Earth & Fire – The Best of Earth & Fire

Well, this is the last album from my latest trip to The City of Diamonds, Amsterdam.  Overall, I was really happy with all the records I bought.  I mean, I could have done better with the spoken word album, but other than that, really great music that I would have not been exposed to otherwise, including this effort, which I bought for 2 Euro.  You are probably thinking the same thing I was thinking when I bought this: What happened to Wind?

Well, I went this year specifically for The Light Festival.  This year was a bit subdued.  I think the poor weather knocked a few of the installations out of commission.  Also, the poor weather kept me from hitting all the exhibits.  But I did see a good chunk of the show.  And overall, it was still interesting.  A red band lit the exhibit’s path over the canals by Chinese artist Al Weiwei, which made navigation a bit easier this year.  And there were some smaller exhibitions off by the Nautical Museum.  Other than that, just another trip to the Dam.  My main complaint (other than the weather) is that it had to end.

On to this, Earth & Fire were a Dutch progressive rock band (or beat band) formed by the Koerts Twins in 1968.  The two had been performing for some time in the 60’s and eventually formed this venture.  After some initial success, and a slot opening for Golden Earing, vocalist Jerney Kaagman joined the band and their first album became a success.  They were huge in the Netherlands and in Germany but never really gained fame in the US or England.  With changing tastes, the band changed personnel in the late 70’s, disbanding in 1983 with a few reunions following thereafter.

I must say I really, really liked this album.  Plus (and this is me being selfish), it is in English.  Very good progressive rock. Great vocals as well as good music.  Very guitar driven at the beginning but the music seemed to move more towards keyboards as tit got later in the 70’s.

Oddly enough, like yesterday’s post, the band’s most successful single, “Weekend” came out right after the release of this album.   It should be noted that it sounds nothing like the songs on this album.  This album, by the way, came out in 1979.

I could have used the whole album as samples, but decided to try and show some restraint.  Therefore, I am going with “Memories”, “Wild and Exciting”, and “Seasons”.

I truly thought this album was going to be crap.  I mean real crap.  So I was really blown away when I heard this.  Most definitely a top rated record.