Music Arcades: Steve Howe: The Steve Howe Album

On the inside of the gatefold sleeve of this album there are photographs of all the instruments (guitars, banjo, mandolin, steel guitars) that Steve Howe plays on this album, with a chart showing which appear on which track. All's a Chord has him playing eight different instruments. There's also a photo of Howe playing with a 59-piece orchestra

I like to imagine what was going through the minds of the orchestra members as that photograph was taken. Was it, "Not another rock dilettante who wants to buy artisitic standing by wasting our talents on his silly drivel!" I suspect not. I think a lot of orchestra musicians have seen it all and done it all, and they don't have time for snobbish airs. I like to think they were whispering under their breath, "This guy pays a bloody good session rate — hope I can get some more work like this…"

As rock-guitar-with-orchestra exploits go, this is one of the best I've heard. I remember getting to know this album — it conjures the autumn of 1982 in my mind — and it grew on me steadily. I mean, obviously it's a vanity project, "Look at me, Ma, I can do the pastoral acoustic, I can do the Django jazz, I can do bursts of Mahavishnu — you name it, and I'll show you my chops." The thing is, he pulls it off, and — aside from the two attempt at songs — it's all done rather tastefully. I don't know Vivaldi's Concerto in D, but Howe's take it on it is more than listenable. Ditto his own composition for orchestra, Double Rondo.

Bizzarely, I see the CD release has a slightly different cover from my LP: the record company in their wisdom must have decided that having a dead body in the pool would discourage the great public from parting with their greenbacks.