Hope some day "Darth Pardo" do a proper PFM "Ranking the Albums" and not a TOP 5. I mean, the band have 19 or studio 20 albums, including the english versions. But Top 5 it's nice for those who don't ever know this great band. Hey, Pete, how about do a Top 5 or 10 top prog albums from Latin America. Some gems will surface. Call Ken, the man can help. Cheers!
I like the approach of grouping the albums (as many as you want/have, even all of a given artist's), that usually what I do especially when someone's got a lot of (good) releases
My top 5 PFM picks: 1. Chocolate Kings 2. Storia Di Un Minuto 3. Per Un Amico 4. L'Isola Di Niente 5. Jet Lag Honorable Mentions: Photos of Ghosts The World Became the World Cook Passpartù - mostly for the instrumental title track, even though there is a way better, and longer, version of it on Celebration Live.
One of the best live bands ever. Saw them in London several times in the 70s, including at the legendary Rainbow, and they are one of the few bands that could have blown ELP, Yes and Genesis out of the park. They used to play 21st Century Schizoid Man in concerts. PFM Cook is an awesome live album. Ian Anderson guested with them on their Live in Siena CD. I was in a record store in Bologna before lockdown and got chatting to a guy who found me a box set of old and recent stuff. Definitely still playing.
Excellent band. Saw them twice in the UK and once in Italy. On holiday with my parents and saw the gig advertised. Got a ticket and spent the afternoon with the road crew who were mainly British. Foh engineer was Andy Hendriksen who had done Works Vol.1 with ELP. Good day out and a good show.
Thank you Ken, Rand and Pete, PFM were my first contact with Rock Progressivo Italiano, sometime in 80’s. I enjoyed your ranking of Banco and this one as well.
1. Per un amico 2. Stories di un minute 3. L’isola do niente 4. Photos of Ghosts 5. Chocolate Kings 6. The Wolrd Became the World As a result of these ranking shows on two Italian prog bands, I have to warm up some leftover Spaghetti
Saw them twice but at Reading University they were superb. Everyone claimed the were a Poor Mans ELP. I think they are still playing, saw a concert advertised in Italy about 4 years ago when I was there. Mellotron magic!
I first saw PFM who took the place of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. They opened for Foghat then BOC. it was a very pleasant surprise. This was in Davenport Iowa's Palmer Auditorium Feb 75. I mentioned to BOC's Buck drama about it in 2006. And he told me the name of the place with his long island accent.😁 P.s. I forgot to add that PFM knowing they probably weren't well known stared out with Celebration. And it fired up the audience. Btw! There was a great prog/aor station in the quad cities area.
The first proper concert i went to was PFM in 1975 at birmingham town hall to promote the chocolate kings album. I was 16 years old. It was wonderful and the band was on top form. I think the album is excellent and i really enjoy Bernado's vocals.
I bought these albums when they came out and never saw any of the Italian versions. These were the ones found in the record stores in Sweden. Still have them of course. 1. Photos Of Ghosts -73 2. Chocolate Kings -76 3. The World Became The World -74 4. The Award-Winning Marconi Bakery -76 5. Jet Lag -77 Also the live album PFM Cook -75 All on Manticore except Jet Lag on Electra/Asylum and The Award.. on Peters International Records New York.
Now you should do a Top 5 Le Orme albums. I would find that a hard one to do a top 5, they have more good albums that PFM & Banco. Speaking of PFM, Franco Mussida is a criminally under rated guitar player. And I also have a soft spot for Passpartu, might make it in my top 5 on any given day.
Ugh! This one's tough! I'll be back with a list... Rand Kelly, there's also an even more different version of E Festa on a compilation called "Award Winning Bakery". I think it's an Italian only release, but it also has different versions of some of the early songs, Check it out! "Celebration" is a killer live comp, btw. How does everyone rate the last PFM album that came out? I haven't gotten it yet.
The first PFM album I ever had was a cassette of Cook that I bought way back in the early 80's, played it to death and as soon as it came out I had to get the 3 CD esoteric that has the original album plus the whole of their Central Park show. So that is my number 1. My next experience of PFM was in the early 90s and a double CD compilation that had songs from the beginning up to PFM?PFM! Disc 1 is stuffed full of the early songs and contains Il Banchetto which is the one that totally hooked me into them following which I just had to go out and get hold of everything theyve done - for me the 'Curse' is real when it comes to PFM. Like Rand and Ken and Pete to an extent its difficult to separate out Per un Amico and Storia di un Minuto, and then Isola di Niente. And to be honest while the Englsh versions ( Photos of Ghosts lyrics by Pete Sinfield who also toured with them - theres a 1973 live bootleg of him with them doing some Crimson songs like Cadence and Cascade) are great I prefer the original italian, even though I have no idea what they're singing about - same goes for their last two CDs Emotional Tatooes and I Dreamed of Electric Sheep, where they've released both Italian and English versions together and are definitely worthy of honorable mentions. That double live CD 'A Celebration' that Rand held up is a 2 CD digest of the 10 Anni Live 4 CD set that Ken was talking about - having succumbed to the curse I have them both and they are fantastic, eiher is well worth getting hold of. There was also a double CD of an early 1972 live gig doing the rounds, sound qulaity is basically audience recording bootleg quality but great tohear very early PFM nonetheless. I also have a bit of fondness for Suonare Suonare released in 1980, in particular the title track. My only dismay with PFM is that I've never been able to see themlive - nearly did back in the early 2000's howeverthey pulled out of a show that was being pormoted near to where i live, and while it was said taht was due to fears over flying - it was just after the 9/11 atrocity - I believe the did come over to the UK for a gig in London. That being said though they have a number of live CDs and DVDs that I couldnt recommend highly enough. Nowadays theres's only one original guy left , drummer and singer Franz Di Cioccio alongside lingstanding bassist Patrick Djivas hwo alhtough born in France is now I think a naturlized Italian and who also started another very good Italian band, Area before joining PFM for L'Isola DI Niente in 1974.
I saw this band in '77, the Jet Lag tour and it was one of the best concerts I ever attended, I have most of their albums and they are all great. I would be interested to hear a review of their latest-"I Dreamed of Electric Sheep"...I think that it is great ( the Italian version is much better, Franz singing in English with an Italian accent is annoying, who cares about lyrics when the music is so good.
Pete Sinfield wrote the English lyrics so there’s a King Crimson connection as well as Greg Lake having been in the band and Manticore being his label. The lyrics seemed a lot more articulate and made a lot more sense than the pretentious twaddle that seemed to infest most Prog Rock records. PFM Cook is a wonderful live recording. I own 2 copies of the LP, a Japanese version of the cd and the 3 cd Esoteric box set mentioned. I also have the T-shirt as well as a Photos Of Ghosts T-shirt. These are my favourite 2 recordings. I saw them live in the early 70’s and about 6 years ago.
Thank you Pete, Ken and Rand for doing the rankings of their albums and your expert insights. My top 5 PFM albums are 1. Storia Di Un Minuto, 2. Per Un Amico, 3. L’isola di niente, 4. Stati Di Immaginazione and 5. Dracula. Very hard to rank these albums. imho they and Banco were at the same level of musicality as Yes and Genesis in their early prime days. Love this song collaboration between PFM and Peter Hammill in 2003... th-cam.com/video/OO0Kt9Y5uMo/w-d-xo.html ... Hammill speaks quite fluent Italian ... know that the Italians really like VDGG back in the day.
Chocolate Kings is my #1 I love Lanzetti's vocals and Patrick Djivas bass playing is killer. The chocolate bar gatefold cover is a superb piece of art and one of my favourites ever. #1 Chocolate Kings #2 World Became the World & L'Isola Di Niente #3 Per un Amico #4 Photos of Ghost #5 Storia Di Un Minuto. I did not pick Cook as it is a live album and cheating a bit.
You never even mentioned "Emotional Tattoos" from 2017 or "I Dreamed of Electric Sheep" from 2021.........here, Franz steps up to do the vocals and much of the writing, while still the drummer..........a rejuvenated band and sound harking back to their golden period.....great stuff..........a new lineup, but still Franz and Patrick at the helm
1- Per Un Amico 2- Storia Di Un Minuto 3- L'Isola Di Niente 4- Jet Lag (I hate those lanzetti vocals!) 5- Chocolate Kings (I hate those lanzetti vocals!)
Cook. live lp of the USA tour. Jet lag. The world became the world. Chocolate kings. . I quite like come va in riva della città which is all Italian kinda poppy sound
I have not heard Dracula and have never heard the term 'pasta prog' before. I hope to hear the former but don't wish to hear the latter ever again! I only have an Italian compilation of stuff post 1980 but it's not that great. Throw the 70s albums up in the air (metaphorically, not literally!) and the order in which they land would do as a top 10 as long as Per un Amico is first!
Good band...My album rankings: 1. 10 Anni Live (1971-1978)...This is a 4-cd live set that includes all kinds of stuff, classical King Crimson Tull etc. The sound quality really varies. Check out the opening to "Is My Face On Straight", sounds like live Mahavishnu. Also "J. C. Violin Jam". The jams in particular (like "Spanish Jam") are great, there's a lot of great music on this live set 2. Emotional Tattoos - "I'm Just A Sound" is tremendous 3. Jet Lag 4. 2-Way Tie = I Dreamed Of Electric Sheep, Cook (Live In USA) 5. Photos Of Ghosts 6. The World Became The World 7. Live In Japan 2002 8. 2-Way Tie = Chocolate Kings & Serendipity I don't have a lot of their albums, I don't do foreign lyrics generally speaking so keep that in mind above with my rankings. Their instrumentals can be tremendous, as said in the video the vocals (no matter the language) can be off-putting at times. Yeah there's an accent when singing in English but not too bad, I don't find it distracting at all...So only 10 albums to rank, they have something like 30+ total releases (including a bunch of live records)
I could never get into the Lanzetti albums - his voice just annoys me! Everything before that is top-notch though. I actually like the live album the best, but for studio albums I like Per un Amico #1, Storia di un Minuto next, then Isola d'Niente. You guys should do Le Orme! Some superb LPs there. (and a shout out to Pete's Italian - quite good!)
It's funny how we as humans perceive sound. Lanzetti's voice never bugged me too much, though I can see how it would bother other people, especially when he gets that vibrato really going 🤣🤣🤣
@@JoeChewBaca I so love Lanzetti's vocals....in 1976 I taped the BBC in concert show from Nottingham University and played it to death. This show is now part of the deluxe version of the CD release. Sadly never saw them back in 70's.
Waiting eagerly also for this. Thank u my friends from Italy👍🏻👍🏻
Hope some day "Darth Pardo" do a proper PFM "Ranking the Albums" and not a TOP 5. I mean, the band have 19 or studio 20 albums, including the english versions. But Top 5 it's nice for those who don't ever know this great band. Hey, Pete, how about do a Top 5 or 10 top prog albums from Latin America. Some gems will surface. Call Ken, the man can help. Cheers!
I like the approach of grouping the albums (as many as you want/have, even all of a given artist's), that usually what I do especially when someone's got a lot of (good) releases
You guys nailed their best stuff. I really do enjoy the Italian versions these days.
Thanks for this ranking
Thanks for this there are so many great Italian bands out there
My top 5 PFM picks:
1. Chocolate Kings
2. Storia Di Un Minuto
3. Per Un Amico
4. L'Isola Di Niente
5. Jet Lag
Honorable Mentions:
Photos of Ghosts
The World Became the World
Cook
Passpartù - mostly for the instrumental title track, even though there is a way better, and longer, version of it on Celebration Live.
One of the best live bands ever. Saw them in London several times in the 70s, including at the legendary Rainbow, and they are one of the few bands that could have blown ELP, Yes and Genesis out of the park. They used to play 21st Century Schizoid Man in concerts. PFM Cook is an awesome live album. Ian Anderson guested with them on their Live in Siena CD. I was in a record store in Bologna before lockdown and got chatting to a guy who found me a box set of old and recent stuff. Definitely still playing.
Great show! I also like the live albums they did with italian cantautore Fabrizio De André, where they played like his backing band. Worth a listen!
I need to check these guys out too!
A great band, and Im lucky to have seen them twice in the last 5 years, a great review too guys !
Excellent band. Saw them twice in the UK and once in Italy. On holiday with my parents and saw the gig advertised. Got a ticket and spent the afternoon with the road crew who were mainly British. Foh engineer was Andy Hendriksen who had done Works Vol.1 with ELP. Good day out and a good show.
Looking forward to this waited a long time for rankings
Thank you Ken, Rand and Pete, PFM were my first contact with Rock Progressivo Italiano, sometime in 80’s. I enjoyed your ranking of Banco and this one as well.
1. Per un amico
2. Stories di un minute
3. L’isola do niente
4. Photos of Ghosts
5. Chocolate Kings
6. The Wolrd Became the World
As a result of these ranking shows on two Italian prog bands, I have to warm up some leftover Spaghetti
Offensive joke bruh
We called all of these Italian Prog bands Spaghetti Rock in 1974.
@@shyshift i know, and in Italy we never liked It. As if we called american 70's rock "i'll invade your country and kill you" rock
Been aware of this band since the seventies, never bothered checking them out, I think I will do so now, thanks very much Gentlemen.
Saw them twice but at Reading University they were superb. Everyone claimed the were a Poor Mans ELP. I think they are still playing, saw a concert advertised in Italy about 4 years ago when I was there. Mellotron magic!
I first saw PFM who took the place of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. They opened for Foghat then BOC. it was a very pleasant surprise. This was in Davenport Iowa's Palmer Auditorium Feb 75. I mentioned to BOC's Buck drama about it in 2006. And he told me the name of the place with his long island accent.😁
P.s. I forgot to add that PFM knowing they probably weren't well known stared out with Celebration. And it fired up the audience. Btw! There was a great prog/aor station in the quad cities area.
Great!Thank you!My top 5:
1. L’isola di niente
2. Per un amico
3. Storia di un minuto
4. Chocolate kings
5. Passpartù
Greetings from Sardinia
The first proper concert i went to was PFM in 1975 at birmingham town hall to promote the chocolate kings album. I was 16 years old. It was wonderful and the band was on top form. I think the album is excellent and i really enjoy Bernado's vocals.
I'll say it again, Live in Japan DVD is the greatest prog dvd I have ever seen.
Make that Live in Japan 2002
PAL only but my Yamaha can play it.
@@shyshift It's on here under Concerto della Premiata Forneria Marconi-Live in Japan.
@@bauertime thanks for the intel.
Again don't know Italian prog. Still interesting. Another good show.
I bought these albums when they came out and never saw any of the Italian versions. These were the ones found in the record stores in Sweden. Still have them of course.
1. Photos Of Ghosts -73
2. Chocolate Kings -76
3. The World Became The World -74
4. The Award-Winning Marconi Bakery -76
5. Jet Lag -77
Also the live album PFM Cook -75
All on Manticore except Jet Lag on Electra/Asylum and The Award.. on Peters International Records New York.
I first heard Celebration in progressive fm stations around 1973. I was hooked also.
How about 'Le Orme' then !? As I own all their albums on CD I could do the ranking for you if you feel unsure about it, haha.
Now you should do a Top 5 Le Orme albums. I would find that a hard one to do a top 5, they have more good albums that PFM & Banco. Speaking of PFM, Franco Mussida is a criminally under rated guitar player. And I also have a soft spot for Passpartu, might make it in my top 5 on any given day.
Ugh! This one's tough! I'll be back with a list...
Rand Kelly, there's also an even more different version of E Festa on a compilation called "Award Winning Bakery". I think it's an Italian only release, but it also has different versions of some of the early songs, Check it out! "Celebration" is a killer live comp, btw.
How does everyone rate the last PFM album that came out? I haven't gotten it yet.
Like Rand, I saw PFM open for Dave Mason in the early 70's in Houston. We left after PFM finished their set.
The first PFM album I ever had was a cassette of Cook that I bought way back in the early 80's, played it to death and as soon as it came out I had to get the 3 CD esoteric that has the original album plus the whole of their Central Park show. So that is my number 1. My next experience of PFM was in the early 90s and a double CD compilation that had songs from the beginning up to PFM?PFM! Disc 1 is stuffed full of the early songs and contains Il Banchetto which is the one that totally hooked me into them following which I just had to go out and get hold of everything theyve done - for me the 'Curse' is real when it comes to PFM.
Like Rand and Ken and Pete to an extent its difficult to separate out Per un Amico and Storia di un Minuto, and then Isola di Niente. And to be honest while the Englsh versions ( Photos of Ghosts lyrics by Pete Sinfield who also toured with them - theres a 1973 live bootleg of him with them doing some Crimson songs like Cadence and Cascade) are great I prefer the original italian, even though I have no idea what they're singing about - same goes for their last two CDs Emotional Tatooes and I Dreamed of Electric Sheep, where they've released both Italian and English versions together and are definitely worthy of honorable mentions.
That double live CD 'A Celebration' that Rand held up is a 2 CD digest of the 10 Anni Live 4 CD set that Ken was talking about - having succumbed to the curse I have them both and they are fantastic, eiher is well worth getting hold of. There was also a double CD of an early 1972 live gig doing the rounds, sound qulaity is basically audience recording bootleg quality but great tohear very early PFM nonetheless. I also have a bit of fondness for Suonare Suonare released in 1980, in particular the title track.
My only dismay with PFM is that I've never been able to see themlive - nearly did back in the early 2000's howeverthey pulled out of a show that was being pormoted near to where i live, and while it was said taht was due to fears over flying - it was just after the 9/11 atrocity - I believe the did come over to the UK for a gig in London. That being said though they have a number of live CDs and DVDs that I couldnt recommend highly enough.
Nowadays theres's only one original guy left , drummer and singer Franz Di Cioccio alongside lingstanding bassist Patrick Djivas hwo alhtough born in France is now I think a naturlized Italian and who also started another very good Italian band, Area before joining PFM for L'Isola DI Niente in 1974.
Not an Italian band, but another interesting band of that era were a French band, Ange
I saw this band in '77, the Jet Lag tour and it was one of the best concerts I ever attended, I have most of their albums and they are all great. I would be interested to hear a review of their latest-"I Dreamed of Electric Sheep"...I think that it is great ( the Italian version is much better, Franz singing in English with an Italian accent is annoying, who cares about lyrics when the music is so good.
Ok, next up Area?
Pete Sinfield wrote the English lyrics so there’s a King Crimson connection as well as Greg Lake having been in the band and Manticore being his label. The lyrics seemed a lot more articulate and made a lot more sense than the pretentious twaddle that seemed to infest most Prog Rock records.
PFM Cook is a wonderful live recording. I own 2 copies of the LP, a Japanese version of the cd and the 3 cd Esoteric box set mentioned. I also have the T-shirt as well as a Photos Of Ghosts T-shirt. These are my favourite 2 recordings. I saw them live in the early 70’s and about 6 years ago.
Thank you Pete, Ken and Rand for doing the rankings of their albums and your expert insights. My top 5 PFM albums are 1. Storia Di Un Minuto, 2. Per Un Amico, 3. L’isola di niente, 4. Stati Di Immaginazione and 5. Dracula. Very hard to rank these albums. imho they and Banco were at the same level of musicality as Yes and Genesis in their early prime days. Love this song collaboration between PFM and Peter Hammill in 2003... th-cam.com/video/OO0Kt9Y5uMo/w-d-xo.html ... Hammill speaks quite fluent Italian ... know that the Italians really like VDGG back in the day.
Chocolate Kings is my #1 I love Lanzetti's vocals and Patrick Djivas bass playing is killer. The chocolate bar gatefold cover is a superb piece of art and one of my favourites ever.
#1 Chocolate Kings #2 World Became the World & L'Isola Di Niente #3 Per un Amico #4 Photos of Ghost #5 Storia Di Un Minuto. I did not pick Cook as it is a live album and cheating a bit.
I love music partys
For more pasta prog, you can’t go past Area. Hope Rand and Ken can do them one day ;)
I know nothing about Area but I plan on rectifying that soon.
What is your opinion on Demetrios Stratos from the fusion band AREA...Djivas played with them before PFM.
You never even mentioned "Emotional Tattoos" from 2017 or "I Dreamed of Electric Sheep" from 2021.........here, Franz steps up to do the vocals and much of the writing, while still the drummer..........a rejuvenated band and sound harking back to their golden period.....great stuff..........a new lineup, but still Franz and Patrick at the helm
Emotional Tattoos is tremendous, my #2. Also my #1 = 10 Anni Live (1971-1978). Electric Sheep is good too, right behind Jet Lag for me...
Franz singing is a disgrace
I was going to mention the last 2 albums but at 69 I forget sometimes.
@@shyshift Don't feel bad Rand, at 64 I sometimes forget to remember to remember
1- Per Un Amico
2- Storia Di Un Minuto
3- L'Isola Di Niente
4- Jet Lag (I hate those lanzetti vocals!)
5- Chocolate Kings (I hate those lanzetti vocals!)
Cook. live lp of the USA tour. Jet lag. The world became the world. Chocolate kings. . I quite like come va in riva della città which is all Italian kinda poppy sound
I have not heard Dracula and have never heard the term 'pasta prog' before. I hope to hear the former but don't wish to hear the latter ever again! I only have an Italian compilation of stuff post 1980 but it's not that great. Throw the 70s albums up in the air (metaphorically, not literally!) and the order in which they land would do as a top 10 as long as Per un Amico is first!
Chocolate Kings is by some distance the best album.
Good band...My album rankings:
1. 10 Anni Live (1971-1978)...This is a 4-cd live set that includes all kinds of stuff, classical King Crimson Tull etc. The sound quality really varies. Check out the opening to "Is My Face On Straight", sounds like live Mahavishnu. Also "J. C. Violin Jam". The jams in particular (like "Spanish Jam") are great, there's a lot of great music on this live set
2. Emotional Tattoos - "I'm Just A Sound" is tremendous
3. Jet Lag
4. 2-Way Tie = I Dreamed Of Electric Sheep, Cook (Live In USA)
5. Photos Of Ghosts
6. The World Became The World
7. Live In Japan 2002
8. 2-Way Tie = Chocolate Kings & Serendipity
I don't have a lot of their albums, I don't do foreign lyrics generally speaking so keep that in mind above with my rankings. Their instrumentals can be tremendous, as said in the video the vocals (no matter the language) can be off-putting at times. Yeah there's an accent when singing in English but not too bad, I don't find it distracting at all...So only 10 albums to rank, they have something like 30+ total releases (including a bunch of live records)
Annette works fine with Bruford for me.
I could never get into the Lanzetti albums - his voice just annoys me! Everything before that is top-notch though. I actually like the live album the best, but for studio albums I like Per un Amico #1, Storia di un Minuto next, then Isola d'Niente. You guys should do Le Orme! Some superb LPs there. (and a shout out to Pete's Italian - quite good!)
It's funny how we as humans perceive sound. Lanzetti's voice never bugged me too much, though I can see how it would bother other people, especially when he gets that vibrato really going 🤣🤣🤣
@@JoeChewBaca I so love Lanzetti's vocals....in 1976 I taped the BBC in concert show from Nottingham University and played it to death. This show is now part of the deluxe version of the CD release. Sadly never saw them back in 70's.
I only rate isola and amico. The others are ok. Change of vocals and too much violin ruined it for me lol
WHERES CHEAP TRICK PLZ