Several years ago, long time Rick Wakeman friend and admirer Dan Wooding asked Rick if he could not help him out financing his ministry. Wooding being the journalist who gave Rick his very first interview ever and who also wrote his wonderful biography The Caped Crusader. Wooding left The Sunday People and England to live in America with his wife and two sons. In California he set up “The Assist Ministries” and in order to spread the good word asked Rick to step in and help out. That’s where the idea to start Hope Records came about. With Rick’s daughter Jemma creating the logo, Hope was destined for the Assist people first and not so much for the Wakeman fan, hence the fact that the albums were only available through Assist. This has now changed as Voiceprint has taken over the entire label, although some of the titles, if not all, are unavailable in the UK. Simply Acoustic is a live album recorded at the Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California. With 8000 people showing up and only 3500 seats available, plus the fact that there wasn’t a huge PA, as Rick would only perform on a grand piano that evening, meant the whole concert was also filmed and transmitted to an adjoining gymnasium. What you get here is a combination of Wakeman the classical pianist and Wakeman the entertainer, as in between songs he tells a lot of funny stories. In a way these stories are nice … if you hear them for the very first time, but they tend to become a nuisance once you play this album for the upteenth time. What should be done with this kind of recording is to edit every single track. That way you could chose what you want to hear: all of the album, just the jokes or just the music [As they did for Return… -ed.]. I remember telling Rick it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to release an album containing some of his best known sessions, thus including “Morning Has Broken” and “Space Oddity." To be honest, I was referring to the original Cat Stevens and David Bowie takes which Rick said would be impossible to do because of copyright reasons. However on this album he has managed to work his way around that problem by including instrumental versions of these classics. Whose a clever boy then? The first track on the album is a track called “A Glimpse Of Heaven” which was originally written by Dave Cousins of Strawbs fame. It is well known that the main reason for Rick joining the Strawbs in the first place was because the band had landed some dates in Paris. And, as Rick was about to get married (for the first time!), he thought a trip to Paris would be the ideal wedding present. It was during those dates that the band performed in a circus whilst the presenter was none other than Salvador Dali. Rick, who knew absolutely nothing about the artworld, pushed Dali from the stage, which resulted in Strawbs being banned from the festival! Contained on Simply Acoustic are songs that either started out on piano or adapt themselves ideally for a treatment on piano. Just listen and marvel at the beauty and fragile nature of “Catherine Howard,” where Rick incorporates kind of a boogie-woogie section that gets close to the black/white movies of the thirties (and even adding a snippet of “Rudolph The Rednose Reindeer”). Apparently where “Morning Has Broken” is concerned, all Cat Stevens had was a hymn which lasted around 45 seconds. Producer Paul Samwell-Smith told him he could never put something like that on an album, that it needed at least to be 3 minutes in length. Prior to the actual recording Stevens heard Rick play something in the recording booth. It was a rough sketch of what would later become “Catherine Howard." Stevens told Rick he liked it and wanted something similar as the opening section, the closing section, and if possible why not as a middle section as well! Rick told him he couldn’t as it was his piece destined for a solo album, but Stevens twisted his arm and got him as far as adapting his own composition. In the beginning, Island records didn’t want to put it on the album let alone release it as a single. The first single off the album made the company a little bit of money so they released a second single. That one also made some money so in the end they pulled four singles from the album. Greedy as record companies are, they decided to also give “Morning Has Broken” the single treatment. It went straight to number one staying there for five consecutive weeks, turning Cat Stevens into a millionaire overnight. Wakeman got $12 for the session! As Paul Samwell-Smith would never credit a session musician on any of his work, the name of Rick Wakeman is nowhere to be found on “Morning Has Broken,” but the unique Wakeman talent is spread all over the arrangement, and as there is only one person on earth able to put his soul into this song -- the version on this album is next to stunning. To link with his Yes past Rick adapted “Wondrous Stories” for piano. One of the rare occasions when Yes got onto the acclaimed Top Of The Pops show, this little song sounds ever so gentle when performed only on piano, taking over for the high pitched vocals of Jon Anderson. Whilst Rick often chooses material from his early days as a solo performer, he also delves into some of his recent work here with a selection from his Heritage Suite album. In “St. Michael’s Isle” and “Chapel Hill” Wakeman becomes one with his piano as he tries to evoke the beauty of the Isle of Man, the island where he gained his second breath after a period of disasters. Another big mark in the life of Rick was his early friendship with a very young David Bowie. In fact, prior to his engagement with Yes, Bowie had asked him to become musical director of his Spiders From Mars group, but Rick was more interested in the symphonic rock structure that Yes was trying to deliver. In fact, Wakeman was the very first person other than Bowie himself to hear “Space Oddity." Bowie knew Rick was the only musician around who could play both the Moog synthesizer and the Mellotron, two brand new instruments at the time, and he needed some spacey sounds to go with the song, which by then he could only play on acoustic guitar. No spacey sounds here as the compositions are stripped to the bare necessity when “Space Oddity” is combined with “Life On Mars." During the short existence of Anderson, Wakeman, Bruford & Howe, a track was written called “The Meeting” which enabled Rick to say a little prayer to “the big boss up there who has given me the ability to perform the way I do." So in no way could a track like this be omitted from an Assist tour, hence the fact it is included here, sounding very solemn. With the Yes link being re-established here, Rick steps over from “The Meeting” into “And You And I”. After a hilarious story about being stopped by a policeman for a drink and drive offence, the music continues with a great rendition of “Merlin The Magician” from The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table. Rick tells the audience that he picked that long title because Billboard and Cashbox magazine always put the title in their top 100 and by using a large title would secure him of more exposure. In the end they referred to the album as being King Arthur! Simply Acoustic is a wonderful album, bringing to light the true identity of the man Rick Wakeman: a true comedian on stage but with a big heart deep within trying to bring solace by means of his unique playing. Reviewed by: John 'Bo Bo' Bollenberg |
