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Here it is! A review of EACH Ambrosia CD by Papa Frog!

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Ambrosia:

Nice, Nice Very Nice

By now everyone knows that this most well-known of all of Ambrosia's
proggier cuts was inspired by Joe Puerta's reading from Kurt Vonnegut
Jr.'s "Cat's Cradle" It is the clarion call to not just tolerance
between different folks, but total immersion into acceptance. In fact
a veritable celebration of those differences, as if sameness would
have made "Johnny" a dull specie. A manifesto of love that hasn't
been so eloquently re-parsed since Jesus peppered us with His wisdom.
The tune, without even an iota of over-indulgence (which, while
progressive, Ambrosia never seems to cross into), matches the grand
theme with it's own grandness. A sonic tapestry of textures. Buried
in the mix while singing through the catalog of nice people we hear
hints of steel drums, concertinas, flutes ever so subtly so as not to
detract from the message. After the alternatingly tag-team and tandem
vocals of Joe & Dave are completed we are treated to a gradual
crescendo to a musical climax that feels as if it were birthed by
Tolkein. This is evident in Dave's tastefully whimsical chops,
Burleigh's not-quite-stately use of bassoon, the deftly almost
indecipherably woven combination of trumpet and synth, and the layers
of synth that swirl about the other instruments. As I write this I
realize the song almost defies description. Then it ends ever so
gently, a peaceful resolution representing the harmony the authors
seek. Chris' sweet synthesized glissando climbing to the symbolic
epiphany of brotherhood (personhood?)

Time Waits For No One

Beginning with the winding of a clock, the gong of a chime, this
track takes off on a relentless tick-tock rhythm counterpointed by a
plethora of ethno-percussive tastes (Javanese water gongs, etc.) and
Zappaesque time signatures that is at once more charming than the in
your face chrono-musicality of Pink Floyd's "Time" with all of its
realistic time sound effects. Joe's melody and velocity equal Dave's
on this song. This is a pensive reverie about the ephemeral essence
of time and acceptance of its inevitability despite our longing for
immortality. It also draws from another literary legend, T.S. Eliot's
"Love Song of Alfred Prufrock" contributes: "....disturb the
universe?....decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse."
Again this wistful musing is liberally dosed with celebration, what
with gleeful fits of hand-clapping, the festive Odessa (that's
Russia, folks) Balalaika Ensemble noodling their cheery notes, the
partiers yipping and yaying and the cheers from the stands (the only
thing missing were the bulls and toredors). It's time to have fun!
Some of Ambrosia's most touching and clever lyrics are crafted here:

"Punctual people are lost in their plight
To become unprecedented when they arrive"

"There's time to conceive in and time to expire
Though the time 'twixt the two tells the tale that transpires."

This tune should have inspired a bumper sticker: "Time happens" or
"Honk if you have the Time"

Holdin' On To Yesterday

The one bona fide hit (as defined by AM radio airplay) of this album,
is perhaps Ambrosia's classiest composition. Not its smartest, not
its slickest, not even its best, but it is so evocative in its
bluesy pop feel it should have won song or record of the year,
instead of Captain & Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" and Judy
Collins' "Send in the Clowns". And to think this started out as a
country ballad. This song smacks of cry-baby guitar a la B.B. King
and the first time I heard it emanating from my old Philco tube desk
radio, I would have sworn it was the Everlys. This song
qualitatively continuing in the same yearning vein as the previous
song, but this time with a ruefully romantic bent.


World Leave Me Alone

Ambrosia proving that they ought not be pigeonholed as a pure avant
garde prog band, this fuel-injected rocker is all David. This paean
to rebellion, indifference, anger, indignity, indulgence,
irresponsibility is seemingly not a likely subject for an upbeat, fun
song, but....it works, through sheer heart-on-sleeve audacity. One
gets that the "plaintiff" is in need of escape (a theme that is rife,
in gloriously eclectic variations, throughout Ambrosia's body of
work) from EVERYTHING. But the negative energy feeds the furious
tempo of the song, providing a catharsis for all frustrated listeners.


Make Us All Aware

Quite possibly the most underestimated of Ambrosia's progressive
compositions, certainly the least mentioned when Ambrosia fans
convene, this tune deserves a higher place in the annals of
Ambrolore. It positively shimmers with prog musicality and is
effervescent with vocal layering (catch guest vocalist Chuck Girard's
skill in both the wafting joint falsetto with Joe throughout verse #2
and his basso profundo after that verse's "knowing that somewhere our
fortunes we'll find" line). That musicality shows the nice subtle
jazz trio feel of Joe's bass, Burl's percolating snares, and the
cement of the tune, Chris' enchanting piano. All this accomplished
sans Pack's usually brilliant, tasty guitar chops. The dreamy lyric
juxtaposed against the fantasy-like harkens to a tune Bilbo Baggins
might have sung in his search for adventure. Of particular note is
the "Irish" jig performed on some ancient keyboard (clavier,
harpsichord, etc.?). How can music this fun be so unknown?

Lover Arrive

A simple yet complex love song. Simply played yet rich with sonic
texture, full of joy and longing. David's first composition shows his
voice at its most self-assured. It is a quiet refuge in the
progressive bombast of the balance of side 2 (the latter four songs
as presented on the original vinyl). It is a ballad without delving
into the saccharine feel of other romantic odes. Besides how many
ballads can you count that include a searing (though buried in the
mix) pipe organ and kettle drums. The strings have a chamber music
feel and not an embellished pop song feel so dominant in other string
arrangements of the day.

Mama Frog

Man, did they ever let loose on this jazzy pyroclastic juggernaut!
Great syncopation in unison by the whole group. It is almost
impossible to pick out the individual instruments they so blend
together. It demands to be played at top volume. If any song should
pour from some incoming freshman's speakers obtrusively into the
quad, this is the one! An epitome of stylish cleverness &
instrumental gamesmanship. But wait! There's more. Once you think
you've hit the mother lode of prog, it infuses literature! by way of
Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" authoritatively narrated by classical
engineer & Ambrosia "co-discoverer" Gordon Perry in a rich dulcet
British baritone! Over a mesmerizing synthetic sine wave of droning
mystery. You could see the hairs on Alice's nape raise at the
recitation ala campfire horror tales. Then a cataclysm of fusion
whimsy (with a frog chorus chortling, even) before the abrupt stop.
Like a statement, as if Ambrosia said musically "There, top that!"

Drink of Water

Ambrosia's defining moment. To, I daresay, the bulk of Ambrosia's fans,
this song is their singular masterpiece. Because it all comes
together so magnificently. Not only physically excellent
musicianship, but spiritually & emotionally moving music as well. And
matched with equally moving lyrics. Man's time-honored and incessant
search for truth and life's meaning has never been so elegantly nor
eloquently presented. It explodes with gothic and, yet, enlightened
passion of the questioner's journey. The details of this song are so
wonderful to discover. The way that Joe's voice in the first chorus
ends resolving to a Bm7 chord, but the second chorus he soars to a
major high evoking the impending hopefulness of discovery. The
musical imagery of the first sprinkles of the oncoming rainstorm
first by the band, then David's inventive finger picking over the
band after the thunderclap. This is such a hypnotic, magnificent
passage that even Chris' seemingly off B3 note (the only caught error
I've heard in any Ambrosia recording) at the 3:29-3:30 mark doesn't
detract. That rainstorm, so symbolic of the total nurturing by water
theme of the song. The profound thought of understanding as immense as
the bounding main, but partaken via a humble glass. It is brilliant
metaphor and instrumental symbiosis. "I went out to get a drink of
water, but I saw an ocean far away". Our hero is in search for a
little something, but the vastness of his quarry awes him from afar.
He then treks onward alternately with purpose and foolishness. His
pining for meaning culminates in a proverbial storm of epiphany after
a lifetime of thirst. It ends with the ultimate analysis of mankind's
condition: those who accept truth and those who reject it: "In our
lives, we've all drank of the water, heard the ocean callin' out our
names, some will seek and find their life's meaning and some will
turn their heads the other way... Oh, did I forget to mention the
literally stunning pipe organ that brackets the song? It bolsters the
song's epic majesty. Another tune to be played cranked up! Rattle
them bones and divert the course of rivers!

Rex Stocklin

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