antiMusic.com: The Other Side of Rick Wakeman DVD Review

The Other Side of Rick Wakeman DVD Review

by Kevin Wierzbicki

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This film is sort of a sequel to Wakeman's The Legend Live in Concert 2000. For that show Wakeman punctuated his musical performance with between-song anecdotes and that format is again followed here, except that this time around Wakeman leaves the electronics at home and works with just a grand piano. It's obvious, too, that Wakeman has worked on his storytelling---his comedic timing is good as he tells stories that go back to well before his stint(s) with Yes.

I don't want to go too into detail here on the comedy bits as I don't want to spoil the "punch lines" for you but one of the funnier moments comes when Wakeman tells about accidentally setting a piano on fire while he was in the studio recording the song "Fire" with Carl Douglas of "Kung Fu Fighting" fame.

Other laughs come when Wakeman recounts cutting a toilet paper jingle and making up his own title for Haydn's "Sonata in D"---"I Wonder if She Has Freckles on Her Tits." Not everything is meant to be amusing and one of those instances is when Wakeman tells about working out the piano part of "Life on Mars?" with David Bowie. You'll hear a nice performance of that piece along with Cat Stevens' "Morning Has Broken," the Beatles' "Help" and "Eleanor Rigby" and many cuts from Wakeman's catalog as a solo artist and as a member of Yes.

CD Info and Links

The Other Side of Rick Wakeman DVD
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