Mahavishnu Orchestra – Birds of Fire …album review

We are taking a different path with this band today. It’s not the music I usually post, but I never post something I don’t like. I had the flu this week, and I listened to this band with headphones while recovering. This band really moved me in a lot of ways. It’s totally different for me, maybe you will be impressed like I was. Just pure music, and it takes you down a long, winding river. 

I tried picking out a song from this album and tried a few other songs from different albums, but it didn’t work. To write up this band, you have to listen to the complete album. First of all, I’m out of my pay grade here. When I first listened to these guys, I was overwhelmed. I guess you could call this progressive, but I don’t buy that with this band. That is too easy a tag. After I listened to this album, I went through a couple more, and it affected me quite a bit. 

You don’t listen to Mahavishnu Orchestra, you pretty much surrender to it. The first time you hear songs like Meeting of the Spirits (from their debut album) or Birds of Fire, it doesn’t matter if you’re coming from artists like Zeppelin, Rush, Miles Davis, or Ravi Shankar. What hits you is the raw voltage of their music. This is fusion played with the intensity of a rock band, but the complexity of a classical symphony. I think that sums it up. I compare it to being led into many different hallways in a huge mansion and visiting a new room at every turn. 

I’ve been telling other people about them. I’m not sure I can put this in words, but listening through headphones feels like I’m seeing the music. It’s like I’m seeing molecules for the first time, making up the whole. Listening to them, I hear things and figure out things I have never done with music before. Why does a beat fit here but not there? They have some of the most perfectly constructed music I’ve heard. I normally like music raw and imperfect, but I do make an exception with this band. The reason is that they keep an edge, and it doesn’t get boring.

Another thing I like about the songs is that they keep them the right length, and you don’t have any 30-minute songs. You can tell each song was part of something bigger. Each song is like another brick in this structure

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a clip of John McLaughlin live at a Jeff Beck Tribute. His playing was beyond great. I started to look at some of the bands he has been a part of. In the past few weeks, I’ve brushed up on my bass playing by dragging a bass out while listening to rockabilly. The Mahavishnu Orchestra is way above my level but yet I’ve picked up a few things. 

After playing with Miles Davis on fusion albums like Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way, John McLaughlin formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1971. The name “Mahavishnu” was given to McLaughlin by his spiritual guru, Sri Chinmoy, reflecting the band’s philosophical, spiritual, and musical ambitions. Their albums were always evolving; they never just stayed put. 

This album seeped into the mainstream. It peaked at #5 in Canada, #15 on the Billboard Album Charts, and #20 in the UK in 1973. Their membership was fluid through the years. They were together from 1971 – 1976 and from 1984-1987. John McLaughlin was the one constant member. On this album, it was McLaughlin on guitar, Rick Laird on bass, Billy Cobham on drums, Jan Hammer on keyboards, and Jerry Goodman on violin. 

In closing, yeah, this is different from what I usually post and what you listen to and read about here. Some unknown critic at the time described this album as …Miles Davis jamming with Led Zeppelin on a Himalayan cliffside. So put that way…it fits. 

If you want the complete album on YouTube. 

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

49 thoughts on “Mahavishnu Orchestra – Birds of Fire …album review”

      2. Cool…I didn’t know that. I hear Rush, Zeppelin and a lot of stuff in them so that fits Jim. I thought of all people…you might have listened to them before.

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      4. On country music….it almost always (95 percent) has to be more traditional…like Merle Haggard or Hank SR.

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    2. I think of the Mahavishnu Orchestra as a Jazzed-upLite Prog band that tends to send me into a blue mood.🙄 Sorry for butting in Jim and Max. The ingredients just don’t work for me.

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  5. Pingback: Mahavishnu Orchestra – Birds of Fire …album review – MobsterTiger

      1. My grandfather was not only a well known principal in Cincy but he was a violin teacher/player. I went to the UC-Conservatory of Music (called Electronic Media then) so I have an appreciation for European classical music. That’s probably why I loved those classic NFL Films scores in our childhood in the 70’s.

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  8. When I first heard this band I thought they were just fast for the sake of being fast; more notes is not always better – one of the reasons I’m not a fan of metal shredders. But listening this morning they also remind me of some of Frank Zappa’s work. But I still can hear only so much before I get tired of it.

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    1. As a guy who has written songs…it really opened my eyes on things. How they constructed songs to work as an album. There was some Zappa in there no doubt. I had a lot of time this week…just now getting over it…but it was a pleasant surprise for me.

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  10. Well that’s interesting. I think I’ve seen the name but hadn’t heard the music. From ‘One Word’…as others seem to say, the talent of playing is there but the music doesn’t grab me. It needs focus & maybe right editing. It kind of sounds like a hard prog rock band doing a freeform jam, or various musicians auditioning for another. I noticed Jan Hammer in there, the ‘Miami Vice’ guy & it struck me parts of that piece here sound like they could have been condensed down to a ’70s cop action show theme. Great description you wrote, btw

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    1. I had no clue that it charted that high in Canada….so it slipped into the mainstream somewhere.
      It’s not music you can just listen to at a beach party….well I guess you could…but the more I listened the more I appreciated it.

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  11. Sorry to read you had the flu and hope you’re feeling better, Max. While I previously included Mahavishnu Orchestra in a September 2024 Sunday Six post, ironically picking a song titled “I Know, I Know”, I still mostly know the group by name only. I feel their music requires you to spend some time. You can’t appreciate it by listening to some random track only. I’ve yet to take that plunge.

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    1. You are correct…it does take time to listen to it. It’s not like listening to Louie Louie and leaving… once I committed I really like what I heard…so so cool on headphones!

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    1. Thanks for reading Pam…yea I knew this would not be as popular as some other posts…but yea…that degree of musicianship totally got me…and songwriting.

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  13. I had it on cassette (yes I am dating myself) along with my one return to forever album…along with Blow By Blow, Elegant Gypsy..this was in the 70s when everyone was listening to Frampton Come Alive and KIss, Destroyer….all my friends didn’t quite get the direction I wanted to go in….variety, and a way to cleanse the musical palet..

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    1. Thanks Warren. I have had more familiar with them than I thought I would today which is cool. On cassette! I did the cassette thing as well in the 80s.

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  14. I know what you mean about needing the whole album to wash over you. That’s how ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ should be listened to. However ‘Moon’ grips me whereas Mahavishnu don’t hold me.

    The thing is music means different things to different people, and listening to it through the flu maybe gave a different feel and perspective. Whatever floats the musical boat, I say.

    Hope you’re well over the flu. It can be a nasty nagging bastid to get over.

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    1. Well the flu gave me a chance to listen without distractions…unlike say listening to The Beach Boys…were if you miss a measure…not a biggie…plus I will admit…my songwriting side kicked in and I found that fascinating….but I get it…believe me. It’s not for everyone.
      Yea I’m better obbverse….broke my fever Wednesday…but it keeps hanging around….the sinus part.

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      2. It certainly is a bring down. Yes it was…that is why I’m so astonished…no lyrics…but the construction of songs.

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  15. First, I hope your ‘flu is passing off, I know how that one goes.

    I like some of this – parts of it, and particularly that bass – but most of it is too fast for my brain to process. And I don’t know the musical terminology for it but some of the way I’d expect it to go, and then it doesn’t – like a bar will go up when I expect (or want) it to go down – I find jarring.

    Some of it is reminiscent of Stomu Yamashta, not a guitarist but a percussionist and keyboardist – which I liked for a period in the early/mid 70s – check out his stuff on youtube for comparison – the albums Raindog and Floating Music come to mind.

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    1. Thank you Val…I still have sinuses today…a week later but at least I have no fever but I had it until Wednesday.
      Val I knew this would not go over too well but I love it so I had to share…but it went down better than I thought and I plan to do more.
      I listened to it with my songwriting brain…and it was super….I could hear things I never heard before.

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  16. Holy shit. A pretty decent response for an off the track take for you. I’ll have to scroll down and read the comments. I know how I feel about this music. A game changer that I still get jacked about when I listen. Very good insight Max.. Billy pounding those skins on the opening of the live cut kinda sets up what’s in store.

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    1. Like I told you….I was blown away by them and frankly…blown away at the comments. A few knew them and I knew it wouldn’t be for everyone but they gave it a chance.

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      2. Thanks CB I appreciate it.
        Yes they are… they responded much more to this post than I thought they would….many heard the quality I was talking about.

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    1. Thanks Graham I really appreciate that comment. I got more response from this than I ever thought I would. It really hit me in a great way. It hit the musician in me the most.

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