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City Guide Vancouver
Harlow shows his style
Prism frontman shines through in Big Black Sky
Tom Harrison , The Province
Published: Sunday, = August=20 10, 2008Now maybe the real Al Harlow will be revealed.
Harlow is the sole remaining member of the Prism lineup that recorded = See=20 Forever Eyes and continued in various permutations until Harlow realized = two=20 years ago that he had inherited the band and could do what he = wanted.
What he wanted was to make an album free of the constraints of past = Prism=20 albums that had corrupted them in one way or another. Thus, Big Black = Sky,=20 Prism's first record in 14 years but Harlow's first record ever.
"Jim Vallance commented on this, too: 'You're like a 16-year-old with = your=20 first band,'" admits Harlow.
Vallance was a founder of Prism, as Rodney Higgs, but by the time of = See=20 Forever Eyes, Vallance was gone. There is continuity linking the old = Prism to=20 the new as Big Black Sky contains Vallance's "Last Time" and there is = just=20 enough bombast to remind longtime Prism fans of Armegeddon but, = significantly,=20 there is more of Harlow's personality and sense of style than he's shown = before.
That is good news for longtime Harlow watchers who might be thinking, = it's=20 about time.
Harlow grew up in North Vancouver as Al Hawirko, later to become = known by=20 friends as Al Horowitz, or simply The Witz.
In time, he joined Seeds of Time, Vancouver's original punk band, and = they=20 mutated into Prism.
Harlow might have been a punk sympathizer and the Seeds might have = had punk=20 roots but Prism represented all that was wrong with mainstream rock at = that=20 time. Despite that, Prism rose with hits such as "Spaceship Superstar," = "See=20 Forever Eyes," "Armegeddon," and "Night to Remember." At last, Harlow = was in a=20 successful band and his talent would show.
No. Being the agreeable guy he is, Harlow let the others in Prism = browbeat=20 him into submission until only vestiges of his talent remained.
"I was down," Harlow recalls. "I was the belittled brother. You don't = want to=20 think, 'Gee, I never should have joined Prism in the first place.'"
Oddly, as others dropped out or dropped dead, Harlow kept being = pushed=20 forward until he ended up fronting Tim Hewitt, Gary Grace and Steve O, = the Prism=20 that made Big Black Sky.
"All of a sudden, I had the best band I ever had," the guitarist = explains.=20 "The band stuck by me. Everybody propped me up and said, 'This should go = on.'=20 Much to my astonishment, Prism continued. I realized that now I could do = whatever I want."
With Hewitt as co-producer, Big Black Sky began to reflect Harlow's = affection=20 for old rock (Eddie Cochran's "Nervous Breakdown") and his swagger (The=20 Faces-like "Ya Bother Me") with sincerity (ballad "One Woman's Hero") = and=20 eclecticism (the Middle-Eastern modalism of "Tangiers") creeping in.
"I needed this," figures Harlow. "It's liberating."
tharrison@theprovince.com
IN CONCERT
Prism
Where: The Roxy, 932 Granville St.
When: Tomorrow night at 8
Tickets: At the door
=C2=A9 The Vancouver Province 2008
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