"Ashes Are Burning" is a Renaissance Affair to Remember: Prog Review #31
The opening two-and-a-half-minutes of Ashes Are Burning (1973) are glorious.
Can You Understand?
An ephemeral piano gradually fades up until a crash of guitar and drums introduces a soaring melody propelled by percussive piano, backed by tinny cymbals and a meaty bassline. Before the groove wears out its welcome, a synthesizer howl pitches up, a breakdown, and the melody changes before transitioning into near-silent atmospherics. When the music cuts back in, it's 60s folk proggified. Angelic backing "ah"s, and then "Can You Understand" truly begins: it's a slow acoustic-led number, with faintly eastern vibes supporting Annie Halsam's confident, wide-ranging vocals. Then the song ends as it began, with the return of the proggy-yet-traditionalist instrumental.
It's an incredible trick of Renaissance that I'm familiar with from another of their albums, Scheherazade and Other Stories (1975). They embellish simple songs with a grand fusion of English folk melody and driving, impassioned rock instruments, plus some eastern and classical touches.
Annie Halsam's ethereal voice hearkens back to Joni Mitchel—or forward to Dolores O'riordan—in its warmth and evocativeness and harmonious juxtaposition with an acoustic guitar. The twinkling percussion and Renaissance fair strings serve important roles as well.
Clear your mind maybe you will find / That the past is still turning / Circles sway echo yesterday / Ashes burning ashes burning - “Ashes Are Burning”
Taking Inspiration from the Past
Renaissance's name is aptly chosen. As classic prog bands go, Renaissance barely classifies. Many of the songs are short, self-contained English folk songs: warm, pastoral, and lush. The finest, most uplifting of these is the beatific "Let it Grow." The classical piano section of "On the Frontier" signal the band's sensibilities as an act comfortable to look mainly toward Europe's musical past for inspiration in creating something new; "At the Harbour" is practically an aria!
On the final track, the enduring "Ashes Are Burning," Renaissance is a little more ambitious, incorporating piano, harpsichord, and synths in turn, perhaps illustrating the many incarnations of the clavichord and their shared relevance to the contemporary scene. The 11-minute track isn't exactly a multi-movement epic, but it contains enough shifts in tone and rhythm to please many a prog fan with its trade-offs of virtuosic solos, including a wordless vocal line that showcases Halsam at her most operatic.
Ashes are Burning is nowhere near the most complex or challenging or innovative albums to feature on Rolling Stone's list. It is, perhaps, the most pleasant.
Rolling Stone Rankings
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
Rush - Moving Pictures
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Yes – Close to the Edge
Genesis - Selling England by the Pound
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Can - Future Days
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Yes - Fragile
Rush - Hemispheres
ELP - Brain Salad Surgery
Pink Floyd - Animals
Genesis - Foxtrot
King Crimson - Red
Gentle Giant - Octopus
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All
Premiata Forneria Marconi - Per Un Amico
King Crimson - Larks’ Tongue in Aspic
Camel - Mirage
Rush - 2112
Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
Magma - Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh
The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium
Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts
Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Dream Theater - Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory
U.K. - U.K.
Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning
ASK Rankings
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Genesis - Foxtrot
Camel - Mirage
Yes – Close to the Edge
Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning
King Crimson - Red
Gentle Giant - Octopus
Dream Theater - Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory
Genesis - Selling England by the Pound
Rush - 2112
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
ELP - Brain Salad Surgery
U.K. - U.K
Rush - Moving Pictures
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium
Premiata Forneria Marconi - Per Un Amico
King Crimson - Larks’ Tongue in Aspic
Pink Floyd - Animals
Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All
Yes - Fragile
Rush - Hemispheres
Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
Magma - Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Can - Future Days
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here