Driving across the grass seas of western Nebraska and eastern Colorado this past week, I made sure my listening list was quite specific and quite orderly.  Across the western parts of Nebraska, traversing the mighty and winding Platte several times, I listened to Big Big Train, ENGLISH ELECTRIC PART ONE.  Not FULL POWER, but the original PART ONE.  Back to this in a moment.

Once the Platte split into north and south, I took the south fork, and I went for The Tangent’s THE MUSIC THAT DIED ALONE.  Andy always inspires me.  But, the combination of Andy and Roine Stolt as my car flew (legally, of course) through such nearly forgotten towns as Julesburg, Ovid, and Sedgwick proved perfect.  Andy never fails to find the beauty in lost hope.

A bit of patriotism hit me after The Tangent finished, so I went for Kansas’s THE POINT OF NO RETURN.  Amazingly enough, the entire album took me from the ending of THE MUSIC THAT DIED ALONE to our brand new house in Colorado.  Truly, as we driving up to the house in Longmont, the final notes of “Hopelessly Human” played.

As promised, back to BBT, ENGLISH ELECTRIC PART ONE (EEP1).  First, its pastoral tone fit the Nebraska countryside beautifully.  The skies, not surprisingly, were as broad as were deeply blue—the kind of blue one finds only in the Great Plains on a summer day.  But, the grasses were a treat as well—variations of greens and golds, generally quite tall and swaying under the pressure of the continental winds.

Second, I’ve not listened to EEP1 for at least a year.  Indeed, once ENGLISH ELECTRIC FULL POWER (EEFP) came out, I considered it the definitive edition, putting away PART ONE.

I won’t in any way, shape, or form suggest I had any thing at all to do with the final ordering of EEFP.  Such a claim would be nothing but hubris.  And, it would be completely false.  This was not, however, for want of trying.  I bugged Greg openly on the internet and privately through emails about this.  I interviewed him about it, and, as a friend, tried to put him in a corner.  Greg, the quintessential English Stoic gentleman, quietly (though not in quiet desperation, I pray) took the suggestions of this overly eager and earnest American (overly eager and earnestness are two of our defining traits as a people) with kindness.  Thank you, Greg.

I know there was some debate among the progarchists whether or not Greg and Co. were messing with a work of art unnecessarily by re-arranging the order of things and filling in the corners with EEFP.  But, from the beginning, I was on Greg’s side.  It’s his creation, and he can do with it as he will (and the rest of the members of the band, of course).

Listening to EEP1 this week only confirmed my thoughts.  It is a stunningly beautiful, calming, and mesmerizing work.  Like all great works of art, it demands full immersion by the participant.  Pastoral, it is also equally humane and cinematic.  It is a part of the English bardic tradition at its very best.  A community of minds and talents produced this album, and we are blessed indeed to exist in a world that allows such works of art to emerge and flourish.

But, for me, especially as a historian, EEP1 is now an incomplete yet intriguing part of a puzzle.  It belongs in the archives now, a glorious blueprint, but not quite the complete thing.

This discussion, I think, is not mere mental wrestling.  BBT is not just another band, and EEP1, EEP2, and EEFP are not just mere new releases.  BBT is a definitive band of prog’s third wave, and EEFP is possibly the finest statement of music over the last two and a half decades.  It is the legitimate successor to Talk Talk’s SPIRIT OF EDEN.

How the album came together, how it evolved, and how it is received is not merely academic.  It’s now a critical part of our history as lovers of music, art, and human genius.  It is now an integral part of the western tradition.  Long may it continue.

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