Rock My World Canada, chapter 102: Klaatu
[Mike Carr has created a catalogue/reference work featuring all kinds of Canadian rock and alternative releases from the past few decades. Check out his a massive volume on Canadian music history entitled Canadian Alternative & Indie Reference and Collector’s Guide. It’s an incredible discography of hundreds of bands. – AC]
Klaatu was a rock group formed in Toronto in 1973 by the duo of John Woloschuk and Dee Long. They named themselves after the extraterrestrial Klaatu portrayed by Michael Rennie in the film The Day the Earth Stood Still. After recording two singles, drummer Terry Draper was added to the line-up; this trio would comprise Klaatu throughout the rest of the band’s career.
Klaatu’s combination of pop, progressive rock, art/symphonic rock, and other genres has often been compared to the Beatles, and sometimes to the guitar-rock of Queen, and the electronic music of Wendy Carlos. British music magazine Shindig! praised the band’s ability to combine up-beat pop music with complex progressive rock, forming an “otherworldly brand of progressive pop.”
Find out more about this artist and hundreds of other Canadian artists in the softcover edition of Canadian Alternative & Indie Reference and Collector’s Guide. Get your copy here. Follow Mike on Facebook and Twitter.
