Public Foot the Roman, England

Public Foot the Roman. 1973 EMI/Capitol

When I first started collecting progressive rock albums in earnest in the early 1980s, this is one of those "obscure" albums that I was told I must get. To be honest, Public Foot the Roman fell way short of my expectations, and I never understood what all the fuss was about. Some 30+ years later, I may not crown this a classic, but at least it makes more sense to me. I think the problem is the inclusion of standard rock and roll songs - like the opener - which can be greatly off-putting to those of us looking for something more adventurous. And my standards in the early 80s is that all "progressive rock" meant every album would be stood up against Close to the Edge or Selling England by the Pound. Well thousands of obscurities later - not much holds a candle to those albums anyway - IMHO of course.

Now in retrospect, I hear Public Foot the Roman in the way I do bands on the Neon or Dawn labels - albums that were still too far from my radar back then. And when shown in that light, Public Foot the Roman holds up pretty well. The mix of straightforward material with more ambitious jazzy progressions is fairly typical of 1973 England. Maybe not the best representative of said style, but I can now see why folks touted this one back to me then. Certainly better than the dime a dozen Hit Parade pop bands of the day. And its presence on Capitol Records, made it more known here in the US at least - especially when compared to their Dawn label brethren.

Priority: 3

1/9/11 (new entry); 3/11/14 (update)