The Whale (1968)
Apple’s Avant Adventure
Back in the day, some of us bought up practically anything that appeared on The Beatles’ Apple Records. Much of it was forgettable, of course, but John Tavener’s The Whale was not. The Whale is a challenging, two-part, half hour mix of esoteric, avant garde classical adventurism – a kindred spirit of 2001: A Space Odyssey‘s “Lux Aeterna” (for 16 unaccompanied voices) and Frank Zappa’s later, neo-operatic musings for 200 Motels. Unlike most Apple artists, Tavener went on to enjoy a successful career that would render The Whale a footnote. Worth a listen for those who thought “Revolution #9″ was a good start for Apple. Amazon.
The Whale, Part 1 (18:26)
The Whale, Part 2 (13:15)
10 Comments
He even looks like George Martin
You know how stoned Lennon was at the time. Maybe that's how he got the job.
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Dear Captain Willard Sir,
Am streamimg "The Whale" by John Taverner right now. Good stuff. Your allusion to Revolution 9 is spot-on. Stoned John must surely have had a laugh when he heard those incomprehensible voices come shrieking in and out of the music.
Lots of fun to be had with the streaming players on your blog, and the hundreds of erchived posts. All the best….
Although I have the vinyl, I keep hoping someone someday will put Lon and Derek Van Eaton’s Brother up; it’s a great, forgotten record and is nowhere to be found online, at least by my meager resources…
Found a Lon and Derek Van Eaton HERE, but the bit rate is 160 and the sound isn’t great.
Hey, it will do till something better comes along! Thanks, Willard!
In my defense on the Lon & Derrek album, I’ve heard the remastered version, and it has definitely been tampered with, with speed changes and earlier fades. I still prefer the original version.
Their other album is there somewhere too.
Another fantastic left field pick I’d perhaps otherwise have never gotten to hear – this totally made my afternoon today. A house with many rooms, to be sure, this disc, not unlike this blog, or the White album, for that matter, in their own diff. ways… and not hard to imagine JL grooving to some smudgy afternoon after digging his tool box of goodies from the back yard, staring at the reel to reels of his home studio setup and wondering if he should finally call the strange Japanese bird from the Indica and have her over, ir just screw about with tapes all day again…
Colin H, Cambridge, Canada
How come all I could picture was a big whale?