throw down the sword this midsummer: wishbone ash's classic album argus

As the weekend closest to Midsummer approaches and the bustle of fairy folk can be heard in the hedgerows I can do but one thing: celebrate the old world's turning with the soundtrack of the solstice itself, Argus by Wishbone Ash, the lords of Avalon when it came to Seventies rock.

Argus, with its beautiful and mysterious cover depicting an ancient soldier, perhaps Greek, perhaps Arthurian, as he or she stares out at a verdigris sky tumbling over a dark forest. Glorious.

This immortal image heralds what is to be found on the album itself, a veritable banquet of Excaliberesque epics and Warrior ballads. It's as if Ash recorded a festival live in Middle Earth and mixed it at Camelot, it really is.

Wishbone Ash were often labelled a college or uni band, their double flying-V guitars an electric novelty. I think this belittles them as they were so much more. I listened to all their classic albums incessantly in the Seventies and still enjoy them all now: Wishbone Ash, Pilgrimage and Argus to name but three.

For me Ash captured a moment, a zeitgeist utterly unique to that decade when a fascination for Tolkein, Arthurian legend, the Ancients and tapping into the green mythos fused perfectly with a brilliant rock lyricism and towering  harmonic guitarmanship. They were like wizard kings with strings!

Below is one of many You Tube links to the whole album but if you have never heard any of it before or indeed any Wishbone Ash then I implore you to sample just one song to start with, Throw Down The Sword, the quintessence of Ash's genius, which can be found by clicking below:

and the full Argus experience can be found by clicking the album cover below beginning with Time Was [sorry about the ads!].

Let me know what you think and enjoy your estival weekend, your Juhannus, your Midsummer's end.