Music Reviews | Colossal Reviews

Song For An Uncertain Lady by Randy Burns (Vinyl record album review)

November 10, 2022 By Natan Gesher Leave a Comment

Record basics

Album name: Song For An Uncertain Lady
Artist name: Randy Burns
Year: 1970
Number of discs: one
Label: ESP-Disk
Collection: Brenner / Gessner
Who owned it: my father
Buy it on Amazon: $29.98

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I almost wrote that I had never heard of Randy Burns or this record, but then did a quick search and discovered that I actually reviewed Randy Burns and the Sky Dog Band just five weeks ago, but didn’t really care for it. I guess it didn’t make a strong impression on me!

What I expected

Country, rock, folk.

What it was actually like

Sorrow’s Children was a pretty simple folk rock song that sounded like a Lou Reed demo tape.

The title track Song For An Uncertain Lady had a folk style and I liked it, and it reminded me a little bit of another band I’ve been listening to from around the same era, called Pentangle.

Maybelline was a bit of a letdown because I thought it might be a Chuck Berry cover, which it wasn’t; it ended up being just a folk style song.

The best songs on the record were Child For Now, which kind of had a folk-blues-soul sound that was distinct and cool, and Deegan Street, which was slow but bluesy, and where the percussion added a lot.

The piano was a bit annoying on Autumn On Your Mind and If You Just Let Tomorrow Be, but on the latter and on Lisa, the flute actually contributed a lot.

The One I Thought Was Here, Waiting For An Old Friend, Randy’s Song and Only Time Will Make You See were all simple guitar-and-vocals folk style songs that were kind of boring.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

The First Songs by Laura Nyro (Vinyl record album review)

November 9, 2022 By Natan Gesher Leave a Comment

Record basics

Album name: The First Songs
Artist name: Laura Nyro
Year: 1969
Number of discs: one
Label: Verve Forecast
Collection: Brenner / Gessner
Who owned it: my mother
Buy it on Amazon: $134.00

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I have no familiarity at all with Laura Nyro.

What I expected

Acoustic singer-songwriter.

What it was actually like

Well, this definitely wasn’t what I had in mind when I anticipated “acoustic singer-songwriter,” though it may technically have been right. Laura Nyro’s voice on this record was remarkable, and I had to look it up to find out, but she was around just 17^[1] when she recorded this in 1966. It’s hard to believe that a teenager could have made these, and it sounds like she might have lived at least twice and maybe three times as long as she actually had.

So what was the style? Most of the songs had a sort of timeless, ageless, jazzy or bluesy lounge act sound, while several of them flipped to the style of a Motown or R&B girl group that’s deeply rooted in its period (early to mid 1960s) and its members’ ages (within a few years of 20).

The first set included Billy’s Blues, I Never Meant to Hurt You, He’s a Runner and Buy and Sell, the last of which was a love song to cocaine – and let’s remember that Nyro was 17 years old when singing it, and might have been even younger when she wrote it. These were my least favorite.

Lazy Susan started out that way, but picked up nicely, and I thought I would like it, but the harmonica was a big distraction. And When I Die, on the other hand, did the same thing, starting out slow and getting faster, and I loved it.

California Shoeshine Boys was much more upbeat, and was one where I thought the harmonica was great, making it my favorite song on the record. Blowin Away, while not as fast, had a similar style, and it felt like Nyro was doing the work of an entire mid 1960s girl group. Wedding Bell Blues also had a great R&B sound.

It was during Stoney End that it occurred to me what I liked so much about this group of songs: it’s not that they sounded innocent at all – nothing about any of this was innocent – but that it didn’t seem to have any of the cynicism that was already seeping into popular music around this time.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

References[+]

References
↑1	If you know what I mean…

Joe Cocker! (Vinyl record album review)

November 8, 2022 By Natan Gesher Leave a Comment

Record basics

Album name: Joe Cocker!
Artist name: Joe Cocker
Year: 1969
Number of discs: one
Label: A&M Records
Collection: Brenner / Gessner
Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned it
Buy it on Amazon: $79.00

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

Here’s what I wrote about Joe Cocker’s performance at Woodstock:

… To me, Joe Cocker’s incredible With A Little Help From My Friends is what stole the show. And here’s a fun fact: since it was the theme song of the television program “Wonder Years” that I watched while growing up, and since my parents were big Beatles fans, I probably heard both versions of it thousands of times before becoming an adult, but I don’t think it was until my 20s that I even realized they were the same song. That is, to me, a remarkable tribute to Cocker’s ability to reinvent what had already been perfectly invented for Ringo, the greatest Beatle, by his bandmates.

Besides that, I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard a Joe Cocker song.

What I expected

Blues rock.

What it was actually like

It probably needs to be said that Joe Cocker’s voice is amazing, though not amazing in the general sense – more that he was born to make records like this one.

There were a few slow songs that I didn’t much like: Hello, Little Friend, the Leonard Cohen song Bird on the Wire, and the Lloyd Price song Lawdy Miss Clawdy.

On the other hand, Hitchcock Railway had a great tempo, with a soul sound and really passionate, frenetic energy.

I thought that Something would have the highest potential to blow me away, but unfortunately it didn’t and was just ok, much like George Harrison’s original on Abbey Road that I thought would have been better as a straightforward rock song. I especially didn’t care for Cocker’s backing vocals on his version.

She Came In Through the Bathroom Window, also an Abbey Road song, absolutely rocked, and it was as if Faul wrote the song just for Cocker. I especially thought that the piano backing was perfect.

That’s Your Business Now had a very strong Oompa Loompa sound, but it didn’t annoy me.

Dear Landlord, a Bob Dylan song from John Wesley Harding wasn’t terrible; I didn’t really care for either version, but I did love Cocker’s guitar solo.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Sweet Baby James by James Taylor (Vinyl record album review)

November 7, 2022 By Natan Gesher 1 Comment

Record basics

Album name: Sweet Baby James
Artist name: James Taylor
Year: 1970
Number of discs: one
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Collection: Brenner / Gessner
Distinguishing characteristics: “Annie” written on James Taylor’s head on the album cover and “Brenner” written on the LP, indicating that my mother’s sister owned it
Buy it on Amazon: $39.99

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve heard of James Taylor, and I know the song Fire and Rain, but that’s about it.

What I expected

Folk rock.

What it was actually like

This was ok, but not that good, and extremely 1970s folk rock singer-songwriter. In fact, Sunny Skies might be the most representative song of that category that could possibly exist, though it would not be a stretch to say that for much of the record.

Steamroller was actually a blues song that didn’t fit in at all with the rest of the record, and had the most hilariously goofy lyrics, such as:

Yeah I’m a napalm bomb, baby
Just guaranteed to blow your mind

I didn’t recognize Oh! Susanna by name, but as soon as it started playing, I recognized it as that song (just think “banjo on my knee”), but I didn’t care at all for Taylor’s version of it.

I never thought Fire and Rain was bad, but never really liked it, either, and having listened to it intentionally now for the first time, can say that it definitely fit in well with the rest of the record, though I don’t understand at all how it became a hit.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens (Vinyl record album review)

November 6, 2022 By Natan Gesher Leave a Comment

Record basics

Album name: Tea for the Tillerman
Artist name: Cat Stevens
Year: 1970
Number of discs: one
Label: A&M Records
Collection: Brenner / Gessner
Who owned it: my parents each owned a copy of this record (actually, they said that “everyone owned it”), and “Brenner” is written on the top right of my mother’s copy
Buy it on Amazon: $28.50

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record, but understand it to be Cat Stevens’ / Yusuf Islam’s breakout record that made him famous and rich; my parents say it was very popular.

When I listened to Teaser and the Firecat a couple of weeks ago, I recognized more of it, and enjoyed it more of it, than I expected, so I’m somewhat prepared for the same in this case.

The only song I know by name is Wild World.

What I expected

Folk rock.

What it was actually like

This record was in a pretty consistent folk and folk rock style, and I was surprised at how little of it I recognized or enjoyed. It was actually a lot more like what I expected Teaser and the Firecat would have been like before I listened to it, or what I would have expected this to be like if I hadn’t listened to that one.

Most of the songs were rather on the boring side, with not a lot to say for them or about them.

I hadn’t heard Wild World in I-don’t-know-how-many years and thought that it was the classic case of a catchy chorus that really needed the rest of its song to pull it together, and if the verses had just been written better, it might have been world class.

Probably my favorite song was On the Road to Find Out, which was still folk but a bit more rhythmic than the others.

The most interesting and usual was Longer Boats, which had a sort of Caribbean sound.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me