''Those Who Are About to Die Salute You – Morituri Te Salutant'' is the debut
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by
Colosseum
The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world to ...
, released in 1969 by Fontana. It is one of the pioneering albums of
jazz fusion
Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...
. The title is a translation of the Latin phrase ''
morituri te salutant'' that according to popular belief (but not academic agreement),
gladiator
A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...
s addressed to the emperor before the beginning of a gladiatorial match.
The original vinyl album had the title "Colosseum" on the record label and on the spine of the cover, but the album is better known as "Those Who Are About To Die Salute You".
The album reached number 15 in the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
.
Background
"Debut" is the very first song Colosseum ever played as a group.
[Hiseman, Jon (1969). In ''Those Who Are About to Die Salute You'' ]iner notes Iner or INER may refer to:
* Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, or INER
* Iner Souster
FemBots are a Canadian indie rock band from Toronto formed in 1998. FemBots are known for their unique sound of combining instrumental everyday items, junk ...
Tony Reeves later recalled that "
Debut"was actually a phrase that I remembered
Mick Taylor
Michael Kevin Taylor (born 17 January 1949) is an English guitarist, best known as a former member of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1967–1969) and the Rolling Stones (1969–1974). As a member of the Stones, h ...
playing with
John Mayall
John Mayall, OBE (born 29 November 1933) is an English blues singer, musician and songwriter, whose musical career spans over sixty years. In the 1960s, he was the founder of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band that has counted among it ...
, and I changed it a bit into a bass line.
ings the part.And then the band all joined in – this is what happens during rehearsals – so technically you should have everybody's name in the writing credit, including, I guess, Mick Taylor's!"
"Mandarin" started from a series of sketches by Dave Greenslade that were based on a Japanese soft scale. Tony Reeves compiled the sketches into the main theme and arranged the song.
"Beware the Ides of March" borrows a theme of the fugue of "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach (Bach BWV 565).
Colosseum also recorded "I Can't Live Without You", which appears on the 2004 re-release as a bonus track.
Legacy
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
's retrospective review is laudatory, saying the album "is a powerful one, unleashing each member's instrumental prowess at one point while consolidating each talent to form an explosive outpouring of progressive jazz/rock the next." They highly praised the variety and uniqueness of each song, the playing of the musicians, and the group's ability to create a blend of jazz, rock, and classical elements that was unconventional yet accessible. They concluded "the album never strays from its intensity or its creativity", and added that ''
Valentyne Suite
''Valentyne Suite'' is the second album released by the band Colosseum. It was Vertigo Records' first album release, and reached number 15 in the UK Albums Chart in 1969. The album peaked at number 18 in Australia in 1970.
Though the song "The K ...
'' is similar and just as outstanding, even though Allmusic's official review of that album is largely negative.
It was voted number 23 in the All-Time 50 Long Forgotten Gems from
Colin Larkin
Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged".
Along wit ...
's ''
All Time Top 1000 Albums
''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by the ...
''.
Track listing
UK release
US release
In the United States, the album was released in July 1969 on the
Dunhill label with a different tracklist and a different cover.
Those Who Are About to Die Salute You discographic information
Discogs. Retrieved July 29, 2011.
2004 remastered release
A remastered version was released in 2004 on Sanctuary Records.
Tracks 1-8 were the same as the original UK album.
Track 9: Studio outtake.
Track 10: Recorded 12-Dec-1968, broadcast 17-Jan-1969 – BBC "Top Gear". At that point, the name of the band was Jon Hiseman's Colosseum.
Tracks 11 to 13: Recorded 24-Feb-1969, broadcast 16-Mar-1969 – BBC "Symonds On Sunday".
Track 14: With Brian Matthews voiceover, BBC Top Of The Pops".
Personnel
;Colosseum
*Dave Greenslade
David John Greenslade (born 18 January 1943) is an English composer and keyboard player. He has played with Colosseum from the beginning in 1968 until the farewell concert in 2015 and also from 1973 in his own band, Greenslade, and others inclu ...
– Hammond organ, vibraphone, piano, backing vocals on "The Road She Walked Before"
*Dick Heckstall-Smith
Richard Malden Heckstall-Smith (26 September 1934 – 17 December 2004) was an English jazz and blues saxophonist. He played with some of the most influential English blues rock and jazz fusion bands of the 1960s and 1970s. He is known for pri ...
– tenor and soprano saxophone
*James Litherland
James Litherland (born 6 September 1949) is an English singer and guitarist best known as a founding member of the progressive rock band Colosseum. He was born in Salford, Lancashire, England. He is the father of singer and producer James Blak ...
– guitar (except on "Backwater "Blues"), lead vocals
*Tony Reeves
Anthony Reeves (born 18 April 1943, New Eltham, South East London) is an English bass guitarist/contrabassist, noted for his "distinctive and complex bass sound" and use of electronic effects.
Career
As a teenager Reeves learned orchestral doub ...
– bass guitar
*Jon Hiseman
Philip John Albert "Jon" Hiseman (21 June 1944 – 12 June 2018) was an English drummer, recording engineer, record producer, and music publisher. He played with the Graham Bond Organisation, with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and later form ...
– drums
with:
*Jim Roche – guitar on "Backwater Blues"
References
{{Authority control
1969 debut albums
Colosseum (band) albums
Albums produced by Gerry Bron
Fontana Records albums
Bronze Records albums
Dunhill Records albums