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Roy Buchanan (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Roy Buchanan
  • Artist name: Roy Buchanan
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Polydor
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $29.99

Roy Buchanan (1972)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard of Roy Buchanan or this record.

What I expected

Rock, with guitar.

What it was actually like

This was really good, and Roy Buchanan was an outstanding guitarist.

Most of the record had an electric blues sound, with some country and some rock, and with very extensive, expressive guitar solos in which he made the guitar sing. Not a lot of people have made records like this one, but I think that I would put Roy Buchanan against Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton in skill, particularly the ability to draw those clear and emotional notes from their guitars.

I particularly thought of comparing Buchanan to Hendrix during Haunted House, a slow electric blues guitar instrumental, and I Am a Lonesome Fugitive was itself a pretty straightforward country song, but with phenomenal rhythm guitar that stole the show. Sweet Dreams was similar, with a sort of psychedelic guitar instrumental in a country style, with great backing percussion, and made me think that it was what it sounds like when you don’t need a vocalist because you can make the guitar sing for you.

My favorite song on the record was John’s Blues, which was far more lively than the rest – almost Chuck Berry style – and again, I loved the guitar solo.

Hey, Good Lookin’, the Hank Williams song, was just fine, and The Messiah Will Come Again had these creepy spoken word parts that were unimpressive.

Grade

5/5: love it

Something / Anything? by Todd Rundgren (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Something / Anything?
  • Artist name: Todd Rundgren
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Bearsville Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my mother
  • Buy it on Amazon: $65.84

Something / Anything? by Todd Rundgren

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I have heard of Todd Rundgren, but don’t know anything about him.

What I expected

Folk rock.

What it was actually like

This was a really bad record, and I strongly disliked it. As a double record, it was also way too long, and I couldn’t make it through the whole thing.

A lot of it was what I would call easy listening, such as It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference, Cold Morning Light, Sweeter Memories and Torch Song.

Various parts were R&B, such as I Saw the Light, which was not bad at all and had pretty good rock guitar.

Other parts were more progressive rock, such as Breathless, which had some techno.

The Night the Carousel Burned Down was very slightly Oompa Loompa, and sort of in the genre of Faul’s granny shit, except nowhere near as good.

To describe Song of the Viking, just imagine if Monty Python had decided to write and record a song with that title, and that’s what Rundgren’s song would be like (musically, it sounded like Kaveret, though).

Couldn’t I Just Tell You was a 1970s stadium rock song, but very poppy.

Little Red Lights was crappy proto-metal, atonal noise and extremely unpleasant.

Side 4 started with a cover of Money (That’s What I Want) that sounded like a studio demo, not a serious recording, and I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t just record it for real to include on the record.

Grade

1/5: horrible enough that I couldn’t make it through

Home Free by Dan Fogelberg (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Home Free
  • Artist name: Dan Fogelberg
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my mother
  • Buy it on Amazon: $7.64

Home Free by Dan Fogelberg

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard of Dan Fogelberg or this record.

What I expected

Folk rock.

What it was actually like

I did not like this record at all. It was mostly folk style and folk rock style, with some country rock style, and much of it sounded like impressions of Neil Young.

The most Neil Young-sounding songs were More Than Ever, which had a country style guitar that I liked; Stars, which was terrible; The River, which started out as one of the worst songs on the record, but got more of a rock style as it went on and became far better; Long Way Home (Live in the Country), which had a country style fiddle, but was more of a country rock song, and could have been a pretty great country song instead; and Anyway I Love You, which was more of a country song, especially with its country style guitar and Neil Young style vocals, and was the best song on the record.

The other songs tended to be very slow, soft and boring – mostly piano and vocals, or acoustic guitar and vocals. To the Morning had an orchestral backing that I strongly disliked; Be on Your Way had a flute-like instrument and falsetto vocals; and Wysteria had a really boring violin[1].

Grade

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

References

References
↑1 Also, in case you’ve forgotten, wisteria is the flower, while listeria is the disease.

Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin’ In by Loggins and Messina (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin’ In
  • Group name: Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written inside album sleeve, indicating that my father owned it
  • Buy it on Amazon: $27.99

Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin' In

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m not familiar with this record, but I’ve previously reviewed two by Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina:

What I expected

Folk rock, country rock.

What it was actually like

Several songs on this record were also on On Stage, such as the famous Danny’s Song. The version on Sittin’ In was the version that I remembered, folk style with two guitars and vocals, and later with piano and violin.

Vahevala was nowhere near as dumb on this record as it was before; it helped that it was far shorter. The steel drums were way too much, though, and not even good.

Listen to a Country Song was one that I liked a lot from On Stage, and it was great here as well, especially its fiddle solo.

Of Trilogy‘s three parts, the first (Lovin’ Me) and third (Peace of Mind) were pretty boring filler material, with the latter including a pretty lame attempt at soul. I liked the second (To Make a Woman Feel Wanted) better, though. It was blues and country with honky tonk piano, but unfortunately they still couldn’t lose the damn saxophone.

Speaking of unnecessary saxophone, Back to Georgia started out as a country rock song with piano that was not good, but then started to get much better – until the saxophone made its appearance, and in this case it was actually worse, because the track had two different saxophones and my living room has surround sound, so they were coming at me from both directions!

And Nobody But You, a rock song with harmonized country-sounding vocals, some piano and a good tempo, was also diminished by the saxophone.

What was it with these guys and the saxophone? When reviewing their (later) record Loggins and Messina, I wrote:

I want to stress that rock musicians really need to avoid using saxophone in their music. If you’re Charlie Parker, I want to hear your saxophone part, but in rock I just don’t think there’s a lot of use for it.

And I wish someone had given them that message 50 years ago.

Anyway, Rock ‘n’ Roll Mood was not very rock ‘n’ roll to me. House at Pooh Corner was an acoustic folk-style song about Winnie the Pooh. Same Old Wine was very slow, blues style but rather boring, though the harmonica was fine – and at eight minutes and 17 seconds, twice as long as it needed to be.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

1+1 by Grin, featuring Nils Lofgren (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: 1+1
  • Group name: Grin
  • Artist name: Nils Lofgren
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: CBS Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: it’s unclear which of my parents owned this one
  • Buy it on Amazon: $7.99

1+1 by Grin, featuring Nils Lofgren

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve heard of Nils Lofgren, but don’t know anything about him. I am not familiar with “Grin,” which appears to have been his band.

What I expected

Maybe folk rock.

What it was actually like

Normal records have side 1 and side 2, or A side and B side, but 1+1 by Grin, featuring Nils Lofgren, had “Rockin’ Side” and “Dreamy Side.”

I opted for “Rockin’ Side” first, and it was definitely rock. There were even guitar parts that reminded me of Pete Townshend, like on Please Don’t Hide, and if I squinted, I could almost imagine it as a Who song – with the exception of the vocals. Nils Lofgren is no Roger Daltry.

White Lies was also a pretty good rock song, with sort of bluesy style vocals and a more choral style chorus.

Other parts of “Rockin’ Side” sounded almost proto-metal, like Slippery Fingers, that was very repetitively rhythmic, but with a great guitar solo. Unfortunately, the chorus was awful:

Slippery fingers
Slippery fingers
Slippery fingers
Slippery fingers
Slippery fingers
Slippin’ all over you

End Unkind seemed to start out metal, but then it got more country, which was pretty unexpected and interesting. I also liked its guitar solo, and its fast tempo, and complexity.

“Dreamy Side” was mostly not quite as dreamy as the name would have suggested.

I guess there was a little bit of dreaminess on Just a Poem because of its instrumentation, but I thought that the piano and violin really didn’t work together, and that it was the most boring song.

Soft Fun also had a slightly dreamy quality. It started with a baby singing, then progressed to harpsichord. Its piano sounded like an Elton John song, which is not a positive for me, and the violin and flute detracted a lot. It also ended with a sappy violin part that sounded like a 1950s Hollywood movie soundtrack.

Sometimes was more of a folk rock song, with drums. Lost a Number was not folky, and sounded more to me like rock from about ten years earlier, plus banjo and harmonica. Hi, Hello Home also a little banjo and some country sound, and was too fast to be dreamy.

Grade

4/5: would listen again