We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
Concept albums are a mixed bag. When they work (The Wall, 2112, The Who-Sell Out) they can be excellent…when they don’t work they will sound pretentious and dull. Let’s say that “Grave New World”, the 1972 LP from the Strawbs falls somewhere in between.
It’s a clearly English LP delivered by some talented dudes that purports to musically follow a mans life from birth to death.
The prog stuff like ‘Benedictus”, “New World” and especially “Tomorrow” works pretty well. Guitarist Dave Cousins gives us some acoustic English folkie stuff and the band even reverses the tapes on the pyschedelic “Queen of Dreams”.
This is the first Lp post Rick Wakeman and features Blue Weaver on keyboards. He would later join the Bee Gees during their mid to late 70’s run.
How you like Prog-Rock will color the appeal of this for you. Since concept albums should be listened to in order…here is the LP in one file….
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