Archive number: 20
Title: Focus 3
Main Album: Focus 3
Track number: 5
Genre: Jazz Rock Instrumental
Studio: Olympic Studios 'B', 117 Church Road, Barnes, London SW13 9HL
Length: 06' 04"
Composer: Thijs van Leer
Musicians: Jan Akkerman – Electric guitars (Gibson Les Paul Customs?); Thijs van Leer – Hammond organ; Bert Ruiter - Bass; Pierre van der Linden – Drums (chiefly using brushes)
Producer: Mike Vernon
Engineer: George Chkiantz
Label: LP – Imperial, Polydor, Sire CD – Capitol, EMI-Bovema, IRS, Red Bullet, JVC Victor
Date of recording/release: July 1972/November 1972, 1975 CD - 1988, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2004
Alternative versions: A live version appears on Focus at the Rainbow. Van Leer also rearranged the track for the second Introspection album. Akkerman has featured it in his live act. All the Focus tracks were re-recorded for the fiftieth anniversary album. Outkast sampled the track for their Wheels of Steel track.
Notes: This, the third in the Focus series, begins with just organ (00:00-00:18) mainly repeating the notes B, C#, D, F# (a much loved sequence). At 00:19 the bass and guitar join the organ. At 00:40 the drums join in and soon the guitar is being 'violined'. This quiet, laid back style continues, repeating the earlier material, until at 02:05 the volume rises and at 02:18 a more swinging and intense style comes in, one often compared with part of Petula Clark's Don't sleep in the subway by Tony Hatch with Jackie Trent. (Cf 00:35-00:50 on that track, where she sings “I’ve heard it all a million times before; take off your coat, my love, and close the door” and 01:44-01:58 where she sings "Goodbye means nothing when it's all for show; so why pretend you've somewhere else to go"). This is repeated, bringing us to 03:10. The band then switch back to the earlier quieter style, 03:11-05:11. This slowly rises, especially from about 05:00, to something of a climax at 05:11. In 05:12-05:41 high notes on the guitar play against the bass and drums in that soaring Focus style to be followed by much lower notes (05:34-05:41). The higher part is then repeated (05:42-06:04) ending on a hanging guitar note ready for the immediate succession of the next track. Once again the feel is very much a live one.
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