Barclay James Harvest – “Capricorn” (1980) Review | In the Hour Before You Lose Your Head, the Thief Will Paint the Sunlight Red
Kronomyth 11.2: Time, you thief.
The song Capricorn belongs to a small group of heartbreaking ballads written for the dying soldier. “Lucky Man” by Emerson, Lake and Palmer and “Queen and the Soldier” by Suzanne Vega are two other examples. Each exposes the cruel reality of war in different ways. In the case of “Capricorn,” the battle takes place on the sea and the soldier is waiting in the long night for the morning’s battle and, with it, his inevitable death. At least that’s how I’ve always heard it. The single version is about a minute shorter than the elpee version; a matter of editing the beginning and ending, so far as I can tell. The B side is Berlin from their previous album, XII. Written by Les Holroyd, it’s one of the better tracks from that album, making this, if not exactly a twofer, at least a generous single. If I haven’t mentioned it before, Barclay James Harvest was one of the reasons I started the original Progrography site. There was something almost heroic in their commitment to making music despite being viewed as perennial also-rans in the rock community and I felt compelled to chronicle that journey. Fittingly, my own experience with Progrography has been much the same, but then the pursuit of praise is a young man’s folly, the pursuit of peace an old man’s folly, and I am more old than young and at peace with that.
The Product
A1. Capricorn (John Lees) (3:32)
B1. Berlin (Les Holroyd) (4:09)
The Plastic
Released on 7-inch single on May 9, 1980 in the UK (Polydor, POSP 140) and Germany (Polydor, 2059 238) with regional picture sleeve.
