Which song is Richard referring to here?

[Tony]

The notes recently put up on the official website for Close to You closes with the following paragraph:

"A perfect example of pretentious, wacky 60s musical abandon, it is complete with a recitative (lifted from Handel) and extended solo backside.  Karen’s and my multi-tracked vocal break, which precedes the Borodin-inspired penultimate section, however, is still thrilling to listen to."

It appears to me that Richard is referring to a specific song here, not the album in general, but it isn't clear from the preceding paragraph which song is being referenced—although I assume it's "Another Song". Can anyone here who has a stronger musical background than I do verify this and, while you're at it, tell me what it means?

Thanks,

Tony

 

[Chris May]

The notes recently put up on the official website for Close to You closes with the following paragraph:

"A perfect example of pretentious, wacky 60s musical abandon, it is complete with a recitative (lifted from Handel) and extended solo backside.  Karen’s and my multi-tracked vocal break, which precedes the Borodin-inspired penultimate section, however, is still thrilling to listen to."

He's talking about "ANOTHER SONG" (i.e. Intro from Handel's "Messiah", "...the warmth of you had gooooone..." vocal break, the instrumental postlude, etc.) -Chris

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Definitely "Another Song." The multi-tracked vocal break he speaks of is the soaring harmony bit right before the piano solo ending.

I "googled" recitative and found this:

a vocal passage of narrative text that a singer delivers with natural rhythms of speech

...so I'm not exactly sure what he's referring to there, unless it's the way the song is sung or phrased. Maybe there's a Handel composition that has the same rhythm or phrasing at some point.

"Borodin" is Alexander Borodin, a Russion composer who lived in the 1800s, so I assume the melody (or part of it) was inspired or maybe even lifted from one of his compositions.

"Wacky 60s musical abandon" is just that. To put it simply, Richard probably said "Let's just go nuts on this one." And they did! From what he writes, it sounds like the song hasn't stood the test of time for Richard (except for the ending). It's one of my favorites though. Makes me wonder what they could have done if they'd been produced by Alan Parsons or someone like that.

 

[Chris May]

"ANOTHER SONG" intro and first verse are modeled after Handel's "Messiah". -Chris