Virgil Fox - Bach Live At Fillmore East (1971)

Writing about classical music is not in my wheelhouse. I don't feel as if I'm qualified to expound on it in any great detail, and I'm including the works I like. One of them is a concert recording by Virgil Fox, a slightly eccentric church organist from New York City who made a name for himself by applying modern techniques to his live, solo performances.

Older, staid, classical music purists and devoted Johann Sebastian Bach aficionados weren't always fond of Fox's interpretations of the classical composer's music. The New York Times wrote that William F. Buckley said, Fox "must have figured that it was more important to fill the house with listeners who would hear Bach for the first time than worry about those who would resolve, like me, to have heard Fox for the last time."

Bach Live at the Fillmore East, Fox's live, concert album that appealed to many young progressive-rock fans was recorded on December 1, 1970 and released the following year.

So, what is special about this concert? Fox played what he called his "heavy organ" at rafters rattling volume. He told the audience at the Fillmore - a much-loved rock venue of the early classic rock era - that they were about to experience a "happening," and if they weren't ready for such an event they should move back because there were one hundred and forty-four speakers on stage ready to blast Bach from the star's specially built Rodgers Touring Organ into his fans' eardrums. Fox's non-traditional performance was also accompanied by a light show.

Those were the days when prog-rock was all over the radio, the charts, and concert halls both in America and in Europe where much of prog music came from. If you're familiar with this much loved and much maligned rock sub-genre you may be able to understand Fox's popularity. Add electric bass and drums and you can envision a loud Emerson, Lake and Palmer show, the trio who were probably the foremost example of interpreting classical music for the rock world.

Fox had a long and successful career. He played on the Ed Sullivan and Mike Douglas TV shows, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center.