Rick Wakeman - (1985) Silent Night

Studio Album, released in 1985

Although, this is not Rick Wakeman's very best. Everyone agrees that his A&M recordings were his best. Had this album "Silent Nights" been done by any other obscure artist, I would say that it is quite good (for an 80's progressive output). I know that it's hard to except this as a Rick Wakeman album. For all the albums that Rick Wakeman has done, we cannot possibly expect everyone one of them to be a stellar masterpiece. In the 70's, musicians seem to have more liberty to be creative, and the media was open to expose any unique music concept. Many 70's artists are still legends today. 80's and 90's artists are generally easily forgettable. Thank the record companies for that because it seems that the record companies (from the 80's through to today) didn't allow new ideas to be recorded and sold to the media. This is probably why many people consider Prog Rock to be a dinosaur sound concept. Progressive Rock is intelligent music and yet it's not very popular. What does that tell you? People laugh at the 70's today, but yet, it was the most creative era of ALL music concepts. Now, to get back to Rick Wakeman's "Silent Nights": This is my last favorite album from Rick Wakeman. Basically, I usually enjoy Rick's instrumental works, but I'll say that I do enjoy this album, even for it's vocals. After this album, only a few moments of Rick Wakeman's following albums offered a spark of interest to me. I've bought many, and traded them away because of a lack of interest. The only other album I love from Rick Wakeman after "Rhapsodies", was his soundtrack for "The Burning". I wish it were on CD. "White Rock" is still my favorite Wakeman CD.

Track Listings

1. Tell 'Em All You Know (3:25)
2. The Opening Line (3:43)
3. The Opera (6:25)
4. Man's Best Friend (4:20)
5. Glory Boys (3:15)
6. Silent Nights (3:54)
7. Ghost of a Rock'n'Roll Star (3:30)
8. The Dancer (3:15)
9. Elgin Mansions (5:20)
10. That's Who I Am (4:15)

Total Time: 42:58
Line-up/Musicians

- Rick Wakeman / keyboards, synthesizers, lead vocals (10)
+ Bimbo Acock / saxophone (7-10)
- Tony Burrows / backing vocals (2-3-6-7-9-10
- Alan Carvell / backing vocals (3)
- Chas Cronk / bass
- Rick Fenn / guitars (except on 2)
- Tony Fernandez / drums, percussion
- Sue Glover / backing vocals (1-7)
- John Kirby / backing vocals (1)
- Sonny Leslie / backing vocals (1)
- Val McKenna / backing vocals (9)
- Gordon Neville / lead vocals (1 to 4,6-7-9) backing vocals (1-2-4-5-6-9-10)