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Charge Of The Light Brigade, also known as The Unfinished Fusion, is a demo album by Journey containing their first studio recordings as a band, along with three songs recorded live by an earlier version of the band. Some of the songs on this album would later appear on the band's official debut album Journey in alternate or completed versions.

The album is notable for being the only recording Journey made with original drummer Prairie Prince. It is almost entirely instrumental, with only two of its sixteen tracks having vocals.

Background

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Journey was founded as a progressive rock/jazz fusion group in the early 1970s. The original lineup featured guitarist Neal Schon and singer/keyboardist Gregg Rolie, both of whom had just left Santana; guitarist George Tickner and bass player Ross Valory of Frumious Bandersnatch; and drummer Prairie Prince of The Tubes. [1]

The title of the band's demo recording comes from the 1854 poem of the same name by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Studio tracks

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The first thirteen tracks on the album are studio recordings. Similar in style to the band's first three official albums (before their more recognizable recordings with Steve Perry), Charge Of The Light Brigade features progressive hard-rock songs built around heavy guitar and organ solos.[1]

Five of the songs on the demo were re-recorded for the band's official 1975 debut album Journey:

  • "Mystery Mountain" - unfinished studio mix
  • "In The Morning Day" - instrumental version with slower guitar and organ solos
  • "To Make Some Music" - instrumental version; retitled on Journey as "To Play Some Music"
  • "In My Lonely Feeling/Conversations" - instrumental version
  • "Kohoutek" - early version of "Topaz" from Journey; a different song was recorded for Journey and titled "Kohoutek"[1]

"Mystery Mountain" and "Can You Hear Me?" are the only songs on the album with vocals, sung by Gregg Rolie.

Owing to the unfinished nature of the album, some of the songs have a slight hiss or distortion in the background.[2]

Prairie Prince left Journey and returned to The Tubes shortly after recording this demo, finding that his complex drumming style was not a good fit for the band.[1] He was replaced by Aynsley Dunbar, who remained with Journey through their 1978 album Infinity.

Live tracks

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The final three songs are live recordings made on January 1, 1973 at the Sunshine Festival at Diamond Head, Hawaii by a pre-Journey band called Birthday.[2] This band included Schon and Rolie along with British musician Pete Sears on bass and Greg Errico of Sly and the Family Stone on drums.

Pete Sears said of this group:[2]

We had no singer and were basically a power rock trio, although Gregg Rolie sat in on a couple of tunes on B3 and sang "Black Magic Woman" ... it was a fun band and went down well. The crowd went nuts ... but we couldn't find a singer that fit what we were trying to do. We played several shows on the mainland before going our different ways.

Track listing

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Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Mystery Mountain"4:20
2."In The Morning Day"4:06
3."Charge Of The Light Brigade"6:14
4."Still Lovers"4:28
5."To Make Some Music"3:44
6."In My Lonely Feeling/Conversations"4:55
7."Angels From Heaven"3:09
8."Can You Hear Me?"2:43
9."Kohoutek"5:21
10."Out Of Control"6:23
11."To Make Some Music (alternate version)"3:00
12."See The Light"1:50
13."Charge Of The Light Brigade (alternate version)"5:30
14."Your Little Girl"8:26
15."Voodoo Chile (Jimi Hendrix cover)"6:14
16."Tonight"7:29

Personnel

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Band members
(Tracks 1-13)
(Tracks 14-16)[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Journey - Charge of the Light Brigade (Unreleased Demo Tape from 1973)". Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  2. ^ a b c d "Journey - Charge Of The Light Brigade". Retrieved 2017-01-25.
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Category:Journey (band) albums Category:1973 albums

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