DAN WOODING: Caped Crusader -- Rick Wakeman in the 1970s

‘In the ‘70s Rick Wakeman never did things by half and nearly died doing them’
A Review of Caped Crusader -- Rick Wakeman in the 1970s by Dan Wooding, foreword by Elton John

By Derek Walker, Freelance Writer
Special to ASSIST News Service

USA (ANS) -- “You must be mad” is the quote that opens this book about the legendary keyboards player and it sums up the reactions that Rick Wakeman got to several of his brave schemes. Wakeman has an extraordinary brain and the rest of his life seems keen to keep up with it.

Cover

This re-print of Dan Wooding’s engaging book by Gonzo Multimedia, complete with foreword by Elton John, has been released to satisfy the curiosity of those who have come to hear of Wakeman in his later incarnations as a ‘grumpy old man’ and a radio host, not knowing how his story began.

Although subtitled ‘Rick Wakeman in the 1970s’, this account starts earlier and ends in 1978. Wooding was the first journalist to come across Wakeman. He had just taken up the job as a reporter covering South Ealing in London and was scouting the area for stories. His predecessor had apparently done more fishing for bream than fishing for stories, so Wooding had to start from scratch.

In the same week that he had unearthed a zany new comedy show called Monty Python’s Flying Circus filming in Ealing Studios, he came across some startling keyboard sounds emanating from the back of a music shop. When they had finished, Wooding discovered that the man making them had recently played keyboards on Cat Stevens’ “Morning has Broken” and David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” but had never been interviewed before.

Wooding, now 71, who born in Nigeria, the son of missionary parents and when they met, Wakeman was a Sunday school teacher at a nearby Baptist church, so they had faith in common at the start and the friendship grew from there. So the book gets the real Wakeman story.

Rick Wakeman with his battery of keyboards during his YES days (Photo: Rob Brown)

The title suggests lots of Yes background, but the Yes years only take up a quarter of the book. Most of it, liberally laced with stories of excess in both work and play, deals with beginnings and solo albums.

It follows Wakeman’s evolution from Royal College of Music student, through session player and member of The Strawbs, to his career-making role as keyboard wizard with Yes – and then leaving them after the love-it-or-loathe-it Tales from Topographic Oceans (Wakeman loathed it). It tells how nearly he died from a heart condition and he trod a similar path with alcohol.

Wooding uses an unusual style for this book. It sometimes feels written by a local newspaper reporter and the couple’s friendship means that Wooding is not always objective – as seen in his overblown comment about the White Rock soundtrack (p. 161), “it surely must be one of the most original and powerful film scores ever written.”

Read on...

Check it out at Gonzo