A Song for All Seasons
The eighth album, with electric guitars back in the mix and the band's only UK top-40 album.
Renaissance, 1978
- Released
- 3 March 1978
- Recorded
- November 1977 to January 1978
- Studio
- Advision, CTS (De Lane Lea) and Trident, London
- Label
- Warner Bros. (UK), Sire (North America)
- Producer
- David Hentschel
- Length
- 44:31
Recorded across three London studios with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the album brought electric guitars back into the band's sound. The title track carries Terry Sullivan's first songwriting credit, for the basic tune of its extended instrumental introduction, based on a song he wrote on guitar in 1971. Camp wrote and sang Kindness (At the End). She Is Love is also sung by Camp, though it was meant for Haslam: the orchestral backing track had been recorded in the wrong key for her. A shortened version of Back Home Once Again was the theme of the 1977 television series The Paper Lads.
It reached 35 in the UK, the band's only top-40 album there, 45 in Canada and 58 on the US Billboard 200, and earned a BPI Silver award in 1979. AllMusic's Bruce Eder gave it four stars. A three-CD expanded edition from Esoteric on 29 March 2019 added a BBC Radio 1 session from 19 August 1978 and a concert recorded at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia on 12 April 1978.
Track listing
- Opening Out4:14
- Day of the Dreamer9:43
- Closer than Yesterday3:18
- Kindness (At the End)4:51
- Back Home Once Again3:15
- She Is Love4:11
- Northern Lights4:06
- A Song for All Seasons10:53
Personnel
- Annie Haslam lead vocals
- Michael Dunford 6- and 12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar
- John Tout keyboards
- Jon Camp bass, bass pedals, electric guitar, lead vocals on Kindness (At the End) and She Is Love
- Terry Sullivan drums, percussion
- Royal Philharmonic Orchestra orchestra
- Louis Clark orchestral arrangements
- Harry Rabinowitz orchestral arrangement on She Is Love
- David Hentschel producer
- Barry Griffiths leader of the orchestra
More from Renaissance
Ashes Are Burning (1973), Turn of the Cards (1974), Scheherazade and Other Stories (1975), Live at Carnegie Hall (1976), Novella (1977)
Sources
- A Song for All Seasons, Wikipedia
- The story of Renaissance's Northern Lights, Louder
- A Song For All Seasons (master), Discogs
- A Song For All Seasons (Warner Bros. K 56460), Discogs