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City of Gold by Pearls Before Swine (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: City of Gold
  • Group name: Pearls Before Swine
  • Artist name: Thos. Rapp
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Reprise Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • “DMG” written in the top right corner of the back of the album, indicating that my father owned it
    • PROMOTION and NOT FOR SALE printed on both sides of the LP
  • Buy it on Amazon: $15.00

City of Gold by Pearls Before Swine

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record before, but it will be the fifth by Pearls Before Swine that I review. The previous four were:

What I expected

More psychedelic folk.

What it was actually like

This was my favorite of my father’s five Pearls Before Swine records (which probably comprise the most complete Pearls Before Swine collection on vinyl anywhere in the world[1]), but also the most different from the others, despite being unmistakably Rapp – because of his voice, but also his vocal style and his compositions.

The main difference between this record and the previous four were that this one was much heavier on country, though mostly on the first side.

Thos. Rapp doing country was a bit like Bob Dylan doing country (though both were similar and dissimilar to Gram Parsons doing country), and as soon as Sonnet #65 started rolling, I thought that it was the most country thing that I had ever heard from Pearls Before Swine. Unfortunately, it lasted just about 40 seconds, which was way too short, but here are the lyrics, which are the first four lines of one of Shakespeare’s sonnets[2].

The title track City of Gold had some fantastic country style fiddle that was complemented very nicely by Rapp’s normal vocals, but on Once upon a Time he ventured into more of a country vocal style that was even a bit yodely at times. There was also a lot happening musically on that song, which was the record’s best, including a lot of harmonica and horns, that vibrating piece of metal from The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie, some touch of doo wop, trumpet and drums. It was complex in the best way.

There were also a bunch of songs that would have been right at home on the earlier Pearls Before Swine records: Wedding, which was also too short; Did You Dream Of; and Casablanca, which added some flute.

Raindrops was also a more typical psychedlic folk style song, with violin (or viola), but not country style, in a duet between Rapp and his wife Elisabeth.

The Man, while definitely not a soul song, did kind of sound like it was exploring a soul style with piano and flute, and every time he repeated the lyric “I want to see his face,” I kept thinking that it was going to turn into the Monkees song I’m a Believer. That was weird.

My least favorite song on the record was My Father, a Judy Collins cover, which was mostly Elisabeth’s vocals with horns. Another that I didn’t love as much as the rest was the cover of Nancy, a Leonard Cohen song. It was slower, less country and more boring, with extensive autoharp (I think).

His cover of the Jacques Brel song Seasons in the Sun, however, was great. It had lots of piano and lots of flute, and every time he sang, “We had joy, we had fun,” I kept laughing beause he sounded like he was grimacing, which was kind of how he always sounded. In any case, it was undeniably a great version of a great song, and was more rhythmic and structured by far than other Pearls Before Swine songs. And of course, the best/worst cover of that song is Nirvana’s.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

References

References
↑1 Seriously though, has anyone else even heard of this group?
↑2 And if you’re into mid-XX century American country-folk musical adaptations of poetry, I can not recommend the Fugs (whom I previously mentioned when reviewing Fairytale by Donovan) highly enough. Their preference was for the Romantics, especially William Blake – here is their Ah! Sun-flower and their Song: How sweet I roam’d from field to field – but they also did others: here are their interpretations of Algernon Charles Swinburne and of Charles Olson.

Stephen Stills (1970) (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Stephen Stills
  • Artist name: Stephen Stills
  • Year: 1970
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Atlantic Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: My parents each had a copy of this record. My father’s copy had a “G” written on the upper left corner of the album, and my mother’s copy had “Brenner” written on the back of the album and on the LP.
  • Buy it on Amazon: $12.00

Stephen Stills (1970)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t have any particular memory of listening to this record, though I might have heard it at some point. I do recognize one song by name, Love the One You’re With, and I’ve reviewed a wide variety of Stephen Stills’ work:

What I expected

This is Stephen Stills’ first solo record. I’ve already listened to his second, and thought that it was not good.

What it was actually like

This was nowhere near as bad as Stills’ second solo record, so that was a relief.

Love the One You’re With is a truly great pop song – fun and catchy, rich and complex, memorable, rhythmic and melodic, and I even didn’t mind the soul style backing vocals. The steel drums were maybe the only part of it that I would have cut.

For whatever reason that I was unable to determine, he then took those soul style backing vocals and made an entire song around them, Church (Part of Someone), which was terrible (and also too slow). Sit Yourself Down was similar, but not as bad.

To a Flame was easy listening, and also quite bad. I had a difficult time picking the worst song between that one and Cherokee, which was a weird grab bag of lots of different sounds, with an atrocious horns part, but decided that the latter was the worst because of its abysmal and nauseating saxophone solo.

The most pleasant surprise on the record was two songs at the end of the first side, Old Times Good Times, a great rock song with pretty strong wailing guitar, and Go Back Home, an excellent blues rock song. I was really impressed with Stills when I heard how great those two songs were, and then I checked the back of the album to read the credits… and who was it that played the guitar on those songs? Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. So, yeah.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

I’m A Lover, Not A Fool by Randy Burns (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: I’m A Lover, Not A Fool
  • Artist name: Randy Burns
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Polydor
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $29.76

I'm A Lover, Not A Fool by Randy Burns

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record before, but it will be the fifth by Randy Burns that I’ve reviewed. The previous four were:

What I expected

Since this record is from 1972, I assume it will be most like his 1971 record Randy Burns and the Sky Dog Band, which was country rock and folk rock.

What it was actually like

This was an interesting mix of rock, folk rock and country rock, and many of the songs were more complex than on his previous records, with a lot more going on musically.

The songs that I liked the least – Seasons, Lisa and Christmas Lights – made heavy use of piano and orchestral backing music, with whiny vocals.

I tended to enjoy his country style songs more, however, such as the title track I’m A Lover, Not A Fool, which had country vocals and steel guitar, and Rocky Road.

I also liked Lady Rain Again, a folk rock song with a country rock chorus, and thought that the best song on the record was probably Country Rain, a kind of Oompa Loompa rock song with a country fiddle chorus and soul backing vocals. Sing Out was kind of similar, a folk rock with soul backing vocals in its chorus.

One very pleasant surprise was She’s No Good, a great cover of Bob Dylan’s You’re No Good (which was not actually a Bob Dylan song), but with a totally different musical interpretation.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Bustin’ Out by Pure Prairie League (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Bustin’ Out
  • Group name: Pure Prairie League
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: RCA Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: My mother said that she owned this, but when I replied that it looked like the kind of thing my father would have owned, they both said that either of them might have owned it.
  • Buy it on Amazon: $24.99

Bustin' Out by Pure Prairie League

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I have no familiarity at all with Pure Prairie League, but the album cover reminds me of Happy Trails by Quicksilver Messenger Service. My parents said that Falling In and Out of Love and Amie were popular and that I might recognize them.

What I expected

My mother said that this would not fit any genre description, and my father described it as “light rock.” My guess would have been country rock.

What it was actually like

I don’t know about light rock, but there were parts of this record that I would have classified as soft rock, or folk rock: Angel and Call Me, Tell Me.

The predominant sound, however, was country rock, which was clear from the opening bars of Jazzman, with its steel guitar and country style vocals. Boulder Skies and Angel #9 were like that too, and I liked the latter’s guitar solo. Early Morning Riser was also a country rock with a strong guitar solo, and its up tempo drumming was great.

I definitely did recognize Amie, though I guess I had previously assumed that it was an Allman Brothers song. Ooops! It sounded like it fit together pretty neatly with Leave My Heart Alone, which preceded it, and it was a high point of the record, especially its memorable chorus (here is a cover, and here is another cover).

Leave My Heart Alone was the weirdest song on the record, someone packing a little bit of about ten musical styles into less than four and a half minutes – it was a hard rock song with folk rock vocals, soul backing vocals, funk guitar, a blues guitar riff, and more!

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Elton John (1970) (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Elton John
  • Artist name: Elton John
  • Year: 1970
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Uni Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $23.99

Elton John (1970)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m not familiar with this Elton John record, but it will be the seventh of his records that I review. The previous six were:

And also:

What I expected

I mostly have not enjoyed Elton John’s music, but this was recorded pretty early in his career, so maybe it will be better than the rest.

What it was actually like

A lot of these songs were pretty typical of Elton John’s style, which I do not find enjoyable, such as Your Song and Border Song.

Besides those, several had an annoying orchestral backing sound that I found pretty boring, such as The King Must Die, First Episode at Hienton and The Greatest Discovery.

I Need You to Turn To had the most interesting sound on the record, because for that song, John ditched his normal piano and played a harpsichord instead (but not in a baroque style).

The song that I enjoyed the most was Take Me to the Pilot, which had a soul sound, and the R&B parts of The Cage were also good, but the parts that sounded like the Moody Blues were not.

Parts of Sixty Years On weirdly reminded me of a Led Zeppelin song, and No Shoe Strings on Louise was blues rock, but not well done.

Grade

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