PFM for Saturday morning – recorded at The Piper Club in Rome on March 25, 1972.
It’s hard to put yourself in a place where you’ve never heard anything like this before – listening for the first time, some 53 years ago.
In 1972 ProgRock was a relatively new genre enjoyed by a relative few at the time. Hearing about it was mostly by word of mouth or from someone who was an adventuresome Disc Jockey at a college Radio station. The closest it came to the mainstream at the time was by way of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and a few stabs earlier by the likes of Soft Machine and King Crimson – people were on the fence about Yes and news about a German prog scene was a mystery. It was a worldwide thing, we found out. And the only way you could go exploring was actually having a friend overseas who would write and tell you what was going on, who was playing where and what albums came out – or you were lucky enough to live in a city that had a record store which sold imports – but that was hit-or-miss as most stores were independent and could only stock 2-3 copies at any given time based on what distributors would bring in.
So hearing PFM for the first time was the opening of a whole new world and it became a game-changer as far as where Prog stood as a substantial genre where a lot was going on.
This gig from The Piper Club turns out to be one of the earliest examples of PFM in a live context. Seeing them perform live a little over a year later in Los Angeles I can confirm that the energy was the same, the point of view hadn’t changed and the virtuosity of the individual members was breathtaking. The point about this recording is that a lot has been done to preserve and to bring as much of the sound out as possible – but the vocals still remain a problem – they’re in there, but buried – certainly isn’t the first time something like this has happened but it shouldn’t ruin any enjoyment of this or muddy appreciation of the restoration accomplishment – they did their best.
Although PFM didn’t achieve the level of popularity in the U.S. as they had in Europe (and still largely do), they were a band whose consistency and excellence along with the number of truly remarkable recordings all contribute to a legacy that will remain fresh no matter when it’s “discovered”.
PFM has been a major influence on a vast number of musicians, and continues to do so – there’s is a timeless presence in their message – one that was overwhelming in its sheer magnitude at the time. We felt the music world was in good hands in 1972 – still is if you keep exploring.
That’s the point and the beauty of keeping an open mind.
Just Press Play and find out.
