SCOTTS HIDDEN TREASURES 2012 #15 - Listen To The Wise Man

[Scott]

Listen to the Wise Man!

Easter gives me loads of options for a playlist full of tracks with spiritual meanings.  But it was easier said than done.   I had been thinking about this type of playlist for quite a while now and how to pull it off.  I had to create some self-imposed guidelines to do it well because I didn’t want to post a bunch of songs everyone knew or were cheesy or blasphemous to anyone, so I created some guidelines for myself...

 

• No Stairway to Heaven, Heaven and Hell, Heavens On Fire, Heaven (Warrant and Bryan Adams versions) or other wildly popular songs that you all are going to reply with.  We need to go deep on subjects like this.
• No Christian or Worship bands, sorry Stryper!

 

Interestingly enough there are several songs that are surface scratchers, but Progressive artists are willing to go tackle the topic and go deep. And so this week we are not doing any DID YOU KNOWS, instead I will try to figure out what the songs meaning is and relay that to you.

PLAYLIST VITALS...

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• LINK: http://snack.to/au3wuy05
• LENGTH: 32 minutes 12 seconds
• NOTE:  I have limited this week playlist to 4 tracks because I prefer to cap my play time around 30 minutes

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TITLE: The Prophet's Song
BAND: Queen
ALBUM: A Night At The Opera
YEAR: 1975
LENGTH: 8:20
WHAT IT MEANS: "The Prophet's Song" was composed by Brian May (working title "People of the Earth"). May explained that he wrote the song after a dream he'd had while he was recovering from being ill while recording the Sheer Heart Attack album, and is the source of some of the lyrics. He spent several days putting it together, and it includes a vocal canon sung by Mercury.  The dream May had was about The Great Flood, and lyrics have references from the Bible and the Noah's Ark account.

TITLE: Crossfire
BAND: Kansas
ALBUM: Vinyl Confessions
YEAR: 1982
LENGTH: 6:35
WHAT IT MEANS: Vinyl Confessions was a major turning point for the band. After the conversion of both guitarist/keyboard player Kerry Livgren and bass player Dave Hope to Christianity, and the focus that Livgren placed on his religion can be heard in the band's lyrics.  The album's closer, "Crossfire," made the album's position abundantly clear in its indirect reference to Jesus Christ ("the one who rose").

TITLE: Infinite Dreams
BAND: Iron Maiden
ALBUM: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
YEAR: 1988
LENGTH: 6:08
WHAT IT MEANS: The idea to base the album around the folklore concept of the Seventh son of a seventh son came to bassist Steve Harris after he read Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son. Harris states, "It was our seventh studio album and ... then I read the story of the seventh son, this mystical figure that was supposed to have all these paranormal gifts, like second sight.  The song is about how the character of the song sees disturbing visions about afterlife and other mystic things in his dreams, but is scared about if he will ever be able to wake up again.

TITLE: Xanadu
BAND: Rush
ALBUM: A Farewell To Kings
YEAR: 1977
LENGTH: 11:07
WHAT IT MEANS: In Peart's lyrics, the narrator describes searching for something called "Xanadu" (although it is not explicitly stated what this is, references to the poem "Kubla Khan" imply that it is a mythical place based on the historical summer capital of the Mongolian Empire) that will grant him immortality. The narrator finds Xanadu and attains immortality. A thousand years passes, and he is left "waiting for the world to end," bitter in the reality of his successful quest.

[Niels (Mod)]

Even though The Prophet's song is (imo) one of the weakest tracks on ANATO, it IS a great track. Freddie wrote the best songs, May's songs were very good, but not as good. You could allways hear, when it was a Freddie-song. Just like on the first 6-7 Iron Maiden-albums, you could hear when it was a Steve Harris-track. But "Prog-rock" it is!! Damn it, I want to hear "Love Of My Life" also.

I've just listened to "The Essential Kansas", but I didn't really think it was THAT good, and then I hear this track, and it's GREAT. It must be the fourth or fifth time I hear a great track from Kansas in SHT. It was YOU, Scott, who should had picked out the tracks for "The Essential Kansas". Well, maybe the tracks are there, and I wasn't in the mode for Kansas that day?!

And this is clearly a Harris-track, not one of his best, though. The last good IM-album in my book. They have made some good music since then, but not really a great album. Oh, and the album-cover is so much better than "Somewhere In Time", because it's an "original" idea from Derek Riggs, not "how the Killer's album-cover would look in a future-world" 

After seeing the picture of the album-cover to "Clockwork Angels", I have a feeling, that it's going to be a killer-album. I can't wait. So a little classic Rush-music is the way to pass some time, while waiting and waiting and...

[Scott]

Best review ever!!!  Thank you my friend!  Jon is the other fan of Vinyl Confessions on this site.

[Jon]

Prophet Song the weakest? C'mon Niels! Don't make me lose respect!

[Niels (Mod)]

On one of the maybe 3 best albums ever, that includes THE best track EVER, I don't think, it's a bad thing.

[Niels (Mod)]

I've just heard Vinyl Confessions, and I really like it. Now I have to go through all of the Kansas- albums one by one.

[Scott]

A Convert! 

[Jon]

I feel wiser just having listened to this. Not spiritual, just wiser. That's probably because I am eeeeevil.

Another rousing playlist Scott!

4/4

[RJhog (Admin)]

Four good songs here.  Nicely put together playlist.  I'm tryin' to decide which of these songs would be my favorite...I think I'll go with the Queen tune.  But all are good.  I'm in agreement with Niels also, that Kansas song is real good.  I just got this CD in the box set I just received, but I haven't spun it yet.

This is also at least the second good song I've heard from that Iron Maiden CD.  I want it too.  It's the only one above I don't own.

[Mike Mills]

Excellent Playlist!!! All Great Songs, not a bad one in the bunch!!! Tough Choice, but if I have to rank them.

I'll go:

Xanadu

Prophet's Song

Infinite Dreams

Crossfire