Twisted Branches...

Twisted Branches... one in a very occasional series of short musings on weird band connections and "DNA"...

It still kind of blows my mind that Foreigner was started by a founder of King Crimson.

Did you know that? There's shared "DNA" between "I Want to Know What Love Is" and "The Court of The Crimson King" - between "Hot Blooded" and "Larks Tongues in Aspic" - thanks to one of Foreigner's founders, Ian MacDonald -- who was also an original member of King Crimson.

Now, it's not like he stayed with either band for very long. When Foreigner's Mick Jones declared he was trimming the "fat" from the band as Foreigner released "4" there was poor Ian getting lumped in with the lard. And King Crimson turned out to be Robert Fripp's baby. One "served" at the pleasure and whim of the King of the Crim. Ian was gone soon after the first album; according to the 1995 Edition of the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, "On the band's debut U.S. tour, (drummer Mike) Giles and MacDonald left, the latter in a band-control squabble."

In his recent - and quite awesome - book on Prog Rock, The Show That Never Ends, author Dave Weigel spends a few pages covering MacDonald's - and others' - early departure from King Crimson, and offers more insight:

Giles and MacDonald were fraying, pining for their girlfriends. For the first and not the last time, the US was rending King Crimson apart. "We were blowing audience's minds," said MacDonald, "and the thing was turning into this monster that was growing and maybe at the time I wasn't equipped to deal with it." Fripp said, "...King Crimson was everything to me. To keep the band together, I offered to leave instead but Ian said that the band was more me than them."

Ah, the classic "he said, he and he said" scenario. Or, given that lead singer Greg Lake soon followed MacDonald and Giles out the door, perhaps even a "he said, he and he and he said" situation. Though it sounds like a bitter and acrimonious split, Ian did play with Crimson a little a bit later, just before Crimson broke up in the mid-seventies. Freeing Ian up to form Foreigner, evidently.

According to Wikipedia, Ian is still with us - had to look him up after he came to mind:

Ian McDonald (born 25 June 1946 from Osterley, Middlesex) is an English multi-instrumental musician, best known as a founder member of progressive rock band King Crimson, formed in 1969, and of the hard rock band Foreigner in 1976. He is well known as a rock session musician, predominantly as a saxophonist. He also plays keyboards, flute, vibraphone and guitar.

Wikipedia says he's still active as well, most recently with "US/UK Indie Rock Country Fusion Invasion" band Honey West.

There is ONE song which, to me, actually demonstrates the shared DNA of the bands, and the fact that the same guy - MacDonald - co-wrote songs on Crimson's first album and Foreigner's first three. If I have a favorite Foreigner song (more on that in a sec), it's this one - "Star Rider":

I swear there's a little King Crimson in that Foreigner...

Afternote: A scary little glimpse into the way my mind works -- thought of all of this because I awoke and saw a fresh coat of light snow had fallen outside, and the world looked blue. My mental jukebox kicked on "Blue Morning, Blue Day" and part of my mind declared it to be my "favorite" Foreigner song. Another part disagreed and put forth "Star Rider" - and so I recalled Ian MacDonald, and the strange "DNA" connecting Foreigner and King Crimson.

Best Album of 2018 So Far - The Moondoggies "A Love Sleeps Deep"

My nomination for the Best Album of the first half of 2018 - The Moondoggies - A Love Sleeps Deep. 

I'd like to thank God, Serendipity, the Powers of the Universe, our Benevolent Overlords, Lords of Karma or whoever pretends to be running the cosmos for pulling The Moondoggies out of my lifelong dreams of the perfect band, lifting them right out of my subconscious or unconscious, very kind of you.

You see, when I was a kid I used to draw this band, all long hair and shaggy beards - think I called them High Castle, and this was when I was young, before I was even aware of Philip K. Dick... My ideal configuration - A singer & rhythm guitarist, lead guitarist (playing some ethereal slide as well, preferably), bassist, keyboardist and drummer, with at least two of the other musicians singing backup vocals. Later, when I tried to start a couple bands, that was even the lineup I'd try to get together.


The band of my drawings bears a great resemblance to The Moondoggies! 

Easy Coming opens A Love Sleeps Deep, introduces the band and sets the tone. This is what's to come - a chiming slide guitar and organ hint at an early Floyd influence, yet the harmony vocals, powerful and layered, owe more to Bruce, Clapton and Cream. Organ fills the spaces while the slide guides the ear through shifting changes, beautiful, melodic riffs, repeated phrases and soaring choruses. They're not afraid to be majestic.

Given my references to those classic bands, know that The Moondoggies are more than the sum of their influences and parts. They mine the past for fuel to power the future - figuratively ingesting and digesting the greats to then bring forth their own beautiful musical constructions.

For A Love Sleeps Deep is a frikkin' ALBUMS! I still get CDs because I still like ALBUMS.

If some kind of definition is needed, I'd classify an Album as a musical work about 45 minutes long with some unifying principle. The "Unifying Principle" could be as simple as all songs by one band. A double album is about 90 minutes. Note: the 70-minute capacity of the CD led some artists to over-indulge - I'm looking at you, Sting! - and bloat a 45-minute work up to 70 to fill the format. Luckily, this did not last.

Although determined itself by the configuration of a vinyl LP, one could argue that the 45 minute album format has some sort of intrinsic form, some Platonic ideal, as after a short period of bloat, released musical works fell back into the traditional 45-minute long configuration.

Oh. And singles were there all along, though their strength and appeal of course grew with the explosion of mp3 downloads. Singles are snack food. The best Albums are meals.

The weakest albums - in "coherence" - are compilations of singles - compare early US releases by The Beatles and the Stones vs. their later complete album works and you can see what I mean. Or any Greatest Hits collection by a band to one of their complete album works. The intention reflected in the art of creating and organizing an album sets it apart, to greater and lesser degrees, the extremes perhaps being the Hit Singles Compilation and the Concept Album.

Ahem.

Digression done.

A Love Sleeps Deep is a great fucking album - don't mind the F-bomb, needed to get back to rock n' roll! Clocks in at 44 minutes - ding! There is intent, and cohesion - it's not (apparently) a concept album, yet opening song Easy Coming and closer Underground (A Love Sleeps Deep) are woven from similar musical cloth - a beautiful tapestry of influences and originality! They run 6+ and 8+ minutes, respectively, allowing the listener to submerge and get lost in them.

And in between? There is a satisfying flow - in fact, track 2 Cinders segues right into track 3 Match. Each tune stands out for different reasons. Sometimes a change in keyboards sets it apart, as when the piano opens Promises, or the more Farfisa-esque organ sound opens Cinders. The opener and closer are the longest tracks, everything else is around four or five minutes.

This is an album - you put it on and leave it on. The only thing that would make the CD more like a classic vinyl release would be if you had to get up to flip it over halfway through. There is a variety to the tunes, yet a unity to the work. The flow here does satisfy. You know... you might find you have to leave it on when you play it!

Soviet Barn Fire is another stand out track. The bare naked guitar riff opening proclaims the six-string's dominance of this one. By the time the lead rips out, another classic heavy rock outfit is recalled, as the tune has the feel of classic Leslie West and Mountain epics like Theme For An Imaginary Western or Nantucket Sleigh Ride - which also share a Cream influence.

Now, I'm calling these older bands "influences", but I don't know how aware of Pink Floyd, Cream, Mountain or other classic rockers The Moondoggies themselves are. Haven't had a chance to ask them. This is what I'm hearing in A Love Sleeps Deep. There's also much that is pure Moondoggies!


The CD packaging is quite Album-like. Released on Sub-Pop's "sister" label Hardly Art, the labels' trademark oversize cardboard sleeve opens to reveal lyrics superimposed on a band photo. The CD inside is protected by an inner sleeve, like a vinyl record, a beautiful sunset photo on one side, a few album credits on the other. And on the CD, some crazy manipulated photo art.

2018 has been a great year for new music so far - setting a high bar for The Moondoggies A Love Sleeps Deep to rise above to become my Best Album of the year to this point. It's one of those albums I want to play for everyone I know - not that many people know the band outside of their native Pacific Northwest. Makes me want to turn more people onto this amazing release - go listen!

The YouTube link is above - or check out The Moondoggies A Love Sleeps Deep on Spotify: