The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - The Impossible Dream (1974)

“The Impossible Dream” was the third album by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. It was released in 1974.
Whoever thought that the surface obsession of glam rock never met the loopy idealism of the hippie movement at least in the musical realm has obviously never heard the appropriately titled “The Impossible Dream”. Recorded, again, appropriately, as the Age of Aquarius was in full transition to the age of the Spiders From Mars and, later, the me decade, “The Impossible Dream” manages to capture that cultural DMZ in an operatic blast of pub rock-based pomp without circumstance. Harvey is the bacchanalian ringleader, marshalling the Sensational Alex Harvey Band's considerable, flexible resources to the task at hand and providing a damn good listen in the process. Multi-part song cycles, three-minute rockers. and tomes such as "Long Hair Music" keep you, the unexpecting listener, on edge. This is one of those overlooked records, and Harvey was one of those artists, that could easily have reached less than an arm's length and touched T. Rex, Queen, the New York Dolls, AC/DC, or Sweet, and, by extension, Mötley Crüe, Poison, and Guns 'n' Roses. “The Impossible Dream” is a key album in the discography of one of rock's little-known grand schemers. It rocks out, is pretentious, bombastic, rollicking and grand, but it's never boring.


01.  "The Hot City Symphony, Pt. 1: Vambo" (Alistair Cleminson, Alex Harvey, Hugh McKenna)  -
         5:03   
02.  "The Hot City Symphony, Pt. 2: The Man in the Jar"  (The Alex Harvey Band, David Batchelor)
        - 8:14   
03.  "River of Love"  (Alistair Cleminson, Alex Harvey, Hugh McKenna)  - 3:12  
04.  "Long Hair Music"  (Alistair Cleminson, Alex Harvey, Hugh McKenna)  - 4:37 
05.  "Hey"  (Alistair Cleminson, Alex Harvey, Hugh McKenna)  - 0:39
06.  "Sergeant Fury"  (David Batchelor, Alex Harvey, Hugh McKenna)  - 3:31
07.  "Weights Made of Lead"  (Alex Harvey)  - 2:41  
08.  "Money Honey/Impossible Dream"  (J. Stone)  - 2:10  
09.  "Tomahawk Kid"  (David Batchelor, Alex Harvey, Hugh McKenna  - 4:34   
10.  "Anthem"  (David Batchelor, Alex Harvey, Hugh McKenna)  - 7:45 

Credits
Alex Harvey - Lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Zal Cleminson - Guitar
Chris Glen - Bass guitar
Hugh McKenna - Keyboards, synthesizer
Ted McKenna - Drums
Vicky Silva - Vocals on "Anthem"
Engineer – Cyrano, Martin Rushent
Producer – David Batchelor, Derek Wadsworth

Notes
Design [Sleeve] – Keith Davis
Illustration – Keith Davis
2 pipers from The London Scottish TA Regiment, one of whom was John Gilligan, played on "Anthem"
Genre Rock
Length 43:09
© 1974 Vertigo Records