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52nd Street by Billy Joel (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: 52nd Street
  • Artist name: Billy Joel
  • Year: 1978
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Scratched into side one of LP: AL 35609 – 1D
    • Scratched into side two of LP: BL 35609 – 1A
  • Buy it on Amazon: $59.99

52nd Street by Billy Joel

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard this record before, though I would not be surprised to recognize some of its songs.

I previously reviewed Billy Joel’s extremely unusual 1983 record An Innocent Man, and thought it was pretty good.

What I expected

In photographs on the front of the album, back of the album and liner, Joel is holding a trumpet, so based on that and some other credited musicians (saxophone), I’ll guess soft rock and jazz.

What it was actually like

This was pretty bad. It was not as jazzy as I expected, though there was a significant jazz sound, especially on the second side. The trumpet solo on Zanzibar would have been great on an actual jazz record, and the saxophone in Stiletto was terrible.

I did recognize Big Shot, from its horrible chorus, and also My Life, a weird techno-piano hybrid.

Other dislikes included Rosalinda’s Eyes, the worst song on the record – really more elevator music than a song, and with some flute that made it even more awful, as well as Half a Mile Away, which sounded at the beginning like it would be a disco song, but mercifully was not.

Grade

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

Fame: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Fame: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture
  • Artist name: Various, including Michael Gore, Irene Cara, Paul McCrane, Linda Clifford, Laura Dean
  • Year: 1980
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: RSO Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Scratched into side one of LP: RX-1-3080-AS-PW3
    • Scratched into side two of LP: RX-13080-BS-PW2
  • Buy it on Amazon: $4.89

Fame: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I have heard of the movie Fame, but I’ve never seen it, and do not think that I have heard any of the songs from its soundtrack.

What I expected

Maybe show tunes?

What it was actually like

I did actually recognize the chorus to the title track Fame (“I’m gonna live forever…”), a very straightforward and simple techno song.

That was the only song that I would describe just as techno, but the two disco songs, Hot Lunch Jam and Red Light, also had a techno sound to them. I guess by the very late 1970s and early 1980s, techno and disco might not have been all that distinct from each other.

Several others sounded like show tunes to me: Out Here on My Own, which was piano focused and jazzy; Never Alone, which had a gospel style choir; and I Sing the Body Electric.

Is It Okay If I Call You Mine? was in a folk style, and incredibly boring. Ralph and Monty (Dressing Room Piano) was a piano instrumental, but very short.

Dogs in the Yard was easy listening, the most bland thing that could possibly be called a song.

Someone should make a parody of this movie, call it Shame, and just not change any of the music.

Grade

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

The Golden Age of Comedy, narrated by George Burns (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Golden Age of Comedy: 50 Years of Great Humor… From Vaudeville to Video
  • Narrator: George Burns
  • Artist names: Various, including Eddie Cantor, Bert Gordon, W.C. Fields, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Tallulah Bankhead, Fred Allen, Ed Wynn, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Fanny Brice, Hanley Stafford, Red Skelton, Allan Sherman, Milton Berle, Dick Gregory
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: five
  • Label: Longines Symphonette Society
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $26.97

The Golden Age of Comedy: 50 Years of Great Humor... From Vaudeville to Video

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard of this compilation, and doubt that I’ve heard any of the comedy routines (or sketches?) on it, but I have heard of many of the comedians, though only in the context of comedians who might have been popular among my grandparents’ generation.

What I expected

I guess mid-century comedy, maybe with some puns?

What it was actually like

I actually recognized one of these bits! It was the novelty song Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp) on side 2, by Allan Sherman. I was not really a “camp” person, but this song was definitely something that I knew from my childhood, and even knew to associate it with the Velveeta commercial that was set to the same melody.

Another thing that I did not quite recognize, but had at least heard of, was “The Bickersons,” because my parents used to refer to that bit when my brother and I would argue.

This compilation had a whole lot of accent humor, because apparently other nationalities and ethnicities were considered hilarious – especially the French, blacks, Jews, Italians, southerners, Brooklynites, Germans, and immigrants of all origins.

There were lot of slapstick moments, sound effects, goofy voices, and canned laughter. A whole series of bits had to do with husbands and wives fighting.

The bit on side 6 where they spliced some fake reporter questions into an Eisenhower press conference, to get him to say the opposite of what he actually meant, directly anticipated The Altered Nixon Speech, and part of it was even about Nixon.

Overall, this compilation, at ten sides (five LPs) was extremely long, and I can hardly believe that I (sort of) listened to all of it. Nothing about it was funny.

Grade

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

Full Moon (1972) (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Full Moon
  • Group name: Full Moon
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Douglas Recording Corporation
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Track list sticker on back
    • Scratched into side 1 of LP: PAL 31904 1-A
    • Scratched into side 2 of LP: PBL 31904 1-A
  • Buy it on Amazon: $30.00

Full Moon (1972)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard of “Full Moon” the band, or Full Moon the record, and in fact I’m not entirely confident that I even figured out correctly that this is a self-titled record by a band called Full Moon, because there’s not very much to give it away.

What I expected

Never judge an album by its cover, but I’m going to guess funk, rock and jazz, largely based on the appearance of the band and on the instruments that they play, which are listed on the back.

What it was actually like

A few of these songs were kind of mood music, in the sense that I would expect to hear them in some place, such as a party, where the purpose of the music is less to get people listening to it specifically, and more to fill a place with a certain vibe. To Know was a good example of that: it was pretty boring, with soul-inspired vocals.

Another example was Selfish People, which started out as an instrumental track and then eventually got vocals. It was rhythmic and sounded experimental, and I liked the guitars, so maybe it was more on the interesting side.

Midnight Pass was another instrumental, this time with a bit of a Caribbean sound, but also pretty jazzy. I thought its saxophone was terrible.

Malibu sounded like the opening scenes of a 1970s movie that would be showing some footage of a place with a lot of sun, like Malibu perhaps, and the characters and conflict had not yet been introduced. This one was fully instrumental and also had a pretty good electric guitar solo.

I did not mind the horns in The Heavy Scuffle’s On, and thought the guitars were great.

Take This Winter Out Of My Mind had a more soul style, especially in the vocals.

Need Your Love started with some pretty bad saxophone, then took a while to get a real song going, but ended up sounding like crappy jazz rock.

Grade

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

Tug of War by Paul McCartney (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Tug of War
  • Artist name: Paul McCartney
  • Year: 1982
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Scratched into side 1 of LP: PUSHING + PULLING SG AL 37462-1BA G G10
    • Scratched into side 2 of LP: PUSHING + PULLING SG BL 37462-1AE G
  • Buy it on Amazon: $37.99

Tug of War by Paul McCartney

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard this record, but I’ve reviewed a bunch of post-Beatles Faul McCartney records, and have not been impressed.

What I expected

Faul’s granny shit, perhaps updated to a 1980s new wave sound.

What it was actually like

There were not any good songs on this record, but the most interesting was The Pound Is Sinking. It was a tiny bit Oompa Loompa, and also a tiny bit rocksteady. I was not sure how to classify it, but I think I would listen to it again.

Another slightly Oompa Loompa song was Ballroom Dancing, which had a good tempo, but I hated the horns – and was that a clarinet? Get It was the most Oompa Loompa song, and the one that fit most acoustically into what Lennon would have described as Faul’s Granny shit.

And on the subject of Lennon, Here Today was a sad song about his death. It was not good musically – I especially did not like the violins – but it was the closest to what I would have expected McCartney to have written towards the end of the Beatles era.

What’s That You’re Doing? and Ebony and Ivory, both of which McCartney recorded with Stevie Wonder, were the two worst songs on the record. The former had a kind of techno-funk sound that anticipated hip hop (though hip hop already had existed by the early 1980s for a while), and the latter was incredibly stupid and would have been better as just elevator music with no lyrics. I was not sure if I had ever heard it before or if I’d just heard of it, but it was so forgettable that if I were to hear it again in an hour, I probably wouldn’t recognize it.

Some of these songs, by the way, sounded like they had autotuned vocals, even though I did not think that was a thing until the late 1990s, and Wanderlust was an example.

The title track Tug of War was completely devoid of anything interesting, but also not particularly bad, either, had a very produced sound, and went from acoustic folk rock to a much harder rock sound in the middle. I guess it sounded kind of McCartneyesque.

Be What You See also changed sounds in the middle, opening like an Enya song, then turning into some kind of rock-disco crap.

Take It Away was much more new wave and terribly reggae-influenced. Somebody Who Cares was soft rock, with flute.

Grade

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