By the time the 1970's rolled around, a new and experimental phase of Rock that began life as a hybrid between Psychedelia, Classical and Free-form Jazz in the 60's, burst on the scene and took Europe by storm. In the States, it took a while. Shrugged off in the American press as pretentious, sterile and overly-intellectual, the genre had to find its audience by almost by word-of-mouth.

With such bands as Yes, The Nice (in the later 60's) and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, inroads were made that bridged the gap between a skeptical press and an eager audience. But still, the overwhelming majority of bands in the Prog-Rock genre were the exclusive property of "that" side of the Atlantic.

Genesis had been around since the late 1960's. With one early album (From Genesis To Revelation) showing promise, but lacking that winning spark. They eventually signed with Charisma Records, founded by former Manager-turned Label owner Tony Stratton-Smith and their fortunes soon changed. Getting a word of mouth and popularity in England and all over Europe (especially in Italy), they secured a license deal with Dunhill Records in the U.S. - they had made one or two brief tours of the U.S., primarily in the Northeast and, almost unbeknownst to the U.S. record industry, Genesis were gaining a huge popularity. When Charisma struck a label deal with Atlantic, and their maiden album with the new arrangement, Selling England By The Pound was released in 1973, Genesis took the record industry big-wigs completely by surprise and sold out every venue they were booked in during their first cross-country U.S. tour. Word-of-mouth paid off with dividends.

Tonight it's the opening track from that milestone album, Dancing With The Moonlit Knight.

Maybe you remember it - and maybe you've never heard it before.

Pull up a chair and have a listen for the next seven minutes.

When noteworthy bands break up and the individual members go their separate ways and form other bands, it's a miracle if they achieve individually what they were able to achieve collectively. And sadly, that was the case with Lee Jackson. Lee Jackson was originally bassist for The Nice. After a decent run of huge success The Nice eventually fell apart and the members split off to form other groups. Aside from Keith Emerson, the others had somewhat dubious accomplishments in the intervening years.

With Lee Jackson it was Jackson Heights, a group he put together with four other musician friends where he switched from bass guitar to 6 and 12 string acoustic and assumed vocals. Since the split with other members of The Nice was somewhat acrimonious, it wasn't that way with the record company (Charisma) and Jackson Heights secured a label deal almost instantly, along with a goodly amount of support. Trouble was, they really weren't all that great. Lee Jackson had a rather weak voice but took the role of lead singer anyway. Their first album King Progress (which tonight's track, the earlier Nice song Cry Of Eugene comes from) was neither a critical or commercial success and the band underwent a series of personnel and direction changes.

Eventually, Lee Jackson would dissolve Jackson Heights, after releasing four albums, and form Refugee with future Yes keyboards Patrick Moraz. But that didn't last long either. Sadly, Jackson's place in musical history has somewhat diminished over time, with Keith Emerson emerging as the sole member of The Nice who went on to a well-established if not legendary career.

Still, there are the efforts and tonight's track is one of those efforts. Lots of promise and a well-regarded song from earlier days. Whether it's stood the test of time is another thing. But then, if you've never heard this before, it's new to you anyway - so why should you care?

Enjoy it for what it is.

It's safe to say if the Psych movement hadn't existed a lot of genres of music may never have come about. Because there was such a free form aspect to it, it was possible to jam a bunch of guys together, one who was a Classical musician, another who was a Jazz musician and a die hard Blues fanatic, and put them in the studio and the results were The Nice.

Had The Nice not existed it's also safe to say Prog-Rock might not have taken off the way it did, Emerson Lake and Palmer would never have existed and probably music would be at a dead standstill right about now.

But they did and they were wildly popular, especially in the UK and Europe from the late 1960's until their demise in the early 70's when Emerson, Lake and Palmer emerged from the ashes. Keith Emerson was a founding member of The Nice, and coupled with their musical abilities was a completely off the wall live presentation that made them the stuff of legend for a very long time. As a sidelight, Lemmy, who would later go to pursue his own career with Hawkwind and Motorhead, was a roadie for The Nice and it's been said he was very much inspired by the sheer pyrotechnics of working with the band.

So you see, they got around and their influence was felt in all parts of Rock music.

Tonight's track comes off their first album, The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack. The album title is a take-off on all the band members names; Keith Emerson (Emer), Davy O'List (List), Brian Davison (Dav) and Lee Jackson (Jack). Rondo is an 8 minute instrumental that takes off on Dave Brubeck and Vivaldi and tosses in a whole music library along for the ride.

It was the start of what would be a very much traveled road.