Echoes in the Dark is a song by the classic British hard rock band Uriah Heep, originally released on their fifth studio album The Magician’s Birthday in 1972. The track is the second longest on the record at 4:50, only surpassed by the epic title track of over twice that length.
The Magician’s Birthday was originally meant to be a full concept album, based on a story that multi-instrumentalist (mainly keyboardist while in Uriah Heep) Ken Hensley was writing at the time. It was a fantasy-themed and somewhat philosophical tale about two magicians, based on the classic concept of battle between good and evil. The plan was to create something filled with good, imaginative imagery that would have stood perfectly alongside the evocative sleeve designs of Roger Dean whom the band worked with at the time.
Alas, Ken Hensley was never allowed to finish his story. The record company kept demanding new product quicker as the band was put on a busy touring schedule. This made it impossible for them to spend too long on creating and recording. It certainly became close to impossible for Hensley to deliver on the ambitions he had.
As time fell short he ended up using what he had, squeezing the main fragments of his concept into one song – the epic title track. A few other songs would also house parts of the concept. The rest of the album had to be made up by the usual assortment of standalone songs.
Now, let’s be very clear: The Magician’s Birthday is an amazing album – in fact, one of my personal favourite albums ever. It’s one of those albums where each and every song is great. Uriah Heep were riding high at the time and bursting with creativity. Coming up with great songs on limited time schedules wasn’t a problem yet. They still seemed to thrive on deadlines, using the pressure as motivation. They could lean on each other, and the overall quality of their musicianship helped make the magic happen. What lack of time did, though, was limit their scope. They had less time to experiment and grow, and there simply wasn’t time to create ambitious levels of storytelling. That is a shame, as it would truly have resulted in something extraordinary.
Unfortunately, these factors has made the chief songwriter judge the album not in terms of what actually was created, but through the lenses of what might have been. “The Magician’s Birthday album was rushed,” said Hensley in a 2011 interview with Jodie Newell. “There was a tendency – and there still is, to this day – with record companies to ask you to repeat things. You know, we need another Gypsy, we need another Lady In Black, we need another July Morning… there cannot be any such thing, of course. But I was writing a short story about The Magician’s Birthday. And this was going to be the nucleus of the record. I had written two or three of the songs based on the elements of the short story. But I wasn’t given time to finish the short story, because I received this call that they wanted to bring the recording dates forward, they wanted to bring the release dates forward. Everything was planned ahead and there was a big tour coming up. So one way or another, I really didn’t get to finish the short story, and that’s why to me The Magician’s Birthday lives in the shadow of Demons & Wizards. I think it could have been a giant step forward from Demons & Wizards had we been allowed to let the material mature a little bit more, and had we been given the right amount of time to get it done. I think it fell a little bit short [of our ambitions]. That’s just my personal opinion, but of course the results, the sales, the market reflects different opinions, but at the same time that’s just how I feel. I feel it could have been much better.”
The title track stands tall on the album, telling the story about how the evil wizard appears in the middle of the good wizard’s birthday party to challenge him to a duel. The long instrumental section in the middle of the song, with the duelling guitars and drums, and the dissonant keyboard playing, depicts the battle masterfully. The song goes through a series of movements – but a closer look at that is for another time.
The most interesting thing Hensley tells us in the quoted interview above, is that a few other songs in addition to the title track were completed before he had to abandon the concept. The interesting question, as he did not name them, becomes which songs that could be.
Even though you could weave almost any of the songs on the album into a fantastic narrative, I am going to call out Sunrise, Spider Woman, Rain, and Sweet Lorraine as definite standalone songs for now. The songs we are left with then are Blind Eye, Tales, and Echoes In the Dark, all of which have far stronger thematic links to what we know of Hensley’s fantasy story.
We know a little bit about Blind Eye, which is one of Uriah Heep’s most philosophically interesting songs. Hensley has shared that the blind eye in the song is man’s desire. As the lyrics of that song says, it’s overwhelming – “fiercer than a rainstorm,” yet ultimately hollow and leading nowhere, leaving us grasping again for new meaning and new experience. Hensley told Songfacts: “The human condition has always fascinated me. I have always been acutely aware of my own weaknesses and aware that I am not alone in them and that’s basically what this lyric speaks to.”
The sun is also used frequently as a symbol in the song. It appears to be the antidote to the blind eye, but also seems tortuously elusive. It’s there one morning and gone the next. Hensley explained, “The word ‘sun’ appears repeatedly in my songs and I know that’s because I am its biggest fan. I love ‘light’ and I am not too fond of ‘dark’ and the sun is one of the reasons I like living in Spain. Perhaps the only one actually!”
The track Blind Eye could very well be part of the story with its focus on dark vs. light, as well as temptation vs. restraint. This is on the other hand a theme that Hensley frequently wrote about, so if he is correct in saying there were only two other stories directly based on the short story besides the title track, my money is on Tales and Echoes In the Dark.
These two songs share a strong link in that they both touch on the cyclical aspect of myths and legends. What has happened once is destined to happen again. Tales talks about how stories are passed on, and how one person’s adventure can become a tale for a young child, who one day will have to go out, face life, and begin another tale that they in time also can pass on. Echoes In the Dark also repeats this principle, stating that “it must end as it began and then start again.” Both songs state that the cycle starts over and over again. Tales in particular with the “sit down and let’s tell the tale of the legend that once was and once again will be” aspect would fit equally well as a start and an end to the concept. The fact that it was placed right before the title track on the album was never accidental in my head. I feel it speaks volumes about their connection.
This is the rather extensive backdrop to one of Uriah Heep’s best tracks – Echoes In the Dark. In my mind, it is their magnum opus. It is however not an immediate song. The track is the darkest on the album, which is otherwise filled with plenty of songs with more immediate and upbeat melodic qualities designed to become instant earworms.
Echoes In the Dark is much more of a slow burner – an alluring melody that will haunt you as much as it charms you, containing some powerful lyrics that will give pause for reflection. It may be the last song on the album to leap out at you if you come to it fresh, but long after you’ve worn out all the more immediate tracks, this one just won’t wear down. It continues to hold interest, never outstaying its welcome, and even grows to be the one track on the album you find yourself returning to more than any other. There are some songs that you keep going back to out of a wish to ‘decode’ them, so to speak. Echoes In the Dark has at various points in my life been that song to me. The lyrics are mystical, but one can sense that they contain a deep sense of truth or wisdom about something that you can’t help but want to get to the bottom of.
The song is in the very interesting key of E minor, and wastes no time in setting an interesting mood. An immediately defining trait is the descending Theremin sound. This is an electronic whistle which gives off a unique high-pitched flute sound, played by moving a hand up and down between two antennas. The sound of the instrument is often associated with eerie situations and was often used in movie soundtracks before the modern synthesizer could create any sound you wanted. It certainly gives the song an haunting flair, signalling that something uneasy is going on.
The Theremin section is the opening to a rather extended song intro, which features a lovely melodic slide guitar solo, likely played by Ken Hensley, which has an interesting slow-burn wah-wah effect. This is set over the sounds of Hensley’s Moog organ. Gary Thain plays his usual wonderful bass lines – letting the bass wander, ever finding the sweet spot in the song while offering a melodic bedding alongside Lee Kerslake’s very tasteful and musical drumming. This is the sound of Heep, and even when they create a more ominous musical backdrop to present their story against, they can’t help but sound like themselves.
The intro is well-designed and lasts over a minute before the vocals come in. This is a fairly ambitious level of storytelling – setting the mood and letting our minds start the journey by music alone.
When the music tones down for the first verse – again with the help of a reappearing Theremin – it becomes very sparse, leaving vocalist David Byron to sing the part almost naked. He is mainly accompanied by a gentle yet dramatic piano part playing underneath.
I have heard the echoes in the dark
Dim and distant voices of the past
And I’ve seen so far into the night
And lingered in the land of no light
With that the song takes off again, adding an instrumental bridge between the two first verses that gives emphasis and adds drama. It settles again before the second verse, which is still sung to quieter accompaniment – but some touches are added on guitar and drums. In particular, Lee Kerslake adds a militaristic drumbeat which is very effective.
Far beyond the shrouded hours of dawn
Through the mist of daybreak I was born
But the day was clouded still by night
Leaving me in the land of no light
The lyrics depict the tale of a mysterious, evil entity who has lived since the beginning of time and witnessed man’s creation. One could speculate that this was envisioned as the start of the evil magician’s story in the larger concept. Presented as a more standalone track, it would have been tweaked into a more surreal and philosophical take on beginnings and ends.
I am not sure if the next part of the song should be referred to as a chorus or just a different melodic section. The section does gives the song the lift usually associated with choruses, but it is only played once and does not contain the title or any repetitive hooks usually associated with choruses. I feel the song simply was written to contain several interesting passages, focusing more on the storytelling and song structure, giving the song different sections and passages to present the story through. A song like this one does not really require a traditional verse-chorus structure.
In any case, this section of the song certainly sounds grand and powerful, with the band’s secret weapon – the five-part harmonies – coming in to provide a lovely ‘choir’ backdrop on top of the full band sound. It is a powerful combination, giving it an expansive sound. At this point it also feels great to finally have the music provide a deeply satisfying ‘oomph’ behind the lyrics.
Though I’d love to
Say hello to you
You might have to wait a while to say
Goodbye
For it must end as it began
And then start again
This is where the mentioned lyrical themes shared with the song Tales comes in, where the cyclical aspect of stories and people’s lives is touched on – i.e. how the old tell their own tales to the young, who will eventually rise and become their own tale that they can pass on later. Echoes In the Dark touches on the same thing, albeit with a different perspective – that it must end as it began, and start again.
The passage also touches on another element – that of friendship, or potentially lack thereof. We’ll talk more about that after looking at the final verse, where this theme is emphasised stronger.
The song enters another instrumental passage at this point, with both the guitar and bass contributing melodic parts set over the moog organ and dramatic rhythm guitars. It culminates in the third and final verse, which is easily the most dramatic part of the song musically. The song has built up some momentum at this point, the full band providing a steadily pounding, menacing beat at full force as David Byron delivers the final warning.
The day of darkness comes to every man
And lingers while he reaches out his hand
And he cannot know how it will end
Till he finds out if he has a friend…
A friend…
A friend…
A friend
The “day of darkness comes to every man”-line gives me chills every time, but the song definitely ends on a lighter note which underlines the power of friendship and that a helping hand can help lift you out of that darkness when you need it the most, perhaps setting you off on a better path.
Looking at that verse in the context of the Magician’s Birthday concept, and especially given the possibility that this song is about the evil Magician (which I suspect), it may be that he never found that friendship that could lift him out of the darkness he found himself in and this is why the two magicians are at odds rather than friends. Maybe this would have gotten some resolution later in the story, maybe it wouldn’t have. But it is an interesting thing to consider in light of the few songs we have from what was originally envisioned as a bigger story.
Musically, the “a friend”-passage after the third verse is sung over a lovely playout section, providing a powerful and very satisfying end to the song. I am glad it has a proper ending rather than a fade-out or a more abrupt ending.
With that, Echoes In the Dark has reached its end. One of my favourite songs of all time, for whatever reason. It just is – it still gives me chills after all these years. If it’s been a while since your last play-through or you haven’t heard it before, give it a focused listen. It will pay endless dividends. “For it must end as it began, and then start again”…
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