Escalator over the Hill

History

Escalator Over the Hill is more than two hours long and was recorded over three years (1968 to 1971). It was originally released as a triple LP box which also contained a booklet with lyrics, photos and profiles of the musicians. Side six of the original LPs ended in a locked groove, the final track "...And It's Again" continuing infinitely on manual record players. (For the CD reissue, the hum is allowed to play for almost 20 minutes before slowly fading out.)

In 1997, a live version of Escalator Over the Hill, re-orchestrated by Jeff Friedman, was performed for the first time in Cologne, Germany. In 1998, "Escalator" toured Europe. Another live performance took place in May 2006 in Essen, Germany.

The musicians involved in the original recording play in various combinations, covering a wide range of musical genres, from Kurt Weill's theater music, to free jazz, rock and Indian music. Writer Stuart Broomer considers this to be a summing up "much of the creative energy that was loose between 1968 and 1972".

Viva acts as narrator. Jack Bruce also appears on bass and vocals (due to the album's long production, he also appeared on Frank Zappa's album Apostrophe, playing bass on the title track). Among the vocalists is a young (and still relatively unknown) Linda Ronstadt, in addition to Jeanne Lee, Paul Jones, Carla Bley, Don Preston, Sheila Jordan, and Bley's and Mantler's then-4-year-old daughter Karen Mantler.

In 2006, Paul Haines' daughter, Canadian musician Emily Haines, adapted the Escalator Over the Hill cover art for her own first widely distributed album under her own name, Knives Don't Have Your Back.

Reception

Jonathon Cott's Rolling Stone article stated "Like an electric transformer, Escalator Over the Hill synthesizes and draws on an enormous range of musical materials - raga, jazz, rock, ring modulated piano sounds, all brought together through Carla Bley's extraordinary formal sense and ability to unify individual but diverse musical sections by means of the editing of the record medium... The opera is an international musical encounter of the first order."

Track listing

1. "Hotel Overture"– 13:11

1. "This Is Here..." – 6:02
2. "Like Animals" – 1:21
3. "Escalator Over the Hill" – 4:57
4. "Stay Awake" – 1:31
5. "Ginger and David" – 1:39
6. "Song to Anything That Moves" – 2:22

1. "Eoth Theme" – 0:35
2. "Businessmen" – 5:38
3. "Ginger and David Theme" – 0:57
4. "Why" – 2:19
5. "It's Not What You Do" – 0:17
6. "Detective Writer Daughter" – 3:16
7. "Doctor Why" – 1:28
8. "Slow Dance (Transductory Music)" – 1:50
9. "Smalltown Agonist" – 5:24

1. "End of Head" – 0:38
2. "Over Her Head" – 2:38
3. "Little Pony Soldier" – 4:36
4. "Oh Say Can You Do?" – 1:11
5. "Holiday in Risk" – 3:10
6. "Holiday in Risk Theme" – 0:52

1. "A.I.R. (All India Radio)" – 3:58
2. "Rawalpindi Blues" – 12:44

1. "End of Rawalpindi" – 9:40
2. "End of Animals" – 1:26
3. "... And It's Again" – 9:55

Personnel

Awards