Real To Reel - Marillion > Reviews > Marillion Live and Untamed

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money

Advantages:	Fabulous songs, great lyrics, live energy
Disadvantages:	Some might find it obscure and difficult to get into

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Before we get started I want to say I’m not really a big music buff. So sorry if this review is missing the right terminology! I’ve also included quite a lot of lyrics. I think in many cases they tell you more about the songs than my words can, so I hope you will excuse that! If your reaction to the lyrics included is ‘huh?’ you are probably not going to enjoy this album!

I was first introduced to Marillion during my college years when a girlfriend dragged me to one of their concerts. We hitchhiked to the venue: the local civic centre in Aylesbury. Not the usual venue for what was very much a stadium band, but it was their hometown. I remember seeing a stagehand putting one of the microphone stands up to way above his head. It turned out to be just the right height for lead singer Fish... Huge guy.

And then the concert started… The acoustics were appalling. But nobody cared. Fish hasn’t got the greatest voice, but he’s a great performer, and writes incredible lyrics. His songs really are poetry put to music. I hardly heard the band as the whole audience joined in. In fact, even though I didn’t know the words, I found myself joining in too. The energy was incredible. They did a great concert but the audience weren’t going to let them go that easily. For the first encore they were joined by Ozzy Osborne or Alice Cooper (I know it’s bad, but I have to admit I can’t remember…) to sing ‘I’ll Take the High Road’. For the second encore they did an entire side of an album. We staggered out at well past midnight and walked several miles out of town before ending up sleeping (or rather not sleeping) in a derelict old oak barn. In the morning we walked ten miles to the motorway with nothing but an apple to eat before we got a lift. It was all an amazing experience.

Shortly after that Fish left the band. I’ve never been able to bring myself to listen to any of the stuff Marillion have done since.

Marillion were fabulous live. They might come from the era of stadium rock, when Pink Floyd and Bowie played immaculate performances with million-dollar staging. They’re probably closest to early Genesis in terms of their music. But, while being every bit as intellectual as the likes of the Floyd, Marillion were more down to earth and ‘human’. When playing live they fed off the audience. This comes through in the recordings. I feel that their live albums, like this one, have an energy that some of their studio recordings lack.

All the tracks on this album are live, recorded in Canada and Leicester, England.

First up here is ‘Assassing’, a song about verbal assassination. It opens with mystical synth, but once the beat comes in I’d defy anyone not to want to tap along. It’s driving and catchy. Fish’s talents are well shown off here.

‘I am the assassin, with tongue forged from eloquence
I am the assassin, providing your nemesis
On the sacrificial altar to success, my friend
Unleash a stranger from a kiss, my friend
No incantations of remorse, my friend
Unsheathe the blade within the voice, my friend’

‘Incubus’, is less successful if you ask me. It seems to be about a lover left behind by a woman who’s now found fame? It’s sad and quite dark by the end.

‘You can't brush me under the carpet, you can't hide me under the stairs
The custodian of your private fears, your leading actor of yesteryear
Who as you crawled out of the alleys of obscurity
Sentenced to rejection in the morass of anonymity
You who I directed with lovers will, you who I let hypnotise the lens’

‘Cinderella Search’ is next up. Fish declares at the start of this track “This is dedicated to all the drunken romantics in the audience”. Whilst the subject of the search for love might be sad, this is actually quite a positive song, since it’s about hope. Not brilliant, but easy to listen to.

‘On the rebound, fumbling all the lines
The light at the end of the bottle - alcoholic alphabet
Through the looking glass the proof in my own reflection
Five senses down and reeling on the Cinderella search’

‘Emerald Lies’ is about jealousy and the break up of a relationship, and an uncomfortable song, right from it’s discordant opening.

‘To don the robes of Torquemada, resurrect the inquisition
In that tortured subtle manner inflict questions within questions
Looking in shades of green through shades of blue
I trust you trust in me to mistrust you’

The album really takes off again for me with ‘Forgotten Sons’. Though it’s dedicated to the victims of an IRA bomb, it can be taken as having a wider meaning. It’s a long track (over ten minutes) with some great memorable lyrics, and talks about how soon we forget our heroes.

‘From the dole queue to the regiment a profession in a flash
But remember Monday signings when from door to door you dash
On the news a nation mourns you unknown soldier, count the cost
For a second you'll be famous but labelled posthumous’

Some of the lyrics echo well-known prayers, which might worry some people. But they are used to very powerful effect.

The final two songs are great concert favourites. I think most groups have songs that they HAVE to play at a concert, and I hear these are the ones for Marillion.

‘Garden Party’ pokes fun at the upper echelons of British Society, though it’s clearly taken from personal experience. It’s based on a garden party at Cambridge University (the line ‘By still Cam waters’ refers to the river Cam in Cambridge). My brother went to Cambridge, and apparently Marillion were very popular with the students! Back to the song… it’s got some good in jokes and word play.

‘Edgy eggs and queuing cumbers
Rudely wakened from their slumbers
Time has come again for slaughter
On the lawns by still Cam waters’

‘Market Square Heroes’ goes to the other end of the spectrum and is a song for disaffected in society. It’s one of the few Marillion songs that really has a chorus, and at a concert the fans raise the roof on this one. A really up-beat, powerful song to end the album.

‘I give peace signs when I wage war in the disco
I'm the warrior in the ultra violet haze
Armed with antisocial insecurity
I plan the path of destiny from this maze’

Overall I do feel the tracks in the middle of the album work less well than those at the start and end. But that may be partly just personal preference. All the tracks show off Fish’s ability with lyrics, well supported by a very talented band of musicians.

‘Real to Reel’ was originally released in 1984, and is available as a separate CD (and on vinyl), but the best way to get it as part of a double album CD with ‘Brief Encounter’. That way it’s one hell of a bargain.

Lyrics taken from the official Marillion site. In some cases the live versions do vary slightly, but I think all the ones here are as they are sung.