Lies To Live By (1974)
Lies To Live By was one of my earliest discoveries of non-English progressive rock. Found the LP at one of the Dallas record shows while still in college (likely the summer since I was in Lubbock otherwise, and I had intern earnings to spend). For whatever reason I have yet to document the album in any forum, so best to get on that.
I wasn't sure what to make of the music back in '86. It wasn't immediately likeable, at least for my tastes then. There was one exception, which I'll cover below. A couple of years later I traded it for something more to my liking, only to obtain it again (brand new as it turns out) in a collection buy in 1994. By then I had secured the CD, and wheeled and dealed a sweet return that I'm sure I still have today (did that a lot from '94-'96). A few years ago I paid handsomely for a super nice original, and that will be its resting place.
Today I hear the album as a bonafide progressive rock classic, so what was the original problem? For one, it does take a bit to get going. A1 and A3 are more in the folk rock vein, though A2 certainly introduces proggy concepts. Today I hear all three as excellent, as they are all subtlety progressive. It isn't until 'War Story' that The Spirit of Christmas gets into The Spirit of Progressive Rock. The way the track is structured, and the mellotron use, recalls the great Kestrel. The latter a band I wouldn't know for some years later. Not sure my brain was around any kind of AOR concepts at that time.
The major exception to my initial ennui was 'Factory'. This is Rush before Rush was Rush. Make sense? That is to say, what Rush became in the late 70s, not how they started. A mixture of hard rock and prog, the track moves in multiple directions with some dynamite guitar and tricky rhythms. A whole album in this style would have likely been labeled an all-time classic by just about everyone. Unfortunately it was the only highlight for me at the time, likely due to its heaviness.
This takes us to the 11:30 minute closer, for which I was expecting an epic closer. And didn't get it. From a flow perspective they probably should have flipped the two B-side songs for a stronger ending. I was younger and more impatient at age 21, so it wasn't what I was hoping. Today, knowing full well the contents throughout, I find it an excellent way to go out. It's more English sounding than North American, and demonstrates the maturity the band possessed at that time. And that was the end of the various incarnations of Christmas. Band leader Bob Bryden went in various directions after this, which he's taken the time to well document.
1974 Daffodil (LP). Gatefold. Reacquired in 2022. First acquired in 1986.
1990 The Laser's Edge (CD). Includes an insert with historical liner notes and lyrics.
1986; 1995; 11/29/17; 2/23/26 (review)
Once owned both Christmas and Heritage. They were boots and I long sold them off. Need to revisit both at some point.
2/23/26 (new entry)
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