The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast
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The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 18 November 1974 (UK) 16 October 1975 (US) | |||
Recorded | Kingsway Recorders, London[1] | |||
Genre | Pop rock, psychedelic rock, hard rock, progressive rock | |||
Length | 48:28 | |||
Label | Purple (UK) UK (US) | |||
Producer | Roger Glover, | |||
Roger Glover chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast is a concept album and subsequent live rock opera appearing in 1974 and 1975 respectively, based on the children's poem of a similar title. The album cover design is from Alan Aldridge's design for a 1973 book based on the poem.
The album spawned a hit song, "Love Is All," which reached Number 1 in the Netherlands and Belgium.[3]
Origin and production history[]
The work was originally conceived as a solo vehicle for Jon Lord to be produced by Roger Glover who had recently left Deep Purple. However, Lord proved too busy with Deep Purple, and Glover took up the reins on his own. Using his connections, Glover recruited a large cast of noted rock musicians, with a different vocalist for each character, including David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes.
The single "Love Is All", with vocals from Ronnie James Dio, made a minor impression in the UK but reached number one in the Netherlands. Its accompanying animated short film, The Butterfly Ball, made by the Halas & Batchelor company, also gained unexpected success in France, where the newly launched second TV channel Antenne 2 used it as a fill-in every time it experienced "technical difficulties". These random airings, together with the psychedelic tone of the clip and the lack of subtitles, made it very popular amongst young viewers. This success was renewed in France in 1991 when Sironimo, a brand of flavored syrup used the song in a very popular animated commercial. In 2006 the song was used by the Dutch political party CDA in its election advertisements for the 2006 Dutch General Election. Many Americans in the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s recall seeing the animated song clip "Love Is All" being regularly played in children's TV programs such as The Great Space Coaster and Nickelodeon morning shows.
"Love Is All" and its animated music video were also given wide exposure in the southern hemisphere. It became something of a favourite well into the 1980s on pioneering Australian music show Countdown (1974–1987), and was also regularly used as an interstitial program on the ABC. With its rousing lyrics and parade of animals marching through the forest on their way to the mythical Butterfly Ball, the song attained Top 10 status "Down Under" four years after it was recorded.
On 16 October 1975, a one-off performance at the Royal Albert Hall took place. Again it had a star-studded cast of rock musicians, most notably Ian Gillan who was drafted in at the last minute and received a standing ovation on his entrance. He replaced an unavailable Ronnie James Dio who had commitments with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (although Dio did eventually get to perform the song at the Royal Albert Hall in 1999 as the guest of Deep Purple). Gillan had not performed since leaving Deep Purple in 1973. Also notable was the appearance of Twiggy as singer and actress and Vincent Price as narrator. Apart from most of the musicians involved in the studio recording, the concert also featured Jon Lord. The live concert was filmed and released in 1976, produced by Tony Klinger.
Later appearance[]
Colin Meloy of The Decemberists has used the piece as intro music for the band's shows.[4]
Track listing[]
All songs written by Roger Glover except where noted.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Dawn" | 1:21 |
2. | "Get Ready" | 2:06 |
3. | "Saffron Dormouse and Lizzy Bee" | 1:25 |
4. | "Harlequin Hare" (Glover, Dio, Soule) | 1:26 |
5. | "Old Blind Mole" | 1:11 |
6. | "Magician Moth" | 1:33 |
7. | "No Solution" | 3:28 |
8. | "Behind the Smile" | 1:46 |
9. | "Fly Away" | 2:22 |
10. | "Aranea" | 1:37 |
11. | "Sitting in a Dream" | 3:40 |
12. | "Waiting" | 3:11 |
13. | "Sir Maximus Mouse" | 2:35 |
14. | "Dreams of Sir Bedivere" | 4:09 |
15. | "Together Again" (Glover, Dio, Soule) | 2:05 |
16. | "Watch Out for the Bat" | 1:41 |
17. | "Little Chalk Blue" (Glover, Hardin; CD Reissue only) | 3:44 |
18. | "The Feast" | 1:48 |
19. | "Love is All" (Glover, Hardin, Dio) | 3:14 |
20. | "Homeward" (Glover, Hardin) | 4:12 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Love is All (Demo Version)" | 3:04 |
2. | "Dawn (Remix)" | 1:35 |
3. | "Magician Moth (Remix)" | 1:37 |
4. | "Harlequin Hare (Remix)" | 1:33 |
5. | "Magician Moth (Remix)" | 1:34 |
6. | "No Solution (Remix)" | 3:58 |
7. | "Waiting (Remix)" | 3:58 |
8. | "Fly Away (Remix)" | 2:24 |
9. | "Aranea (Remix)" | 1:38 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Dawn (feat Vincent Price)" | |
2. | "Get Ready (feat Glenn Hughes)" | |
3. | "Saffron Dormouse and Lizzy Bee (feat Helen Chappelle and Barry St. John)" | |
4. | "Together Again (feat Tony Ashton)" | |
5. | "Old Blind Mole (feat Earl Jordan)" | |
6. | "Magician Moth (feat Vincent Price)" | |
7. | "Watch Out for the Bat (feat John Gustafson)" | |
8. | "Aranea (feat Judi Kuhl)" | |
9. | "Sir Maximus Mouse (feat Eddie Hardin)" | |
10. | "Behind the Smile (feat David Coverdale)" | |
11. | "Little Chalk Blue (feat John Lawton)" | |
12. | "Waiting (feat Al Matthews)" | |
13. | "Sitting in a Dream (feat Ronnie James Dio)" | |
14. | "No Solution (feat Micky Lee Soule)" | |
15. | "The Feast (feat Vincent Price)" | |
16. | "Love is All (feat Ronnie James Dio )" | |
17. | "Homeward (feat Ronnie James Dio)" | |
18. | "Love is All (encore)" |
Charts[]
Chart (1978) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (Kent Music Report)[5] | 12 |
Personnel (original album)[]
- Tony Ashton - vocals on track 15
- Les Binks - drums
- - vocals on track 3
- David Coverdale - vocals on track 8
- Ronnie James Dio - vocals on tracks 11, 19 and 20
- Jack Emblow - accordion
- Ray Fenwick - guitar
- - backing vocals
- Michael Giles - drums
- Roger Glover - synthesiser piano, guitar, bass guitar, percussion, backing vocals
- John Goodison - vocals on track 5
- John Gustafson - vocals on track 16
- Eddie Hardin - keyboards, vocals on track 13 and background vocals
- Jimmy Helms - vocals on track 12
- Glenn Hughes - vocals on track 2
- Eddie Jobson - violin
- Chris Karan - tabla
- - vocals on track 10 and backing vocals
- - vocals on track 4
- John Lawton - vocals on track 17
- Jon Lord - piano
- Mike Moran - piano
- - piano
- Micky Lee Soule - vocals on track 7
- Barry St. John - vocals on track 3
- - vocals on track 9
- - bassoon
- Nigel Watson - saw
- - backing vocals
- The Mountain Fjord Orchestra led by David Woodcock and conducted by Martin Ford, John Bell and Del Newman.
References[]
- ^ "Roger Glover and Guests – The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast (Vinyl)". Discogs. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
- ^ The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast at AllMusic
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ Schweber, Nate, "The Making of Meloy", The Montanan, Winter, 2009. Retrieved 2011-04-08.
- ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 321. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
External links[]
- Roger Glover & Guests - The Butterfly Ball And the Grasshopper's Feast, AvxHome.se. Dave Thompson is credited with some or all of the text at this website. The unsourced "Origin and production history" body of this Wikipedia article (as of April 2011) appears to be sourced from—or to be commonly sourced with—this text.
- Roger Glover.com
- amazon uk listing
- Roger Glover - Love is all on YouTube
- The Butterfly Ball at IMDb
- The Butterfly Ball And The Grasshopper's Feast at Discogs.com
- The Deep Purple Podcast - Episode #28 - The Butterfly Ball (Part 1: The Musicians)
- The Deep Purple Podcast - Episode #29 - The Butterfly Ball (Part 2: The Singers)
- The Deep Purple Podcast - Episode #30 - The Butterfly Ball (Part 1: The Album)
- The Deep Purple Podcast - Episode #31 - The Butterfly Ball (Part 1: The Movie)
- 1974 debut albums
- Concept albums
- Albums produced by Roger Glover
- Roger Glover albums
- Purple Records albums
- UK Records albums
- Albums with cover art by Alan Aldridge
- Rock operas