ARGUS

ARGUS

January 1972 saw recording for Wishbone Ash's third album commencing at De Lane Lea's newly opened Wembley studios, with Derek Lawrence once again handling production and Martin Birch engineering. The new material was premiered during a four week UK tour running from January 26th to February 20th and subsequently on a short tour of Germany during March.

"Argus" was released in the UK on April 28th 1972 and was without doubt the band's most accomplished and complete work up to this point. Whereas previous albums had tended to sound disjointed at times, "Argus" had a solid direction. The band's songwriting had never been stronger and various references to time, history and war throughout, the albums hangs together much better than either "Wishbone Ash" or "Pilgrimage". However, despite a common thread of loosely related themes running through the album, the band maintain that there was no deliberate attempt to record a concept album.

"I don't think there was any initial sort of conscious concept", states Andy Powell. "We'd all got into this wholre frame of mind around the time of " 14414p156o Argus" and the songs were obviously about similar subjects and it just kept sparking us off."

The album opened with "Time Was" - a song in two vastly different sections, both of which would later be performed independently during concerts. The opening acoustic section opened the album in peaceful, reflective style, with Ted and Martin's vocal harmonies backed by Ted's acoustic guitar picking. In direct contrast, the second part of the song was a straight forward rock outing, with a feel similar to much of the Who's early seventies work. Andy Powell would later admit that, having supported the Who on numerous occasions, their style had an enormous impact. "Time Was" was one of several songs on "Argus" that was written on acoustic instruments.

"It wasn't until we were pretty far along that we'd pick up electric guitars and play with any volume", recalls Andy Powell.

"Sometime World" opens in folky style with Ted's dreamy soloing and one of Martin's finest vocal contributions to the album, before breaking into a faster pace with some fine scat-singing from Martin and Andy followed by one of Andy's most fluent solos of all time. With hindsight, the song should have become a live classic, yet ironically the number had, until 1995, rarely featured in the band's live repertoire in its entirety.

Closing the album's first side, "Blowin' Free" (with it's three part vocal harmonies and featuring Ted Turner's first appearance on slide guitar) was without doubt the most commercial track the band had recorded. It would go on to become a permenant fixture in the band's live set - the "Ash Anthem" to many. The lyrics were written a few years earlier by Martin Turner, as a result of a gig the Empty Vessels played at St.Luke's Hall, Torquay.

"The lyrics to "Blowin' Free" were about a Swedish girlfriend I had at the time", says Martin. "She was called Anneline Werdstrom and came from Gothenburg. We were playing this gig at St.Luke's Hall in Torquay and there must have been 200 Swedish girls present, who were over here on holiday. Well, to have all these girls present and only three of us blokes...!! She was the complete opposite of me and loved nature and being in the open air and all that. The refrain in the song "You can only try" came from a reply she used to give me when I was after a certain thing! I met her a few years later in London and she hadn't changed a bit."

Musically, the famous opening riff was a result of Andy Powell getting together in 1971 with an old musician friend, Mick Groome, later of Ducks De Luxe. As Powell remembers:

"We were trying out various chord patterns and inversions of Beatles and Who songs. One was based on the Who song "See Me Feel Me", I think, and this was where the opening riff to "Blowin' Free" came from. Martin reckoned the middle part of the song was influenced by a Steve Miller Band track from 1967 called "Children of the Future", which he was trying to get the band to learn."

Andy Powell recalls all this coming together during a soundcheck at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles during 1971. Such is the influence of "Blowin' Free" that it is not surprising that parts of the song have been "borrowed" by other artists. The most obvious one is Steely Dan's "Reeling in the Years", where the three part guitar harmony near the end of "Blowin' Free" is virtually the same as the middle section of their song. Another one is Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town", where the twin lead guitar break in the middle bears more than a passing resemblance to the aforementioned part of "Blowin' Free".

The album's second side opens with "The King Will Come", fading in with Andy Powell's famous intro guitar chords, which would signal the start of many a Wishbone Ash concert, against Steve Upton's military snare, overlayed with Ted Turner's wah-wah guitar, whilst Martin Turner's melodic bass holds everything in place. The main body of the song is classic melodic rock at its finest, whilst the lyrical content (sung in harmony by Martin and Andy) deals with the Biblical conception that when the end of the world comes, man will be saved.

"I did quite a lot of research for "The King Will Come" and I can remember reading the Bible for quite a long time. The Bible's an interesting book and although I'm not a particularly religious person, I can remember getting into it as a book and being really fascinated by some of the stuff in there."

Perhaps the must underrated cut on the album, due mainly to the band's reluctance in performing it onstage until some 23 years after the album's release, "Leaf and Stream" is a beautiful English folk song with Steve Upton's first lyrical contribution to a Wishbone Ash album (all other lyrics on "Argus" were written by Martin Turner).

The album's two closing tracks "Warrior" and "Throw Down the Sword" are probably the two which are most closely related, and would usually be performed together at concerts.

Says Martin Turner: "Lyrically, a lot of the material on "Argus" is about time and the relationship with time, like the warrior and that classic sort of symbolism. It's written in a very historical way, but it lends itself to a number of different situations, contemporary or otherwise."

"These days, you'd say that "Warrior" was a song about fighting for your rights and not taking any crap", adds Andy Powell. "It was designed to be a very rousing concert-type song with a big ensemble ending."

"Throw Down the Sword" saw Renaissance's John Tout augmenting the band on organ. Renaissance had become good friends with Wishbone Ash, the two bands having appeared on the same bill on numerous occasions. The following year, Andy Powell returned the compliment by contributing lead guitar to the title track of Renaissance's "Ashes Are Burning" album.

Time Was

I've got to rearrange my life,
I've got to rearrange my world.
I miss you, I need you.

I've got to keep my memories aside
I've got to try to live again.

Time was when there were things around
To be afraid of.
I've got cause, I've even changed my mind
To turn the tables.

Time was when there was no need to stop
And rearrange it.
Now I've got a memory
And I don't want to change it.

And there's a time for waking up
And feeling down
It's when you have to pick your feet
Up from the ground.

Time was when I had you around -
I was a strong man.
I need you to help make the change
And be a new man.

Takes more than a day and a night
For giving.
It's not so easy just to change your way
Of living.


Time was when there were things around
To bother me.
The crime was, I couldn't start
To change my history.

Sometime World


I met a man who felt the same way
That the world had passed him by.
Told me all his troubles
That the world had made him cry.

Life had kept him waiting
Regretting his pain inside.
Had to feel underrated
And hated, besides.

Life had kept him waiting
Regretting his shame inside.
Had to feel underrated
And hated, besides.

Sometime world, pass me by again
Carry you, carry me, away.
(Repeat twice)

Blowin' Free


I thought I had a girl
And all because I seen her.
I thought I had a girl
And all because I seen her.
Her hair was golden brown (yes it was
Blowin' free like a cornfield.

She was far away
I found it hard to reach her.
She told me you can try
But it's impossible to find her.

In my dreams everything was all right -
In your schemes you can only try.

The King Will Come


In the fire, the king will come.
Thunder rolls, piper and drum.
Evil sons, overrun
Count their sins - judgment comes.

The checkerboard of nights and days -
Man will die, man be saved.
The sky will fall, the earth will pray
When judgment comes to claim its day.


See the word of the prophet
On a stone in his hand.
Poison pen revelation
Or just a sign in the sand?


The checkerboard of nights and days -
Man will die, man be saved.
The sky will fall, the earth will pray
When judgment comes to claim its day.


See the word of the prophet
On a stone in his hand.
Poison pen revelation
Or just a sign in the sand?

Leaf and Stream

Find myself beside a stream of empty thought
Like a leaf that's fallen to the ground,
And carried by the flow of water to my dreams
Woken only by your sound.
(Repeat)

Alone I've walked this path for many years
Listened to the wind that calls my name.
The weeping trees of yesterday look so sad
Await your breath of spring again.

Far beyond the hills
Where earth and sky will meet again,
Are shadows like an opening hand.
Control the secrets
That I've yet to find, and wonder at
The light in which they stand.
(Repeat)

Warrior

I'm leaving to search for something new
Leaving everything I ever knew.
A hundred years in the sunshine
Hasn't taught me all there is to know.

In the valley, we will gather there
Helpless in our surrender.
Tomorrow the plow becomes the sword -
Make us stronger in our danger.

Time will pass away
Time will guard our secret.
I'll return again
To fight another day.

I'd have to be a warrior -
A slave I couldn't be -
A soldier and a conqueror
Fighting to be free.
(Repeat three times)

Throw Down The Sword

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.

No Easy Road

Rock 'n roll keeps dragging me
Where I don't know and you can't see
Cities keep rolling by and by
Twist my arm and sting my eye

Watch me join the circus
Watch me steal the show
There ain't no easy money
There ain't no easy road

Buy me, pay me, wonder why we
Stumble across the land
Don't fail for me, I can't fail for you
We start to understand