Nektar (German for Nectar) is a 1970s English progressive rock band originally based in Germany.
The band formed in Hamburg, Germany in 1969, members included Englishmen Roye Albrighton on guitars and vocals, Allan "Taff" Freeman on keyboards, Derek "Mo" Moore on bass, Ron Howden on drums, and Mick Brockett on lights, special effects and other miscellanea. Songwriting was always considered a group effort.
The band's early albums such as Journey to the Centre of the Eye, ...Sounds Like This and A Tab in the Ocean were obscure psychedelic rock albums that won the band a small but growing cult following, based largely on word of mouth. The last of those albums was the first Nektar album to be released in the U.S., on the small Passport Records label.
It was Nektar's second U.S. release, Remember the Future (1973), that propelled the band briefly into mass popularity. A concept album about a blind boy who communicates with an extraterrestrial being, the music was a big leap forward for the band with a much more melodic sound than on previous albums. It shot into the Top 20 album charts in the U.S. The follow-up album, Down to Earth (1974), was another concept album with a circus theme; it also sold well, breaking into the Top 40 album charts and included Nektar's only song to chart on the Billboard singles charts, "Astral Man". The next album, Recycled (1975), was stylistically close to bands like Gentle Giant and is considered by many fans to be Nektar's finest moment.
continued: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nektar
Remember the Future is the fourth album from English progressive rock band Nektar. It is a concept album featuring one song divided into two parts. On the original LP, each side contained one of the two parts. It was first released in 1973 by Bacillus (Bellaphon).
The album was re-released in 1990 on LP and CD by Germany's Bellaphon. The mix used for this release was the LP mix that was rejected. In 2002 Bellaphon remastered the album from the original tapes and reissued it on CD with two bonus tracks, which were Radio Promo edits. This is the first time the correct LP mixes are released on CD.[2]
In 2004 Remember the Future was once again re-released, but this time by the UK's Eclectic Discs/Dream Nebula Recordings. For this reissue[3] the remastered version was used and they added a third Radio edit of the title track. This version was also released as a SACD, which includes a 5.1 surround mix; the 2 channel audio CD layer contains the 2002 remix. Track 3 ("Remember the Future") is an edit released on a various artists compilation album titled "Made In Germany." Tracks 4 and 5 are radio promo only single edits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remember_the_Future
Conjured Imagery
Driving through northern California
going further into the night
in a long ago or recurrent dream
now but in the real world then
passed small towns with pretty girls
visions promises the hopes of youth
living in peace with wars far off
the lights of home & carnivals
I knew I'd be leaving America
for the Canadian wilderness summer
all the way to Alaska
V-signs from troops in convoys
I returned to the East Coast
after recharging my soul a few months
after enlarging my psyche
The world was a much bigger
furious lovelier place than I'd
known but new knowledge
was gained. 21 then.
Then there was an after...
--GP aka JSW