STUCK IN THE VINYL AGAIN - RENAISSANCE - TURN OF THE CARDS

[maggot]

Good Tuesday morning to you all and welcome back to Stuck In The Vinyl Again . Forty nine years ago this month, English progressive rock band, Renaissance, released their 5th studio album, Turn Of The Cards on Sire Records. It was produced by the group, Dick Plant, and Richard Gottehrer. The LP peaked at #94 on the Billboard 200 and saw the birth of a single single, a shortened version of the nine and a half minute, "Mother Russia". The song is about exiled Russian fiction writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the lyrics by poet Betty Thatcher are based on Solzhenitsyn's  novel about Soviet repression, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Renaissance was originally formed in 1969 and have undergone lineup changes, label changes and hiatuses. They have released 13 studio albums, and five live ones. They are best known for their only Top 10 hit,  "Northern Lights", from A Song for All Seasons, which is their 8th album and was released in 1978.

1. "Running Hard" Dunford, Thatcher 9:37
2. "I Think of You" 3:07
3. "Things I Don't Understand" Dunford, Jim McCarty 9:29

Side two

4. "Black Flame" 6:23
5. "Cold Is Being" Dunford, Thatcher  3:00
6. "Mother Russia" 9:18

Renaissance
Annie Haslam – lead and backing vocals
Michael Dunford – acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Jon Camp (listed as "John Camp") – bass, co-lead vocals on track 3, backing vocals
John Tout – keyboards, backing vocals
Terence Sullivan – drums, backing vocals, percussion

Additional musicians
Jimmy Horowitz – orchestral arrangements

Production
Dick Plant - producer, engineer
Richard Gottehrer - producer
Douglas Bogie, Mike Pela - assistant engineers
Jeffrey Lesser - remix engineer at Mediasound Studios, New York
Hipgnosis - cover design