About To Begin

You know, Zoo Freaks, there's something special about the way this one settles in once the needle drops. "About To Begin" comes floating out of the Bridge of Sighs album like a late-night conversation that starts quiet and ends up saying more than you expected. Robin Trower has talked about how those slower numbers give him room to really dig in and say something with the guitar that a faster tune just doesn't allow. In one of those old Guitar World chats he mentioned loving songs like this one and "Daydream" precisely because they let him go deeper, get more expressive, and let the notes breathe. You can hear that all over this track. James Dewar's voice is right there with him, so close it almost feels like the words are coming straight from somewhere inside the man rather than being handed over for him to sing. People who have sat with the record a long time often say you almost have to check the credits to believe Trower wrote the lyric, because Dewar delivers it with that kind of quiet conviction.

The words themselves paint a picture of a moment when everything is about to shift. Stand in the light, feel the night, and there's music already playing in your ears and your head. Something rises up from the ground, takes hold of whoever is listening, and you are told to close your eyes because a new life is starting. It is careful not to break the spell, careful not to reach out and make it vanish. That whole idea of waiting, of sensing a change that is both near and still out of reach, sits at the center of the song. It is not a big statement or a story with a clear ending. It is more like the hush right before something real begins, and the trio lets it hang there. Reg Isidore keeps the pulse understated while Dewar's bass walks around the edges and Trower's Strat fills the space with that sustained, singing tone he built on the record. Geoff Emerick was the engineer who captured it, the same man who had worked on those Beatles sessions, and he found ways to make the guitar sound larger than the room by placing microphones at different distances. Matthew Fisher, Trower's old Procol Harum bandmate, produced the whole album, and the sessions moved quickly once they got into Air Studios. They had the material ready, played it live in the room, then layered the vocals and the extra guitar parts on top. Seventeen days or so and the thing was done.

That album, of course, is the one that turned Trower into the guitarist people still talk about. Bridge of Sighs went to number seven in the States, stayed on the charts for months, and went gold. Songs from it became the staples he has carried ever since. "About To Begin" sits right in the middle of the second side, a quiet stretch between the heavier stuff and the closer. It is pure Trower writing, no co-credit, and it shows the side of him that was always more interested in atmosphere and feeling than in speed for its own sake. Fans who dig into the later remasters and the fiftieth-anniversary packages still point to this track as one of the places where the original trio magic is clearest. Dewar is gone now, but the way he sits inside the lyric keeps the song feeling personal every time it comes around.

How Trower got to that point is a longer road that starts back in the south of England. He was born in Catford and grew up in Southend-on-Sea. His older brother brought rock and roll records into the house, Elvis and Gene Vincent and the rest, and the sight of Scotty Moore on those sleeves was enough to make a fourteen-year-old ask his dad for a guitar. A cheap acoustic arrived at Christmas, a pickup went on it soon after, and he started playing through the back of a radio. By the time he left school he was already in a band with Gary Brooker called the Paramounts. They cut a few singles, including a version of "Poison Ivy" that got them on television, and they opened for bigger names on the circuit. When that group wound down Trower drifted into bluesier territory, formed a short-lived trio of his own, and then got the call from Brooker to join the new outfit that had just scored with "A Whiter Shade of Pale." That was Procol Harum. He stayed for the first five albums, wrote "Whisky Train" and a few others, and learned how big tours and proper studios worked. But the band was built around keyboards and the kind of writing that left less room for the guitar ideas he kept bringing in. He has said more than once that he was coming up with more material than the group had space for, so in 1971 he stepped out.

The first try after that was a short-lived project called Jude with Frankie Miller and the bassist who would become his long-time partner, James Dewar. It did not last, but it put Dewar in the picture. Trower spent time finding the right drummer, landed on Reg Isidore, and the three of them cut the debut album Twice Removed from Yesterday. That record already had the sound, the effects-laden Strat, the slow-burn songs, and Dewar's voice. Bridge of Sighs followed the next year and everything opened up. Supporting acts like Jethro Tull and Ten Years After put them in front of the right crowds at the right time, American FM radio picked it up, and the album became the one people still reach for when they want to hear what a power trio can do when the guitar player is chasing tone and feel instead of flash. Trower has always been open about the influence of Hendrix, and he has said he does not mind the comparisons as long as people also hear what he brought of his own. The Strat, the Uni-Vibe, the big amplifiers, and that particular way of letting notes hang and cry came together on those early records and never really left.

He has kept working ever since, moving through different line-ups, collaborating with people like Jack Bruce, and releasing new albums well into his later years. The official site at Robin Trower still carries the news about the latest releases and the tours, and the Bridge of Sighs anniversary editions are right there if you want to hear the original tracks cleaned up and expanded. You can follow along on the official pages as well: the Facebook account, the Instagram, and the X account all stay current with tour dates and new music. There is also a public fan club group on Facebook called the Robin Trower - Fan Club where people trade stories, post old photos, and keep the conversation going about the records and the shows.

What sticks with "About To Begin" is how little it tries to force anything. It just lays out that quiet invitation to close your eyes and let the thing start. Trower has said he writes from the guitar first, finds a part that has its own character, then builds the song around it and spends the real time on the words. On this one the words stayed simple and the space stayed open, and the three of them filled it without crowding it. That is why it still works when the Zoo Crew drops it into the middle of a set. It gives the room a chance to settle, lets the guitar say what it needs to say, and reminds everyone listening that sometimes the most interesting moment is the one right before everything changes. You can hear more of that spirit, and plenty of the deeper cuts that never made the charts, over on THE ZOO, where the records keep spinning for the Zoo Freaks who still want the long versions and the stories behind them.