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Gravy Train - Staircase To The Day (1974)

Track listing:
  1. Starbright Starlight 4:28
  2. Bring My Life On Back To Me 5:48
  3. Never Wanted You 4:01
  4. Staircase To The Day 7:32
  5. Going For A Quick One 5:14
  6. The Last Day 5:37
  7. Evening On My Life 2:59
  8. Busted In Schenectady 8:24
  9. Good Time Thing 4:19
  10. Climb Aboard The Gravy Train 3:12
  11. Sanctuary 4:08

Notes

Size: 116 MB
Bitrate: 256
mp3
Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included
Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

It's very true, Gravy Train were never considered as a 'top shelf' prog act, but they have given us some memorable moments (I'm not familiar with 'Second Birth, but own the other 3 LP's) - with 'Staircase To The Day' we have a stunning Roger Dean gatefold sleeve to enhance the listening experience, which may contain some vocal short-comings (Norman has a rather abrasive quality to his voice, and he is often very passionate in his delivery, this makes his vox quite an acquired taste).
Opening with the dynamic track 'Starbright Starlight', it suggests that the listener may have a winning hand with this album. Pete Solley's synth work being a treat, and the tune itself quite memorable. 'Bring My Life on Back To Me' is a rather standard tune, but Norman sings in a very emotionally distraught fashion, you almost feel his anguish and disappointment, his pain....or is it just painful to listen to ?? 'Never Wanted You' is an excellent tune featuring some odd meters and mellotron (always exciting prog embellishments) and finishing the first side is the beautiful title song - 7 and a half minutes of prog bliss, with Mary Zinovieff (possibly related to Peter Zinovieff of E.M.S. London ??) on synthesizer.

'Going For A Quick One' starts off with a decent riff leading into one hard-rockin' tune with more of Solley's synth work - the backing vocals by the 'Gospel Ayres' gives it a commercial touch though. 'The Last Day' is a light tune with some nice flute playing, but lacks excitement, 'Evening of my Life' is a pretty, piano driven ballad and closing track 'Busted In Schenectady' is quite an epic, full of heavy riffing, exceptional guitar playing, and even some shimmering electric violin. My overall rating is a 4 - just.

Four years, dotted only between 1971-1974 showed two classes of Gravy Train, both meaning a label reference and an additional powder of style, yet, essentially, the atypical grand art of the band brings its effort (which resign soon after this last one) to four movements and qualities. The rehearse a 'greatest impressions' attitude, every moment of music from Gravy Train (a generally obscure, but also left outside the toughest essence, band) had its reason and its brightness. The debut seems overwhelming, despite cool interpretations of hard rock, late 60s tough-blues, anecdotal psych or dynamic distinguishes. (A Ballad Of) Peaceful Man is the most appreciate, but also leads to a simple impasse of melodic, a bit arbitrary and concentrated essences, mostly classic rock, but heavy and influenced prog as well. Both under the Vertigo label meant the coup of achievement from the band. Next on, starting 1973, the biggest moods were changed by the band's "second birth" (and something with its second label, Dawn, could be well reasoned within this long comparison), going from soft classic prog to rushes of rock and verses, of power and linguine moody plays. To what comes the fourth kind of an interpretation, over at Staircase To The Day, is the brightness of the composition, the light-feather of the artistic value and the recognizable rock-pulse, within the sparks or the fusses, both present, both important, of the character. It steps down as the last of the mesmerizing, once, consumable, later, good prog band that was Gravy Train - in a more or less classic memory of (or about) it.
More to a curiosity or punch-space, Gravy Train gets a cover signed by artist Roger Dean; one, perhaps, too futuristic and abstract for a music of..."gravy rock".

There aren't special reasons to this album (at least, not extremely hard) and this isn't an album of departure (though the weak sponges of such a last creation make you wonder if the later fuse didn't happen out of too little creativity and pleasure left to compose even more, even wiser), though it is, more than it sounds like, an album of last influences and styles. With no relation at all as music, I definitely feel that, just like Atomic Rooster, Curved Air and others like them have composed their 'last albums' within a moderate feel, so sounds Gravy Train (a classic prog band, after all, and regardless of nuances or preferences) having an impulse of "second thoughts" rock on Staircase To The Day. Still that goes in a particularly smaller context than music's greatest quality, which combines the soft motives of progressiveness with the reasonably influenced power and art directions of music, rhythm and entrapping moods.

The album stands hundred percent more stronger than the "first" album under the Dawn label (and spell of music), but typicalness still raises to point out that the band's virtue hasn't got (anymore) the fascinating lengths pulled out in the first period. With a refined sense, a couple of pieces shine like never before. Much to the tranquility of "acclaimed compositions", Staircase To The Day is a worthy rock composition, delicate, first of all, within its surmountable quality of rock, of perspective and of fusion. Previous to this one, Bring My Life On Back To Me plays a too soft movement, but has strong vocals and a rhythm of dousing pleasure. The Last Day finally combines the wind-folk simple cut with the bass-groove small sequence of rock 'n' rave. Keyboards share an uncharacteristic expansion towards synthesism, since both guests, Mary Zinovieff and Peter Soiley (oh, that's right, J.D. Hugues departed!), play a mixture of plastic and old-"melo" keyboards - such effects are more entertaining (Starlight Starlight being, anyhow, a cheesy but catchy piece) or do stranger improvisations (Going For A Quick One having nothing in common with good value).

At a final point into the band's activity, Staircase To The Day is good, but misses referentiality (or some sterlingness) . And Gravy Train stays, thankfully by their first and best period, a classic progressive movement band, with reasonable virtues as to not be that obscure and second-handed. [progarchives.com]

01. Starbright Starlight (4:28)
02. Bring My Life On Back To Me (5:48)
03. Never Wanted You (4:04)
04. Staircase To The Day (7:31)
05. Going For A Quick One (5:16)
06. The Last Day (5:36)
07. Evening Of My Life (2:59)
08. Busted In Schenectady (8:11)
+ Bonus Tracks