In 1973 I had no idea what Progressive Rock was, and quite frankly, I didn't care. All I knew was when my friend Chris' sister Marcy got this album I couldn't hear it enough. I'm the oldest of the kids in my family, so I kind of glommed on to the older siblings of my friends to get some kind of direction when it came to music. Marcy (probably unknowingly) had a record collection I envied very much when I was 11, and this was the album I envied most of all.
I bought my own. Several times. I've worn this record out at least five times. The last copy I got before I found it on CD was one my brother got me for Christmas. I told him to get me that album, my reason being that mine was trashed, yet again, and it was apparently out of print. I don't know where he found it, but he did, and I still have it. I've got the CD too, but the record is better.
I love the whole album, but Saturn, Lord of the Ring/Mercury The Winged Messenger is easily my favorite. I'm not a big instrumental music kind of person, but Mick Rogers' guitar solo on that one made him my very first guitar god. I can actually just listen to it in my head any time I want because I've played it so many times. I'm pretty sure this one is just ground into my psyche and nothing can change it. I think that based on my love of this album, I can actually listen to some of their later, considerably crappier and way more boring attempts at hitting the Top 40 with songs by Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan. In the great Progressive Rock Pantheon I doubt this album scores all that highly, but on my list of records I can't live without, this is probably in my top ten.
Yeah. Really.
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