No recommendations, but just a comment on how rarely Uriah Heep gets mentioned around here!
Love’m!
Orchestrated Rock...Uriah Heep and others
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zau-okpFssg
Released in 1971 Salisbury by Uriah Heep was always one of my favorite Prog Rock albums and groups.
I recently re-listened to the re-mastered title track on my high end system for the first time. Kind of blew my mind. 16 minutes long.
I concluded that I’ve always enjoyed orchestrated rock, which probalby started with Neal Young’s Harvest.
Any suggestions of other classic rock groups that used orchestration would be appreciated.
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Just off the top of my well abused & old as dirt brain I recall:Pink Floyd,Led Zeppelin,The Scorpions,White Snake,UFO,ELO,EL&P,The Beatles,The Beach Boys,Deep Purple,Queen,Metallica,Alan Parsons Project,Supertramp,Kansas,Jethro Tull,Rush & Stevie Nicks all using full orchestras at one time or another...I'm sure just about EVERY decent rock band did this as well... |
Procol Harum - 'Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra' Elton John - 'Live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra' Electric Light Orchestra - 'Eldorado' Metallica - 'S&M' 4 that I can think of offhand. Procol Harum was the earliest in 1972. ELO was a year or two later. Rich
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@yoyoyaya: That Deep Purple/ Orchestra recording is musically awful! I bought it back in 1968 when I was in high school. The worst Deep Purple album hands down! Another awful collaboration is Metallica performing Alban Berg’s opera Lulu. |
Check these guys out: Lucifer's Friend - Spanish Galleon (FULL) (youtube.com) Now listen to this album: L̤ṳc̤i̤f̤e̤r̤'̤s̤ ̤F̤r̤i̤e̤n̤d --L̤ṳc̤i̤f̤e̤r̤'̤s̤ ̤F̤r̤i̤e̤n̤d̤ ̤1̤9̤7̤0̤ Full Album (youtube.com) Uriah Heep singer John Lawton was in both bands. I think you find what you are looking for with Lucifer's Friend.
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“Tommy” by the Who is a brilliant work of art by one of the great rock bands ever. It is truly a rock opera & has much orchestration. The original recording isn’t bad & the reissue was cleaned up a bit & overall better sounding. Turn off the lights, turn it up load & enjoy!
”Life’s a Long Song” by the brilliant Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull fame is a beautiful song from their “Living in the Past” in 1971. He has often performed w/ full symphony orchestras many of his classic hits. There’s a great version of him w/ a string quartet, drummer & piano on YouTube. |
@Jasonbourne - for the avoidance of doubt, I don't have the recording in my collection - which has all the other Purple albums. I was just citing it because it is a "does what it says on the tin" in terms of the question the OP asked. Similarly, I'm not a fan of ELP's mangulation of the classical catalogue. In fact, the majority of prog rock hasn't worn well for me. |
There is so much brilliant music that I believe falls within what you are describing. Obviously, a very high percentage of prog from all eras fits. And of course, the use of Mellotron by a high percentage of prog bands also lends that orchestral feel, with the Mellotron’s analog sampling of massed orchestral: strings, horns, flutes choirs, oboes, etc is a big contributor to the orchestral fee. Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Renaissance, are a few from the classic rock era. But other countries also produced some world class symphonic/orchestral prog, also. Italy being the best and most prolific. But France and Spain have their share, too. Check out: Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) / their first 4 or so releases are incredible. Monstrous musicianship, beautiful melodies. Banco del Mutuo Socorrso (Banco) / Keyboard playing right up there with Wakeman or Emerson, great compositions, and an incredible vocalist with close to 5 octave range. Arti E Mestieri / Their debut album, Tilt, is like symphonic prog meets jazz-rock fusion. With terrifying chops by all band members. Änglagård / From, Sweden. Loads of orchestral sounding Mellotron, Beautiful, dark melodies, quite complex. The Flower Kings / Sweden. A pretty traditional prog band (Yes, Genesis influences), very prolific, with plenty of great material. Stardust We Are, Flower Power, and Unfold the Future are probably their strongest releases. Their latest releases are a bit too mainstream for my tastes. I could talk about quite a bit of the prog subgenre of avant-prog, which has a great deal of symphonic sounding material, but bands in this subgenre compose mostly atonal music, so it can be a bit "thorny" sounding. And not always an easy listening experience, but artistically rewarding nonetheless. These bands also tend to have a lot of non-traditional (for rock) instruments that give them an orchestral feel: cello, violin, oboe, flute, English horn, and others. |
I’ll post more that might be of interest. Anekdoten - Until All the Ghosts Are Gone (2015) / Swedish band that stated off sounding a bit in the King Crimson vein, then got a bit more ambient in their middle releases, but their latest is pure symphonic prog. Mellotron and cello add to the symphonic feel. Renaissance - Turn of the Card, Ashes Burning, Novella, Scheherazade and Other Stories, and Live at Carnegie Hall (with the NY Phil) / Beautiful symphonic prog, with great bass and keys, and the incomparable Annie Haslam on vocals. She has a 5 octave voice, with near perfect intonation, and loads of emotion. She really is a wonder! Wobbler - From Silence to Somewhere (2017) / From Norway. All their recordings are great, this is probably their best. Melodic, complex, with loads of contrasts between quiet introspective passages, and intense passages. Besides symphonic sounding keys, there is also quite a bit of flute and other woodwinds to add to the symphonic feel. All Traps on Earth - Drop of Light (2018) / To bad this band seems to be a "one and done" band, because this was probably the best prog release of 2018. Loads of Mellotron, concert percussion, flutes, recorders give it a very symphonic sound. This recording is like an expert class in Mellotron playing. Opeth - Pale Communion (2014) / From Sweden. Made their reputation playing progressive black-metal, but they always had a symphonic prog streak, Then, they they dropped the black-metal with their 10th release, Heritage, and dropped the growls. But even Blackwater Park, and Ghost Reveries from the black-metal period are pretty great albums, with plenty of symphonic feel. Growling vocals, so YMMV.
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Before Neil Young had Jack Nitzsche add orchestration to his early solo albums, Jack had done the same for Neil's Buffalo Springfield song "Expecting To Fly". Jack had written the orchestrations for Phil Spector's recordings, those recordings also known for the musicians playing on them, in a studio band known as The Wrecking Crew. For "Expecting To Fly", rather than having all the Buffalo Springfield members participate in the recording, Jack brought in Wrecking Crew members Carole Kaye (electric bass), Jim Gordon (drums), Don Randi (piano and harpsichord), Russ Titelman (guitar), and himself on electric piano. Jack was a major component of Neil's band on his Harvest and Time Fades Away albums, The Stray Gators. A much better band imo than Crazy Horse. In 1972 Nitzsche wrote and released a heavily orchestrated neo-Classical album entitled St. Giles Cripplegate, recorded with The London Symphony Orchestra. The album is indeed orchestrated, but is in no way "Rock" music.
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