Ashes Are Burning

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Ashes Are Burning
Ashes Are Burning cover
Studio album by Renaissance
Released 1973
Genre Progressive rock
Length 40:39
Professional reviews
Renaissance chronology
Prologue
(1972)		 Ashes are Burning
(1973)		 Turn Of The Cards
(1974)
US release cover
US release cover

Ashes Are Burning was a 1973 album by progressive rock band Renaissance. It was the first of several Renaissance albums to feature an orchestra playing along with the band on some songs.

Contents

[edit] Information about the album

Michael Dunford, who had been working with Renaissance in a composer-only role, had rejoined the band by the time this album was released. However, he wasn't officially part of the band when the album package was designed, so he doesn't appear in the cover photos and is listed as a guest musician.

The song "Can You Understand?" uses a quote from "Tonya and Yuri Arrive at Varykino", a theme from Maurice Jarre's score for Doctor Zhivago.[1] It is unclear whether this quote was intentional, given that Jarre's piece was under copyright and used without permission. Because of confusion over the Jarre quote, some live collections (including Live at the Royal Albert Hall : King Biscuit Flower Hour Vol. 1[2] and some unauthorized releases) mistakenly credit "Can You Understand?" entirely to Jarre.

The song "On the Frontier" was previously released (also in 1973) by former Renaissance member Jim McCarty's band Shoot. It was the title track of their only album.[3]

[edit] In the Beginning reissue

In 1978 Ashes Are Burning was reissued, together with the preceding album Prologue, as a double album called In the Beginning. While Prologue was reissued in complete form, the Ashes song "At the Harbour" was edited down to 3:07. This was because a change in copyright laws in the interim had changed the copyright status of certain early 20th century works, including Claude Debussy's La Cathédrale Engloutie, excerpts of which begin and end the full version of "Harbour."[4] The 1988 CD version of In the Beginning (on one disc) had edited versions not only of this song, but of "Ashes Are Burning" and one Prologue song.[5]

[edit] Track listing

EMI-Sovereign SVNA 7261, in other EU territories: oc 064 94663 All songs by Dunford-Thatcher except where noted.

  1. "Can You Understand?" - 9:51
  2. "Let It Grow" - 4:14
  3. "On the Frontier" (McCarty-Thatcher) - 4:55
  4. "Carpet of the Sun" - 3:31
  5. "At the Harbour" - 6:48
  6. "Ashes Are Burning" - 11:20

[edit] Personnel

  • Annie Haslam - lead & backing vocals
  • Jon Camp (listed as "John Camp") - bass, backing vocals, co-lead vocal on "On the Frontier"
  • John Tout - keyboards, backing vocals
  • Terence Sullivan - drums, percussion, backing vocals
  • Michael Dunford - acoustic guitar

Guitar solo on "Ashes Are Burning": Andy Powell

[edit] References

  1. ^ Amazon.com: "Classical pieces recorded by progressive rock groups"
  2. ^ allmusic ((( King Biscuit Flower Hour > Overview )))
  3. ^ Renaissance Discography
  4. ^ Liner notes from the 1990 Tales of 1001 Nights compilations
  5. ^ The History Of Renaissance
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