“The Long Play with Al Neff" is a continuing Sunday evening Feature on The GOAT. This year, Every Sunday Evening, Album Rock WXYG, The GOAT will feature a full album at 8:00 PM from the halcyon musical days of 1973.

1973 was Possibly the Greatest Year in Album Rock history. Another year of tough choices every week. So many great ones to choose from.

We hope you’ll tune in on the Evening of March 26th, for “Wishbone Four”, the fourth studio album by Wishbone Ash, released in 1973. It was a departure from their previous album, Argus.

Wishbone Four's stylistic variety found its footing in acoustic folk elements in half of the eight-song set ("Ballad of the Beacon", "Everybody Needs a Friend", "Sorrel" and "Sing Out the Song"), two aggressive and melodic starters on each side of the vinyl release (Side 1: So Many Things to Say" and Side 2: "Doctor"), and the band's first use of horns on the semi-autobiographical "rave-up" touring song "No Easy Road".

Although the sombre, sensitive and rather more fragile acoustic songs contained the wistful intro elements that were featured on the previous album, the lead guitars lacked the slow climb of the band's trademark duelling crescendos and energetic fretwork expected from the band at the time, tending to a more subtle and subdued interplay on the longer tracks. Wishbone Four was popular among fans upon its release as it implied musical growth and a willingness to experiment in the band's divergence of a successful formula (similar at the time to the effect of Led Zeppelin III's contrast to that band's previous efforts).

Wishbone Four was also the first release not produced by Derek Lawrence but by the band themselves. There's the Rub, the band's next and fifth studio album' was the first album to feature guitarist-vocalist Laurie Wisefield, who would be a major part of the band's creative direction for the next 11 years, as founding member Ted Turner left the band after the subsequent Wishbone Four tour.

The album peaked at No. 12 in the UK Albums Chart.

The progressive aspirations were put aside for Wishbone Four, the group's most solid-rocking album, though the folk-based element is still there, more solid than ever. "Ballad of the Beacon" is a genuinely beautiful song, and might have come from any number of electric folk-rock bands -- the fact that it came from Wishbone Ash indicates just how serious they were in wanting to explore some of these sounds. Their most mature and successful album.

Tune In and Turn On next Sunday, March 26th, and every Sunday evening at 8:00 PM for The GOAT'S "The Long Play with Al Neff.”

Don’t forget, right after the “Long Play”, we do a “Replay” of this week’s GOAT GUEST DJ SHOW.