Those Who Are About to Die Salute You

The first Colosseum lasted a year until September 1969 and released it's debut album "Those Who Are About To Die Salute You" in March 1969. The album included a version of Graham Bond's "Walking In The Park" that caught my attention and Colosseum have never since left my personal list of favourites. Heckstall-Smith and Hiseman had played the song while working in Graham Bond's Organisation. The song was undoubtedly a good vehicle for the band to build their solos around. While the album went to #15 in the British album charts their only single "Walking In The Park" (Fontana TF 1029) made no impact on the charts. Colosseum are an album oriented band and their music is best heard in large doses. Still, I find "Walking In The Park" to be one of the truly great songs of all time. The music on the album is best characterised as high-energy jazz-blues-rock fusion with classical influences. This is well exemplified by the track "Beware The Ides Of March".