KLAATU: A Career Retrospective w/Rand Kelly

[@guidolitjens5796]

Hope is all time classic imo. A beautiful record

[@guidolitjens5796]

Terry draper is a really nice guy, responds always to me on facebook. Greetings from Holland

[@wolf1977]

@@guidolitjens5796 His solo catalog is fantastic. Anyone who loves Klaatu & looking for more 'similar' music should check out his albums (at least 20)

[@Foretherecord]

This is a new band for me, interested to hear you guys discuss. Love having Rand on!

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

again... Rand = PROG! Rand is the man!

[@LarryGravesCanadianStudmuffin]

Enjoyed this. I've always loved Klaatu. My favorite song is also Little Neutrino. Very underrated band that needs more respect.

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

Thanks Larry!

[@richardkeyes5844]

The rumor actually started when an article appeared about Klaatu in the Providence Journal. The album was titled "3:47 est". "Calling Occupants From Interplantary Craft", the first song on the album was once covered by the Carpenters. The reason why their names were not mentioned on the album is because they wanted to be known by their music. Not by their personalities.

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

the Providence Journal! That's it!

[@danielsdilemmarockband]

I was into Klaatu from the beginning. Enjoyed all their albums and still listen to this day

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

Well... you obviously have good taste 👍🏻

[@ultravice191]

Thank you for this. I was a fan since the first album. And I did buy it because I am a Beatles fan. After that I got every album the week they came out. Many I bought several times because I wore them down. Had a few singles also. Even have the Klaatu tribute album "Around The Universe In 80 Minutes". As a gift for my high school graduation I had the Sir Army Suit album artwork recreated on a 3 ft square thick poster board.

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

Love it!

[@TheTop40hub]

Here in Canada they were all over the radio. I bought them all.

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

Not quite the same here in the states ☹️

[@wolf1977]

@@GrantsRockWarehaus I may misremember this but I think that first album was all over the radio back then (at least 5 of the tracks anyway) in my neck of the US (CT). The other albums no...

[@worldmusic09]

Sir Army Suit is one of the best pop albums of the late 70s. Stunning how it didn't catch on.

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

I agree!

[@sophiehanssel2017]

Earlier this year I accomplished something big: ordering my VERY FIRST Klaatu CD off of eBay. They're very rare and hard to find and I got this one, "Sir Army Suit" at a very good price and it's got great sound when I play it on the speakers. Physical media rules!!!

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

100%

[@13thBeatleJr]

“Little Nutrino” is the Stones - “In Another Land. “ Fortunate they didn’t get sued😅

[@JimBrink-ko1zk]

Glad Rand getting some love 👍🏻👍🏻

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

Rand is the man!

[@Mark-sr3dk]

There was a German pressing of Hope..wish I bought it.

[@LSUfan]

The lyrics to Silly Boys were derived by playing Anus of Uranus backwards and coming up with words that sounded like the backwards words of Uranus.

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

I had no idea! Thank you!

[@LSUfan]

Fair review of a band I discovered in the discount bin at K-Mart. I did not know of the Beatles rumor so I judged the music on its own merits. Got all their records and I enjoyed all of them. Their choice of instrumentation was supurb. I would rank the albums as 1 Hope 2 Klaatu 3 Sir Army Suit 4 Magentalane. For December Dream alone 5 Endangered Species (how could you both not mention the excellent Knee Deep in Love)

[@wolf1977]

Klaatu (Barada Nikto)...Great debut album & referencing a wonderful early (1951) sci-fi movie/The Day the Earth Stood Still. Still one of my all time faves...Anyone around at the time & listening to the radio knows/remembers the 'This is really The Beatles' hype surrounding the band & were even referred to as the "Canadian Beatles" (they're really a group of Canadian studio/session musicians). To me they never got close to that first album which is really really good, and got TONS of radio airplay back in the day. Throw The Beatles, ELO/Moodies, Queen & maybe 10cc into a blender and what do you get (besides a lot of chopped-up songs)? Klaatu - that's who. The one somewhat weird thing is that like a few other bands there exist more compilations (6) than actual studio albums (5) which is usually a bad sign but not here...I'll rank their output this way: 1. The debut aka 3:47 EST - by a mile! 2. Sir Army Suit 3. Endangered Species 4. Hope & Magentalane

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

Hope at 4? This might break the interwebs... haha

[@wolf1977]

@@GrantsRockWarehaus Yeah Hope's not my go-to Klaatu album. It's OK, not saying it's bad or anything like that, but when I wanna hear something from this band I grab the debut (and Sir Army Suit at times) before anything else...And if you really love Hope then check out Terry Draper's solo album Civil War... And Other Love Songs. I think a lot of the solo Draper stuff is in the Klaatu lane

[@taoofjohnandpaul]

My favorite song of their's is Knee Deep In Love from the maligned 4th album. Catchy melody and great lyrics!

[@JayMil365]

Rand kicks ass on this one!

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

Rand is the man... makes my life as a host so easy!

[@daveycretin664]

Another sterling show from two groovy gurus! Of course, I remember hearing all about “the mystery that Klaatu were, in fact, The Beatles,” when l began working at record stores in the 80s. Obviously, it was a fallacy, but it did - at least initially - help them to sell albums. Prior to everyone having information at their fingertips, this was how tall tales, myths and hoaxes all began. Other than the first record, I rarely saw the two follow ups on second hand vinyl at all. And l don’t ever recall seeing the two 80s albums on vinyl! Another exquisite cult band for me to dig further into. I haven’t heard that debut in decades! Cheers from The Big Apple. Rock Out, Prog On and Pogo! Frog On! Your pal and mine, ~ The Incredible, Edible Dave… y Cretin, from CRETIN CLASSICS.

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

Cretin, you better get onboard!

[@MRTTMT]

Had the first 2 on 8 track, loved them, later got CD's , didn't care for anything released after.

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

gasp! haha

[@danny1959]

“Silly Boys” was recorded backwards phonetically and then reversed so that it sounded forward.

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

I dig it!

[@worldmusic09]

Surprised he didn't know that Leland Sklar played bass on the Endangered Species album

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

Especially coming from Rand... he's an encyclopedia

[@wolf1977]

Not sure if this was discussed but...Klaatu member Dee Long has an album called 1​,​2​,​3​,​5 of pre-Klaatu demos (1973), including with Bloodstone (posted on Bandcamp). And he put out at least a couple of later solo albums (Outside & Long Live And Prosper) that're prog - not bad! Terry Draper has a number of solo releases (at least 20!). Also there's the related Terry McManus' Gimme A Hand

[@frugalseverin2282]

'Doctor Marvello' was the most Beatlesque to me. Their 2nd album was the best, the later albums were just mediocre song collections, not too memorable. I had "Hope" on 8-track tape and the songs were out of order, such a mess.

[@ChampippleD]

Aren’t they just the Beatles?

[@GrantsRockWarehaus]

of course... don't tell anyone

[@peterbrickley6041]

It's actually Pete best!! 😊