Search - John Tesh :: Tour De France: Early Years

Even Better than his First "Tour De France" album

L.A. Scene | Indian Trail, NC USA | 05/31/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Tour De France - The Early Years" is a follow-up album that is a "pre-quel" to "Tour De France". Back in the early 80s, CBS Sports broke ground by broadcasting highlights of the Tour De France bicycle race. John Tesh was the anchor of what would be about 30 to 40 minutes of weekly highlights of the bicycle race from 1983 - 1986. For many Americans and cycling fans, the voice of John Tesh doing the Tour was something to remember. Tesh was a master storyteller and had a real art for describing the race. What supplemented the great storytelling of the race was some spectacular music. "Tour De France" did a great job at capturing the passion of the Tour De France through music written by Tesh. "Tour De France - The Early Years" is another CD that does an incredible job at capturing the race and is even better than the original CD. All of the music is top notch and really captures the passion of this race beautifully. If you watched the battles from 1983 through 1986, you will know the names of Laurent Fignon, Greg LeMond, Bernard Hinault, Stephen Roche, Urs Zimmerman, and Pascal Simon.Although this contains "earlier" music from the Tour De France coverage (I'm assuming 1983/1984 timeframe - the CD doesn't tell you the timeframe), the music contained on this CD goes much deeper and begins to show that John Tesh is a much deeper composer and musician than his first effort led us on to believe. This album goes beyond the great synthesizers and has a nice helping of saxaphone, clarinet, violin, guitars, and even vocals. On the first album, we got a sampling of some saxaphone on "Jazzis", but this album is much more "mature" in its expanded instrumentation.The songs that represent some of the expanded instrumentation in this album are "Roubaix", "Dijon Strut", and "Road Made for Animals". "Roubaix" is actually a city in Northeast France in which they run another race called the "Paris-Roubaix" race. This race is famous for its cobblestones. Tesh's song is a softer melody, but this is where we first see the integration of the Saxaphone on the album. "Dijon Strut" has a high fusion of Jazz almost giving it a Steely Dan feel to it. It will grow on you as you hear the song. "Road Made for Animals" is the most famous track on the album and is also one of the better tracks. I remember this song from the CBS coverage and they would use it quite frequently on the television coverage. This song features some violin toward the end which really gives it a boost. On Tesh's live album, the version is even better and the fiddle is even better.The first song is "Headclobbers" and it just might be the most underrated Tesh piece of music I have ever heard. The first 1 1/2 minutes build up to the main part of the song. If you could imagine the Pyranees and being racing in the fog up the mountain - that is "Headclobbers". "Headclobbers is simply put - Sports music at its finest".
A couple of interesting songs: "On American Shores" sounds a lot like the Olympic music that Tesh would produce for NBC in the 90s. Meanwhile "Noovo Groovo Montage" is a short clip of what appears to be sound bytes by Tesh and his broadcasting partner, cycling broadcast legend - Phil Liggett. (There is a credit for someone named Colin Mahoney for the montage, but I'm assuming that is editing). There is also a song called "Noovo Groovo" which is one of the weaker tracks.Tracks 8 and 9 are also very deep tracks that really tap into the emotion of the Tour De France. Track 8, "The Endless Road" is a powerful track that integrates some simple background vocals "aaah aaah aaah". Although that is all the vocals are, they add a new dimension to a powerful track. Track 9 "Brain Dead Weasel" which has a "finale" type feel - powerful crashing symbols, strong keyboards, and some great segues between different melodies. I remember this as well being used in the coverage and it tended to be used toward the end of the race.And if that isn't enough a Live Version of "A Thousand Summers" - the most popular track from the first album is included as well. This song sounds better live! The percussion is incredible toward the end.Just like for "Tour De France", Tesh took no shortcuts and made a DDD recording. When CD's first came out in the 80s, they were recorded three ways: 1) AAD - Analog Recording, Analog Mix, Digital Transfer; 2) ADD - "Analog Recording, Digital Mix, Digital Transfer", 3) DDD - Digital Recording, Digital Mix, Digital Transfer. Tesh on this album doesn't let us down going DDD all the way.Like the first album, this album might just fall short in one area - liner notes. Although the credits are in there, I would have liked to find out a little more background on some of the songs on this album. Perhaps this is because Tesh was working on his own label. But I feel this album is even better than the first and I also feel it opened the door to John Tesh as musician and composer. On "Tour De France" he did a great job at showcasing the music he created. On "Tour De France - The Early Years", he takes the next step and showcases not only his music, but his talents."

Some of John's best work!

Ricardo | 02/18/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"All of the selections on this CD are great! Especially "Headclobbers", "On American Shores", and "Road Made For Animals". The music is pure energy! Buy it, you won't be disappointed!"

Well Blow Me Down!!!!!!

Ricardo | Puget Sound, Wa | 01/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I got this CD intending to send it to my 78 yo mother thinking John Tesh stuff would be easy listening. Well I listened to it before sending it. WOW! This CD ROCKS!!! Typical Yanni style but imagine Tangerine Dream, Jeff Beck and Joe Satriani on a collaboration.....I think it would be like this. Track 4 has some awesome sax. If your body doesn't move when listening....hmmmmm you must be dead. Track 5 is alive with synth and bass. Track 7 is jazzy fusion that kicks hard. Track 8 is dreamy, makes the imagination run wild. No bad tracks on this CD. Other stuff I like, Ultra Chilled, Hed Kandi, Led Zeppelin, Moby, Coldplay, Cure, Cars, Gary Numan, Klaus Nomi, Queen, you name it."