From: "drj_saro" <>
>On the subject of Canterbury, could someone give me their opinion of
Egg. I'm a big fan of Caravan. National Health and Hatfield and The North I
like also, though not as much (they are still relatively new to me). Since
Dave Stewart was in NH and HaTN, how do they compare with Egg? Which Egg cd
is their best?
After Steve Hillage (guitar) left the band Uriel, the remaining members
changed the name of the band to Egg and carried on... Egg was a trio
consisting of... Dave Stewart on organ, piano and tone generator, Mont
Campbell on Bass and vocals (also organ, piano and French Horn ), and Clive
Brooks on drums. they recorded 3 albums...
the first (self-titled) in 1970 featured the same sort of odd
psychedelia that early Soft Machine and Caravan albums did, but alonside were
instrumental cuts with D.Stewart's (self-admittedly) Emerson-influenced organ
in the fore-front. the a-side consisted of 3 songs and 4 instrumentals
(including an adaptation of JSBach's "Toccata and Fugue in D-minor"), and
then the side-long "Symphony No.2" which included improvisations built
around Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" in one movement and
Stravinsky's "Dans des Adolescentes" in another) *there is a CD version of
this around that includes both sides of Egg's only single, the a-side was
"Seven is a Jolly Good Time", which referred to their penchant for unusual
time signatures - i don't know the title of the b-side.
the second (The Polite Force) also from 1970, again featured a
side-long instrumental in "Long Piece No.3" while the other side consisted of
two songs (one of which featured a 4-piece brass section) and another
instrumental piece (based around JSBach's "Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt").
the third (The Civil Surface) in 1974 was released (and perhaps
even recorded) after the band had already broken up. this one has two
Wind Quartets writtten by Mont Campbell, one piece with wordless vocals (by
the Northettes), 2 long instrumentals ( 8 to 9 minutes), a shorter (3 min +)
instrumental, and one major song that includes guitar for the first time on
an Egg album - provided by Steve Hillage. guests on the
instrumentals are Lindsay Cooper, Tim Hodkinson, and Jeremy Baines from Henry
Cow.
as a side note - while Uriel never recorded an official album, the
4 memebers were given the opportunity to record some psychedelic jams, since
Egg already had a recording contract they were forced to release it under the
name "Arzachel" with all of the band members also using pseudonyms.
Dave Stewart also played keyboards on Steve Hillage's band Khan - " Space
Shanty " album.
as far as comparisons....both Hatfield and Nat.Health were much
bigger bands, with more involved and more sophisticated arrangements,
but if Stewart's keyboard work is what you like best about those bands then
you will probably still enjoy Egg.
as far as which is their "best" album, it's a hard call, i like
them all, but they are not my favorite Canterbury Scene albums....so without
knowing too much about your personal taste, the first is probably a bit raw,
and the last is probably "over-thought", so i would recommend the 2nd (Polite
Force) and if you like that, go on and get the other two eventually. (if you
don't like it, then don't bother).
>Hmmm...Mont Campbell's _Music from a Round Tower_ is one of my favourite
instrumental albums. Does anyone know if he has made other solo albums?
that's the only one, but hopefully there will be
more.
From: "Marc P. Guilbert" <>
Egg were the first Cantebury group I was exposed to, back in 1970 (!) and
they made a lasting impression. At the time, I was totally enamoured of
organ led groups (the Nice, Deep Purple MK I, Arthur Brown) and Egg were
similar enough in sound and mood, but different enough in terms of time sig's
to really grab my attention. For the first time listener seasoned by
ELP and such, I'd recommend "Polite Force" as the starting point, but don't
listen to "Boilk" until the end. On the other hand, the first album
(s/t "Egg") has Mont Campbell's vocals in best form, and the songs on what
used to be side one are infectiously poppy without being insipid...
in other words, what you expect from Cantebury. On both, expect "odd"
time signatures to abound, as well as Hammond organ processed through fuzz
boxes on occasion. Unfortunately, I've never heard their third "Civil
Surface", and even though it's advertised in CD-Now and the other majors, my
orders have gotten returned with a "oh, did we say we could get that?
Sorry" message. I'm still on the look-out, though...