Turn of the Cards is the fifth studio album by the English progressive rock band Renaissance, released in July 1974. It was the last Renaissance studio album to include excerpts from existing classical pieces. It was also the first album recorded by the group after Michael Dunford, who had written songs for their previous three albums, joined the group as an acoustic guitarist.
In the UK, this was the first release on Miles Copeland's fledgling label, BTM Records (British Talent Managers). In 1977, after releasing a total of 10 albums, including two more by Renaissance (Scheherazade and Other Stories and the double LP Live at Carnegie Hall), the label folded due to bankruptcy.
Contents
Cover art
Hipgnosis, who had previously designed the covers to the band's albums Prologue and Ashes Are Burning, designed the cover. After producing a storyboard of ideas, they visited the recording studio to get a feel for the music, then produced the final artwork. The castle in the background is Warwick Castle. The first BTM UK pressings had an alternate back cover, with a close-up portrait of Annie Haslam framed in one of the 'cards'.
Background and recording
For Turn of the Cards, Renaissance again made use of De Lane Lea Studios and co-producer/engineer Dick Plant. Richard Gottehrer, co-founder of Renaissance's new American record label Sire Records, is also credited as co-producer of the album, but according to drummer Terry Sullivan, Gottehrer never set foot inside De Lane Lea Studios and his sole involvement with the album was collaborating on the final remix of "Things I Don't Understand", which was done at Record Plant Studios in the U.S.
"Running Hard" quotes a melodic phrase first used in "Mr. Pine" from the Illusion album, as well as the piece "Litanies" by French composer Jehan Alain, both at keyboardist John Tout's suggestion.
In 1993, Betty Thatcher said that "I Think Of You" means that "you can love everybody, in every way, even the unlovable..."
"Things I Don't Understand" was founder member Jim McCarty's last released contribution to the band. However, it was an old Renaissance song; bassist/vocalist Jon Camp said that when he joined Renaissance back in 1972, it was already a part of the band's set list. Prologue was the last time McCarty actively wrote songs for Renaissance, rather than simply allowing them to use material he had already written.
"Things I Don't Understand" was a problematic track from the beginning. During the first take the band went into a spontaneous instrumental jam that they were all very pleased with, but after returning from a break they found that the tape op had accidentally erased the entire recording. The producers did numerous mixes of the song in a struggle to find a sound that everyone could be satisfied with.
In 1993, Betty Thatcher said that "Black Flame" (inspired by the Vietnam War) was about the human potential for wrongdoing: "We're all capable of doing [bad] things if we think it's right. And it might be wrong." Sullivan said he was present when Thatcher wrote the lyrics to "Black Flame", which she did while seated in a special writing chair in her house.
The music to "Cold Is Being" is taken from "Adagio in G minor" (attributed to Tomaso Albinoni, but actually composed by Remo Giazotto); it was credited in the back notes ("Thanks to Jehan Alain for the opening piece of RUNNING HARD and Albinoni for COLD IS BEING").
Expanded 2020 edition
In 2019 Esoteric Recordings announced a re-mastered and 4 disc (3 CD plus 1 DVD-audio) expanded edition of the album which was released on 20 March 2020.
Track listing
Personnel
Renaissance
Annie Haslam – lead and backing vocals
Michael Dunford – acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Jon Camp (listed as "John Camp") – bass, co-lead vocals on track 3, backing vocals
John Tout – keyboards, backing vocals
Terence Sullivan – drums, backing vocals, percussion
Additional musicians
Jimmy Horowitz – orchestral arrangements
Production
Dick Plant - producer, engineer
Richard Gottehrer - producer
Douglas Bogie, Mike Pela - assistant engineers
Jeffrey Lesser - remix engineer at Mediasound Studios, New York
Hipgnosis - cover design