Morse started playing the piano at the age of five and took up the guitar at the age of nine. In his early twenties, Morse wrote two musicals and tried to make his way as a singer-songwriter in the Los Angeles music scene. Things didn’t really take off, however, and for ten years Morse was stuck playing in small clubs in the city in various bands, all of which sooner or later proved to be dead ends.
Morse’s breakthrough into mainstream music was waiting in the wings and, frustrated, he formed a band with his brother, guitarist Alan Morse, as a therapy project to play the favourite music of his youth. Progressive rock. The band, called Spock’s Beard, was formed in 1992 and the original line-up included the Morse brothers, drummer Nick D’Virgilio (b. 1968) and bassist John Ballard. During the demo phase of their debut album, Ballard was replaced by Dave Meros (1956) who still plays with the band today.
Spock’s Beard was sort of a phrase that we’d say to each other, my brother and I, when something weird would happen. We’d say, ”Wow, that’s like Spock’s Beard”, meaning, ”that only happens in a parallel universe, right?” Anyway, Spock only has that beard in the one episode, and it’s when he’s in the parallel universe in ”Mirror, Mirror”. So, that was just something we’d say to each other as an inside joke. I put Spock’s Beard on the list sort of as a joke. Everybody seemed to like it the best, and so we picked that one.
Alan Morse
Spock’s Beard’s debut album, The Light, is one of the most significant of the ”third wave” prog albums of the 90s. Along with The Flower Kings, which emerged around the same time, Spock’s Beard received a lot of attention in prog circles and raised the profile of the genre more widely, while creating the confidence that there could still be a demand for progressive rock.
Spock’s Beard’s music is clearly indebted to the legends of the 70s, but it is not retro in the same way as, say, Sweden’s Änglagård and Anekdoten. Spock’s Beard also brings in shades of 80s and 90s music and does not stick faithfully to vintage instruments like their Scandinavian counterparts mentioned above.
Especially on this debut, there is something very fresh and invigorating about Spock’s Beard’s approach. Prog is successfully combined with pop and hard rock tones, with melodies always taking centre stage instead of technical prowess, which the band members had more than enough of. Even though the members of Spock’s Beard did not have much to show for it at this stage, they were all relatively experienced musicians and not twenty-something beginners. Lead singer Neal Morse was 35 years old when the album was released and bassist Meros was in his forties. The band’s youngest, drummer D’Virgilio , was 27.
Although Spock’s Beard elevates catchy melodies and pop choruses to almost equal status with prog gimmicks on their debut, the band clearly had no real ambitions for a commercial breakthrough: the 60-minute album contains only four long songs. The album sounds pleasantly innocent. I don’t think Morse and co. at this stage believed that there would be any audience for the album, but recorded it more or less for their own amusement. Later on, the band’s music seemed more calculated and more strictly aimed at a specific prog audience.
Read also: Review: All Traps on Earth – A Drop of Light (2018)
The album’s opening 15-minute track ”The Light” is divided into nine parts that are tied together rather neatly, although stylistically they veer off in different directions. Although Spock’s Beard’s music doesn’t usually sound much like Genesis, ”The Light” is probably structurally inspired by that band’s legendary ”Supper’s Ready”. Spock’s Beard jumps from one section to the next as uninhibitedly as Genesis on that spectacle, but still manages to do the job surprisingly well. Of course, ”The Light” is not on the level of ”Supper’s Ready”, but it’s still a very successful large-scale song sequence.
Instead of Genesis, however, Spock’s Beard’s music sounds more like a combination of Yes melodicism and vocal harmonies, Kansas’ powerful rockiness and big choruses, and Gentle Giant’s little oddities. As well as prog bands, the band’s sound also includes Morse’s favourites from the more straightforward 60s/70s rock bands. Echoes of Chicago, Elton John and Steely Dan can be heard here and there. In the vocal melodies I often hear a strong influence of The Beatles.
”The Light” alternates, as is typical of prog, light and airy sections with more rocking and complex ones. Alan Morse’s delightfully noisy electric guitar and Neal Morse’s skilful keyboard playing fight for the instrumental lead role, although this is diluted by slightly too mushy and thin sounds. The next album saw the addition of another keyboard player, Roy Okumoto, to play Hammond and Mellotron, which improved the situation in this respect.
However, Neal Morse’s vocals take a more central role than guitars and keyboards. He is a competent vocalist with a pleasant, but not particularly interesting voice. However, Morse sings his material with enough passion and enough variety and playfulness in the variations of his voice that small shortcomings in originality or charisma do not become critical problems.
Among the more traditional proggy stuff, ”The Light” also has a few little surprises. Towards the end, there’s a fun Latin section (”I am senor Valasco I drink my milk with tabasco”) carried by Alan Morse’s deftly ornamented acoustic guitar and percussion reminiscent of Santana. From the light-hearted Latin section we move on surprisingly skilfully to the violently rocking ’The Return of the Horrible Catfish Man’, with Morse bellowing his head off. Finally, we jump straight into the opening melodic section, as if closing a circle. ”The Light” is a fun and entertaining mini-epic that has since become a trademark song for the band and can be heard at almost every gig they play.
The next track ”Go the Way You Go” lasts ”only” 12 minutes. It is not indexed into different sections like ”The Light”, but of course it also contains many very different types of sections. It is, however, a slightly more coherent case. In the first half of ”Go the Way You Go” the Gentle Giant influences are highlighted. Especially the rhythm and the electric piano sounds point in that direction. After the intro, the melodic section that follows is a bit dull and even after that the song continues to be a bit uneven. Funny and agile proggy sections alternate with slightly woody and generic stadium-scale choruses. However, Alan Morse’s guitar playing is a treat to listen to and D’Virgilio’s drumming also deserves praise. Unfortunately, Meros’ bass sound is a bit on the bland side on this track. Otherwise, Meros’ bass picking, reminiscent of Chris Squire, is often very tasty.
Read also:
- Vuosi vuodelta : Parhaat levyt 1999 – Sijat 1-10
- Viikon Teos 93: Dave Holland Trio – Triplicate (1988)
- Review: Brian Eno – Another Green World (1975)
- Levyarvio: Mike Oldfield – The Millennium Bell (1999)
- Review: Beat – Neon Heat Disease: Live In Los Angeles (2025)
- Viikon Teos 92: Sophie Day – Clémence (2020)
The third track ”The Water” is then like ”The Light” to the power of two. Clocking in at 23 minutes, ”The Water” is, like ”The Light”, a multi-part song sequence that jumps from one mood to another. Divided into seven parts, ’The Water’ is a rollercoaster of emotions. The song, and especially Morse’s vocals, alternate between arrogance, anger and regret. I’ve never really explored what the lyrics are really about, but apparently it’s some kind of coming-of-age story.
The most delicious section of the epic is the sweetly twitchy, yet groovy ”When It All Goes To Hell”. It chugs along, driven by Hammond growls and Alan Morse’s torturously buzzing electric guitar. In general, ”The Water” alternates melodic moments with very noisy and aggressive sections with such an upbeat pace that the song hardly ever gets boring, despite its inordinate duration. Like ”The Light”, ”The Water” also offers a surprise in the form of one very strange section. In the very confusing ”FU/I’m Sorry” section, Morse’s self-pitying lyrics focus on literally screaming at the audience to fuck off for several minutes. Surely Morse, who now swears by the name of Jesus, would never do anything like that again! And that’s part of the problem with Morse’s contemporary music, but let’s not go there…
Although ”The Water” remains surprisingly entertaining for the most part, it is still a bit too long. Especially the closing ”Reach For The Sky” section feels stretched. Although it’s nice to hear the Meros’ French horn in a small cameo role.
The final track is ”On The Edge”, which is miniature by the standards of this album. Lasting barely six minutes, ”On The Edge” is an effectively rocking prog that reminds me of Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Morse’s heavily effected vocals, bouncing here and there in stereo, bring psychedelic atmospheres. I have to admit, though, that I’m getting a bit fatigued at this point, and at 58 minutes long, the album could have used some pruning. One solution would have been to leave ”On The Edge” entirely in reserve and save it for the next album, but perhaps an even smarter solution would have been to condense each track a little.
By mainstream standards, The Light didn’t sell much, but released by the small Syn-Phonic Music label, it was enthusiastically received in the emerging prog scene after a long period of rock famine. This convinced the Spock’s Beard crew that the therapy project was worth pursuing. Spock’s Beard have since released some excellent albums, but none of them show quite the same carefree joy of creation as this excellent debut.
Best tracks: ”The Light”, ”The Water”
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI
Read also: Review: Jon Anderson – Change We Must (1994)
Tracks
- ”. The Light” 15:32
I. ”The Dream”
II. ”One Man”
III. ”Garden People”
IV. ”Looking Straight into the Light”
V. ”The Man in the Mountain”
VI. ”Señor Valasco’s Mystic Voodoo Love Dance”
VII. ”The Return of the Horrible Catfish Man”
VIII. ”The Dream” - ”Go the Way You Go” 12:07
- ”The Water” 23:10
I. ”Introduction/The Water”
II. ”When It All Goes to Hell”
III. ”A Thief in the Night”
IV. ”FU/I’m Sorry”
V. ”The Water (Revisited)”
VI. ”Runnin’ the Race”
VII. ”Reach for the Sky” - ”On the Edge” 6:14
Spock’s Beard:
Neal Morse: vocals, mellotron, hammond organ, other keyboards, acoustic guitar, electric guitar Alan Morse: electric guitar, cello, mellotron, backing vocals Dave Meros: bass guitar, French horn Nick D’Virgilio: drums, percussion, backing vocals
Guests:
Molly Pasutti: backing vocals (”The Water”) Wanda Houston: backing vocals (”The Water”)
Pienemmät Purot 
Jätä kommentti