In my formative years (the late '70s), I got attached to what became known as "prog rock", a slang term for "progressive" that didn't do a very good job of narrowing down a wide variety of artists and styles. Being a maven of Pop music rather than those "Critic's Darlings" whose music was inaccessible and arcane, I gravitated to more mainstream stuff.
But that didn't stop me from being out of the center of the Bell Curve. I'm gonna explore those days in some detail and share stuff I'm just about 100% sure you never have heard. We'll start with one of the best albums of the late '70s, Round the Back by Cafe Jacques.
I heard some of it while loitering in Schoolkids Records, the discount record place in Bloomington. Like all record stores of the time, the staff played all manner of obscure stuff and I was a vinyl junkie who would buy a record based on one song I liked. With Round the Back, however, I liked everything I heard. It was the easiest $3.99 I ever spent.
I still have the record. It was released on CD but not in the US--it was a Japanese high-quality disc that cost a fortune and I never bought it. YouTube, and my ongoing decline in high-frequency sensitivity has re-introduced me to the music from this Scottish group.
Today's first in the "You Don't know it" series is "Meaningless", a song that presents "prog rock" in its more commercial flavor. It's listenable, even though there are meter and key changes that weren't present in most of the music of the day. And almost 40 years later it holds its allure, providing a satisfying experience no matter how many times I've heard it.
Enjoy it. It's an exposure you won't get anywhere else. Practically nobody else has even heard of Cafe Jacques. But now you have...
More tomorrow. Another song you've never heard, but will be happy when you do...
Pete
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