Archive number: 123
Title:
European Rap(sody)
Main
Album: Focus 9 (New Skin)
Track
number: 11
Genre:
Progressive Rock Instrumental
Studio:
Fieldwork Studios, Schoten, Belgium
Length:
10:19
Composer:
Thijs van Leer, Gordon Taylor
Musicians:
Thijs van Leer – Piano, voice, handclaps, synthesiser, organ,
flute; Niels van der Steenhoven – Guitars; Bobby Jacobs – Bass;
Pierre van der Linden – Drums
Producer:
Bobby Jacobs and Thijs van Leer
Engineer:
Han Nuijten
Label:
Red Bullet
Date
of recording/release: Summer 2006
Alternative
version: None (although there is a clip of a Focus jam in Kasteel Groeneveld on Youtube where they play something similar to one of the sections)
Notes:
This song is in several parts. First comes a slow, even halting part
led by the guitar backed by piano and keyboard set to choral
(00:00-00:42). It leads into a second slow part, backed by the organ
(00:43-01:07). We then turn east for an increasingly fast, Russian
style dance tune led by the flute with the guitar and backed by the
rhythm section (01:08-02:10). This is further developed from 02:11
with the use of the voice and handclaps, the guitar giving
balalaika-type riffs. At 02:37 a shout or laugh takes us back to the
flute-led tune, this being brought to an end by a couple of piano
arpeggios (02:38-02:59). The slow and introspective guitar then leads
off again followed by the cymbals, organ, bass and then piano too
(03:00-03:34). This segues into the next part, still slow, led first
by piano then with guitar and backing from the rhythm section and
organ (03:35-05:20).
A crash of cymbals abruptly announces a new and jaunty fast section,
which features a first litany of about 12 titles of previous Focus
tracks from van Leer (05:21-06:27). The list with the few additional
words is as follows:
Spoke the Lord Creator, Can't believe my eyes, Out of Vesuvius, Red
sky at night, Round goes the gossip, (of) Eruption, Well done,
Dayglow (to break), (Creating) Moving Waves (for how long?), Answers,
questions ..., (of) Love remembered, … Questions, Answers, Ship of
memories, ??? (06:28-06:13)
This is followed by an instrumental section in the same vein (06:14-06:28)
At 06:29 we come into a new section that begins slowly then becomes
jaunty again but this time we are looking west and the style is very
French, the keyboards in a very accordion-like mode. At 07:33 this
comes to an end with the same slow piano, cymbals and bass conclusion
as before, ending at 07:47.
A crash of cymbals announces the second part of the litany. This time
we have around 35 further tracks
Carnival Fugue, (on an) Endless Road, (it's an) Early birth, (like a
fugue of the) Sneezing Bull, Hocus Pocus (and) Birth (and Birth, and
Birth), No Hang ups, (with the) Russian Roulette, (surely) Harem
Scarem (dreams, dream), (and a) Cathedrale de Strasbourg, Anonymus
(it seems), Maximum, (or) Medium, (or) One for the Road (but)
Someone's Crying … what? (in the) House of the King, (it's a) Happy
nightmare, Altogether … Oh that!, (Let's) Focus (on) Who's
calling?, (Is it) Beethoven's Revenge, (or may be) Father Bach, (is
it) Tommy, Benny, Eddy (or) Judy or Sylvia, My Sweetheart (My
Sweetheart), It's an Indian Summer, (I'm the) Glider, The Tango,
(with) Tokyo Rose, Night flight (with a) Black Beauty, (such a)
Tropic Bird, (With movement, with movement, with movement; that's the
Lord, that's the Lord, that's the Lord) (07:48-09:15)
We then play out with the band led by van Leer's rocking flute
(09:16-10:10). The closing nine seconds are left to the solo flute.
