 There's a lot of confusion surrounding The Flower Travellin' Band's "final" album (final, that is, until "We Are Here's"
release in 2008.) It was supposed to be live. It was always supposed to
be a mix of live and studio. The master tapes for the live show were
screwed up. The master tapes turned out exactly the way they were
supposed to. You get the idea.
The confusion doesn't end there. Some say it bombed, or that people
only bought it for it's stupendous packaging (which IS pretty
impressive: a double album in a bound leather pouch, reproduced with
vinyl in place of leather for this year's reissue.) If nothing else,
one thing can be laid to rest: "Make Up" wasn't just a hit, it spawned
two of the band's biggest and most enduring songs. Both "Shadows Of
Lost Days" (also sometimes called simply "Woman") and the title track
were enormous, scoring the band the opening slot on The Rolling Stones'
"Goat's Head Soup" Japan tour, as well as finding permanent homes in
vocalist Joe Yamamaka's enormously successful post-FTB solo career.
(Unfortunately, the Stones gig fell through when Mick Jagger's visa was
denied, a disappointment that discouraged the band to the point that
they went on a hiatus that ended up lasting 35 years.)
To be fair, "Make Up" does show signs that The Flower Travellin' Band
had, if not peaked, moved into less rarefied territory. The original
material was more traditionally structured, for one: the first album
sees the band embracing typical rock beats and riffs that had
previously been conspicuous by their absence. The title track is
downright Deep Purple-esque, and "Shadows Of Lost Days" is the kind of
bombastic soul Led Zeppelin had been working towards. Of the new
material, only opener "All My Days" and "Slowly But Surely" display the
compositional oddities that made the band's previous albums so
startling.
All that rock critic talk might sound nice, but it overlooks the quality of the material in and of itself. "Make Up"
is a Deep Purple cop, but it's a damned good one, chugging along with a
cocky menace that renders all complaints of originality meaningless.
There's also the singular lurch of "All The Days," a swampy, lumbering
beast that is more typically FTB in its structure and attack. Without
overanalyzing the song's constituent elements, its still a marvel how
the band can create something so definably rock from rhythms and tones
that are so removed from rock's standard parts.
"Shadows Of Lost Days"
may share quite a bit of DNA with Led Zep, but it's sharing the best
parts. Yamamaka gives far and away his most powerful performance in a
career that has no shortage of power, and the relative simplicity of
the song lets the band lock on to a devastating, doom laden crunch that
remains awe inspiring, even after countless replays. All hyperbole
aside, there is no moment in rock history that is more all consumingly
apocalyptic as "Shadow's" climax.
That's just the first album. The second disc is usually the focal point
when "Make Up" is criticized, and it's not difficult to understand why,
as it embodies a few examples of stereotypically 70s overkill. Side
three consists entirely of a super extended live version of
"Hiroshima," mega drum solo and all, and side four kicks off with the
oft maligned cover of "Blue Suede Shoes," featuring a perplexingly ill
fitting vocal by FTB manager/guru Yuya Uchida. These aren't deal
breakers, though, as "Hiroshima" is pretty great, over extension and
all, and the two final tracks are prime FTB, especially closer "After
The Concert." And there's also no denying a ten minute version of
"Satori, Pt. II," repeat or no.
All told,
maybe it was best for The Flower Travellin' Band to hang it up here.
They had already proven their point, reaching success both at home and
in Canada, leaving a short but sweet catalog that, misfires on "Make
Up" notwithstanding, was startlingly consistent in its inventiveness
and dark power. "Make Up" is a strong album, but it still showed that
some cracks were forming. They showed they could be just as powerful
with more "normal" rock songs, but for how long? It's an interesting
point that, when reuniting in 2008 to write the material for "We Are
Here," they dropped the doom and nurtured their quirkier tendencies,
choosing to preserve what made them unique over trying to match the
rage of their younger years. In a recent interview
with Jrawk, Yamanaka and guitarist Hideki Ishima revealed plans for
another album some time in the near future. It remains to be seen if
they continue on their singular path, or whether, like "Make Up," they
see what they can do with more traditional tunes. Time will tell.
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