Album review: VARIOUS ARTISTS – Beyond The Pale Horizon, The British Progressive Sounds of 1972 (3 CD Boxset)

Cherry Red [Release date 28.05.21]

Respected music critics have often expressed the opinion that Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry never wrote a better set of lyrics than he did for ‘Virginia Plain’, the band’s first hit single. Medium.com’s Phil Adams described it as a “kaleidoscopic imagery assault”. It is from the lyrics of this song that Beyond The Pale Horizon takes its title.

This was 1972. All 75 tracks in this sumptious, 4 hour, 3 CD package are taken from that very same year (the title is a bit of a giveaway).

When you live through an era, you don’t realise its significance at the time. It takes time to gain perspective. OK, stating the obvious. But even now, nearly 50 years on, it’s hard to believe that one particular year in the seventies was filled with such good stuff.

Many of these songs charted. That perspective also illustrates the open minded tastes of the Great British record buying public back then. From Van Der Graaf Generator’s cutting edge prog rock ‘Theme One’ to Mott The Hoople’s careering pop song, ‘Honaloochie Boogie’. From ’10538 Overture’ (The Jeff Lyne/Roy Wood song that kicked started ELO), to the pure, unashamedly chart aimed pop of White Plains’ ‘Beachcomber’. And that’s only scratching the surface.

Who would have believed that Argent’s massive hit, ‘Hold Your Head Up’, and Hawkwind’s Prog pop masterpiece,’Silver Machine’, would have eventually labelled these bands as “one hit wonders”.

Naturally there are many bands here who were or became household names…The Strawbs, The Move, The Moody Blues, Nazareth, Thin Lizzy, Lindisfarne, Free, Yes, and of course, Roxy Music, and more.

And there are many who flew under the radar, loved by their own hardcore fans, without breaking through… Byzantium, Open Road, Second Hand, Nimbo, and others. And who could forget the delightfully named Rocky Cabbage, Clown, and Grobbert & Duff?

Maybe calling all of this material Progressive Pop is a bit of a stretch. But in listening through the 3 CDs, the sheer artistry of many of these bands, and their ambition to create something more than just a “pop song” is perhaps what made 1972 that little bit special. ****

review by Brian McGowan

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