Review: Rick Wakeman – Criminal Record (1977)

Criminal Record is Rick Wakeman’s sixth solo album. Or his seventh, if you count the somewhat obscure release Piano Vibrations (1971), which features cover songs. Criminal Record is also known by the playful title Rick Wakeman’s Criminal Record.

Wakeman, a keyboard virtuoso who joined Yes in 1971,kicked off his solo career with a bang in 1973 with The Six Wives of Henry VIII. That album featured six wildly rocking prog instrumentals that didn’t seem to have a single second of downtime. Surprisingly, the album also became a huge success.

Wakeman’s subsequent moves took his music in a direction that was at once more epic, yet also (in part intentionally) more comical. Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, laden with choirs and orchestras, were at times rather clunky affairs, featuring dreadful vocal performances and not particularly tight band playing. These bloated albums, however, sold even better than Six Wives. Wakeman’s popularity began to decline after the mid-1970s, though, and the subsequent albums No Earthly Connection and the soundtrack album White Rock were more low-key releases simply because recording budgets had to be scaled back.

Despite his previous massive success, Wakeman’s financial situation was not entirely stable by 1977, because although he had earned a fortune, he had spent like a king. When Yes (which Wakeman had left in 1973) asked him to return to the band, the decision was not a difficult one, especially since he was very fond of Yes’s new music.

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Yes recorded their excellent Going For The One album with Wakeman while living in tax exile at Mountain Studio in Montreux, Switzerland. After the Going For The One sessions, Wakeman decided to stay at the same studio to work on his next solo album. He was joined by John Timperlay, who had recorded Going For The One, as well as Yes bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White, who ended up forming the rhythm section for three tracks on the album. Going For The One and Criminal Record are, especially in terms of their sound, something of sister albums. They share a similar airiness, and both albums, in a way, present a slightly stripped-down version of their creators’ sound. On the other hand, both also suffer from a sound that’s a bit too treble-heavy. The high frequencies on Criminal Record are at times ear-piercing.

Like most of Rick Wakeman’s albums, Criminal Record is also a concept album. And as is often the case, Wakeman’s concept here is quite loose. The songs on Criminal Record are supposed to deal with crime and criminality, but since the music is mostly quite upbeat and even cheerful (the album is 90% instrumental), it’s quite difficult to connect it to the theme. But maybe, for Wakeman, it’s a crime worth committing! And let’s admit that a few of the tracks work reasonably well in relation to the theme.

The album is stylistically divided into two parts. Side A features three lively instrumental tracks that Wakeman performs alongside Alan White and Chris Squire. Frank Ricotti also plays percussion here and there, but otherwise these three tracks are the closest Wakeman has come to an ELP-style keyboard trio.

The A-side of Criminal Record was deliberately conceived as a continuation of Six Wives, right down to the production methods. Up until then, most of Wakeman’s albums had been recorded with his keyboards added last, mixed in with the other tracks, but on Criminal Record, Wakeman recorded the keyboards first—in the style of Six Wives—and only then did he record everything else. Wakeman did the whole thing without a click track, which made it difficult for White and Squire to adapt to the slightly fluctuating tempos, but the duo rose to the challenge admirably, as by this point they had become a rhythm section that played together with almost telepathic seamlessness.

White and Squire bring rhythmic power and agility to the album—qualities sorely lacking on many of Wakeman’s earlier records. Wakeman gave the duo complete freedom to play their parts as they saw fit and wasn’t even present during the recordings. However, Squire and White don’t just blast away the whole time; in “Crime Of Passion,” for example, they come in like a sledgehammer only around the two-minute mark, letting Wakeman improvise on his keyboards beforehand.

”The drums and bass were recorded after the keyboards and they did such an excellent job that I wanted to redo some of the keyboards again and change a few things I’d played….but there were no tracks left and no money either.”

Rick Wakeman

The six-minute “Statue Of Justice,” which kicks off Side A with a bang, is like an updated version of the fast-paced yet compact instrumentals from Six Wives (though, of course, with the difference that there are no guitars at all this time). The song begins lightly and even playfully, led mainly by Wakeman’s piano, before building in intensity as the rhythm section joins in around the two-minute mark. The grandiose section that kicks in around the two-and-a-half-minute mark is absolutely magnificent.

The other two tracks on Side A, “Crime Of Passion” and “Chamber Of Horrors,” are solid songs as well and, like the first track, make effective use of Squire and White. However, the tracks on Side A lack a certain personality or particularly strong themes, because by the time the album ends, I’ve already sort of forgotten which track was which. All three are, in principle, really good songs, but they somehow take away a bit from each other’s impact.

The stylistically more eclectic B-side opens with the four-minute “Birdman of Alcatraz.” It’s a beautiful and soaring piece that features Wakeman playing alone on the piano. However, there’s nothing minimalist about the song, as Wakeman weaves so many “extra” embellishments into his runs. It would be easy to accuse him of overplaying, but Wakeman’s showmanship is, after all, truly entertaining to listen to. And amid the album’s otherwise rather grandiose-sounding music, the track serves as a welcome breather. “Birdman of Alcatraz” would, however, have benefited from more careful recording. As it is, the sound of the entire track is somewhat chaotic.

Of all the music on the album so far, “Birdman of Alcatraz” best captures its subject matter. It tells the story of Robert Stroud, a murderer who lived in the early 20th century and was fascinated by birds. Stroud became interested in birds by chance while in prison, and eventually he had a flock of hundreds of birds in his cell, which he cared for and studied until he was transferred to Alcatraz Island, where he was separated from his birds and ultimately lost his mind. The song “Birdman of Alcatraz” captures at least the lighter side of the story, even if it doesn’t quite succeed in bringing out its tragic aspects.

After Wakeman’s piano solo, the album moves on to its weakest track, the humorous “The Breathalyzer,” in which comedian Bill Oddie makes a cameo appearance, exaggeratedly imitating the singing style of old-school bluesmen. The lyrics, written by Wakeman, lament getting caught drunk behind the wheel and failing a breathalyzer test. Oddie’s vocal performance is actually quite impressive, but overall, the song—with its silly lyrics and deliberately corny synthesizer sounds—leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste on the album, and I wouldn’t have minded if it had been left out entirely.

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Wakeman had developed a taste for church organs during the Going For The One sessions, and he makes effective use of them in “Judas Iscariot,” the album’s closing track. The song features the same grand organ from St. Martin’s Church as the GFTO tracks “Parallels” and “Awaken.” The 12-minute epic “Judas Iscariot” is like a cantata for a wordless choir, church organ, piano, and synthesizers.

“Judas Iscariot” is definitely one of Wakeman’s best compositions. The development of the themes in the song is much more sophisticated and sustained than what Wakeman usually seems to have the patience for. The song unfolds magnificently and varies its themes naturally.

As one might expect from Wakeman, the song is also incredibly grandiose and dramatic, but this time not in a ridiculous or childish way—there’s something genuinely moving about it. “Judas Iscariot” is a majestic and powerful piece that conjures images of Gothic cathedrals arching against a menacing, gloomy sky and unforgivable sins.

Wakeman’s synthesizer sounds throughout the album are at times chosen with somewhat questionable taste, but on “Judas Iscariot” they are spot-on and work beautifully alongside the church organ, complementing one the other. The dialogue between the synthesizer and the organ is complemented here and there throughout the song by a beautifully arranged choir (arranged by Wakeman himself). Wakeman’s work on the organ is truly impressive. What a loss to the world of church music! In particular, the contrapuntal moment between the organ and the Moog synthesizer just before the nine-minute mark is a magnificent thing to hear.

It’s a shame that Wakeman hasn’t been able to create music as impressive as “Judas Iscariot” again in his career. In fact, the song is so good that it makes the rest of the material on Criminal Record—which is pleasant in its own right—look a bit lackluster by comparison. They simply aren’t in the same league.

Over the decades, Rick Wakeman has released nearly a hundred solo albums, the quality of which varies widely. Amid the terrible flops or one-off hodgepodge efforts, there are gems here and there. One of the brightest of these is Criminal Record, which I consider to be Rick Wakeman’s best solo album since The Six Wives of Henry VII.

Best tracks: ”Statue Of Justice”,”Chamber Of Horrors”, ”Birdman of Alcatraz”, ”Judas Iscariot” 

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI
Tracks
  1. Statue of Justice (6:20) 
  2. Crime of Passion (5:46) 
  3. Chamber of Horrors (6:40) 
  4. Birdman of Alcatraz (4:12) 
  5. The Breathalyser (3:51) 
  6. Judas Iscariot (12:15) 
Musicians

Rick Wakeman: Steinway grand piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Moog & PolyMoog synthesizers, organs (Hammond C3, Mander church organ), Birotron, harpsichord, electronic harpsichord, Hohner clavinet, RMI computer keyboard Chris Squire: bass guitar (1–3) Alan White: drums (1–3) Frank Ricotti: percussion Bill Oddie: vocals (5) Ars Læta Choir of Lausanne: choir Robert Mernoud: choir director

Producer: Rick Wakeman
Label: A&M

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