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Bette Midler (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Bette Midler
  • Artist name: Bette Midler
  • Year: 1973
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Atlantic Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my mother
  • Buy it on Amazon: $4.77

Bette Midler (Vinyl record album review)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t really know much about Bette Midler, except that my father thinks she’s not good, while my mother professes to be a big fan.

What I expected

Maybe show tunes? I’m not really sure, but I Shall Be Released is on this record (I’ve previously reviewed cover versions of that song by Joan Baez and Pearls Before Swine).

What it was actually like

Midler’s version of I Shall Be Released started out pretty lame, but I definitely think it got better as it progressed.

Higher & Higher (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me), her version of the R&B song (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher, had more of a gospel or soul sound, which was an interesting choice.

In the Mood was another cover, that I recognized as a swing song that gets used in movies set in the 1940s, and Midler’s version of it was totally acceptable, but it’s not a song to which I’d ever listen normally.

Breaking Up Somebody’s Home was a pretty good funk song.

I also loved her version of “Da Doo Run Run,” but that may be largely because the original (spelled Da Doo Ron Ron) is absolutely a high point of American musical culture. It certainly crushed the Rolling Stones’ shamefully bad version.

Optimistic Voices and Lullaby of Broadway, two songs from The Wizard of Oz, were a low point on the record.

Overall, this sort of reminded me of the famously and unbearably funny “We’re Sausalito” scene in Lost In Translation, though on further thought, I now have to wonder if that scene actually was a joke about Bette Midler.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Don’t Cry Now by Linda Ronstadt (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Don’t Cry Now
  • Artist name: Linda Ronstadt
  • Year: 1973
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Asylum Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics: hole punched through top right of album
  • Buy it on Amazon: $77.34

Don't Cry Now by Linda Ronstadt

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to Don’t Cry Now, but this will be the sixth Linda Ronstadt record that I’ve reviewed since June. The other five were:

What I expected

Don’t Cry Now was recorded earlier than any of these, so I guess I expect it to be country rock.

What it was actually like

Most of this record was pretty boring and pretty slow.

More country style tracks included I Can Almost See It, Love Has No Pride and Everybody Loves a Winner. Less country tracks included Colorado and the Eagles cover Desperado.

Ronstadt’s cover of Randy Newman’s Sail Away had more of a gospel sound that I didn’t think worked very well, and her cover of Neil Young’s I Believe in You was a fine version, but not better than the original.

The Fast One, Don’t Cry Now and Silver Threads and Golden Needles were all a little livelier than the rest, and the latter especially was somewhat catchy with a faster tempo, but still very country and with a fiddle solo; I guess it was the best song on this otherwise pretty bad record.

Grade

2/5: weak, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
  • Artist name: Elton John
  • Year: 1973
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: MCA Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Something crossed out in black magic marker at the top center of the front of the album
    • “1.99” sticker at the top right of the front of the album
  • Buy it on Amazon: $30.99

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record before, but I recognize a few of the songs on it by name, and guess this is supposed to be a big and important record in Elton John’s career.

Previous Elton John records that I’ve reviewed:

What I expected

I want to believe that, because I’ve heard some of these songs, I’ll enjoy hearing them again, but if I’m being realistic, just the thought of Candle in the Wind makes me dread this.

What it was actually like

Weirdly, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road opened like a Moody Blues record and I thought I might have put the wrong thing on, but no, this was definitely Elton John, and I didn’t like it, but parts of it were definitely all right.

Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll), for example, was probably the closest to being a good song. I thought it just needed a little work to be at Sha Na Na level. Social disease was also all right.

Overall, I was impressed at the level of rock-style electric guitar throughout the record, such as on Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting – one doesn’t usually think of Elton John songs as being particularly guitar-heavy – but distressed at the amount of piano. I really think Elton John could have created much better music by focusing on a rock style and minimizing non-rock instrumentation.

Probably the strangest song was Jamaica Jerk-Off, which was very reggae, almost to an embarrassing degree (and I actually love reggae). I wish he had done it more like how Led Zeppelin did D’yer Mak’er.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Dave Mason Is Alive by Dave Mason (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Dave Mason Is Alive
  • Artist name: Dave Mason
  • Year: 1973
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Blue Thumb Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Buy it on Amazon: $29.95

Dave Mason Is Alive by Dave Mason

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t know who Dave Mason is I’ve never listened to this record.

What I expected

A live rock record, maybe soft rock?

What it was actually like

It wasn’t exactly soft rock, but it wasn’t exactly Led Zeppelin, and nobody will mistake Dave Mason for John Lennon when it comes to songwriting, but from listening to this record, I can say that he’s an excellent guitarist. For example, the guitar solo on Look at You Look at Me was pretty good. None of the songs was particularly memorable, however.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. by Bruce Springsteen (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.
  • Artist name: Bruce Springsteen
  • Year: 1973
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “DEMONSTRATION / Not For Sale” stamped in gold on reverse
  • Buy it:

Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. by Bruce Springsteen

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I think everyone is familiar with Bruce Springsteen. Most people are fans of his work, but I am not. Consequently, I’ve never (intentionally) listened to this record.

What I expected

To paraphrase my grandmother, I don’t like Bruce Springsteen now and I haven’t liked him for years! Why is that? To start, I don’t think he’s a great singer or songwriter. His music is pretty basic and boring, which isn’t necessarily bad – I’m a huge fan of the Ramones, and their music is not complex at all – but Springsteen has always seemed to me like a talentless Bob Dylan. I also don’t appreciate his gratuitous use of saxophone and harmonica.

What it was actually like

One of my least favorite Springsteen songs is Blinded By The Light, but the version of it that I heard on this record is not the same as the radio version that I’ve heard a zillion times in my life, and I thought this version was way better. So that was a great start!

Unfortunately, any goodwill accrued in the first couple of tracks was squandered by Mary Queen Of Arkansas, which I absolutely would have skipped after the first verse if it were easy to do so on a turntable. The Angel was equally bad; Spirit In The Night was ok.

There were multiple points while listening to this record that I hoped and wished it would end sooner.

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing