Focus - Hocus Pocus Box (2017) {13CD Box Set}

Limited 13 CD box set from the iconic Dutch band. Includes the albums In & Out Of Focus, Focus II Moving Waves, Focus III, Live At The Rainbow, Hamburger Concerto, Mother Focus, Ship Of Memories, Focus Con Proby, Jann Akkerman & Thijs Van Leer - Focus, Focus 8, Focus 9 New Skin, Focus X, and The Best Of Focus. Opposites attract, or so they say. And Jan Akkerman and Thijs van Leer certainly are opposites. Both incredibly gifted, the two musicians inspire each other when they meet in Focus. Here you find Akkerman and Van Leer's exciting legacy of superb continental European progressive rock. And jazz. And classical music. Plus the non-Akkerman Focus releases, with a rejuvenated band helmed by Thijs van Leer, innovative as ever, creating new sounds like no other band can. A box of groundbreaking music to say the least.

Best remembered for their bizarre chart smash "Hocus Pocus," Dutch progressive rock band Focus was formed in Amsterdam in 1969 by vocalist/keyboardist/flutist Thijs van Leer, bassist Martin Dresden, and drummer Hans Cleuver. With the subsequent addition of guitarist Jan Akkerman, the group issued its debut LP, In and Out of Focus, in 1970, earning a European cult following thanks to the single "House of the King." Dresden and Cleuver were replaced by bassist Cyril Havermanns and drummer Pierre Van der Linden for the English-language follow-up, Moving Waves; the record generated the hit "Hocus Pocus," a hallucinatory epic distinguished by Akkerman's guitar pyrotechnics and van Leer's demented yodeling. Easily one of the flat-out strangest songs ever to crack the American pop charts, the single peaked at number nine in the spring of 1973, by which time Focus had already exchanged Havermanns for bassist Bert Ruiter and issued their third album, Focus III, which yielded the minor hit "Sylvia." In the wake of 1974's Hamburger Concert, the band streamlined the classical aspirations of earlier efforts to pursue a more pop-oriented approach on records like Ship of Memories and Mother Focus; though roster changes regularly plagued Focus throughout the period, none was more pivotal than the 1976 exit of Akkerman, who was replaced by guitarist Philip Catherine for 1978's Focus con Proby, cut with British pop singer P.J. Proby. Focus then disbanded, with the original lineup reuniting in 1990 for a Dutch television special.

~ All Music

Track List CD1 - In And Out Of Focus (1970):

01. Focus… (Vocal) [2:44]
02. Black Beauty [3:08]
03. Sugar Island [3:05]
04. Anonymus [6:33]
05. House Of The King [2:51]
06. Happy Nightmare (Mescaline) [3:59]
07. Why Dream [3:58]
08. Focus… (Instrumental) [9:46]




Track List CD2 - Moving Waves (1971):

01. Hocus Pocus [6:43]
02. Le Clochard [2:01]
03. Janis [3:08]
04. Moving Waves [2:43]
05. Focus II [4:04]
06. Eruption [23:02]




Track List CD3 - Focus 3 (1972):

01. Round Goes The Gossip [5:13]
02. Love Remembered [2:49]
03. Sylvia [3:32]
04. Carnival Fugue [6:08]
05. Focus III [6:05]
06. Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers! [13:50]
07. Elspeth Of Nottingham [3:09]
08. Anonymus two [26:23]




Track List CD4 - At The Rainbow (1973):

01. Focus III [3:53]
02. Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers! [11:30]
03. Focus II [4:37]
04. Eruption [8:28]
05. Hocus Pocus [8:30]
06. Sylvia [2:48]
07. Hocus Pocus - Reprise [2:50]




Track List CD5 - Hamburger Concerto (1974):

01. Delitae Musicae [1:14]
02. Harem Scarem [5:52]
03. La Cathedrale de Strasbourg [5:00]
04. Birth [7:46]
05. Hamburger Concerto [20:20]
06. Early Birth [2:55]




Track List CD6 - Mother Focus (1975):

01. Mother Focus [3:05]
02. I Need A Bothroom [3:06]
03. Bennie Helder [3:32]
04. Soft Vanilla [3:03]
05. Hard Vanilla [2:36]
06. Tropic Bird [2:44]
07. Focus IV [3:59]
08. Someone's Crying… What! [3:20]
09. All Together… Oh That! [3:42]
10. No Hang Ups [2:56]
11. My Sweetheart [3:37]
12. Father Bach [1:34]




Track List CD7 - Ship Of Memories (1976):

01. P'S March [4:49]
02. Can't believe My Eyes [5:22]
03. Focus V [3:02]
04. Out Of Vesuvius [5:50]
05. Glider [4:39]
06. Red Sky At Night [5:51]
07. Spoke The Lord Creator [2:33]
08. Crackers [2:44]
09. Ship Of Memories [1:47]
10. Hocus Pocus (U.S. Single Version) [3:26]




Track List CD8 - Focus Con Proby (1977):

01. Wingless [5:36]
02. Orion [4:08]
03. Night Flight [3:40]
04. Eddy [5:54]
05. Sneezing Bull [4:27]
06. Brother [5:19]
07. Tokyo Rose [5:07]
08. Maximum [8:41]
09. How Long [5:20]




Track List CD9 - Ian Akkerman & Thijs Van Leer - Focus (1985):

01. Russian Roulette [5:53]
02. King Kong [3:46]
03. Le Tango [4:57]
04. Indian Summer [5:52]
05. Beethoven's Revenge (Bach-One-Turbo-Overdrive) [18:53]
06. Ole Judy [3:50]
07. Who's Calling [16:22]




Track List CD10 - Focus 8 (2002):

01. Rock & Rio [3:27]
02. Tamara's Move (allegro-adagio-allegro) [5:18]
03. Fretless Love [6:09]
04. Hurkey Turkey [4:15]
05. De Ti O De Mi [6:30]
06. Focus 8 [6:19]
07. Sto Ces Raditi Ostatac Zivota? [5:26]
08. Neurotika - rehearsel take [3:47]
09. Brother [5:40]
10. Blizu Tebe [6:38]
11. Flower Shower [5:42]




Track List CD11 - Focus 9 / New Skin (2006):

01. Black Beauty [4:14]
02. Focus 7 [5:23]
03. Hurkey Turkey 2 [4:06]
04. Sylvia's Stepson - Ubatuba [4:50]
05. Niels' Skin [6:06]
06. Just Like Eddy [5:10]
07. Aya-Yuppie-Hippie-Yee [5:19]
08. Focus 9 [7:58]
09. Curtain Call [4:36]
10. Ode To Venus [4:30]
11. European Rap(sody) [10:24]
12. Pim [3:02]
13. It Takes 2 2 Tango [8:03]
14. Brazil Love [6:14]




Track List CD12 - Focus X (2012):

01. Father Bacchus [4:04]
02. Focus 10 [5:48]
03. Victoria [5:28]
04. Amok in Kindergarten [5:00]
05. All Hens on Deck [5:45]
06. Birds Come Fly Over (Le Tango) [5:26]
07. Hoeratio [5:38]
08. Talk of the Clown [2:59]
09. Message Magic [3:53]
10. Crossroads [5:39]





Track List CD13 - Hocus Pocus - The Best Of Focus (2001/2017):

01. Hocus Pocus [6:43]
02. Anonymus [6:35]
03. House Of The King [2:51]
04. Focus - Instrumental [9:47]
05. Janis [3:08]
06. Focus II [4:04]
07. Tommy [3:25]
08. Sylvia [3:31]
09. Focus III [6:06]
10. Harem Scarem [5:52]
11. Mother Focus [3:06]
12. Focus IV [3:58]
13. Bennie Helder [3:31]
14. Glider [4:41]
15. Red Sky At Night [5:49]
16. Hocus Pocus (U.S. Single Version) [3:25]