Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Photos of Ghosts

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Released
  
October 1973

Genre
  
Progressive rock

Producer
  
Peter Sinfield

Recorded
  
1972-1973

Label
  
Manticore Records

Photos of Ghosts (1973)
  
L'isola di niente (1974)

Photos of Ghosts is the first English language album by the Italian progressive rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi, also known as "PFM". Released in the U.S. in October 1973, it was the first album by an Italian rock group to appear on the American charts. The album peaked at #180 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in November 1973.

Contents

PFM was discovered by Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake & Palmer while on an Italian tour. The band was signed to Manticore Records, a label created by ELP, soon after. Five of seven songs on this album have new lyrics (not translations) written by former King Crimson lyricist Peter Sinfield. Sinfield produced the new recording and mixing at Command Studios in London.

The best known song from this album, "Celebration", had significant airplay on FM Album-oriented rock stations across the U.S. and Canada. The version heard here is a 1973 re-recording made specifically for this album. It was originally recorded in 1971 as "È festa" for PFM's debut album, Storia di un minuto. Also unique to this album is a new instrumental titled "Old Rain". Photos of Ghosts includes the entirety of PFM's second album Per un amico (1972). Four of those five recordings have new English lyrics. "Mr. 9 'till 5" was originally an instrumental titled "Generale". "Il Banchetto" ("The Banquet") is a remixed version of the Italian track from Per un amico.

Side 1

  1. "River of Life" "Appena un po'" (Flavio Premoli, Franco Mussida, Mauro Pagani, Peter Sinfield) - 7:00
  2. "Celebration" "È festa" (Premoli, Mussida, Sinfield) - 3:53
  3. "Photos of Ghosts" "Per un amico" (Premoli, Mussida, Pagani, Sinfield) - 5:23
  4. "Old Rain" (Premoli) - 3:41

Side 2

  1. "Il banchetto" (Premoli, Mussida, Pagani) - 8:36
  2. "Mr. 9 'til 5" "Generale!" (Premoli, Mussida, Sinfield) - 4:11
  3. "Promenade the Puzzle" "Geranio" (Premoli, Mussida, Pagani, Sinfield) - 7:29

(titles shown in small print are the names of the original Italian language songs, from which the English recordings were adapted.)

Personnel

  • Franco Mussida – vocals, electric & acoustic guitar, 12 string guitar, theorbo, mandocello
  • Flavio Premoli – spinet, keyboards, Hammond organ, Minimoog, Mellotron, tubular bells, harpsichord, piano, vocals
  • Mauro Pagani – flute, piccolo, violin, vocals
  • Giorgio Piazza – bass, vocals
  • Franz Di Cioccio – drums, percussion, vocals

    • References

    Photos of Ghosts Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA