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about this album
The third album by The Nice had a studio side featuring a variety of different styles in four songs. The sleeve notes from Keith describe them perfectly Azrael was the first thing I wrote with Lee - now revisited it relates to the Angel of Death. The 5/4 riff revolves round in a circular motion rather like the birth, life & death cycle, and proves to be an interesting medium to improvise in. The verses are taken in common time (4/4). The quote from Rachmaninoff's Prelude (in) C# Minor is intentional as when it was written. Rachmaninoff had Edgar Allan Poe's vision of a man coming back to life in the coffin after burial. For the number I detuned the strings on the piano slightly to give it a "honky-tonk" effect which helped in creating an air of something ageing. I'd like to apologise to Amen Corner for not retuning the piano afterwards. They had to use the same piano after our session, unfortunately they didn't need a "Winifred Atwell's Other Piano" sound. Azrael had been the B-side of Nice's first UK single release, Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack. As well as the Rachmaninoff quotation, the track relied on Lennie Tristano's Turkish Mambo. The album version is lighter in tone than the original, and taken at a slightly faster pace, but retains the menace of the original. On Hang On To A Dream we have Duncan Browne to thank for the choir. At one of our London Concerts I had the pleasure of performing Lalo's Symphonie Espaniol (sic) with violinist John Mayer who also leads Indo
