Can’t believe I’d never listened to Gryphon. I’ve been playing their first few albums for the past two days since the teaser image for this episode appeared, and now I’m obsessed. Richard Harvey is so brilliantly virtuosic-the Geddy Lee of folk rock! His shifting from recorder to reed organ or harpsichord at certain spots is prodigious. Thank you, Pete, for sharing this! “Midnight Mushrumps,” the title track, is my new favorite. The name comes from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”
When i was 14, in 1974, i went to my first concert ever. It was YES! Wakeman had left the band but Moraz didnt tour with them. The band opening for YES was Gyphon! That ment that Gryphon was the actual first bandi ever saw. They were awesome! Gryphon had just released "Red Queen to Gryphon Three". I could never find any of their albums in any Record stores. I Finally bought all their album in 2015 from Amazon! Took me 40+ years to find their music.
Love Gryphon! The first two albums are our personal favourites and we have been lucky enough to have our friend Dave Oberlé from Gryphon feature on 3 of our albums! For anyone who missed Gryphon the first time around you are in for a treat - each one of their albums is it's own unique world.
Richard Harvey is one of my all time favorite musicians. His compositions while in Gryphon and later in his film soundtrack and classical music recordings are out of this world. Midnight Mushrumps is one of my all time favorite albums, especially due to the wonderful, epic title track, composed by Harvey when he was not older than 20 !
My ranking: 1. Red Queen To Gryphon Three - their high point. Also my first experience of them 2. Midnight Mushrumps - Delicate and folksy 3. Gryphon - Interesting and less proggy 4. Raindance - You can hear they wanted to distance themselves both from Red Queen and their folk influences a bit 5. Treason - This is mostly based on the first song, Spring Song. The newer albums I haven't heard as much
I had never heard of a crumhorn until I saw it listed in Wobbler’s From Silence to Somewhere. They probably use it at the end of Foxlight, the closer. It’s another double-reed instrument like the oboe and bassoon. I’m highly intrigued by this show and will now dive into Gryphon for the very first time!
I love the bassoon and use it regularly in my compositions. Much as I love the flute, and have had extensive use of clarinet and oboe, I'd have to say the bassoon is my favourite woodwind instrument. I like the krumhorn, but interestingly, I had a chance to buy a krumhorn vsti a few months back, and I declined. It wasn't very good. But I'd have to part credit Gryphon for really giving my interest in medieval instrumentation a significant boost, back in 1990.
Nice to see someone sticking up for Treason! Not sure I'd put it above Red Queen but it's certainly not far off for me. It might be lacking in the folk department compared to the rest, but taken on its own merits it's a very fine example of quirky English rock. Hugely underrated album.
Thanks Pete! I stumbled onto one of your posts due to my interest in Blue Oyster Cult, a band I missed the first time around! (except for the 3 radio hits) I saw them open for Deep Purple about five or six years ago. I'm glad to have subscribed to your channel.I have recently watched your 2nd Prog program, and made a note to investigate Gryphon. On a separate note, your discussion reminded me that I saw Gentle Giant open for Jethro Tull for the Aqualung tour during my time in Germany. So far, I've ordered about a dozen CDs based on your informative videos. After this one I may be ordering a few more. Cheers!
Having never listened to this band, for years I thought it was pronounced Gry-phon.🙄 Being a huge comic book collector, if they'd just spelled it Griffin like in Marvel Comics I would've known better. Pete knows what I'm talking about being a comic book guy. 😂
Love this group to bits, one of the most competent and unique bands of the era 1. Midnight Mushrumps 2. Red Queen to Gryphon Three 3. Get Out of My Fathers Car 4. Raindance 5. Reinvention 6. Gryphon 7. Treason All brilliant
Lucky enough to have seen them in 1975 at Leeds University, certainly very different to what I was used to then, but they were very good. Thanks a lot for doing this Pete.
I bought "Red Queen..." back in '74, and I still give it a spin at least once a year...great album. I've always wondered about the other albums, but now I intend to purchase and "explore" them. Thanks for the review and info..
Hey Pete, Great show, I have Midnight Mushroom & Red Queen To Gryphon Three albums both are so unique..no band blends all the influences as well as they do..So glad you did this ranking show on Gryphon..I'm working on picking up the rest of their catolog..Thanks Pete..
I think the crumhorn was at its height about 200 years prior to 1795, Pete, so Gryphon would have been considered ancient sounding even then (though the guitars and synths would have caused some head scratching). The ranking writes itself. RQtG3 is easily the best but all the rest have something to offer
"Red Queen to Gryphon Three" is my favorite. I love "Treason" but many fans don't like the emphasis on vocals. Gentle Giant influence. "Midnight Mushrumps" is a great instrumental album.
Thanks Pete. I still remember the first time I heard Gryphon- it was the track Juniper Suite from the first album and I was immediately hooked.50 years later it's still my favourite track and I have all 7 of their LPs. They are all excellent especially the first 4 on the Transatlantic Label but even though Red Queen is generally rated their best especially among Prog fans for me there is something special about the debut-it's so wonderfully quirky and eclectic and Richard Harvey's recorder playing is just phenomenal.
Great stuff. Probably influenced Glass Hammer's The Middle Earth Album. Gryphon should have been in my collection long ago. I just remedied that by purchasing the first 3.
Nice ranking video, but I had kind of hoped a Ken Golden or Steven Reid might have joined you to rank this band, as I always enjoy discussion and the back & forth.
When asking for bands/artists to discuss on their SoT show, I suggested folk rock (like Strawbs/Pentangle/Lindisfarne/Sandy Denny/John Martyn etc). But Steven responded saying he doesn't particularly like that type of music. Everyone has there own tastes in music of course. I guess some would find Grython unlistenable and much prefer Black Sabbath or Britney Spears! But some on here seem to like them.
Cheers Prete. Love Gryphon. If you haven't already you should check out Amazing Blondel who were doing something similar at the same time. I haven't heard the latest albums, but my ranking of the classic ones is: 5. Treason 4. Raindance 3. Gryphon 2. Red Queen To Gryphon Three 1. Midnight Mushrumps
Thanks for that, Pete. My ranking is almost the same as yours. Top four all the same. Then I have Raindance, then Treason and finally the debut (not because it's bad, just I'm less keen on the out and out folk music, even though it is very well done here). As you say, there's no bad album in this discography.
I first heard Gryphon when I first got internet back in the late 90’s when I was looking for some obscure progressive rock bands. They blew me away they were so good. Mainly because they were so unique and talented. I saw them for the first time on their reunion concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London in 2006. I’ve seen them several times since. They are simply wonderful. Got to admit that their new stuff is very hot and miss. Here’s my ranking. 7. Get out of my Father’s Car 6. Reinvention 5. Raindance 4. Treason 3. Red Queen to Gryphon Three 2. Midnight Mushrumps 1. Gryphon Pete, do yourself a favour and see if you can get the first two albums as singular items as there is a song on the first album called Crossing the Stiles which I think is omitted from the double album CD.
😂Saw them live a couple of years ago at a lovely small venue where Soft Machine are regular visitors. Those early albums are great. I met the guitarist in the 80s and complimented him on his beautifully clean technique. He said that playing those huge stadiums with Yes really concentrated the fingers. Any mistakes would be fairly obvious.
Loved Gryphon since year dot - but rather young then so I had to wait till 2009 to see them live. Proud that a brilliant musician who was at my school is in the line-up now (Andy) - Roger Glover also went there. Will be seeing them again in the autumn.
Richard Harvey is a legend in the British Library music scene for the KPM label. Nifty Digits is a wonderful album. His compositions have graced things from Sesame Street to a number of NFL highlight films.
Gryphon to me is like a marriage of Shakespeare and Alice in Wonderland, played by Yes, Jethro Tull and Gentle Giant simultaneously. Red Queen is unquestionably the best album, and I would agree with Midnight Mushrumps in second place. Probably Raindance in third place for me, but mainly because the final tune is so good. I'm having a bit of a hard time enjoying everything on Get Out of My Father's Car though, but the good tunes are very good. I was able to see them back in 2019 in Liverpool, and just last week in Runcorn where they played quite a bit of GOOMFC. They are still as completely barking as ever.
Folk and Classical are essential parts of hard rock, Metal and Prog. Violin, Flute and Mellotron all go together well. Procul Harem and the Strawbs i think are other examples with Jetro Tull, Rick Wakeman, Pendragon, Gordon Giltrap, Camel even earlier Genesis others. On the folkier side Fairport Convention Horslips are the bridge over to folk. Love Gryphon.
I saw Gryphon at St Andrews Univ. on the Treason tour and they were brilliant. They had an incredible sense of humour. Sadly, they never released a live album in their 70s heyday, but this is a recent live release of their 2016 gig at the Union Chapel: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ovj3QS1p2pQ.html Virtuosity like that is a rare thing. I agree completely with your ranking, though even Treason is very good, especially Spring Song, which is one of the best things they did. RQTG3 is their best album simply because it is consistently excellent from start to finish, but the track Midnight Mushrumps is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've heard.
A slightly less than usual ranking of bands/ music genres that generally appear on SoT. Well done to Pete for highlighting and ranking this rather esoteric British band, hardly known in their homeland. Amazing how Pete picked them up, from across the Atlantic, were such music I should imagine doesn't cross too well. I agree, with the number one choice Red Queen. They are a very obscure band, much like Third Ear Band, with elements of olde English medieval folk rock with baroque overtones and unusual instrumentation time signatures. There are loads of 1970s British folk/jazz rock bands & artists waiting to be discovered and ranked. Maybe if Pete ever widens the scope of S.oT its a genre well worth digging into. But with so much prog/heavy/Metal/Doom rock & jazz fusion to consider I don't know how he finds the time to keep up with current and past output. Very time consuming, I couldn't. It's only when someone point out the merits of an album or group that one is actively encouraged to re-listen to them again more appreciatively with fresh ears. So Grython albums may get a listen this week.
Even if only for the title track, which is genius, 'Glastonbury Carol' is very interesting, I think part compilation as it has Midnight Mushrumps on it.
Hi, cannot work out how to reply to Molo etc (mea culpa) but I also saw Gryphon in 1974. They were supporting Jethro Tull on the War Child tour and played Cardiff Capitol Cinema (long since a mall) promoting Midnight Mushrumps. Tull had sparkly codpieces, nice looking ladies on violins etc, loadsa dynamics, power chords, and Anderson’s theatrics and Gryphon……..didn’t. But I picked up their album the first Saturday job day after. Lived it and its colleagues ever since tho sadly never saw them again. Thanks for the video, Pete, as always a joy
I'm pretty sure the support on the Warchild tour was Fanny. Gryphon were in the USA at the time supporting Yes. On the night of the Cardiff gig, they were playing Knoxville, TN.
“Ein Klein Heldenleben” seems to mean “A Little Heroic Life”. I know this is wrong, but my buddy and I have always pronounced the name of this band GRY-FON, to differentiate them from a band called Griffin, which had Alan White on drums. I had no idea Gryphon had re-formed. Thanks for the ranking!
Yes Ein Klein Heldenleben is German for a little heroes life. It is also the name of a piece of music by Richard Strauss, which is probably that the Gryphon piece is based on.
Don’t know where else to ask this. Have you ever done or considered a ‘ranking the studio albums’ of the following artists: - Ian Hunter solo (you did Mott The Hoople, didn’t you) - Nils Lofgren solo - Slade (you did Sweet, didn’t you) Thanks for taking it into consideration
I got to admit I don't think I am very familiar with this band and I have been into obscure music my entire life, I'm 56 so I will check them out. I'm not sure if you have done anything thing with this band but maybe The Strawbs might be a band to review.
I am so bummed! I had RQTG3! and I got rid of it cuz it didn't rock enough! Oh young me! Thanks to TooYoob I can still listen to this! I was so immature musically back then!
My definition of progressive rock runs very wide and for me, Gryphon were definitely a progressive rock band, even early on in their folky incarnation. I've long held that there's a difference between 'progressive rock' and 'prog' ¬¬>> in a way, 'prog' is the stylized straitjacket that progressive rock was bundled into by the early 70s {which is not to say that there weren't great works, nonetheless}. Gryphon were thinking progressively from the start, and their various sound and style changes are therefore completely normal. They literally incorporated what they perceived in the music world at any given time and fused it with their original brainchild. That's progressive !
Beware those 2 on 1 CDs. They missed off a track from the first album to make it fit. Nice to hear Pete's enthusiasm, although I've never heard anyone else pronounce the letter L in "folk". Maybe that's an American thing?
