Wishbone Ash (Official Thread)

2LITTLETIME

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1971 Pilgrimage-Played side one about 3 times straight off-Good stuff
 

METALPRIEST

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40 Years Ago: Wishbone Ash’s ‘Wishbone Four’ Released

Wishbone-Four.jpg

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On May 11, 1973, Wishbone Ash’s steadily accelerating career momentum took a turn for the worse with the release of the fan-and-critic-polarizing ‘Wishbone Four.’

Perhaps most perplexing about this turn of events was the fact that every Wishbone Ash LP to date had been fueled by daring experimentalism and constant evolution. One would have expected listeners to be more open-minded – or at least a little lenient – with ‘Wishbone Four’s’ next chapter in this tradition.

The previous year’s career standout, ‘Argus,’ had seen something of a culmination of the band’s adventurous blend of progressive pastoral whimsy with twin-guitar dexterity. But ‘Four’s’ increasing shift towards acoustic folk and incremental eclecticism doesn’t feel that radical with so many years’ distance to objectively judge it.

The first single, ‘No Easy Road,’ was certainly a stretch, with its surprising horn section and R&B back-up singers seemingly borrowed from Humble Pie, and the eight-minute ‘Everybody Needs a Friend’ distinctly lacked the improvisational feel of ‘Argus’ and ‘Pilgrimage,’ before it. But album opener ‘So Many Things to Say’” and Side Two’s ‘Doctor’ maintained much of the aggressive thrust often found on previous albums, minus those trademark harmonies.

Actually, the problems may have derived from the LP’s remaining songs: ‘Ballad of the Beacon,’ ‘Sorrel,’ ‘Sing Out the Song’ and, to a lesser degree, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Widow’ – all of which were pleasant but, on the whole, uninspired. In fact, though they, in many ways, reprised the laid-back vibes all-too common to earlier Wishbone efforts, these songs admittedly lacked the evocative wordplay and widescreen panoramas of what had come before.

So too, has ‘Wishbone Four,’ for all its quality next to other, lesser bands, come to be overshadowed by its distinguished predecessors in the stakes of classic rock history: a victim of sonic evolution, as we’ve seen in retrospect, fallen prey to the band’s diminishing audacity, rather than a result of fickle fan behavior.
 

metalife

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Discography:

1970 Wishbone Ash
1971 Pilgrimage
1972 Argus
1973 Wishbone Four
1974 There's the Rub
1976 Locked In
1976 New England
1977 Front Page News
1978 No Smoke Without Fire
1980 Just Testing
1981 Number the Brave
1982 Twin Barrels Burning
1985 Raw to the Bone
1987 Nouveau Calls
1989 Here to Hear
1991 Strange Affair
1996 Illuminations
1997 Trance Visionary
1998 Psychic Terrorism
2002 Bona Fide
2006 Clan Destiny
2007 Power of Eternity
2011 Elegant Stealth

Wow. I had no idea they had some many albums!

A heard the name of the band in an Ian Rankin book and asked one of my older work mate about them. He was so wrapped i was interested he gave me a copy of Pilgrimage on vinyl. :woot: Awesome album. What are people's opinions on the band's best albums?
 

LOU/REALM

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My personal faves are Argus,Number the brave and Wishbone Ash. There are a lot of albums there on that list I haven't yet purchased or heard...I have got a feeling that they don't do bad albums
 

Jake T

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There's a new album, Blue Horizon, that's not on the list.




My top five from the list:

  1. Argus
  2. No Smoke Without Fire
  3. Just Testing
  4. Illuminations
  5. Wishbone Four
 

Jake T

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Wishbone Ash - 20th Anniversary Concert 1989 (Original Members) Remastered



1. Real Guitars Have Wings
2. The King Will Come
3. Cosmic Jazz
4. Keeper Of The Light
5. Why Don't We
6. Blowin' Free
7. Blind Eye
8. Lady Whisky
9. Sometime World
10. Phoenix
11. Jailbait

Wishbone Ash:

Andy Powell / guitar, vocals
Ted Turner / guitar, vocals
Martin Turner / vocals, bass
Steve Upton / drums
 

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