Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs

I made the trip to Warner Robins last week to do yet another software test. One of the guys I was working with (he’s in his 30s) asked me if I listen to anything whenever make the drive up here from Florida. I told him that sometimes I listen only to podcasts (to save my hearing), sometimes I listen to music. I told him this time I had Alice in Chains on blast for most of the trip. He voiced his approval. I told him when I tired of Alice then I played Robin Trower’s Bridge of Sighs. He said he wasn't familiar with that because it's a little before his time. I told him “it's a little before mine too, because the album came out fifty years ago.” From that exchange a blog entry is born.

The 1970s had its share of great guitarists – Jeff Beck. Jimmy Page, Rory Gallagher, Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Schenker, Dickey Betts, David Gilmour – just to name a few. One guitarist who usually isn’t mentioned as often as these guys is Robin Trower. People first heard of him as the guitarist for Procol Harum. The only problem with being the guitarist in that band is that it was very keyboard centric. There’s not much room for a guitarist in a band with a piano AND a Hammond organ. But somehow, he managed some ‘look at me!” moments:

• Repent Walpurgis [Procol Harum, 1967]
• Cerdes (Outside the Gates Of) [Procol Harum, 1967]
• The Devil Came From Kansas [A Salty Dog, 1969]
• Long Gone Geek [B-side of A Salty Dog, 1969]
• Crucifiction Land [A Salty Dog, 1969]
• Whisky Train [Home, 1970]
• Whaling Stories [Home, 1970]
• Simple Sister [Broken Barricades, 1971]
• Memorial Drive [Broken Barricades, 1971]
• Song For A Dreamer [Broken Barricades, 1971] – Robin Trower’s tribute to Jimi Hendrix. The Hendrix/Trower comparisons start here.
• Poor Mohammed [Broken Barricades, 1971].

By the time of Broken Barricades [1971], Trower had more ideas than could fit on a Procol Harum album, so he went solo. At first he had a group named Jude, but nothing ever became of it. However, the bass player was a Scot named Jimmy Dewar who, not only was he pretty good on the bass, could sing like Paul Rodgers. Having Jimmy Dewar as his singer was a masterstroke. Trower sang a few songs with Procol Harum. As a vocalist, Trower is an excellent guitarist. With the addition of drummer Reg Isidore, a power trio was born. They released their debut album, Twice Removed From Yesterday, in 1973. It didn’t sell much, but it did provide the blueprint for what was to come next. First, he cracked the code of the Hendrix sound. Second, the power trio format was going to work for him. He got as far from Procol Harum’s sound as he could. He had a career. He was no longer somebody's sideman.

Trower cited Scottie Moore, Albert King, B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix as his primary influences, but he especially felt a connection with Jimi Hendrix. He saw one of Hendrix’s last shows in 1970 and was transfixed by what he saw. After Hendrix’s death Trower wrote Song for a Dreamer, which appeared on Broken Barricades (1971). Trower fell in love with the Fender Stratocaster after he played one of Martin Barre’s Strats during a soundcheck. Armed with a Strat, a Univibe pedal and a wah-wah, Trower had the tools to get a close approximation of Hendrix’s sound.

Day of the Eagle has Trower and company storming out the gate. This high-energy opener bears a striking resemblance to Hendrix’s Crosstown Traffic (from Electric Ladyland). It's not a carbon copy of the Hendrix song, but if you do a side-by-side comparison the resemblance is unmistakable.

Next is the title track. Bridge of Sighs put Trower on the proverbial map, and for good reason. Opeth did an excellent cover of the song on their album Watershed (2008). This shows how one can capture the spirit of Hendrix without slavishly copying him. Opening with some spaced-out chimes that signal to the listener that a cosmic trip is about to begin, the echo-drenched riff is trance-inducing and gloomy. This is psychedelic blues in all its glory. The riff is relentless, giving way to a solo that even I could play it. Sometimes it’s the most simple of things that works the best. As Trower solos, a “cold wind blowing” is added, which serves to link to the next song, In This Place, without breaking the mood. In This Place is a slow blues like the Bridge of Sighs, just as moody, twangy, slightly jazzy, and slightly psychedelic. Both songs are of a piece, such that I usually can't hear one without the other.

Of the eight songs on Bridge of Sighs, I like seven of them. To these ears, the only clunker of the bunch is The Fool and Me, which closes Side One (if you're listening to vinyl). While it quickens the pace after the two songs that preceded it, I don't think it works. Others can and will disagree, but this song just doesn't do it for me. Here Trower grabbed an idea for a solo and ran it into the ground. He just wouldn't let go, and the sound is just plain irritating. Maybe if Trower played a different solo I could like it, but alas he didn't.

Kicking off Side Two is Too Rolling Stoned. Here is proof that white English people can be funky. A relentless tour de force (which still remains in Trower’s setlists to this day), Trower gives the wah-wah quite a workout. Halfway through, the song comes almost to a halt and changes tempo and gives us an extended instrumental fadeout. It sounds like two songs are smashed together, but that’s ok – it works. Trower said he had the crew in the studio to clap along, giving the song a party atmosphere (like Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile).

About to Begin is another slow one. Like the title track, Trower demonstrates that sometimes “less is more.” The guitar is delicate and tasteful. A waltz, the song is both haunting and dreamy, like a lullaby. Producer Matthew Fisher, like Trower an alum of Procol Harum (the organ on A Whiter Shade of Pale is his), adds a celestial bit of Hammond to the song.

Lady Love is the most commercial sounding song on the album (complete with a little cowbell). It's also the shortest. Little Bit of Sympathy closes the album just as strongly as Day of the Eagle opened it.

A couple of months ago, Chrysalis released a Bridge of Sighs 50th anniversary package. It includes a remaster of the album (which is a slight improvement on the 2007 remaster), another disc with extended versions of the original, instrumental versions of all the songs, outtakes and alternate takes, and a 10-song set recorded live in May 1974 at the Record Plant in Sausalito. There were no extra songs lying “in the can.” These are nice to have if you're a Robin Trower obsessive, but not essential. The treasure lies in the fourth disc, which is the album mixed in Dolby Atmos, DTS 5.1, and LCPM 24-bit stereo. These mixes sound better than the remaster. 

I hope next year Chrysalis gives Bridge of Sighs’ follow-up, For Earth Below, the same treatment as was done here. Not quite as good as Bridge of Sighs, For Earth Below is almost a carbon copy, and that's not a bad thing.