Arabian Nights

When it was released in 1975, Scheherazade And Other Stories divided critics with its sprawling title track and concept. As Renaissance’s unusual sixth album heads towards its 50th anniversary, it’s been lovingly remastered, expanded and reissued via Esoteric. Longstanding vocalist Annie Haslam recalls the story of its inspired creation.

Mike Barnes

“It sounds weird, but when I sang it I felt like I was going somewhere else.” In 1974, Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman, the DJ who had been more readily associated with the Sunday tea-time chart rundown on Radio 1, showed his true prog colours on his Saturday afternoon show. He played blasts of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus to herald a track by “the very royal ELP”, and then championed Camel’s The Snow Goose, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s 10-minute version of Bob Dylan’s Father Of Night, Father Of Day from Solar Fire, and another mini-epic: Mother Russia by Renaissance, from their album A Turn Of The Cards that had been released that May. The song, written by guitarist Michael Dunford and lyricist Betty Thatcher, was based on Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s novel One Day In…

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Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 129

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