Rhinofy-Ambrosia

I just heard "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" on the satellite.

It's turning to fall. The light's just a bit different. We're sliding down to the end of the year, we become more serious, more introspectful as autumn approaches. And just as I was ascending Benedict to Mulholland, Vin Scelsa started talking about a song utilizing Kurt Vonnegut lyrics and I knew instantly what he was going to play.

Almost completely forgotten, "Cat's Cradle" had a huge impact upon the sixties generation. The Dead named their publishing company "Ice Nine" and Ambrosia did this song, with lyrics from the book. This was before Vonnegut wrote his masterpiece, "Slaughterhouse-Five," back when reading books was something we all did, before cable TV eviscerated that pastime as a general pursuit. I remember lying on my bed reading the red paperback in between after-school activities and my mother calling me down for dinner. "Cat's Cradle" was our secret world, back before parents wanted to be our best friends, before they were slim and wore designer jeans and got plastic surgery in an effort to never grow up and mature.

Actually, that's us. But the books we read, the music we listened to, is locked in amber, it's unchanging, it's evidence of a magical time, our best selves. And one of my favorite albums from that era is Ambrosia's debut, from just before rock went completely corporate and society split into two camps, calcified rockers and dancing fools.

But it wasn't "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" that made me buy the album. That was a bonus. It was "Holdin' On To Yesterday." You only had to hear it once and you needed to own it. Even though it sounds like a Top Forty track at this distance, it was initially alternative. And FM spun it. It was a magic transport to another galaxy, where we could see our entire lives in the rearview mirror, we were now old enough to have regret. It's the best of music, "Holdin' On To Yesterday" has got a sound that evidences a feeling you just can't get in any other art form, neither movies nor TV, never mind books. It's wistful. The singer hasn't completely let go. Do we ever?

And the guitar solo and the keyboard flourishes distinguish this from the pabulum you found on the AM band. "Holdin' On To Yesterday" is an aural movie. I had to immediately run out and buy the album. Which never completely broke through. You see it was on 20th Century, back when labels mattered. An equally good album on the label at this time was Alan Parsons's "Tales of Mystery and Imagination." It's better than anything Parsons ever did thereafter. And one can say the exact same thing about Ambrosia. Parsons switched to Arista and had hits and Ambrosia switched to Warner Brothers and morphed into a soft rock outfit that had some chart success but became something disposable, a joke, the band was never taken seriously by the cognoscenti. And that's a pity, because they overlooked this exquisite debut.

The album opens with "Nice, Nice, Very Nice." Which is what we used to call art rock and is now referred to as prog and at the time it was believed only the English could perform this music, but Ambrosia proved them wrong. Sure, the Vonnegut lyrics are winning, but it's the dynamics that are so enticing. The way the song goes from heavy to mellow...it's like riding a roller coaster, although this one does not come back to the same place, it leaves you at an unknown destination far down the line. "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" is so far from everyday life, it's what we loved so much about music back then, the adventure.

And "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" segued into "Time Waits For No One." Which began with the chimes of a theoretical clock and a nursery rhyme feel and then there were those prog changes again, and exquisite vocals and Sturm und Drang that whipsawed your mind as you nodded your head and sang along.

Then came the aforementioned "Holdin' On To Yesterday," but thereafter was this rockin' workout entitled "World Leave Me Alone." Anyone who only knew Ambrosia from what came after would be surprised by this, the band held nothing back, they positively rocked. I remember nodding my head, feeling like my life was its only personal movie, important, and I was starring in it and having fun.

That's the first side. You couldn't ask for anything more.

And the second is no disappointment.

I made a cassette. I remember playing it for a girl I wanted to impress as I shuttled her from the bottom of Gad 1 to the Plaza at Snowbird. And I don't think she got it, but it didn't really matter, because the music was enough. They say without a partner, life is meaningless, but with the right record, you're never alone, your life is rich and full.

So I'm driving down Beverly Glen decades later and I couldn't be happier. And I just had to tell you about it.

P.S. Alan Parsons mixed this album and Ambrosia appeared on "Tales of Mystery and Imagination"!


Spotify playlist: http://spoti.fi/p6HcZ8

Previous Rhinofy playlists: http://www.rhinofy.com/lefsetz


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