Official Neal Morse Appreciation Thread

[The Letter M]

If he ever does a Jewish-themed album it can start with "Passoverture".

There has to be a track titled "The Return Of The Heavy Metal Long-Haired Blue Bearded Tattooed Jew".

-Marc.

[Dedalus]

If he ever does a Jewish-themed album it can start with "Passoverture".

  

[KevShmev]

Speaking of Neal Morse tracks titled Overture, I was listening to TGA the other day after a loooong while and I had to skip that track. I had forgotten they did a 10 minute opening track titled Overture and to me it's way too long and tiring to listen to (and I usually LOVE them on Neal's albums)

I actually think that is one of his better overture tracks, and while it is 10 minutes, I don't think it feels that long, probably because the "overture" part of the song doesn't really start until several minutes into the song, since the songs kicks off with the Breath of Angels acoustic reprise, the reprise of the end of Similitude, and then the intro of the "Love That Never Dies" melody (that is sung for the 1st of 33 times ).

[gzarruk]

Speaking of Neal Morse tracks titled Overture, I was listening to TGA the other day after a loooong while and I had to skip that track. I had forgotten they did a 10 minute opening track titled Overture and to me it's way too long and tiring to listen to (and I usually LOVE them on Neal's albums)

I actually think that is one of his better overture tracks, and while it is 10 minutes, I don't think it feels that long, probably because the "overture" part of the song doesn't really start until several minutes into the song, since the songs kicks off with the Breath of Angels acoustic reprise, the reprise of the end of Similitude, and then the intro of the "Love That Never Dies" melody (that is sung for the 1st of 33 times ).

Yeah, they completely over-used that theme, to the point where every time it pops up I'm like "this again?"

[MinistroRaven]

Fresh out of the oven interview with my Neal Morse, touching upon his upcoming solo and covers albums and much more. Great read! (IMO)

https://www.facebook.com/SonicPerspectives/posts/3398945720115929

[gzarruk]

Fresh out of the oven interview with Neal Morse, touching upon his upcoming solo and covers albums and much more. Great read! (IMO)

https://www.facebook.com/SonicPerspectives/posts/3398945720115929

 

[KevShmev]

Nice job sliding in that vinyl question.

[gmillerdrake]

Fresh out of the oven interview with my Neal Morse, touching upon his upcoming solo and covers albums and much more. Great read! (IMO)

https://www.facebook.com/SonicPerspectives/posts/3398945720115929

Dude! Excellent interview AND you slid in the King David question I posted when you asked for suggestions! Thanks for that     With his pension for writing these long albums with an over arching story....personally.....I think the story of David would be pretty cool to hear told musically and lyrically from Neal. It's a pretty remarkable, interesting story that has many different avenues of emotion and experience.

Anyway......thanks for even mentioning it to him.

[MinistroRaven]

I would have loved to have more time, as I had like 10/12 more questions, sadly his call didn't come in as expected and we only had half the time for the interview.

Thank you guys for the questions, I tried to include as many as I could from my fellow forumers

[KevShmev]

All good, very nice work. 

[MinistroRaven]

Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy & Randy George are returning to their Cover To Cover series of albums with ‘Cov3r To Cov3r’, the brand new third instalment. Featuring their renditions of classic tracks by the likes of King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Gerry Rafferty, David Bowie & more (including their cover of ‘No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed’ featuring vocals from Yes singer Jon Davison), the album will be released on July 24th, as CD, Gatefold 2LP + CD & as Digital Album.
 
It is just 2 weeks till the album is released, and today they have launched a video for their cover of Jethro Tull’s Hymn 43. Watch the video now here: https://youtu.be/vTa88fH6jBQ

[KevShmev]

Their cover of Hymn 43 is pretty good, but I miss the flute.

[RoeDent]

Speaking of Neal Morse tracks titled Overture, I was listening to TGA the other day after a loooong while and I had to skip that track. I had forgotten they did a 10 minute opening track titled Overture and to me it's way too long and tiring to listen to (and I usually LOVE them on Neal's albums)

I actually think that is one of his better overture tracks, and while it is 10 minutes, I don't think it feels that long, probably because the "overture" part of the song doesn't really start until several minutes into the song, since the songs kicks off with the Breath of Angels acoustic reprise, the reprise of the end of Similitude, and then the intro of the "Love That Never Dies" melody (that is sung for the 1st of 33 times ).

Exactly this. You could put the sung verses as a separate track a la Regression. Then the rest of the overture is a good length given the vast array of themes in the opera that need to be expositioned, to be developed throughout the course of the opera. And keeping on sonata form, the recapitulation occurs during the instrumental break of Freedom Calling, which acts as a dramatic buildup before the grand denouement of A Love That Never Dies.

[Stadler]

Their cover of Hymn 43 is pretty good, but I miss the flute.

That's what sh... aw, you know.   

[MinistroRaven]

FROM RADIANT RECORDS:

Don't forget! Pre-orders for Sola Gratia begin TOMORROW at 9AM CST. We're offering a special 15% off orders of $75 (valid tomorrow through end of day Sunday, July 19th)!

Pre-order through Radiant and take advantage of our exclusive offers:
- Pre-orders placed by end of day Sunday, July 19th will be autographed by Neal!
- 100 custom "Sola Gratia" guitar picks will be randomly distributed!
- On album release day, you will receive an exclusive Sola Gratia downloadable booklet containing Neal's handwritten lyrics, plus his comments on the writing/recording of the album!
- ALL pre-orders will receive MP3s of the first three singles as they are released.

[MinistroRaven]

Neal Morse recently announced the release of ‘Sola Gratia’, his new solo progressive rock concept album, for September 11th, 2020. Originating from a seed planted in his mind about writing a record based on the apostle Paul, ‘Sola Gratia’ quickly came together at the beginning of 2020. The album sees Neal working with long-time collaborators Mike Portnoy, Randy George, Eric Gillette, Bill Hubauer and Gideon Klein.
 
Today sees the launch of the first single ‘In The Name Of The Lord’, and you can watch the video now here: https://youtu.be/ZsYgGN_HQ-A

[goo-goo]

Pre-order link up

https://nealmorse.com/product/sola-gratia-neal-morse/

[gzarruk]

Neal Morse recently announced the release of ‘Sola Gratia’, his new solo progressive rock concept album, for September 11th, 2020. Originating from a seed planted in his mind about writing a record based on the apostle Paul, ‘Sola Gratia’ quickly came together at the beginning of 2020. The album sees Neal working with long-time collaborators Mike Portnoy, Randy George, Eric Gillette, Bill Hubauer and Gideon Klein.
 
Today sees the launch of the first single ‘In The Name Of The Lord’, and you can watch the video now here: https://youtu.be/ZsYgGN_HQ-A

I've been listening to Neal a lot lately, as I was just going through his solo album catalog, so this came at the perfect time. It amazes me how Neal never runs out of great musical ideas
Can't wait for the album!

[Stadler]

Neal Morse recently announced the release of ‘Sola Gratia’, his new solo progressive rock concept album, for September 11th, 2020. Originating from a seed planted in his mind about writing a record based on the apostle Paul, ‘Sola Gratia’ quickly came together at the beginning of 2020. The album sees Neal working with long-time collaborators Mike Portnoy, Randy George, Eric Gillette, Bill Hubauer and Gideon Klein.
 
Today sees the launch of the first single ‘In The Name Of The Lord’, and you can watch the video now here: https://youtu.be/ZsYgGN_HQ-A

I've been listening to Neal a lot lately, as I was just going through his solo album catalog, so this came at the perfect time. It amazes me how Neal never runs out of great musical ideas
Can't wait for the album!

Me too; I haven't binged on an artist like this in a long time.   It's just so positive, though, and it's been a nice respite from all the negativity that I seem to be inundated with on the regular. 

[KevShmev]

Neal is still one of my default "if I can't decide who I want to listen to right now, I'll just them on" artists at the moments, so he is never too far from my speakers.

New song sounds good.  Nice catchy guitar riff, and I guess it being a solo album made Neal want to bust out talking about God and Jesus by name again.  

[bosk1]

...,and I guess it being a solo album made Neal want to bust out talking about God and Jesus by name again.  

Well, I think the subject matter kind of demands it. 

To give some context to the lyrics, for those who may not know the specifics of the story, most of the album (and that song, specifically) is told from the perspective of Paul, the Apostle.  Most of the story takes place before he was an Apostle.  Paul was originally named Saul.  He was a Jew who was a disciple of one of the greatest Jewish rabbis of the day, and as a young man, was basically a protege who was being groomed to be THE next big thing in Judaism.  As recorded in the first several chapters of Acts of the Apostles, after Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection, they Apostles were repeatedly arrested, beaten, and threatened for trying to teach that Jesus rose from the dead, and that people should follow him.  In chapter 7, we see that Stephen, a disciple, was publicly killed.  Acts 8:1 says that "Saul approved of his execution."  The following verses are relevant to the new single.  It talks about Saul leading a great persecution against the Christians in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, and about he got letters of approval from the leaders to drag suspected Christians from their homes and into prison, some (or all) of whom were then executed.  He was trying to destroy Christianity and everything associated with it, and believed he was doing so at God's direction.  This is what the lyrics of In the Name of the Lord are about.

[KevShmev]

For some reason, I had the voice of Charlie Brown's teacher going through my head when reading that post, bosk1.

What can I say, I am in for the music, not the message.  As long as Neal doesn't beat me over the head with the God and Jesus talk, I am usually fine with it. 

[bosk1]

For some reason, I had the voice of Charlie Brown's teacher going through my head when reading that post, bosk1.

[Mladen]

I thought the song was solid, but the rest of the album is usually where it's at with Neal.

[Peter Mc]

Yeah, he always seems to release these rawk songs as singles and it’s actually not something he’s all that great at imo.  I absolutely love his music but, generally speaking, the more metal he goes, the less I like it.  Don’t think it suits him.  This is better than some of the other singles he’s released in the past though and still really looking forward to the album.  Didn’t notice Eric or Bill in the video, is this just going back to Neal, Mike and Randy like the other solo albums?

[KevShmev]

I believe Eric and Bill have minor contributions. It is basically like Neal's other prog solo albums, where he wrote the whole thing, Randy George and Mike Portnoy are his main backing band, and he gets others to make minor contributions where needed.

[jingle.boy]

Holy crap, In The Name of the Lord is on Spotify.   

Pretty decent listen.

[The Letter M]

Burning Shed just put up their preorder page for Sola Gratia and have provided track lengths, for anyone curious about them:
CD
1 Preface 00:01:28
2 Overture 00:05:59
3 In The Name Of The Lord 00:04:27
4 Ballyhoo (The Chosen Ones) 00:02:43
5 March Of The Pharisees 00:01:40
6 Building A Wall 00:05:01
7 Sola Intermezzo 00:02:10
8 Overflow 00:06:27
9 Warmer Than The Sunshine 00:03:22
10 Never Change 00:07:52
11 Seemingly Sincere 00:09:34
12 The Light On The Road To Damascus 00:03:26
13 The Glory Of The Lord 00:06:17
14 Now I Can See/The Great Commission 00:05:17
 
DVD
1 The Making of Sola Gratia Documentary 01:01:10


Total length seems to be 61:43, so yeah, just a bit over an hour as Neal has said. Can't wait!

-Marc.

[425]

Just knowing Neal's patterns, interesting to see the final track with two titles coming in below 6 minutes, rather than 9+.

[DTA]

Still can't figure out how he named another track The Glory Of The Lord, which is literally an exact song title from Question Mark. Get this man a song title database that he can refer to before naming tracks in the future

[gzarruk]

Still can't figure out how he named another track The Glory Of The Lord, which is literally an exact song title from Question Mark. Get this man a song title database that he can refer to before naming tracks in the future

 

But maybe it makes reference to the original track? Dunno.

[Mladen]

I'm confident that, after 25 albums, Neal doesn't remember if he used a particular song title before. Maybe he should start looking it up. Lets see if it bothers him when someone brings up he already has a song of the same name. 

That seems like a good question next time Rodrigo interviews him, for example. Hopefully I will not forget to suggest the question when it maters.   

[425]

Not quite the same thing, but the track list on the packaging for Morsefest 2014 lists Time Has Come instead of Time Has Come Today. I wasn't that familiar with T2 at the time, so before I actually watched the show, I thought Neal had made the strange choice of dropping a Spock's Beard track in between two T2 songs!

[RodrigoAltaf]

I'm confident that, after 25 albums, Neal doesn't remember if he used a particular song title before. Maybe he should start looking it up. Lets see if it bothers him when someone brings up he already has a song of the same name. 

That seems like a good question next time Rodrigo interviews him, for example. Hopefully I will not forget to suggest the question when it maters.   

I'll keep that in mind!!!!

[Mladen]

That would be awesome.