Music Banter - View Single Post - I know what I like: Trollheart's History of Progressive Rock and Progressive Metal

Trollheart · 11-21-2019, 02:18 PM

Time to leave 1969 and make our way back to 1970, where we’ll look into the first selection of albums from artists who were doing their own thing, marching to their own drum, working outside, perhaps, the mainstream of prog rock as it was becoming, or were just, you know, different. In other words, time to head back

Album title: Quill
Artist: Quill
Nationality: American
Label: Cotillion
Chronology: Debut and only
Grade: C
Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Tracklisting: Thumbnail Screwdriver/Tube Exuding/They Live the Life/BBY/Yellow Butterfly/Too Late/Shrieking Finally
Comments: I spoke about Quill pretty extensively in the “bands that broke up this year” section earlier, and I don’t have much to add to that really, as that was my first encounter with one of the few American prog bands around at this time. This was their only album, and while it’s said to have attained cult status in recent years, personally I’ve never heard of it. Starts off with a lot of weird sounds, then kind of falls into a blues/psyche groove, maybe Free or Bad Company or something, perhaps ghostly touches of VDGG leaking through but hardly progressive rock to my ears anyway. Certainly a decent song and I could see it going down well live, then “Tube Exuding” (um, yeah) rides on a fluid little bass and organ line, and this does at least have some nice proggy Hammond work. A whole lot better, from my point of view anyway. “They Live the Life” has a very Beatles feel, sort of slow-marching rhythm, with a stilted vocal, a thick bass line and what sounds like trumpet?

It’s over nine minutes long, which may be a little excessive for a track of this nature, but we’ll see. Kind of a tribal thing going on now in the middle, chants and drumming, now the drums take the tune solo. Pretty effective really. Getting faster now and turning into something of a drum solo, attendant voices coming in and fading out, then it’s a kind of blues/boogie/psych-out for “BBY” with a strong brass flavour. Some pretty good guitar work, and on into “Yellow Butterfly”, which seems to be a pastoral little ballad, with tinkling bells, piano and what may be sitar. The vocal here is really nice, almost floating along the melody. Very close to an embryonic “Man Who Sold the World” on the guitar riff here, hidden away. Sort of a country feel to “Too Late”, one of the better tracks really with some fine upbeat piano, reminds me a little of Creedence. The album ends then on “Shrieking Finally”, which opens with a joint acapella intro and then jumps into a striding blues-style tune.

Favourite track(s): Tube Exuding, They Live the Life, Yellow Butterfly, Too Late
Least favourite track(s): BBY
Overall impression: Again, apart from the odd Hammond touches and perhaps the idea of using percussion and chanting in an original or at least different way, I don’t see this really as prog rock of any stripe. Probably belongs in this section all right. I can see why Quill faded, though that seems to have been due to a combination of missed chances and minimal marketing. But they seem like a band who were still pretty rooted in the sixties, who might have been desperately trying to break into and embrace the sound of the seventies, but were unwilling to leave their old influences behind. Some bands, of course, managed for a time to merge the two, many of whom became big in the Canterbury scene, but overall I think if you wanted to be a prog band in the seventies you had to look forward, and while Quill may have had one eye on the future the other was looking back, which I think caused them to stumble, miss the exit, bus left without them - whatever metaphor you wish to use. Essentially, they got left behind and the seventies moved on without them. They both appear to have done all right though.

Personal Rating:

11-21-2019, 02:18 PM	#181 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,971	Time to leave 1969 and make our way back to 1970, where we’ll look into the first selection of albums from artists who were doing their own thing, marching to their own drum, working outside, perhaps, the mainstream of prog rock as it was becoming, or were just, you know, different. In other words, time to head back Album title: Quill Artist: Quill Nationality: American Label: Cotillion Chronology: Debut and only Grade: C Previous Experience of this Artist: Zero The Trollheart Factor: 0 Tracklisting: Thumbnail Screwdriver/Tube Exuding/They Live the Life/BBY/Yellow Butterfly/Too Late/Shrieking Finally Comments: I spoke about Quill pretty extensively in the “bands that broke up this year” section earlier, and I don’t have much to add to that really, as that was my first encounter with one of the few American prog bands around at this time. This was their only album, and while it’s said to have attained cult status in recent years, personally I’ve never heard of it. Starts off with a lot of weird sounds, then kind of falls into a blues/psyche groove, maybe Free or Bad Company or something, perhaps ghostly touches of VDGG leaking through but hardly progressive rock to my ears anyway. Certainly a decent song and I could see it going down well live, then “Tube Exuding” (um, yeah) rides on a fluid little bass and organ line, and this does at least have some nice proggy Hammond work. A whole lot better, from my point of view anyway. “They Live the Life” has a very Beatles feel, sort of slow-marching rhythm, with a stilted vocal, a thick bass line and what sounds like trumpet? It’s over nine minutes long, which may be a little excessive for a track of this nature, but we’ll see. Kind of a tribal thing going on now in the middle, chants and drumming, now the drums take the tune solo. Pretty effective really. Getting faster now and turning into something of a drum solo, attendant voices coming in and fading out, then it’s a kind of blues/boogie/psych-out for “BBY” with a strong brass flavour. Some pretty good guitar work, and on into “Yellow Butterfly”, which seems to be a pastoral little ballad, with tinkling bells, piano and what may be sitar. The vocal here is really nice, almost floating along the melody. Very close to an embryonic “Man Who Sold the World” on the guitar riff here, hidden away. Sort of a country feel to “Too Late”, one of the better tracks really with some fine upbeat piano, reminds me a little of Creedence. The album ends then on “Shrieking Finally”, which opens with a joint acapella intro and then jumps into a striding blues-style tune. Favourite track(s): Tube Exuding, They Live the Life, Yellow Butterfly, Too Late Least favourite track(s): BBY Overall impression: Again, apart from the odd Hammond touches and perhaps the idea of using percussion and chanting in an original or at least different way, I don’t see this really as prog rock of any stripe. Probably belongs in this section all right. I can see why Quill faded, though that seems to have been due to a combination of missed chances and minimal marketing. But they seem like a band who were still pretty rooted in the sixties, who might have been desperately trying to break into and embrace the sound of the seventies, but were unwilling to leave their old influences behind. Some bands, of course, managed for a time to merge the two, many of whom became big in the Canterbury scene, but overall I think if you wanted to be a prog band in the seventies you had to look forward, and while Quill may have had one eye on the future the other was looking back, which I think caused them to stumble, miss the exit, bus left without them - whatever metaphor you wish to use. Essentially, they got left behind and the seventies moved on without them. They both appear to have done all right though. Personal Rating: __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 10-21-2020 at 12:06 PM.