Continuing my theme of Seventies hard rock music I would like to share my love of a particular sub-genre, what you might call heraldic rock. This music is steeped in images from the worlds of myth and legend and in particular the paraphernalia of battles. Another name might be chivalric or battle rock.
Many rock bands crafted fine heraldic tracks and in particular songs about battles. These were often fused with a love of Tolkien, Knights, swords and sorcery, which were so popular in the Seventies.
Probably the greatest exponents of this were Wishbone Ash, whose dual guitar technique and sense of Arthurian legend, gave us most likely the single most heraldic of all Seventies rock albums, Argus, from which I have picked a track in my top 5 below.
So, without so much as a change of armour, I give you my top five heraldic rock tracks courtesy of You Tube [apologies for the pesky ads]:
Although the title concerns Achilles, the famous soldier hero of the Trojan War, the song itself isn't directly to do with his battles. However, because the track is so musically dramatic I always imagine a battle scene of legend so it's included. At over 10 minutes its the first of several long players! [this slot could easily have been No Quarter by Zep 1973 as well]. Monumental.
One of several Zep tracks inspired by Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, this is by far the most acoustic of my top 5. With classic lines like "I'm waiting for the angels of Avalon, waiting for the eastern glow" and "the drums will shake the castle walls, the ringwraiths ride in black", its guaranteed to get you reaching for your sandals and spiraling your broadsword in figures of eight! Mordorian!
One of my all time favourite rock tracks from one of my all time favourite albums, Very 'eavy, Very 'umble by the utterly brilliant Uriah Heep, named after a character in Dickens' David Copperfield. Wake Up may not be about a battle but the line "Oh God, stop this killing, said a young man before he died" is sang so emotionally that it sounds like the plea of dying soldiers everywhere. Goosepimpling!
Things are hotting up now as we reach the summit. By Tor and the Snow Dog vied for the top spot when I started compiling this list as it is quite simply brilliant. From Rush's awesome Fly By Night album, By Tor described, both lyrically and musically, the battle between a huge mythical owl, By Tor, and a snow dog, which I have always taken to mean a white wolf. The song not only introduces us to fantastic words like "The Tobes of Hades", which when I was 15 I'd never heard of, but pits electric guitars against each other like no other track ever had or ever will. The growls and shrieks spilling from Lee's and Lifeson's frets are simply unforgettable. Magnificent!
And now to the top spot. Throw Down The Sword is classic Wishbone Ash and a swash of heraldic rock par excellence and perhaps THE defining moment of the sub-genre. In fact the whole of the album it appears on, Argus, could itself easily be seen as its crowning moment. With its cover image of an ancient helmeted warrior staring into the distance, Argus embodies that Seventies fascination with classical myth and legend, which bloomed at the tail-end of hippiedom.
Throw Down The Sword is an elegiac cry for peace and pacifism, perfectly tapping into the decade's zeitgeist when counter-culture ruled and CND sponsored the Glastonbury main stage! Not to be confused with chucking out your Project SWORD toys [a bit like Brains in Thunderbird 6!], Throw Down the Sword inspired me to write my own Arthurian eulogy England is Sinking it Seems in 1978 and Sword is THE song I would like to sing onstage with the Ash! Here are the lyrics:
Throw down the sword,
The fight is done and over,
Neither lost, neither won.
To cast away the fury of the battle
And turn my weary eyes for home.
There were times when I stood at death's own door
Only hoping for an answer.
Throw down the sword,
And leave the glory
A story time can never change.
To walk the road, the load I have to carry
A journey's end, a wounded soul.
There were times when I stood at death's own door
Only searching for an answer.
*
Honorable mentions should also go to Queen's Ogre Battle and side 1 of Rush's concept album 2112.
What would your suggestions be readers?
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