Memories from music of my distant past . . .

I'm obliged to Grouchy Old Cripple for posting a video of the Dutch progressive rock group Focus on his blog on Sunday. It brought back many, many memories of my teenage years . . . sitting in a darkened lounge with my friends, listening to a very scratched and worn Focus album, trying to make sense of this new and seemingly freakish wave in music.

Nowadays, of course, Focus (and other groups of their ilk) are old hat, and seem very dated to modern youngsters: but they were the beginning, the very first to move beyond the rock-'n-roll boundaries of the '60's and the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the first to bring in outside influences such as classical music (particularly baroque and Renaissance tunes and instruments), using the voice to sing tones rather than words, even things like yodeling, to experiment and broaden their musical horizons. Focus was never a very successful group in the 'commercial' sense, but they had an enormous impact on those who came after them.

Here are a few of their tunes from YouTube. I've chosen a longer, in-concert version of their greatest hit, 'Hocus Pocus', to begin with, because it's precisely the version I had on LP as a teenager, and Thijs van Leer introduces the other band members on it. For those of you who don't know them, it's a good beginning. Manic stuff from Thijs van Leer, of course!





Next, another hit from their first album, 'Sylvia'. First, a brief video of Thijs van Leer talking about it: then, in the second video, the song itself.








Next, part of 'Eruption' from 'Focus II'. This is an extended version with free improvisation from band members. It gives a good idea of how willing Focus was to experiment with their music in those early years of progressive rock. This has both classical and jazz influences.





This is 'Anonymous II' from the album 'Focus III'.





How about something in a contemplative baroque vein? Focus' 'Elspeth of Nottingham', with photographs of Carravagio's art to lend the appropriate mood.





And finally, going back to Focus' early days, their 'Hamburger Concerto'. There isn't a complete video of this on YouTube, so I've had to use two videos to put it together. The first is itself a compilation of three different video segments, about 11 minutes long. The second is the finale, almost all of it, and is only two and a half minutes long. If you're pressed for time, watch the second video, then come back later for the first.








Ah . . . memories!

Peter