{"id":29293,"date":"2025-05-09T05:30:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T09:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29293"},"modified":"2025-04-15T08:39:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T12:39:14","slug":"take-five-robin-trower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/09\/take-five-robin-trower\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Five: Robin Trower"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Robin Trower has had a long and impressive career. A founding member and lead guitarist for Procol Harum, his guitar work adorned that group\u2019s first five albums (and a pair of later reunions). After leaving the group, Trower launched a solo career that established him as one of the 1970s\u2019 premier guitarists.<\/p>\n<p>He has worked with other artists, too, while maintaining that solo career with live concert tours and album releases. 2023\u2019s <em>Joyful Sky<\/em> is Trower\u2019s latest release. In celebration of the London-born musician\u2019s 80th birthday on March 9, here are five Robin Trower performances you should know.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cSimple Sister\u201d from the Procol Harum album <em>Broken Barricades<\/em> (1971)<\/strong><br \/>\nProcol Harum first gained fame with their self-titled debut album, highlighted by \u201cA Whiter Shade of Pale.\u201d While the group would enjoy other hit singles \u2013 an orchestral rock reading of their own \u201cConquistador\u201d among them \u2013 some of their finest moments are found on their fifth album, <em>Broken Barricades<\/em>. \u201cSimple Sister\u201d is a breathtaking progressive rock and blues-flavored number showcasing Trower\u2019s fuzzed-out lead guitar.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xqA_aAMZ_3I?si=OQRgj7LGQlLiNNrW\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cBridge of Sighs\u201d from <em>Bridge of Sighs<\/em> (1974)<\/strong><br \/>\nA peek into the record collection of most mid-\u201970s hard rock fans would yield a well-worn copy of <em>Bridge of Sighs<\/em>, Robin Trower\u2019s second solo release. With bassist and singer James Dewar and drummer Reg Isidore, Trower churned out six-string fireworks, with a style that paid conscious tribute to the late Jimi Hendrix. <em>Bridge of Sighs<\/em> went Top Ten in the U.S.; its influential title track has been covered by Swedish prog-metal rockers Opeth and (as a hidden album track) Metallica.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/06lWmDg7i7Q?si=qiLqUml8GTFGh9Wo\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cInto Money\u201d from the B.L.T. album <em>B.L.T.<\/em> (1981)<\/strong><br \/>\nRobin Trower again took the power trio approach for his 1981 LP. That format had been popularized in rock by Cream in the second half of the 1960s. And it would be Cream\u2019s bassist and co-lead singer Jack Bruce with whom Trower would team up this go-around. Rounded out by drummer Bill Lordan, B.L.T. would only make one album, but a good one it was. \u201cInto Money\u201d was the album\u2019s opening track.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K5LvZFGuDyw?si=T1EcwZUfF3fYQq6G\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cKeep A Knockin\u2019\u201d from the Liquorice John Death album <em>Ain\u2019t Nothin\u2019 to Get Excited About<\/em> (1997)<\/strong><br \/>\nLiquorice John Death wasn\u2019t a real band; in fact the name was simply applied to an impromptu session jam by Procol Harum. In 1970, the group had a few moments of downtime while engineers were setting up for the Broken Barricades sessions, so they launched into a clutch of rock oldies. The tapes were running, and more than a dozen songs were captured on tape. Trower\u2019s guitar figure near the song\u2019s end is delightfully sloppy, if uncharacteristic. The sessions were released nearly 30 years later. It\u2019s a curio to be sure, but a fun one nonetheless.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jl5CwDRnl9k?si=i9m0lqZ4ggyKrmHq\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cHirsohima Mon Amour\u201d from the Bryan Ferry album <em>Frantic<\/em> (2002)<\/strong><br \/>\nRobin Trower began a long and creatively fruitful musical relationship with former Roxy Music vocalist Bryan Ferry on the latter\u2019s 1993 LP <em>Taxi<\/em>. Trower has appeared on four Ferry albums to date; among his most notable performances is his guitar work on <em>Frantic<\/em>\u2019s \u201cHiroshima Mon Amour.\u201d The song was originally by Ultravox, and featured on their 1977 LP <em>Ha! Ha! Ha!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KueYailJicM?si=h46zje0AVuXq2Sqr\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robin Trower has had a long and impressive career. A founding member and lead guitarist for Procol Harum, his guitar work adorned that group\u2019s first five albums (and a pair [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1860],"class_list":["post-29293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-robin-trower","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29295,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29293\/revisions\/29295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}