Archive number: 126
Title: Father Bacchus
Main Album: Focus X
Track number: 1
Genre: Progressive Rock Instrumental
Studio: Fieldwork Studios, Schoten, Belgium
(Mixed at B-Spot Studio; mastered at Tube Mastering)
Length: 4:03
Composer: Menno Gootjes
Musicians: Thijs van Leer – Hammond organ, piano, flute, spoken word; Menno Gootjes – Guitar; Bobby Jacobs – Bass; Pierre van der Linden – Drums
Producer: Bobby Jacobs, Geert Scheijgrond
Mastered: Andy Jackson
Mixed: Bram Bol
Label: Eastworld Recordings
Date of release: November 2012
Alternative version: None
Notes: The track begins with drums, then the whole band give a Hocus Pocus style riff at frenetic pace before (00:12) a flute led section slows things slightly until things kick off again with the band (00:23). At this point van Leer gives a voice over as follows
"And ladies and gentlemen proudly we present Focus
Fo- cus F O C U S
Hahaa! Beautiful!"
At 00:33 the band riff comes in for another 11 seconds and then the flute section follows, this time extended as far as 01:23, where the guitar takes up the lead. At 01:42 the flute returns to interweave with the guitar until 01:55 where there is a brief drum break backed up by the repeated flute riff. At 02:12 a new bassy band Hocus Pocus type riff begins. The guitar leads for a while over this until the flute returns at 02:42, becoming playful ten seconds in as a flute-led acoustic ensemble plays out to a slow fade.
NB This title echoes the earlier instrumental Father Bach (on Mother Focus) by way of reference to the Roman god Bacchus, the equivalent of the Greek god Dionysius, who Wikipedia says is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy in ancient Greek religion and myth.
