Listening to Caravan: Cunning Stunts, Part 3

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[@richarddobson815]

It's just a lovely album to listen to. I'm pleased you enjoyed it Jim.

[@MinstrelInTheGallery]

I absolutely enjoy this album, especially side 2. It's just amazing!!

[@paulbrookes413]

What a ride 😎

[@TheSealords]

If it's risk taking and skillful playing you're after, then For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night is the Caravan album for you. The musicianship on that album is some of the best I've ever heard, anywhere. It's my Friday afternoon drive home album. Every Friday I turn it on and by the time I'm home I'm grinning from ear to ear. How can you not feel happy when listening to Caravan? 🙂 🎼🎵🎶🎹

[@AnguaP]

Completely agree with your assessment of this album. The first side is sort of forgettable apart from 'The Show of Our Lives', which is so beautifully reprised at the end of the marvellous 'Dabsong Conshirtoe'. (I admit to often listening to this album that way: first listening to TSoOL, and then turning it over to listen to Dabsong.) Dabsong is so quintessentially Canterbury; same goes for the last song on 1973's 'For Girls Who Grow Plump ...'; 'L'Auberge du Sanglier' is the longest song on that album, and it's comprised of a number of parts (like Dabsong).

[@parshakamarsh]

That's what I do with this album, " The Show Of Our Lives", then straight over to "Dabsong" 😅

[@melvinwomack3717]

YES the Grand finale

[@murdockreviews]

Very different form the earlier Caravan I've heard. And I'm probably in the tasteless minority here, but I enjoy this actually more.

[@WooBino.]

I much prefer this type of music over the heavy growling metal anyday! I could almost hear Paul McCartney sing this stuff and at times it sounds like a heavier version of Wings.

[@runciblemoon1194]

Nice one Jim! I'm a sucker for anything remotely Canterbury adjacent, even "lesser" albums from that esteemed canon such as this one. I think with hindsight we can view Cunning Stunts as very much a transitional album. They're moving on from the more hardcore prog and fusion sound they'd explored for several albums and trying to find a way to balance it out with radio friendly pop and funk sensibilities. The results are mixed, but far from boring! Their next album (Blind Dog, which I sincerely hope you'll get to eventually seeing as you have it in your collection) gets unfairly overlooked as many see Cunning Stunts as the beginning of the end. I actually think Blind Dog 100% nails what they were attempting and only partially pulling off on Cunning Stunts, making for a much more consistently fun listen. But for pure unadulterated proggy Canterbury goodness you must get around to "If I Could Do It All Again..." and, my personal favourite Caravan album, "For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night". That one in particular, Jim, I guarantee will blow your proverbial socks off!

[@JimNewstead]

I can't wait to hear more!

[@parshakamarsh]

​@@JimNewsteadplease, please get 'For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night', you really won't regret it, it's superb 😅

[@rudolfbecker4313]

Same story - other record. When I was in my teens, I didn't care for "beautiful" music ... it had to be hard and loud. My older brother had a record of Caravan, I maybe listened to it once ...Decades later, discovering all the bands I had heard of but never listened, I also gave Caravan a second chance and bought In the land of grey and pink. I like it a bit better than Cunning Stunts, even though it also has good songs/parts. You said in part one "why discover new music, when there is still so much old to discover". I personally like both, discovering old and new music and there is lots of great music in the last 2 decades and discovering is part of the fun. Maybe you build a bridge between this old english band and a much newer one ...

[@JimNewstead]

Of course you're right Rudi - but my point is that I think too many people NEVER listen to the music from the past, and they are missing out on the greatest music of all!

[@kenl2091]

Far more pop-orientated?? Flay the bloody hide off him!! Nah, you're right of course but the pleasure lies in knowing the disintegration of the pretty pop tunes to come, ending with the cacophony of All Sorts of Unmentionable Things. It's a trick used by The Chemical Brothers in 'Where Do I Begin' and any number of Mogwai or GodSpeed You! Black Emperor gigs.

[@rudolfbecker4313]

Hi Ken, can you please explain to a non-native-speaker what exactly "flay the bloody hide off him" means. Having known more Americans than English people throughout my life, I really enjoy picking up certain expressions from Jim, that I never heard before

[@kenl2091]

@@rudolfbecker4313 Well, it ain't pleasant! Basically it means to remove the skin off someone, usually by whipping while still alive. The hide is the skin (usually used when referring to an animal skin) and bloody is used as a swear word here for emphasis. (I learned at school that 'bloody' is actually a religion-related swear word, being a contraction of 'By our Lady'.) The clip used sounds like it's a sample from a movie but I don't know which one.

[@rudolfbecker4313]

@@kenl2091 I knew bloody from "you bloody bastard" but had never heard of Flash and didn't want to look it up 😉

[@rudolfbecker4313]

*f**k autocorrect : Flay is the word, I didn't know

[@JimNewstead]

I certainly didn't mean any disrespect when I said "poppy" but yeah, take my hide... on second thoughts....

[@palantir135]

Good afternoon Jim, Bloody hot here. We have a regional heat wave since today. Curious if this album will beat my most favorite one In the land of grey and pink. No, not really. The song are composed and played a bit too careful as if they’re being hold back. As you said: not adventurous enough. The previous side had the same problem. The two last and great songs can’t make up for the rest. Oh wait there’s another very short track.

[@JimNewstead]

It was super hot here last week too, but has cooled down significantly now.

[@palantir135]

@@JimNewstead we had seven days in a row above 30-32°C. 🥵 Tomorrow around 21° and around the weekend significantly warmer. Next week normal or slightly above normal temperatures for the time of the year; around 20°C. Hooray.

[@xlerb_again_to_music7908]

Hmmm. 2nd half of this side better then 1st; rather lost interest in that and skipped ahead.

[@colmwatulikededazio973]

Love and kisses for that bit of beautiful nostalga . Magic moments relived. Ta mate. Slan.

[@billnole2188]

Different vocal sound on this side, doesn't sound like John Lennon anymore. Actually, more enjoyable and proggy, even with horns, which I suspect were synth driven. Over the years, there have been comparisons to Camel, likely due to band members working in both bands as well as the flute being a mainstay. But Camel cannot be confused with the "Canterbury sound" as Caravan are.