I had hoped to finish up on my earlier post in the search for the ultimate Darwinian concept album, but am not going to have time to do this thread justice before I disappear for a week’s holiday in sunny (?) Somerset. Instead, let me take the discussion forward but leaving you waiting for more…
In the earlier post, I considered the concept album “Darwin!” by Italian progrock band Banco Del Muto Soccorso. Of similar vintage and another contender for the title of ultimate evolutionary theme album is Rick Wakeman's second solo album, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall in London in 1974. Loosely based on the Jules Verne book of the same name, it weaves in many evolutionary themes, as the album’s protagonists encounter among other things:
- “impressions of rock weeds and mosses from the Silurian epoch,”
- a terrifying battle between two sea monsters (an ichthyosaur and a plesiosaur)
- a herd of mastodon, marshalled by a primitive human.
But the album, like the book, is tainted by its association with the long discredited hollow Earth theory, an idea even more absurd than creationism, so it will never satisfy today’s hard-headed evolutionist.
Perhaps worth mentioning in passing are my own efforts in the Origin of Species in Dub, a reggae version of Darwin’s masterpiece, which was created in collaboration with Jamaican scientist Dominic White. I’d like to think we kept as true to what Darwin actually wrote as is possible in an album of this kind. But we have to fall out of this race because we are, at best, strictly amateur musicians (the term “loop monkey” springs to mind).
Instead, what we really need is a concept album about Darwin, that encompasses a range of genres, is produced by professionals with an international reputation and is performed by established rock stars. And to find what has to be front-runner for the ultimate evolutionary concept album, one has to fast-forward nearly two decades from Banco’s and Wakeman’s efforts to the early 1990s…
I will tell you more when I return from holiday, but for now will leave you with a taster from the album: the late great Austrian white Rap artist Falco rapping about Darwin in a curious mixture of English and German…
Original lyrics
Hey, hey yah know what I am talking about
Er hieß Charles Darwin, und sie nannten ihn'nen Freak
Keine Bibel, Keine Offenbarung bremsten ihn ein
Denn seine Haltung hielt
Nachts - nachts - des Nachts war er aktiv
Aktiver, als man es sich nur vorstellen kann
But tags - tagsüber vermied er Sonnenlicht
And that's the reason daß ich euch sag'
Er war der Mann - he was a man
Genie und Partisan - a fascinating man
Sie sah ihn an - he was a man
Sie wußte, daß er - kann
A fascinating man
Science and fiction griffen nach dem Universe
Denn da ist more space in it
Darwin dachte dazu nur
Wir gehen auf-recht
And push it to the limit
Nachts - nachts - des Nachts war er aktiv
Aktiver, als man es sich nur vorstellen kann
Und tags - tagsüber vermied er Sonnenlicht
And that's the reason daß ich euch sag'
Er war der Mann - he was a man
Genie und Partisan - a fascinating man
Sie sah ihn an - he was a man
Sie wußte, daß er - kann
A fascinating man
Er war der Mann - he was a man
Genie und Partisan - a fascinating man
Sie sah ihn an - he was a man
Und wußte aufrecht geht der - Mann
A fascinating man
Can you hear me, Charles?
English Translation
Hey, hey yah know what I am talking about
He was Charles Darwin, and they called him a freak
No Bible, No revelation to hold him back
That was his attitude
At night - at night - by night he was active
More active than you can imagine
But by day - by day he avoided the sunlight
And that's the reason that I tell you…
He was the man - he was a man
Genius and partisan - a fascinating man
She looked at him - he was a man
She knew that he - can
A fascinating man
Science and fiction grappled with the Universe
Because there is more space in it
Darwin thought only about this
We go to law
And push it to the limit
At night - at night - by night he was active
More active than you can imagine
And by day - by day he avoided the sunlight
And that's the reason that I tell you…
He was the man - he was a man
Genius and partisan - a fascinating man
She looked at him - he was a man
She knew that he - can
A fascinating man
He was the man - he was a man
Genius and partisan - a fascinating man
She looked at him - he was a man
And, knew that upright stood the man
A fascinating man
Can you hear me, Charles?
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