@craigrunyon6663

2 months ago

I remember like it was yesterday Renaissance playing at the Last Exit club in Washington DC. Keith Relf and his beautiful sister Jane sang this song "Island" together like angels from heaven! I shall never forget that magical night and this song was the high light of the evening. The inside record cover was photographed on the elevated platform of the costume gallery at the Victoria and Albert museum my work colleagues remembered the day it was photographed This musical combo was at the forefront on progressive music. Keith Relf's musical career stretched all the way from the YardBirds doing covers of blues songs and slowly finding their voice writing fabulous songs like "For your love" with Brian Augar on harpsichord. This musical style influenced many soundtrack composers like John Barry in the James Bond films and Roy Frederick Budd in the famous "Get Carter" film with Michael Cane. That haunting groovy 1960s harpsichord sound. Then the YardBirds wrote their anti-war masterpiece "Shapes" Then Keith Relf's Renaissance was formed championing fusing classical music with rock music. He was a pioneer in this genre before King Crimson and Emerson Lake and Palmer. Although Renaissance never became massively popular their place in musical history is assured. The group name was carried on by various people but I never followed any of these musical Shanigans especially after Keith's untimely passing.

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