20 years ago this summer the now classic progressive rock album "Masquerade Overture" by the British band Pendragon was released. I know because I ordered the CD as an import for $26 and had it shipped from England. I had just moved to New York City to attend optometry school and had an absolutely microscopic studio apartment at 77th & 1st on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. I didn't really know anyone yet and I must have listened to that CD hundreds of times that year (1996) while studying, while riding the 6 train to and from school, and while walking around in NYC. I memorized it. It was unlike anything I had ever heard. It still is. It's pretty much epic as far as "neo-progressive" albums go. It may be the quintessential neo-prog album of the 90's. Recently I got a new phone and I went thru my Amazon cloud catalog and re-downloaded this album, and then today this song "Paintbox" came up on shuffle in my car and I of course still knew every word. Not only that but all of the emotions and memories about that time in my life came flooding back as soon as the intro came on. Later on of course I would make some friends but at the time I had just been divorced and alone in NYC and had left Texas for the 1st time in my life... it was a totally new start. Exciting but scary. And this song brought it all back in about 8 seconds. That's pretty amazing to me how an album can do that.
20 years ago this summer the now classic progressive rock album "Masquerade Overture" by the British band Pendragon was released. I know because I ordered the CD as an import for $26 and had it shipped from England. I had just moved to New York City to attend optometry school and had an absolutely microscopic studio apartment at 77th & 1st on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. I didn't really know anyone yet and I must have listened to that CD hundreds of times that year (1996) while studying, while riding the 6 train to and from school, and while walking around in NYC. I memorized it. It was unlike anything I had ever heard. It still is. It's pretty much epic as far as "neo-progressive" albums go. It may be the quintessential neo-prog album of the 90's. Recently I got a new phone and I went thru my Amazon cloud catalog and re-downloaded this album, and then today this song "Paintbox" came up on shuffle in my car and I of course still knew every word. Not only that but all of the emotions and memories about that time in my life came flooding back as soon as the intro came on. Later on of course I would make some friends but at the time I had just been divorced and alone in NYC and had left Texas for the 1st time in my life... it was a totally new start. Exciting but scary. And this song brought it all back in about 8 seconds. That's pretty amazing to me how an album can do that.
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