The Rock Spot – Timeless Flight – A Review
By WTJU Rock
A teenage time ago when washing the dishes at a local cafe created spending money for, amongst other things, record buying, Christopher Pickles and his friend Paul soaked up the atmosphere of the time and the moment.
Man it was hot, that summer of 1975. Me and Paul would sit on the shelf above the basement stairs, drinking pop in our breaks and talking about our lives and the lives of those around us. Paul could bash off the bottle tops with his bare hands. We learned the language of the hairies, hippies and travellers who worked with us in the café. Yes, we were hip to it all.
Somewhere else, Steve Harley and the second Cockney Rebel were putting together a masterpiece called Timeless Flight. It was really laid back, in keeping with the thick heat of the summer. It was fluid and melodic, suffused with rich lyrics; this supremely talented band were immersed in the joy of playing together.
The original Cockney Rebel had been exceptional, creating ‘Sebastian’, ‘Judy Teen’ and ‘Mr Soft’. But when the others wanted to be more rock driven with a lead guitar, and Steve didn’t want those boundaries, he dismissed the band. He wrote “Make Me Smile” about the split and put together an amazing group of musicians to move his new ideas forward. On their Top of the Pops performance of ‘Make Me Smile’ you can see the camaraderie and fun that the band is already having, as Steve gets the verses terribly mixed up and revels mirthfully in the silent breaks that punctuate the song.
Their first album together feels a bit forced but with some brilliant tracks and the playing is terrific. However nobody expected the quality and genius of the following album, “Timeless Flight”. The band is so good, virtuoso on every track and clearly delighting in the creation of musical atmospheres for the lyrics and the vocal playfulness that Harley gives full reign to. He is perfectly relaxed and content in the cushion of the beautiful swirling melodies around him.
He can remember hearing words of wonder…
And so to the opening track, “Red is a Mean, Mean Colour” about disaffected, ragged young men who adopt communism as their rebel cause. It is gently scathing but bathed in warm melodiousness. The vocal is playful and meanders around the idea of life being coloured by political colours.
Life’s a pageant that we play, life’s an ugly hue…
“White, White Dove” is outstanding for the playing of the band: they roll and crackle and flick and groove. Genius to bring these guys into the same room, they lift the song skywards on the lyrical wings of the eponymous dove.
If I could put the words together
“Understand” is a beautiful song, wonderfully illustrated, probably quite personal but gorgeous to listen to. You can gently drift out on a warm ocean, not needing a conclusion to the song’s self-challenge.
Then comes the second best song on the album, “All Men are Hungry”, wistful and laced with delicious melancholy. Harley reflects upon lost childhood and when Death in the Afternoon is mentioned, Hemingway’s tribute to the ritual of bullfighting comes to dominate the feeling of the track. You can feel the oppressive heat; the enactment of life and death; and the search for meaning between life’s covers.
…only children can live upon a timeless flight
After that masterpiece we are given time to recover, enjoying the anthemic “Black or White” and then the staccato “Everything Changes”. At last comes my highlight of the album.
“Are you there, Ray”?
I am sure they did this in one take, reportedly late at night after a trip by the side of the Danube. Harley just lets go with streams of lovely words and paints a serene picture of shooting ideas and stories, not only with friends but also an imaginary self in the room. This is underpinned and overlaid by superlative keyboard and guitar work provided by his co-participants. The music carries the song along like the flow of the river, twinkling and dancing for an instant, but never stopping. It can go along forever.
Breathless after this tour de force you can then relax and groove to the comedy of “Don’t Go, Don’t Cry” which is such great fun and leaves you on an exhilarating high. In a sense I am still there, with Paul, sitting on the shelf above the basement stairs amongst all the drinks crates. I am there because I also took the timeless flight and I can be anywhere and everywhere along it. There is no magnet locked in my memories! While masterpieces are being made I am chatting away in the thick, thick heat, with the clattering and slamming of the delivery trucks in the back lane. Soon we will be talking about ‘Timeless Flight’ and once it is with us, its brilliance will never leave.
If you have sitting in the back of the cafe memories of music that made you excited and happy, or have listened to more recent albums that have sent you all a swirling, send those reviews to [email protected] and read them on the Rock Spot.
