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Curved Air


"Air Conditioning" is the debut studio album by the English progressive rock band Curved Air. Released in November 1970, the album reached number 8 on the UK Albums Chart in December 1970. The original picture disc used for the album cover displayed the title as "Airconditioning", while later green label issues featured the title as "Air Conditioning". Though Sonja Kristina is credited as the sole lyricist for "It Happened Today," Francis Monkman, in a series of interviews conducted from late 1998 through March 1999, claimed to have conceived the song's title and basic lyrical concept. Kristina agreed that Monkman came up with the title but noted that the lyric "isn't really about anything specific." In contrast, although "Propositions" is credited solely to Monkman, he denies having written the lyrics and suggests they were written by Kristina. Monkman described the inspiration for the music of the song: "I was a great fan of Terry Riley (having played in the 1st London performance of 'In C' in 1968) and was very impressed by A Rainbow in Curved Air. Then I had a kind of 'musical vision' of a high-energy rock sound going into a Terry-like tape-loop improvisation. That became 'Propositions'..." Both the music and lyrics for "Situations" were written jointly by Darryl Way and Rob Martin. Martin recalled that their collaboration on the song was so tight that melodies were often produced alternately by each composer. The lyric of "Hide and Seek" describes a post-apocalyptic scenario in which a lone survivor searches in vain for another living person. Sonja Kristina stated that this lyric can be interpreted both literally and symbolically, commenting, "It's a nightmare, the sort of thing when you dream about being left in an empty city." Kristina's vocal performance on "Blind Man" was inspired by Donovan's performance on "Hurdy Gurdy Man."