Corky Laing - Playing God (2013)
Label: Gonzo Multimedia
Band Site: www.facebook.com / playinggodrocks
Running Time: 62:03
Reviewer: Harry 'JoJo' de Vries
Rating:
(Out of 5 Jojo's)
Corky Laing is well known for being a member of the legendary band Mountain, in which band he touched the drums. Their album 'Nantucket Sleighride' in 1971, I think still stand and is a hard-rock classic. He then went on to West, Bruce and Laing with which he was quite successful until 1974. After that there is very little heard of Laing and apparently his stay in Finland spheres. The occupation of 'Playing God' has also shown this.
"Playing God" is a rock opera and a musical metaphor for the sickness of this society or the contemporary desire of many people to want to be perfect: mentally, physically, in work and private life. The text entered in the town of Happy Ville and its inhabitants who strive after perfection and are even subject to genetic manipulation. They want to determine how good and beautiful their children are physically and psychologically yourself. Hence the band name 'Corky Laing & The Perfect Child'. In writing this rock opera Laing has not only used his imagination, but also shows he is a good observer of the strange antics of the gay sapiens and in addition he has also based on scientific evidence. Either way, it is interesting given and for psychologists.
And then the music. Besides drumming Laing takes some of the vocals in the 28 relatively short pieces that tell the story. That singing is nice on him, though there are better singers on this album as Bonnie Parker and Denny Colt (both from the band Tang) and the Finnish singer Maya Paakkari a delicious raw voice. The music well executed is a set of driven by guitar riffs (hard) rock, ballads and some spiritual instrumental pieces and depicts the story well, though of course I do not know if I would have experienced if I would not have known the story that so .
My problem with this type of multiple shorter tracks existing albums is that it is patchy. This is also the case here. On the one hand makes sense because each miniature depicts a fragment of the story. Moreover, this perception is not the full benefit. Nevertheless, I think that Laing with 'Playing God' good rock opera has put down and the current version in the theater seems quite attractive. The story demands that theatrical imagination and perhaps some hungry, ambitious yearning for perfection citizens still learn from it too. Harry de Vries (02-2014)
Personnel:
Corky Laing - drums, vocals, percussion, guitar
Bonnie Parker - bass, vocals
Denny Colt - guitar, vocals
Lasse Vayrynen - guitars, guitalele, bass, keyboards, backing vocals Matti Hayry - guitars, guitalele, keyboards, vocals
Tija Takala - guitar, vocals
Maya Paakari - vocals
Harri Vayrynen - guitar, bass, vocals
Mikaela Mansikkala - vocals
Hanna Paatero - backing vocals
Discography:
Playing God (2013)
Posted by Afterglow on 12.2.14
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