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Customer Reviews of The Six Wives of Henry VIII

A melodic keyboard showcase that's not to be missed
Rick Wakeman, keyboardist for bands such as Yes and David Bowie, makes his solo career debut with this astonishing, melodic instrumental masterpiece. The album, contains six tracks (one for each wife). Wakeman's work with Yes was impressive, but gives only a taste of Henry's magic. Each of the six tracks, while not historically accurate, show a blending of sythesizer technology with classical and instrumental themes in a purely progressive rock setting. Fans of Yes and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer are sure to especially love Henry. As well, Henry serves as a great stepping stone to introduce rock listeners to the world of classical and instrumental music.

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Wakeman's Best - Aged? No. Exemplifying the 1970's - Yes.
Rick Wakeman has produced a lot of music in the last 35 years, but this second solo album of his still is his is among his best, if not his best. Based on the BBC television life of Henry VIII's caprious attempts to further both his family's hold on power and England's revolution against the Papacy, Wakeman's music really has little to do with the history, real or imagined. Still, this Album does capture some history - that of early analog synths and samplers, and of an era of musical freedom.

Conceptual failure notwithstanding, Wakeman produces six long tracks that have a cohesion that does hold up. Trained for a time at the RCM, Wakeman absored lessons on structure along with a lot of beer. The focus of each song is based on thematic material that Wakeman explores as any classical composer might do, but with the instrumentation and rythym of jazzish rock.

Take Jane Seymour (not Dr. Quinn) for example. The piece starts out with a church organ playing a Bachish modal theme. A harpischord answers the organ in counterpoint, and them finally a Minimoog enters, doubling the organ's new thematic material, now in an ominous minor theme. Occasional drums add tension to the piece, but the organ keeps returning to the main theme and its variations.

My favorite is the jazzy "Anne Boleyn," which comes closest to portraying the alluring and doomed second wife of Henry. Wakeman again establishes a flowing theme, works it out on the piano, then contrasts with a new theme on rock instrumentations. A quiet interlude with acoustic guitars, basses, and background vocals accompany's Wakemans' restatement. The piece builds back to the the rockish part, then moves into a minor key movement, introducing a newer faster theme and electronic instruments.

This simply good composing, arraging and playing, and to me it hasn't aged as fast or as badly as people claim. Not as bad as I have aged, anyway.

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Gets better with age not worse
To some people Rick Wakeman is flashy and self-indulgent. Well, that's why I love him. He's unique and nobody else sounds anything like him, which is partly why he will be remembered. The other part is that he wrote some damm good stuff, especially his first solo outing here.

There are six tracks which are supposed to interpret Henry 8's six wives. If you want them to, Rick. I don't go for this idea much, but it is brilliant music whosever musical portraits you want to put upon it, and it was certainly fantastic marketing in the early 70s - classically-influenced synthesizers with some old English history chucked in by a long-haired precocious prog rocker. Nice mix.

The six tracks are more than just keyboards for their own sakes - they are strong and complex compositions, well arranged with interesting timbral choices between the different instruments - lots of theme and variation, different moods such as jazzy pieces like Anne Boleyn and traditional organ arrangements like Jane Seymour (which is a little too Bach Toccata-like for me, but this was early in Rick's career when he was busting with classical influences.)

My favourite pieces are the three Catherines - the opening, Catherine of Aragon is mostly piano with some interesting rhythm changes (try keeping time to it). Catherine Howard is the one most people will know if they've ever been to a Wakeman or a Yes concert but this original version is very different from the one he plays these days with the Celtic jig added. I think his later versions are actually better, but it's still a good solid piece of music.

Anne of Cleves is the most unusual track - it almost sounds out of place amongst the more conventional compositions. It's the track that sounds most like a synthesizer exercise, but it's worth a listen (apart from the prominent split note near the beginning!) for the unusual time signatures (again) and the fantastic Hammond organ work and Bill Bruford's drumming together. Yes musicians abound on this album and it does have a slight Yes feel but it's definitely NOT a Yes album and definitely classic Wakeman.

I don't think time has worn this one out. If anything I enjoy listening to it more than I did in the past. I love listening to the old analogue sounds. I know nobody would be without digital keyboards these days but there is something about analogue sounds which can't be reproduced - they're more individual, less tinny and less predictable. I guess they were also a nightmare with going out of tune or not working but somehow that added to their individuality - you never knew what you were going to get, which did make for interesting live experiences.

Elton John said this album is in his top twenty of all time. Won't argue with him on that.