Guys, I'm 66 years old. I used to like Focus when I was 18, I haven't heard these fantastic pieces for many years, but now I hear them again on UA-cam and I like them even more. Art is like that. When it's good, it's eternal.
Saw them live - twice - in Glasgow, millions of years ago. Every one of these guys was a top-class musician back then. Saw Jan Ak. in Glasgow about ten years ago - he looked older but his talent hadn't aged a bit, not a bit. I was moved by the music and the nostalgia. God, what has happened to 'music' today?
Probably the greatest guitar soloI have ever heard....it is like Bird playing with Bach....with fonk.....and yet Focus are virtually unknown....we are the lucky ones to have seen them and hung with them!!! God love you guys. Lol from the UK
Focus had a very unique melancholic music style. I always get a bit nostalgic when I listen to their early 70s records. My dad always bugged out when I was listening to this stuff.
My dad was a Sinatra fan and thought stuff like this was for long haired pot smoking freaks lol, I had to put him straight so I gave him a spliff and put Dark side of the moon on then moved him onto Billy Cobham stratus. 😂
@@Eleventhearlofmars good job! My dad was not really a man who got serious into listening to music - it was my mom playing me Zappa or gave me lamb lies down.
Hocus Pocus was groundbreaking nothing sounded like that but Eruption no doubt is my favorite track, oh wow this is gasmic, orgasmic, eargasmic exciting brilliant! xxxx
Personally I hated Hocus Pocus, and i'm a massive Focus fan (all albums owned on vinyl). Eruption and Janis were the standout tracks for me on this album.
Not the best one... there were still performing Joe Pass, Jim Hall, Herb Ellis, Charlie Byrd, Kenny Burrell, Larry Coryell, "Mahavishnu" John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, and later on Sco and Pat Metheny. And don't forget: The technically best guitarplayer of all times already was performing in those days: Paco de Lucía. But nonetheless Jan Ackermann was a giant.
"Janis" is a magical song. i was 16 when i first heard it in 1996... i had it on a tape . around then, i fell in love with a girl, two years older than me . it was hopeless, so i suffered because of the unshared love. and i would play Moving Waves and "Janis" would seem to me the WORLD'S NUMBER ONE LOVE THEME ever ... Greetings from Ukraine. V.
Having been brought up on jazz by my father, in 1973 aged 14, I bought Focus III - and that was it. Ground breaking instrumental music played by talented composers and musicians. I still can't believe the quality of Anonymous, a track that covered all of one side of an LP and half the way across the other, without missing a beat. Tremendous.
This is what you think, my friend ! Between 1973-1977 they werw rated as the best group in the world or in the first five bands at that time ! You can check this information reading Melody Maker ( a very skilled magazine during those years) New Musical Expres, Billboard and other sources . The first albums were a smash, brilliant ! And than came out the greater (and the greatest )HAMBURGER CONCERTO. I used to listen to whatever good music means since 1967 until now. No, they were not underrated ! You know few things about them ! By the way, I am from Romania. In those times, our country was a slave country, ruled by comunism ! Is that telling you anything ? my best wishes, I am glad you love FOCUS oct the 23rd 2017 rm. vilcea Romania from GELU BATIR
Such a great band.I would say more 1971-75 as their best years. Ending in gig at Rainbow, London and Jan Akkerman's departure from the band. Amazing that Focus come through all of Europe in the early 1970s. No replacement exists.
In 1973 Akkerman was voted 'Best Guitarist in The World' by the readers of the UK magazine, Melody Maker. So not entirely ignored - and the British had some good guitarists themselves at that time!
...and let's not leave out Pierre van der Linden, folks. An incredibly underrated drumer and still playing a storm in the band till this very day. Not at all shabby for a septuagenerian!
I met Pierre and Thijs Van Leer a few years ago at an intimate gig near my place. Very approachable and chatty despite Van Der Linden only having a smattering of English! Van Leer was selling merch too.
Brillante versión de Eruption, lamentablemente incompleta. No indica lugar ni fecha. Por el aspecto físico del grupo calculo 72/73. Brillante también el cameraman, nunca vi un solo de guitarra tan claramente enfocado. Deslumbra el virtuosismo de Akkerman pero todos ellos eran realmente intérpretes soberbios, sin limitaciones técnicas.
I didn't know a live recording of Eruption even existed. This, folks, is jamming in its highest form: four musicians who KNOW each other's styles inside and out, riffing and handing off without a hitch, timing to a fault----just a wonder to see. Thanks for posting this!
The studio version of Tommy, is just like some massive Roman gods head coming out of the sea or something, I love the build up, if only people had patience for this intelligent music.
johnbazy Yeah, I'm aware of that. It was a misinterpretation in how I said it. What I meant was I hear a lot of these older bands flavors in SOME of the newer bands today. Anyhow this video was really impressive! I grew up listening to this song when it first released On AM radio but when this song released consumer computers didn't exist much less youtube so if you missed it on TV, then you just missed it unless you got lucky and caught a rerun and even then, these kinds of videos were really rare to see nationwide unless they were the Beatles or Frank Sinatra.
Its prog rock, Focus is like the perfect silver lining between the arrogant hard hitting music of King Crimson and the haunting and melodic music of pink floyd Pink Floyd.
When I was 18 (early seventies) I went to a rock festival in Belgium called Jazz Bilzen. Though it was called Jazz Bilzen, it was a genuine early 70ties Rock festival. Jan Akkerman and Thijs Van Leer (keyboards and flute) gave an incredible concert there. As a goodbye to the Belgian (and Dutch) fans in Bilzen, Jan gave a jamsession of half an hour non-stop. I will never forget that event. Super!!! I was tilt after that, from Jan, from FOCUS and from the liters of beer I'd drunken. Unforgetable concert there from FOCUS. It's still grifted in my brain. Roy
I am jealous! I was just a kid in the middle of the USA - my first LP purchase was Moving Waves, and wore out the record. I would have loved to have seen these guys! Well, I thank you for your memories, i'll live vicariously!
Last time I was in Amsterdam I was talking to some young local people who had never heard of Focus and I recommended that they give them a listen. I hope they heeded my advice.
Focus are one of those rear thing. A band that is still imporiant long after they were famous. Something that modern bands will never be like. Focus are brilliant and this video form the 1970's proves this. First class stuff.
Akkerman is one of the absolute best. It is a crime that he is relatively unknown to the masses. When Rolling Stone puts out a list of the best guitarists of all time and Bruce Springsteen and Kurt Cobain make the list and Jan Akkerman doesn't, it disgusts me!
Superb performance by all,drummer and bass..what a pair blasting a bottom sound,its like take off,hold on. Then there's Jan and Thijs ...enough said there,a masterful jazz explosion.1971 and still hurtling through the solar system.
In the end of the 70's I was called the best rythm guitarist of The Netherlands. I always thought....who the hell did vote for me? Jan Akkerman was forgotten by the serious 'professionals'. I never could even stand in the shadow of the guitarist of the century Jan Akkerman.
I was 'taken' back to 1972/3 last night, memories that came back from my teens. Live, still utterly outstanding. Please allow me to concentrate upon Pierre vd Linden. Currently 75 years, his vivacity undiminished, his lithe figure enables playing of such power and complexity. Astounded and confounded the images will remain with me for as long as I live.
I agree, he is criminally underrated. But to be honest I don't think Rolling Stone really care for prog. David Gilmour at 82, Steve Howe at 69, Robert Fripp at 62 Alex Lifeson not on the list, Steve Hackett not on it, Andy Latimer not on it, Jan Akkerman not on it, Martin Barre not on it. Don't remember seeing Adrian Belew on it either. It's just because prog isn't commercial any more. They're afraid it won't sell if the talk about it. So they don't.
J.C. Dealy Dutch prog rock has an "aw, let's just go for it" quality that makes the sound different from American or British prog. Not as pretentious and a lot more jazz-y. The people who only know "Hocus Pocus" are missing out bigtime.
J.C. Dealy Dutch prog rock has an "aw, let's just go for it" quality that makes the sound different from American or British prog. Not as pretentious and a lot more jazz-y. The people who only know "Hocus Pocus" are missing out bigtime.
Though I am hearing this for the first time, I feel that I've heard it before. What I know for sure, though, is that I'll listen to it many times. A true masterpiece
Isn't this track called tommy as well? Which in turn was named as such as a homage to the person who originally composed it with his band called the solution. It was named divergence iirc.
2:20 After sounding like 1980s Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays, they suddenly go into early 1970s Ekseption mode. Not my favourite kind of brutal break, I must say. Almost like Zappa and similar.
unusual, but music that makes people listen, just because it is unusual and great and from Holland. I'm proud Jan Akkerman is from my home town Amsterdam.
Takes me straight back to my high school days in the mid 70's. My buddies and I loved listening to Focus, Billy Cobham, Al Di Meola, Jeff Beck and Mahavishnu Orchestra, among others. And since we were from Long Island, Blue Oyster Cult, Good Rats, and Mountain were always in the rotation. Boy did we have it good back then!
Jan is very tasteful, subtle and thoughtful here. On the live Rainbow recording of the same piece, he became supremely and explosively expressive. His work at that entire gig remains the sweetest and most 'soul-filled' electric guitar playing I've yet encountered. No other player has ever come close IMO and I don't know if even Jan ever bettered it.
I have been a working guitar player for over 40 yeas. I have always said if I could play ANY solo as good as the original, it'd be Jan Akkerman on QAAQ from Live At The Rainbow. That makes me want to play, and makes me want to give up at the same time!
I saw Focus at the Hardrock in Manchester - my first year at Manchester University - I was studying classical guitar and playing Irish folk music at that time - but when I saw Jan Akkerman play there, I realised that there need be no divisions in music, and it gave me the imptus to go professional as a musician. He's a classical guitarist, and a lutenist too - but when I see this now, after all the time that has passed, I feel that no matter how hard you practise at your instrument, very few will ever enter the arena that people like Jan inhabit - he just 'has it' - like all those wonderful, natural, incredibly gifted players such as Django Rheinhardt and Jaco Pastorius - the list seems endless - musicians who seem to have had that 'understanding' from birth. However, that's no reason to give up - we simply occupy a spectrum - some good, some virtuoso, and some beyond that who, as I mentioned, just 'have it' - and Jan has it in abundance.
That's because Rolling Stone is not the same as back in the 70s when Jan would have been a shoe in for one of the best , They like most of todays so called Best are not at all that. He not only was one of but still is one the Best . I saw Focus in 74 in Md. They were incredible to say the least. Funny that if you put Springsteen ,Cobain, & The Edge together they couldn't come close to Akkerman on his worst day .. your comment is very well put indeed..
To be fair to Jan he had all the accolades in 1972/3 from all the papers when he dominated the world with Focus. I wouldn't worry about any meaningless polls or lists from Rolling Stone which is a meaningless paper.
Akkerman was and remains one of the great ones on guitar....What an amazing solo on this. this!!!!!!!! These band was a body of talent many missed out on!! Where do you such musicianship? ...
Most impressive guitar-solo I ever saw........just amazingly brilliant! March the 5th 2011 at 8 pm it is time again for my next Jan Akkerman concert, already have the tickets.......Jan rules!!
I think that Brainbox in which Jan Akkrman also played the guitar war far better. I am getting slightly nervous from that Thijs van Leer, his organ and his flute
Got tickets to see Focus at the Oran Mór in Glasgow in November. Can't wait. This will be the fourth time I've seen them live. Not bad since I was born in 1970. Force fed the greatest band of all time since I was about 7 years old. 👍👍👍
Pero es distinto,Eruption de Focus es una magnifica suite de 20 minutos con estos genios del rock progresivo. El de Van Halen es un monstruoso solo de guitarra de Eddie Van Halen salvaje y feroz.
I liked Focus back in the days, but here I can´t see any reason for listeing to this "tune". It´s in fact a very loose, meaningless jam session that you can do in the rehearsal room, but not as a concert piece.
Interesting. I listen to Thomas Blug's best of CD a lot. It's a fairly recent recording. T. Van Leer plays on it. I recognize that his note choices (organ solo) are very similar on that recording and here. I often wonder whether if it's what we learn on our instruments or our personalities that control what we play. Evidence is in, ultimately it's mostly the latter. I guess that explains why stuff that is very different from what I usually play that I learn on my instrument doesn't stick with me, it just kind of falls away.
This Dec., 1972 video is from the UK television show, "The Old Grey Whistle Test," as are similar videos on UA-cam featuring Focus playing "Hocus Pocus," "Sylvia," and "Anonymous II" (with the walls of speakers behind the band). This particular song is an excerpt of "Eruption" which is: Pupillae Tommy Pupillae The Bridge The video cuts out just before the band went into "Hocus Pocus" (then "Sylvia," and a reprise of "Hocus Pocus").
Guys, I'm 66 years old. I used to like Focus when I was 18, I haven't heard these fantastic pieces for many years, but now I hear them again on UA-cam and I like them even more. Art is like that. When it's good, it's eternal.
Same age. I blame Focus for turning me into a musician!
Ditto on all counts
Same, but I'm 14.
these boys were so far ahead of their time, a genius band
Walter Sobchak OVER THE LINE!!!
Yep they sure were and Jan didn't see that and quit.
Saw them live - twice - in Glasgow, millions of years ago. Every one of these guys was a top-class musician back then.
Saw Jan Ak. in Glasgow about ten years ago - he looked older but his talent hadn't aged a bit, not a bit. I was moved by the music and the nostalgia.
God, what has happened to 'music' today?
Most underrated band ever; people only know Hocus Pocus (wich is actually a great song too).
Most underrated than Gentle Giant?
@@josuesosaysilvavillalba539 Yep
@Leo a lot of people in UK knew house of the king by focus because it was used on a few tv programmes as title music.
I was WAITING for the "underrated" word.
There's one in every comments section.
Right on bro
Probably the greatest guitar soloI have ever heard....it is like Bird playing with Bach....with fonk.....and yet Focus are virtually unknown....we are the lucky ones to have seen them and hung with them!!! God love you guys. Lol from the UK
Focus had a very unique melancholic music style. I always get a bit nostalgic when I listen to their early 70s records. My dad always bugged out when I was listening to this stuff.
I just sent this to my dad I wonder how he'll react haha. He's a jazz head from the 60's
@@morganwardfilm tell us what was his reaction!
Same with camel
My dad was a Sinatra fan and thought stuff like this was for long haired pot smoking freaks lol, I had to put him straight so I gave him a spliff and put Dark side of the moon on then moved him onto Billy Cobham stratus. 😂
@@Eleventhearlofmars good job! My dad was not really a man who got serious into listening to music - it was my mom playing me Zappa or gave me lamb lies down.
Jan's rhythm playing is as phenomenal as his lead work! Sensational musicianship by all concerned.
FOCUS IS ANOTHER WORLD!
Akkerman was way more influential than ever given credit for.
Jan Akkerman is a legendary god of 70s rock and roll guitar. He wrote some of the most beautiful guitar pieces of their time.
Killmetbh .
Cerati me trajo hasta acá 🪐
A mi también el padre de Cerati siempre viajaba y cada vez que regresaba a casa llevaba música nueva .
@@merkelmartin7243 cómo un genio puede llevar un sonido a otra dimensión
This band introduced me to real prog rock I'll forever be happy about that.
Hocus Pocus was groundbreaking nothing sounded like that but Eruption no doubt is my favorite track, oh wow this is gasmic, orgasmic, eargasmic exciting brilliant! xxxx
wow wtf awesome
Both songs are amazing!Jan Akkerman was the best guitarplayer of the seventies!!Greetings from the Netherlands!
Personally I hated Hocus Pocus, and i'm a massive Focus fan (all albums owned on vinyl). Eruption and Janis were the standout tracks for me on this album.
Not the best one... there were still performing Joe Pass, Jim Hall, Herb Ellis, Charlie Byrd, Kenny Burrell, Larry Coryell, "Mahavishnu" John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, and later on Sco and Pat Metheny.
And don't forget: The technically best guitarplayer of all times already was performing in those days: Paco de Lucía.
But nonetheless Jan Ackermann was a giant.
"Janis" is a magical song. i was 16 when i first heard it in 1996... i had it on a tape . around then, i fell in love with a girl, two years older than me . it was hopeless, so i suffered because of the unshared love. and i would play Moving Waves and "Janis" would seem to me the WORLD'S NUMBER ONE LOVE THEME ever ... Greetings from Ukraine. V.
Having been brought up on jazz by my father, in 1973 aged 14, I bought Focus III - and that was it. Ground breaking instrumental music played by talented composers and musicians. I still can't believe the quality of Anonymous, a track that covered all of one side of an LP and half the way across the other, without missing a beat. Tremendous.
This is what you think, my friend ! Between 1973-1977 they werw rated as the best group in the world or in the first five bands at that time ! You can check this information reading Melody Maker ( a very skilled magazine during those years) New Musical Expres, Billboard and other sources . The first albums were a smash, brilliant ! And than came out the greater (and the greatest )HAMBURGER CONCERTO. I used to listen to whatever good music means since 1967 until now. No, they were not underrated ! You know few things about them ! By the way, I am from Romania. In those times, our country was a slave country, ruled by comunism ! Is that telling you anything ? my best wishes, I am glad you love FOCUS oct the 23rd 2017 rm. vilcea Romania from GELU BATIR
History has either been unkind to so many great progressive bands and instrumentalists. Either that, or I'm old. Get off my lawn!
You go boy.!!!!!!! Fuck yeah focus.romania is a righteous cuntry FOCUS.!
Such a great band.I would say more 1971-75 as their best years. Ending in gig at Rainbow, London and Jan Akkerman's departure from the band. Amazing that Focus come through all of Europe in the early 1970s. No replacement exists.
In 1973 Akkerman was voted 'Best Guitarist in The World' by the readers of the UK magazine, Melody Maker. So not entirely ignored - and the British had some good guitarists themselves at that time!
1973 .....the year of Dark side of the moon!!!!!!
ONE of My ALL Time FAVORITE BANDS!!!
...and let's not leave out Pierre van der Linden, folks. An incredibly underrated drumer and still playing a storm in the band till this very day. Not at all shabby for a septuagenerian!
He's a beast!
I met Pierre and Thijs Van Leer a few years ago at an intimate gig near my place. Very approachable and chatty despite Van Der Linden only having a smattering of English! Van Leer was selling merch too.
Brillante versión de Eruption, lamentablemente incompleta. No indica lugar ni fecha. Por el aspecto físico del grupo calculo 72/73. Brillante también el cameraman, nunca vi un solo de guitarra tan claramente enfocado. Deslumbra el virtuosismo de Akkerman pero todos ellos eran realmente intérpretes soberbios, sin limitaciones técnicas.
Só que tem - igualmente - um baixista (que é um monstro)! E ele não mostra o mesmo executando, com sua maestria, a execução do baixo!
E o baixista inexiste para o cameraman!
72
@Jose Miguel Pallares Díaz Muy cierto, esta parte es solo la de Tomy y otras más, aunque la suite completa es de 20 minutos.
Saludos.
Focus has a sound and style like no other. Such musical icons. Simply genius. I am sold!!!
I didn't know a live recording of Eruption even existed. This, folks, is jamming in its highest form: four musicians who KNOW each other's styles inside and out, riffing and handing off without a hitch, timing to a fault----just a wonder to see. Thanks for posting this!
jazz fusion in the early 70's!?????
pretty slick
@Wilhelm Orangenbaum I mis Meta de Vries on dutch radio.
The studio version of Tommy, is just like some massive Roman gods head coming out of the sea or something, I love the build up, if only people had patience for this intelligent music.
Increible
Thjies Van Leer was a musical prodigy on keyboards and flute.
I put him almost up there with Keith Emerson just not as flashy😮
Hats off as well for the brilliant Bass playing of Bert Ruiter. Superb!
Para o infeliz do cameraman ele inexiste! Parece não saber a importância que tem um baixista! É o instrumento que mais aprecio! Amo o som do baixo!
Yeah.....!!
God I hear so many bands here from Santana to Pink Floyd and even some flavors of Dream Theater here. These guy's were sooo underrated.
Dream Theater didn't even exist back then.
johnbazy
Yeah, I'm aware of that. It was a misinterpretation in how I said it. What I meant was I hear a lot of these older bands flavors in SOME of the newer bands today. Anyhow this video was really impressive! I grew up listening to this song when it first released On AM radio but when this song released consumer computers didn't exist much less youtube so if you missed it on TV, then you just missed it unless you got lucky and caught a rerun and even then, these kinds of videos were really rare to see nationwide unless they were the Beatles or Frank Sinatra.
Its prog rock, Focus is like the perfect silver lining between the arrogant hard hitting music of King Crimson and the haunting and melodic music of pink floyd Pink Floyd.
Dingo D. Manhunter
All I know is music like this moves me and has influenced my playing a lot.
This just outright rocks!
not by me.
When I was 18 (early seventies) I went to a rock festival in Belgium called Jazz Bilzen. Though it was called Jazz Bilzen, it was a genuine early 70ties Rock festival.
Jan Akkerman and Thijs Van Leer (keyboards and flute) gave an incredible concert there. As a goodbye to the Belgian (and Dutch) fans in Bilzen, Jan gave a jamsession of half an hour non-stop. I will never forget that event. Super!!!
I was tilt after that, from Jan, from FOCUS and from the liters of beer I'd drunken.
Unforgetable concert there from FOCUS. It's still grifted in my brain.
Roy
What a nice memory to have! I think Focus woud be proud of your story!
I imagined every little detail.
I am jealous! I was just a kid in the middle of the USA - my first LP purchase was Moving Waves, and wore out the record. I would have loved to have seen these guys! Well, I thank you for your memories, i'll live vicariously!
Last time I was in Amsterdam I was talking to some young local people who had never heard of Focus and I recommended that they give them a listen. I hope they heeded my advice.
Focus are one of those rear thing. A band that is still imporiant long after they were famous. Something that modern bands will never be like. Focus are brilliant and this video form the 1970's proves this. First class stuff.
Akkerman is one of the absolute best. It is a crime that he is relatively unknown to the masses. When Rolling Stone puts out a list of the best guitarists of all time and Bruce Springsteen and Kurt Cobain make the list and Jan Akkerman doesn't, it disgusts me!
Akkerman is the best I have ever seen.
good description.The entire album is .................well the word epic seems like an understatement. It's definitely on my desert island list.
I knew of Hocus Pocus of course but didn't know this band were jazz/rock and really good! -amazing the stuff I find on youtube lol
It's enough to drive a man to think...or drink...glorious.
Superb performance by all,drummer and bass..what a pair blasting a bottom sound,its like take off,hold on. Then there's Jan and Thijs ...enough said there,a masterful jazz explosion.1971 and still hurtling through the solar system.
Yet another amazing band that was forgotten in favor of mainstream acts like Pink Floyd and Rush.
In the end of the 70's I was called the best rythm guitarist of The Netherlands. I always thought....who the hell did vote for me? Jan Akkerman was forgotten by the serious 'professionals'. I never could even stand in the shadow of the guitarist of the century Jan Akkerman.
Bullshit,you rock too.damn son you killed it ,still do.crybaby
who the fuck are you??
"cuando no hay más que decirnos....." listen to gustavo cerati's song where he samples part of this song. it is called "bocanada". cheers!
I was 'taken' back to 1972/3 last night, memories that came back from my teens. Live, still utterly outstanding. Please allow me to concentrate upon Pierre vd Linden. Currently 75 years, his vivacity undiminished, his lithe figure enables playing of such power and complexity. Astounded and confounded the images will remain with me for as long as I live.
I agree, he is criminally underrated. But to be honest I don't think Rolling Stone really care for prog. David Gilmour at 82, Steve Howe at 69, Robert Fripp at 62 Alex Lifeson not on the list, Steve Hackett not on it, Andy Latimer not on it, Jan Akkerman not on it, Martin Barre not on it. Don't remember seeing Adrian Belew on it either. It's just because prog isn't commercial any more. They're afraid it won't sell if the talk about it. So they don't.
Jan Akkermans super skill is much more clear in this track than in Hocus Pocus, because one can hear much better what he is playing...
A very underrated band.
Progressive Rock... or Progressive Jazz... Works for me!
Works for me too, for over 45 years!
J.C. Dealy Dutch prog rock has an "aw, let's just go for it" quality that makes the sound different from American or British prog. Not as pretentious and a lot more jazz-y. The people who only know "Hocus Pocus" are missing out bigtime.
J.C. Dealy Dutch prog rock has an "aw, let's just go for it" quality that makes the sound different from American or British prog. Not as pretentious and a lot more jazz-y. The people who only know "Hocus Pocus" are missing out bigtime.
+J.C. Dealy (Anthropogenicagent) it's simply sheer music !
mmmm i think both
The bass is fucking excellent
Geezer Butler Bert Ruiter on Bass.
Yes he is most excellent.
The cameraman didnt show him much...
Fantastic playing!!!!!!
WHAT A BAND
Thijs - a genius musician!
+Al Schuppe ...and he still is...whether on flute or on hammond !
Though I am hearing this for the first time, I feel that I've heard it before. What I know for sure, though, is that I'll listen to it many times. A true masterpiece
Geht mir genau so (BJ49)...
Isn't this track called tommy as well? Which in turn was named as such as a homage to the person who originally composed it with his band called the solution. It was named divergence iirc.
it' cool
Bocanada. Gustavo cerati :)
And Kayne West says he's the most talented rock star ever! He's not fit to wipe Thier arses!
The guitarist and lead singer or front man are geniuses
John Bonham on guitar
One of the greatest compositions ever written. Not just in progressive rock but in any genre. Simply sensational.
2:20 After sounding like 1980s Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays, they suddenly go into early 1970s Ekseption mode.
Not my favourite kind of brutal break, I must say. Almost like Zappa and similar.
Ooooo, no words. I always knew it was fantastic group but after this I have heart attack :) Thanks for this amazing music and for uploading.
0:03 Cuando no hay más que decirnos, habla el humo, nada el humo y rema en espiral.
* Cerati
The album version is pretty amazing as well, listening on vinyl, it just takes you on a captivating and uplifting journey.
WHY DOES THIS HAS TO END?!
...oh, a replay button :)
unusual, but music that makes people listen, just because it is unusual and great and from Holland. I'm proud Jan Akkerman is from my home town Amsterdam.
Takes me straight back to my high school days in the mid 70's. My buddies and I loved listening to Focus, Billy Cobham, Al Di Meola, Jeff Beck and Mahavishnu Orchestra, among others. And since we were from Long Island, Blue Oyster Cult, Good Rats, and Mountain were always in the rotation. Boy did we have it good back then!
This is like if the Allman Brothers made sweet love to Jethro Tull while Yes watched..
Bass at 3:00 really reminds me of Herbie Hancocks Sly, or is it just me?
Jan is very tasteful, subtle and thoughtful here.
On the live Rainbow recording of the same piece, he became supremely and explosively expressive. His work at that entire gig remains the sweetest and most 'soul-filled' electric guitar playing I've yet encountered. No other player has ever come close IMO and I don't know if even Jan ever bettered it.
I have been a working guitar player for over 40 yeas. I have always said if I could play ANY solo as good as the original, it'd be Jan Akkerman on QAAQ from Live At The Rainbow. That makes me want to play, and makes me want to give up at the same time!
I saw Focus at the Hardrock in Manchester - my first year at Manchester University - I was studying classical guitar and playing Irish folk music at that time - but when I saw Jan Akkerman play there, I realised that there need be no divisions in music, and it gave me the imptus to go professional as a musician. He's a classical guitarist, and a lutenist too - but when I see this now, after all the time that has passed, I feel that no matter how hard you practise at your instrument, very few will ever enter the arena that people like Jan inhabit - he just 'has it' - like all those wonderful, natural, incredibly gifted players such as Django Rheinhardt and Jaco Pastorius - the list seems endless - musicians who seem to have had that 'understanding' from birth. However, that's no reason to give up - we simply occupy a spectrum - some good, some virtuoso, and some beyond that who, as I mentioned, just 'have it' - and Jan has it in abundance.
That's because Rolling Stone is not the same as back in the 70s when Jan would have been a shoe in for one of the best , They like most of todays so called Best are not at all that. He not only was one of but still is one the Best . I saw Focus in 74 in Md. They were incredible to say the least. Funny that if you put Springsteen ,Cobain, & The Edge together they couldn't come close to Akkerman on his worst day .. your comment is very well put indeed..
Briljant
En effet, un des plus grands soli de l'histoire de la guitare électrique ! N'a pas pris une ride. Du pur génie...
To be fair to Jan he had all the accolades in 1972/3 from all the papers when he dominated the world with Focus. I wouldn't worry about any meaningless polls or lists from Rolling Stone which is a meaningless paper.
Akkerman was and remains one of the great ones on guitar....What an amazing solo on this. this!!!!!!!! These band was a body of talent many missed out on!! Where do you such musicianship? ...
Most impressive guitar-solo I ever saw........just amazingly brilliant!
March the 5th 2011 at 8 pm it is time again for my next Jan Akkerman concert, already have the tickets.......Jan rules!!
This always feels like thijs is playing his hammond on the inside of my spine.
Amazing!
He's a genius.... so musical it almost hurts.
Fine playing on that beautiful Les Paul Custom !
Jan Akkerman's stellar melodic jazzy guitar work is pure gold. Great vintage video and performance from Focus. Thanks for sharing.
Genios!
They groove heavy metal yes prog wow
The most shiny guitar ever :D
Nah, great music from this guys...
NOOOOOOOO,,,,,,,,whyyyyy????_coitus_interruptus...FUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Akkerman already sweeping in the early 70's. Far ahead of his time.
I would not be surprised if Chick Corea took a conceptual page from this song.
Nog altijd mooi om te horen
es un placer escuchar esta musica en pleno 2019
The sound of that hammond live is just amazing, must be a good 10 years ago I saw them and will never forget that sound
Bocanada .....
I think that Brainbox in which Jan Akkrman also played the guitar war far better. I am getting slightly nervous from that Thijs van Leer, his organ and his flute
almost forgot about this group yes the need serious attention a great group
Got tickets to see Focus at the Oran Mór in Glasgow in November. Can't wait. This will be the fourth time I've seen them live. Not bad since I was born in 1970. Force fed the greatest band of all time since I was about 7 years old. 👍👍👍
15 years after arrival Van Halen and copied the title!!!
probably cause van halen is dutch as well
Actually, 7 years later.
Pero es distinto,Eruption de Focus es una magnifica suite de 20 minutos con estos genios del rock progresivo.
El de Van Halen es un monstruoso solo de guitarra de Eddie Van Halen salvaje y feroz.
Why not the full Eruption-Hocus Focus? :(
Here's the complete session: ua-cam.com/video/XLbLdqx2wIk/v-deo.html
like si llegaste aqui por gustavo cerati
I liked Focus back in the days, but here I can´t see any reason for listeing to this "tune". It´s in fact a very loose, meaningless jam session that you can do in the rehearsal room, but not as a concert piece.
Interesting. I listen to Thomas Blug's best of CD a lot. It's a fairly recent recording. T. Van Leer plays on it. I recognize that his note choices (organ solo) are very similar on that recording and here. I often wonder whether if it's what we learn on our instruments or our personalities that control what we play. Evidence is in, ultimately it's mostly the latter. I guess that explains why stuff that is very different from what I usually play that I learn on my instrument doesn't stick with me, it just kind of falls away.
This Dec., 1972 video is from the UK television show, "The Old Grey Whistle Test," as are similar videos on UA-cam featuring Focus playing "Hocus Pocus," "Sylvia," and "Anonymous II" (with the walls of speakers behind the band). This particular song is an excerpt of "Eruption" which is:
Pupillae
Tommy
Pupillae
The Bridge
The video cuts out just before the band went into "Hocus Pocus" (then "Sylvia," and a reprise of "Hocus Pocus").
Don't lose your focus!
IK heb een zeer lange liveversie waarschijnlijk opgenomen tijdens het North Sea Jazzfestival waarbij de band door het publiek uitgejoeld wordt.
Was het dan zo slecht of vond het publiek het te lang duren?
Go Jan...saw them do this in Sydney about 1973...I think!!!!
I was there!!! Live at the Rainbow. Just wonderful :)
Llegué aquí gracias a “Bocanada” de Gustavo Cerati. 🙌🏻
I got this dvd is great!! its recomended!! to all!!
I had the album on which "Hocus Pocus" appeared. It was very good. Also had the solo album by Peter Banks whereon Jan Akkerman appeared as guest.