Not a lot of people played as many sessions as Rick Wakeman, whose “hired gun” listing has about 2,000 entries. More so, most of those people, when they become famous, stop recording for others – but not Wakeman who continued guesting with the likes of BLACK SABBATH throughout the whole of his career and, in the last decade, has been an active participant in many various artists’ projects, including tribute albums. And if Rick’s early appearances may be difficult to track outside of major route – David Bowie, Cat Stevens et al – the late ones pose no problem, except for his fans having to buy a CD to get a single piece on it.
Fortunately, now this problem has been rectified with the release of “Starship Trooper”, a collection of songs with The Caped Crusader on. Mostly covers, they include cuts from William Shatner’s "Ponder The Mystery", NEKTAR’s "A Spoonful Of Time", Nik Turner’s "Space Fusion Odyssey", and more records that are worth finding, as well as two previously unreleased numbers, the keyboard player’s take on TOOL’s “Sober” – which, given Rick’s erstwhile drinking issue, sounds very appropriate – and “Dynamics Of Delirium” that can be a characteristic of Wakeman’s overall performance.
With other notable musicians on there, the compilation looks like this (read the review):
Starship Trooper
1. Sober (TOOL) – feat. Billy Sherwood and Jürgen Engler
2. Are We To Believe – THE PROG COLLECTIVE
feat. Steve Hillage, Billy Sherwood and Jürgen Engler)
3. Random Acts (Revisited) – Nik Turner feat. Jerry Goodman,
Jimmy Haslip, Billy Sherwood and Jürgen Engler
4. Dynamics Of Delirium – feat. Jürgen Engler
5. Love Reign O’er Me (THE WHO) –
feat. Huw Lloyd-Langton and Carmine Appice
6. Crime Of The Century (SUPERTRAMP) –
feat. Tony Levin and Billy Sherwood
7. The Great Gig In The Sky (PINK FLOYD) – feat. Steve Howe
8. I’m Not In Love (10 CC) – feat. NEKTAR
9. Starship Trooper (YES) –
feat. Tony Kaye, Mickey Thomas and Billy Sherwood
10. Check Point Karma – THE PROG COLLECTIVE
feat. Colin Moulding and Billy Sherwood
11. Change – William Shatner feat. Billy Sherwood
12. Nobody Home (PINK FLOYD) – feat. Billy Sherwood
13. Light My Fire (THE DOORS) – Steve Howe and Jürgen Engler
