The Snow Goose (album) - Creation

Creation

The band considered several novels on which to base their next album. For a time they settled on Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, and some songs were written before the idea was abandoned in favor of Paul Gallico's novella The Snow Goose. The album's name, originally The Snow Goose was altered to Music Inspired by The Snow Goose to accommodate legal protests by Paul Gallico. The album was originally due to feature lyrics based around Paul Gallico's text, but due to his objections, an instrumental was made instead..The music was mostly written during an intensive fortnight in a cottage in Devon, England.

In January 1975 work on "Snow Goose" began at Island Studios in London with David Hitchcock undertaking production duties for the band once more and Rhett Davies as sound engineer. Overdubbed At Decca Studios was engineered by John Burns. The London Symphony Orchestra participated in the recording and composer and Conductor David Bedford was enlisted to write the highly evocative orchestral arrangements for Latimer and Bardens´creation.

Doug's duffle coat, mentioned in the credits, was used by Andy Latimer and Doug Ferguson to simulate a flapping of wings by waving it in the air.

The album went on sale in April 1975, eventually reaching number 22 in UK album chart in the summer of the year (13 weeks on chart).Certified Silver. In USA the album was released on July 19th 1975, achieved a Billboard chart placing 162.

The album definitely opened the doors to international level and in the following years would achieve great prestige, especially in Europe and Japan. The album is considered one of the masterpieces of symphonic rock.