For the
life of me I can’t remember how I learned about Renaissance. It was likely they
were mentioned in an article in Rolling Stone, which I subscribed to from the
mid-70s to around 2005, when I dropped it due to budget constraints.
I seem to
recall reading somewhere that their sound was almost medieval, a rock
combination of Jethro Tull and Gregorian chants (or something like that). I
checked my collection of back articles I cut out of Rolling Stone and reduced
on a copier to 8.5 x 11 and put in a binder and can find no articles about
them.
As a fan of
medieval history (23 – Year of the Cat) I thought they’d be worth a listen. In
the pre- iTunes days it was hard to get a sample of a group, especially one
with no airplay (at least not on any station I was listening to in the mid-80s).
You would
just go out and take a leap of faith and buy an album and hope it was
listenable. I found Leo Kottke this way (see What’s All This, Then?), buying an
album just because his name was mentioned in a Stereo Review article about Cat
Stevens. It didn’t even say what sort of music he performed; it just said Cat
listened to him.
Renaissance
has an interesting sound on most of the mid to late 70s albums (some of the
early albums have songs that run 9-10 minutes, which is a little too
self-indulgent for me) and Annie Haslam has a great voice, showcased especially
on “Northern Lights”.
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