Parable of Arable Land

by

The Red Krayola

Edit

Although it was listed at #44 on Joe S. Harrington's Top 100 Albums ten years ago and similarly praised by Piero Scaruffi, I had never been tempted to listen to "The Parable of Arable Land" until very recently, as if under inspiration to discard prejudices inherited from my teenage years.

It is often said that "The Parable of Arable Land" was the strangest album released in the experimental 1960s, and later became influential on a large number of "space rock" bands in the 1980s and 1990s, most especially Spiritualized. Whilst other writers like Scaruffi and "janitor-x" have not encouraged me in recent years to check out Spiritualized and similar groups, in recent days I have often felt the need to counter fears about many critically acclaimed records, and I checked out a copy of "The Parable of Arable Land".

On the whole, I do not have really positive emotions about my experience with "The Parable of Arable Land". In essence, the recording is a concept album about the effects of war on ordinary people, moving from the pilot's experience in "Hurricane Fighter Plane" to the farmer's in the title track. In fact, the lyrics are very quirky and intelligent, though Mayo Thompson's inability to sing with any power above the lowest register really does not help his articulation of them, nor the strange humour they possess, especially in the way he imagines the experiences of being a fighter pilot.

The songs themselves, as is well-known, are divided into ordinary "songs" and a "free form freakout" intermixed with or preceding each track. The free-form freakouts were considered very adventurous for their time by the few musicians who heard "The Parable of Arable Land" before the 1980s, but with hindsight they lack either sheer power or slow-burn development that the best epic songs have. Instead, they are noisy and dense beyond any necessity, which might have shown to many what could be done with exotic instrumentation in a rock format. However, the sheer density is such that one cannot hear any individual instrument at all. Moreover, the songs proper have very unconventional structures placed around psychedelic rock of a fairly typical character. These actually do manage to be interesting since they can take very unexpected turns, notably on "Transparent Radiation" and "Pink Stainless Tail", where softer passages contrast very well with soulful choral parts that are in no way conventional choruses. The problem is Mayo Thompson's voice - which, like Syd Barrett's, was totally unsuited to the music it was trying to sing. He sounds OK when he sings in the very lowest register, but when he tries to go to pitches any higher he sounds tuneless and totally muted as if he is trying to sing higher than he is naturally able. For instance, "Hurricane Fighter Plane" cannot develop the dynamics it should at the end of each verse, but seems to lose intensity.

All in all, this is a fascinating record that may well have offered new experiences of what rock was capable of, but it is not something that is really even memorable, because intriguing, even entertaining lyrics are spoiled by poor singing and pointless jamming.