Slepi

A live music performance is never really a perfection without some mistakes. The great thing of mistakes like falsetto voices, eerie guitar shreds, or mistimed drums beats, is that sometimes it could let the musician to even further improvise the music. And that what makes some musicians (and the music itself), like Jimmy Page, great and walk-high in the history of music industry, it adds some sense of human-touch creativities to the music they play.

Three or four months ago, a friend of mine pointed out to me about such mistake in one of the most monumental music concerts ever performed, the inspiring Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Rick Wakeman in January 1974 at London’s Royal Festival Hall. A strange word “stupefication” was invented and introduced (un)intentionally to public by (the late) David Hemmings, the one who read the narratives. (The whole performance was a combination of modern rock music, a full classical orchestra and choir, and a lengthy narration adapted from Jules Verne’s famous 19^th century novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth). This unique and rare mistake somehow has created its own story; no one knows for sure whether David Hemmings did it intentionally or not.

Some say that it was indeed intended by him to say the meaningless word. It was intended because he thought that it is the correct spelling (and pronunciation). However David was a native English speaker, thus such opinion wouldn’t make any sense at all. It is very unlikely he missed it that way.

Second opinion says that it was due to his lack of concentration that he misread the narrative. And the fact that it’s happened in the last chapter of the show seems like supporting this opinion. It is make sense that one’s concentration would degrade after continuously performs in front of the audience for nearly 40 minutes. The bad stage lighting could also be the case, or just the combination of the two. And this is what I personally believe.

So what the word it supposed to be?

The complete sentence was “Dumb with astonishment and amazement which bordered on ‘stupefication’, they fled the forest.”. Clearly, the most logical correct word for this sentence would be “stupefaction”, but somehow David missed it.

Strange enough, this very very slight slipped-tongue mistake became a topic of debate among fans. And for sure, making this magnum opus even greater and memorable.

The complete narration

If you’re interested, here is the complete narration extracted from the show (lyrics excluded):

Chapter 1: The Journey
Admiring shapes of lava which imperceptibly passed from reddish brown to bright yellow. Their way lit by crystals appearing as lighted globes. They continued to the lava gallery which gently sloped until they reached the intersection of two roads. Without hesitation Professor Lindenbrook chose the eastern tunnel. And the journey continued through a succession of arches appearing before them as if they were in the aisles of a gothic cathedral. The walls were with impressions of rock weeds and mosses from the Silurian epoch.

The eastern route they had taken had come to a dead end. With three days walked back to the fork to find Arne Saknussemm’s original route they found their water rations were limited to one day. Knowing their only chance of finding water was on that route they set off for the fork and there finally they fell almost lifeless on the third day. After sleep they continued down the other tunnel in their quest for water and while searching on his own, Hans, the guide, heard the sound of water thundering behind a granite wall; and with a pickaxe attacked the wall so as to allow a stream of boiling water to enter and cool in their tunnel. Not only had they found life in the water, but they also had found the flowing guide to the center of the earth. They called the stream: The Hansbach.

Chapter 2: Recollection
Replenished with the water the journey continued with haste, but somehow they find themselves separated. Professor Lindenbrook’s nephew Axel found himself alone. His mind was ceased with unparalleled fear and he saw memories of home flashing before him. His fiancee Grauben, his house and friends in Hamburg. He saw hallucinations of all the incidents of the journey. And unworthy as he felt he knelt in fervent prayer and then in panic he ran blindly through a tunnel only to reach a dead end where he fell panting for breath. In the darkness he cried. Voices, voices, voices, he heard voices! He heard his uncle’s voice. Due to the shape of the gallery and the conducting power of the rocks his uncle’s voice was uncannily traveling around the walls. And by means of their chronometers they discovered they were four miles apart, so Axel set about the task of rejoining the professor and their guide.

Suddenly the ground disappeared from beneath his feet. He fell down in a vertical shaft. His head hit in a sharp rock. He lost consciousness. On opening his eyes he found himself with the professor and their guide. And looking around him he saw an ocean stretching as far as the eye could see. A giant forest of mushrooms, a line of huge cliffs and strange clouds hung overhead as he lay on a deeply indented shore of golden sand strewn with shells. For a moment he thought he was back on the surface of the earth, but he soon realized that they had reached a world within a world.

Chapter 3: The Battle
Having made a raft from wood taken from the giant mushroom forest with rigging consisting of a mast made of two stapes lashed together. A yard made of a third and a sail borrowed from their stock of rugs they set sail from the harbour Port Grauben named after Axel’s fiancee. With a north westerly wind propelling them along at about three miles an hour. Silvery beams of light reflected here and there by drops of spray produced luminous points in the eddy created by the raft. Soon all land was lost of view. But with five days out at sea they witnessed a terrifying battle between two sea monsters. One having the snout of a porpoise, the head of a lizard and the teeth of a crocodile. An Ichthyosaurus. And the other, the mortal enemy of the first. A serpent with a turtle shell. The Plesiosaurus.

Cumulous clouds formed heavily in the south like huge wool packs heaped up in picturesque disorder. Under the influence of the breezes they merge together. Growing darker, forming a single menacing mass. The raft lay motionless on the sluggish waveless sea and in silence they waited for the storm.

Chapter 4: The Forest
For four days the storm had raged as they clung to the mast of their raft for safety. Finally with their raft wrecked up to being bashed against the reefs they lay shelter from the pouring rain beneath a few of the hanging rods where they ate and slept. The next day all trace of the storm had disappeared and what remained of their stock seemed intact. But checking the compass brought only heartbreak because it showed that a change in the wind during the storm had returned them to just a few miles north of Port Grauben. But deciding to try and find the original route they advanced with difficulty over granite fragments of mingled quartz and alluvial deposits eventually reaching a plain covered with bones like a huge cemetery. A mile further on they reached the edge of a huge forest made of the vegetation of the tertiary period. Tall palms were linked by a network of inextricable creepers. A carpet of moss covered the ground and the leaves were colourless. Everything having a brownish hue. Exploring the forest they discovered a herd of gigantic animals, Mastodons, which were being marshaled by a primitive human being, a Proteus. He stood over twelve foot high and he brandished an enormous bow, a crook worthy of this antediluvian shepherd.

Dumb with astonishment and amazement which boarded on stupefication, they fled the forest. Instinctively they made towards the Lindenbrook Sea. Discovering a rusty dagger on the beach with the carved initials of the explorer before them on a slab of granite, they realized that they were once again entering the route of Arne Saknussemm. Following a short sea journey around the cape, they came ashore where a dark tunnel plunged deep into rock. Adventuring down, their progress was halted by a piece of rock blocking their way. After deciding to blow their way through and setting the charge, they put out to sea for safety. With the explosion the rocks before them opened like a curtain and a bottomless pit appeared in the shore. The explosion had caused an earthquake. The abyss opened up and the sea was pouring into it. Down and down they plunged into the huge gallery, but on regaining their senses they found their raft rising at tremendous speed. Trapped in the shaft of an active volcano they rose through the ages of man to be finally expelled out on the mountain side riddled with tiny lava streams. Their journey was completed and they found themselves three thousand miles from their original starting point in Iceland. They had entered by one volcano and they had come out by another. With the blue mountains of Calabria in the east they walked away from the mountain that had returned them. The frightening Mount Etna.