(Prog Rock / Jazz Rock) Alan White (Yes member) - Ramshackled - 1976, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

It's one of the great ironies in Alan White's career that he came to fame in the shadow of the drummer he replaced in Yes, Bill Bruford. In a way it was neither musician's fault — Bruford was considered, after Carl Palmer, the hottest drummer in England, while White had, in the public's perception, played in a few highly visible bands and gigs without a lot of acclaim. In fact, at 23 years of age, he had a decade's experience as a professional musician. White's father was an amateur pianist, and his own first instrument was the piano. He gravitated toward the drums, however, and at age 12 he got his own drum kit from his uncle, who was also a drummer. He quickly abandoned lessons in favor of developing his own style and approach. By 13, he was playing in a group called the Downbeats and becoming the subject of local press articles because of his age. In his mid-teens, White was playing gigs seven nights a week for a good part of the year, primarily doing covers of Beatles and other British beat tunes of the early to mid-'60s. White tried studying technical drawing, with the hope of eventually pursuing a career as an architect, but musical success intervened when his group, rechristened the Blue Chips, got a contract with Polygram Records after winning a Melody Maker band contest in London. They cut a single in 1965, and sometime after that White joined Billy Fury's backing band, the Gamblers, spending three months playing with them in Germany during 1966. White passed through the lineups of a lot of short-lived late-'60s outfits including Ginger Baker's Airforce (playing some keyboards there as well), where he was in the unfortunate position of working alongside legendary drummer Phil Seaman, who managed to eclipse his younger colleague at every turn. From that group, he moved on to a brief tenure in Balls alongside Denny Laine and Trevor Burton, late of the Moody Blues and the Move, respectively, and Graham Bond, and then played with Joe Cocker. He also spent two years as a member of Terry Reid's band. It was in 1969 that he got his highest exposure, however, as a member of John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band. Lennon first pressed White into service for the Toronto Rock 'n Roll Revival show that became the Live Peace In Toronto album, although at the time no LP was intended — by sheer luck, the existence of a bootleg release resulted in an official Apple Records LP that sold millions of copies, and had White's name placed on an equal footing in the band credits with Lennon and Eric Clapton. He also played on the single "Instant Karma" and on the Imagine album, which were some of the hottest records of the era. White played on albums by George Harrison, Doris Troy, Gary Wright, and Alan Price between 1969 and 1972. Additionally, Price had worked as the producer with a band of White's called Griffin, which included Graham Bell, Ken Craddock, Pete Kirtley, and Colin Gibson, who had cut an LP in 1969. He was getting as much exposure as any British drummer of the era when his entry to Yes took place. The group's original drummer, Bill Bruford, had already carved out a name for himself in four years with the group that made him the idol of tens of thousands of aspiring drummers around the world. Known for his complex rhythms and a very jazz-influenced approach to playing, Bruford had become both popular and respected as a member of Yes. He had also grown unhappy, however, with some of the music that the group was generating on their fifth album, Close to the Edge. By the spring of 1972, he was increasingly eager to move on to other vistas, and finally left officially on July 19, 1972. The fact that White was a friend of Eddie Offord, Yes' producer, and of lead singer Jon Anderson, helped smooth the way for his entry into the group, and Bruford himself had welcomed him as his successor. In point of fact, he'd come into the studio in the months before Bruford's exit, unofficially, listening and watching what was going on, and had tried playing the material from Close to the Edge and handled it. Upon Bruford's exit, White learned the group's entire concert repertory in three days for an upcoming show. White never looked back, from that summer 1972 tour right into the 21st century. Fans never minded either, once he established his reputation, which he did on that tour and the triple live LP Yessongs that came from it.

My late father was a great record collector of mainly Classical music records. Also he liked to have the best audio equipment available in the seventies (and later in the 80s-90s, but with less interest). So, he had subscriptions for some audio equipment magazines ("High Fidelity", "Stereo Review" and "Audio") and also, as a very good customer of one record shop, he was given for free (for years too!) the monthly Schwann record catalogues! He lent me his magazines and his record catalogues and I was more interested in reading the record reviews in that magazines and to see the new released albums in the record catalogues. So, I remember that I read in those magazines the reviews for many albums, and I read there the reviews for the solo albums that the then members of the band YES released between 1975 and 1976. The only album from which I never read a review was for this album, Alan White`s "Ramshackled", released in April 1976, but I knew about the existence of this album because it was listed in the Schwann catalogues. I also have a cousin who had a very good record collection of Prog Rock musicians, and he also had the other solo albums from the members of YES, but he didn`t have this album. I remember that I also read in one Schwann record catalogue from 1978 that this album was marked as "to be out of print soon; it is not going to be included again in the future editions of this catalogue". So, I never have seen a copy of the old LP of this album, and it seems that many people never knew about this album being released. But, in 1992, a now defunct and very missed FM Radio station in my city broadcasted a series of programmes dedicated to the discography of the band YES and also to some of the solo albums recorded by their members and former members. So, I recorded it in a cassette. But this album was previously released on CD only in Japan, but in this year, it was released for the first time on CD in the U.S., so it is available again, and I`m going to buy it as soon as I see it in the record shops.

This album is very good, IMO, it has a mixture of several styles with good Prog Rock arrangements. It was recorded by Alan White assisted by musicians who played with Alan before he joined YES. The songs of this album were not composed by Alan, but the songs were composed by Kenny Craddock, Colin Gibson and Peter Kirtley, alone or in different combinations. Alan and these musicians played together in a band called "Griffin", and also played together in several albums as session musicians. Craddock, Gibson and Kirtley also composed songs together for other projects before this album was planned and recorded. So, they had a lot of experience working together with Alan White before he joined YES, so I think that it was easier for them to record this album which was released as Alan`s solo album, but it could be also considered as a Griffin album.

The songs:

1. Oooh Baby (Going to Pieces`): it starts with Alan playing drums and percussion in a Samba- Bossa Nova musical style. Then, the other instruments appear and then the singer sings in a Soul music style.

2. One Way Rag: this song is influenced by Soul and Rhythm and Blues music, it is a simple song really, sometimes sounding like Pop music.This song was played a few times by YES on their "Solo Albums" tour in 1976. In the first gigs of that tour, the band played selected songs from their solo albums, but the idea was eliminated soon.

3. Avakak: it is an instrumental piece of music in the Jazz-Rock musical style with the addition of wind instruments and very good rhythm patterns by Alan and basist Colin Gibson.

4. Spring - Song of Innocence: with lyrics by William Blake, this is a song very influenced by New Age music ( a style not so called like that in those days) and Prog Rock, with very good atmospheres, and the guest appearances of YES members Jon Anderson and Steve Howe. I think that this song could have been included in any YES album in those years.Alan plays a slow rhythm similar to YES song`called "Wonderous Stories". There are also very good flute-guitar-keyboard arrangements.Anderson sings lead and backing vocals.This song also was played a few times by YES on their "Solo Albums" tour in 1976.

5. Giddy: is a funny song also influenced by Jazz-Rock and Soul music. The lyrics tells the story of "a night of fun in the city". It includes a very good drum part by Alan. Again, lead singer Alan Marshall sings very well. This song also has a good orchestral arrangement.

6. Silly Woman: a Reggae song with good drums by Alan and a steel drum part. Maybe the lyrics are a bit offensive, but it is a funny song anyway. In the "Yesyears" video it is included a fragment of a promotional video for this song on which Alan appears smiling, and Patrick Moraz said in one interview that he also appeared briefly in this video as guest without having played a note in the song! This could be a good danceable song. It also has wind instrument arrangements.

7. March into a Bottle: is a song with classical guitar, flutes and other wind instruments and tuned and untuned percussion, inlfuenced a bit by Classical music and Folk Rock a la Jethro Tull. It also sounds IMO in the style of Steve Hackett`s music as soloist.

8. Everybody: is an energetic song with very good drums by Alan, a bit heavy, with wind instrument arrangements and backing vocals by Madeleine Bell, Joanna Williams and Vicky Brown. It has very good bass guitar parts, and acoustic guitar and steel drum.

9. Darkness: is the most Progressive song in this album, maybe the most "serious", with three parts, also influenced by Jazz-Rock. It also has wind instrument arrangements and an orchestral arrangement by David Bedford (who previously worked with Mike Oldfield) in the third part. The arrangements are a bit inlfuenced by YES music.There are some lead guitar parts too. The final part of the song includes a trumpet solo.

I think that this album deserves to be "discovered" and listened by the Prog Rock Fans who never have listened to it. The album is very eclectic, but it shows Alan White`s versatility as a drummer. He, in the "Yesyears" video, talking about this album, said that his idea was to record an album with a mixture of several styles. It seems to me that his previous musical experience of playing with artists of different musical styles helped him a lot to record an album with a lot of variety in the musical arrangements. This album, IMO, it is also interesting for Prog Rock Fans who also play drums and percussion (which is my case). I can hear a lot of interesting things in this album, and I hope that other listeners could find something interesting on it too. It also sounds to me like it was recorded with Alan and all the musicians having a lot of fun. So, even being a collaborative effort, not only a solo album, it is very good, IMO.

In Alan White`s official website there are some promotional videos for this album which can be seen there. They are also available in youtube.com .

Update (11-January-2008): a year ago I bought the C.D. version of this album, released in the U.S. by Wounded Bird Records, and it sounds very good, but the booklet doesn`t include the lyrics and the full cover artwork. Anyway, it was a good buy for medeath.