"Back Home Again" by John Denver (1974)

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Filed between: Deep Purple and Derek & The Dominos

Key Tracks:
Thank God I'm a Country Boy, Cool an' Green an' Shady (there's a clarinet!), Eclipse - seriously, find four minutes of quiet time and listen to Eclipse.

Obvious Filler & Swings-and-Misses:
It's up to You is a fair song, but it sticks out like a sore thumb in the context of everything else.  Sweet Surrender is a an empty, tedious song that plays and then repeats itself in toto.

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately:
Above Average (2.5/4 stars)

"Sometimes it takes forever for the day to end; sometimes it takes a lifetime."

John Denver gets a bad rap.  Along with Dee Snider and Frank Zappa, he is responsible for keeping government oversight out of a musician's artistic license.  But people never talk about that.  People always talk about the over-emotive quality of his songs.  Granted, he did some cheesy, hokey garbage, but he also made some really good music as well.

I'll demonstrate.  Let's compare and contrast two of the better known songs on "Back Home Again" - Annie's Song and Thank God I'm a Country Boy.

Annie's Song is a dilletante folkie's wet dream - simplistic and spare lyrics, a slight wavering tremelo in the voice, thick orchestration, the list goes on and on - none of it good.  I remember hearing snippets of this song when I was a kid and commercials would roll for an LP of John Denver's greatest hits.  "It has all the classics you love... Take Me Home (Country Roads), Rocky Mountain High and, of course, Annie's Song."  Even as a kid I knew I didn't like that song; hearing it made me want to punch that dude with the glasses and the pageboy haircut in the face.

And then I grew up.  More or less.  But I still don't care for that song.

On the other hand, Thank God I'm a Country Boy became a song I really like, but it took a very long time.  My introduction to it was sixth grade music class.  That song was never intended to be performed by a roomful of tone-deaf, indentured servants accompanied by a waaaaay too showtunesish piano.  I will allow that the original has an overwhelming "aw shucks" attitude to it, but when you look at a lot of other homespun favorites, you realize that's part of the schtick.  TGIACB should be americana canon, not something you're forced to sing in middle school chorus.

I know, I know.  John Denver didn't write TGIACB.  However, he did write Eclipse, which contains the quote at the top of this entry.  I think that's a really good line.  I like that line a lot.  I like that song a lot and I'm not ashamed to say it.  I wish more people felt the same way.

So, is it an album?  Yes.  Except for It's up to You, "Back Home Again" feels like you're sitting around a roaring hearth fire on a winter night with J.D. and his buddies picking for everyone's entertainment.

Up next we give Van Halen a run for their money in the "again?" category as we spin our third entry from Elton John.  This time around it's "Madman across the Water."

"Face the Music" by Electric Light Orchestra (1975)

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Filed between: Sheena Easton and The Fat Boys

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately:
REQUIRED LISTENING (4/4).  Seriously, if you haven't heard every track on this record, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

My Favorite Tracks:
Waterfall, Evil Woman, Poker, Strange Magic, One Summer Dream

"Oh, what a strange magic."

Jeff Lynne is one weird dude.  The cover art for this upbeat pop LP features an electric chair.  His band had two separate cellists.  The liner notes include statements like "The band on this track have since grown a third eyebrow."  He has the gall to slam prog unabashedly and full-throttle into disco.  "Face the Music" includes both the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's "Messiah" and a few rounds of of Dixie.  Like I said, Jeff Lynne is one weird dude.

And he is a freaking genius.

I do not make this next statement lightly.  I honsestly believe that "Face the Music" is probably the best equivalent of "The White Album" that the seventies had to offer.

It's so informedly diverse in its sound that you can't wait to hear what's coming next.  And then you want to listen to it all again to try and figure out how he pulled it off.  It's like some kind of sonic sleight of hand.  You know it just can't exist in the way you experienced it because that would be a logical impossibility.  But at the same time, you have no idea how it was done.  And the great thing is, it's fascinating sensation rather than an infuriating one.

So, is it an album?  Yes.  "Face the Music" captivates you due to (rather than in spite of) the fact that it mashes so much together and careens off in totally unexpected directions because it always feels like it's exactly where that weird, brilliant Jeff Lynne intended to go.  Lucky for us, we get to go there with him.

Up next, we amble back into folk with "Back Home Again" by John Denver.

"I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby" by The Louvin Brothers (1976)

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Filed between: Lobo and The Lovin' Spoonful

Key Tracks: I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby and Knoxville Girl

 

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately: Above Average (2.5/4) stars

 

The Louvin Brothers were a classic country act with heavy folk tendencies.  That being said, they also always toed the line Bill Monroe established when he created bluegrass music - they just did it in a more mainstream way.  In fact, by the time 1976's "I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby" came out, newgrass was kicking into high gear and Louvin staples such as drums and piano were becoming accepted in the highly stylized, self-limiting genre of bluegrass.  Personally, I consider this effort a bluegrass work much more than a country work when you compare it to contemporary examples of both.

 

And when it comes to bluegrass, there not a genre more insistently insular and "this is our thing, stay out" than bluegrass.  My friend Travis calls it the punk of country music.  I think that's the perfect analogy.  Despite this, there are hundreds of tropes to the genre.  "I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby" captures several of the hallmarks:

• Dramatic irony
• Murder (specifically, murder by a man named Willie who kills his girlfriend and then kills her again in another way and then chucks the body somewhere - sometimes he gets caught, sometimes he feels bad)
• Lots of waltzes
• Wallowing, lovelorn misery
• Witty turns of phrases
• High, nasal tenor vocals
• Tight, tight harmonies
• Really short songs
• Solos by several instruments in succession
• Illumination of the mandolin
• An "I'm sorry" song
• A "you'll be sorry" song
• Use of the adjective silver and/or gold
• Hyperbole
• The appearance of the word "lonesome" (or "lonely) numerous times

So, is it an album?  Yes.  It's tight and cohesive.  It's not very imaginitive when it comes to subject matter, but that seems to work in its favor here.

 

Up next, an record from a similar time, but an altogether different world.  It's "Face the Music" by Electric Light Orchestra.

"As Far as Siam" by Red Rider (1981)

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Filed between: Otis Redding and Lou Reed

Key Tracks: Lunatic Fringe, Only Game in Town, What Have You Got to Do (To Get Off Tonight)

Obvious Filler & Swings-and-Misses:Thru the Curtain, Caught in the Middle, Don't Let Go of Me

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately: Above Average (2.5/4 stars)

Tom Cochrane has the dubious, paradoxical honor of being a one-hit wonder twice.  During his very underrated solo career, he scored a massive hit with Life Is a Highway.  Years prior, his band Red Rider had a single hit with Lunatic Fringe.  Red Rider's career was not underrated whatsoever.

"As Far as Siam" certainly gets credit for balance though.  Of the nine tracks, there are three really good songs, three middle of the road songs and three terrible songs.  Unfortunately, that's about the only place it finds balance.  The songs careen wildly from (often misguided) swaggering machismo to "River" era Springsteen knockoffs.  Interestingly, Red Rider succeeds and misses equally with either category.

Musically, I would rank them at a seven out of ten on the Loverboy scale.  That means they sound pretty much the same as Loverboy, only not quite as creative with the sound.  If you've heard Working for the Weekend, then you know what "As Far as Siam" sounds like.  If you haven't heard Working for the Weekend, why are you reading this blog?  Oh wait, there is the one exception.  Like every other early eighties rock band with a syth, there has to be one song that apes The Police as closely as possible.  Here, it's Laughing Man - decent fun, but ultimately harmless.

So, is it an album?  No.  It's angst turning in weird ways and glimmers of a great singer-songwriter to come.

Up next, we take in an entirely different direction with "I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby" by The Louvin Brothers.

"From the Inside" by Alice Cooper (1978)

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Filed between: The Commodores and Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose

Obtained via: reward for helping a friend sort through a collection he inherited

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately: Recommended Listening (3/4 stars)

The previously reviewed "Alice Cooper Goes to Hell" was released before he went into rehab.  "From the Inside" came after rehab.  All I can say is thank you, Betty Ford.  Alice drew from that experience and then enlisted Bernie Taupin to help him create what I consider to be his most cohesive concept album.

"From the Inside" is just that - it tells the stories of various inmates in an insane asylum, and it does it rather well.  The LP also does something else that shouldn't be unexpected, but still surprised me nonetheless.  Musically, it sounds a lot like Andrew Lloyd Webber; it's got a choir and piano and orchestration and precision electric guitar.  It really feels like the cast recording of some seventies Broadway musical.

And that makes this one of Alice's most unsettling works, because it still has the macabre, visceral lyrics he loves so well.  Those never seemed as bad when they were lurking with sleazy, filthy sounds.  However, when they're paired up with something cleaner, it makes them feel twice as dirty.

For example, How You Gonna See Me Now is a pretty standard power ballad about a man returning after a long absence.  However, within the context of the depravity from the other songs on the record, and the unspoken knowledge of where he must be returning from, the song takes on a strange sense of menace.

Key Tracks:
It basically depends on which stories you like the best.  For me, it was Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills and For Veronica's Sake - the latter being about an inmate's concern for the pet he had to leave behind.  And then the closer, Inmates (We're All Crazy) which absolutely feels like the finale of a great rock opera.

So, is it an album?  Yes.  Matter of fact, it's a concept album.

Up next, we continue along the lunatic fringe with "As Far as Siam" by Red Rider.

"Point of Know Return" by Kansas (1977)

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Filed between: Judas Priest and KC & The Sunshine Band

Key Tracks Really Good Songs: Dust in the Wind

Pretty Good Songs: Point of Know Return, Lightning's Hand

Obvious Filler & Swings-and-Misses: Portrait (He Knew), Nobody's Home

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately: Average (2/4 stars)

Eerily Telling Quote:
"I am patiently doing nothing in reverie... All these hot licks and rhetoric surely do you no harm."

I'm sure there are people out there who swear by the depth and color of "Point of Know Return" - but I'm not one of 'em.  It exemplifies the a major pitfall inherent to prog (and even more so in prog-pop).  Like Malcolm says in "Jurassic Park" - "Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean that you SHOULD." 

There's clearly a rich mythos behind "Point of Know Return," and it's got some really interesting elements to it.  Unfortunately, it feels like we're getting the least interesting stories (or the least interesting perspectives) from it.  It's Like if "Lord of the Rings" had only focused on the hobbits that never left The Shire.

And then there's the sound.  For the most part, the synths swallow everything else with a jaunty, sailing shanty grin.  That works really well for the first two tracks (especially the one about sailing of the edge of the world), but then it all changes...

After that, we move into a synth-heavy instrumental and then into Portrait (He Knew).  It keeps up the synth throughout the intro and bridge, but whenever there's a verse/chorus involved, it immediately slips into pure BTO-esque power rock.  The second-tier Christian rock lyrics don't help either.  Then they do it again on the next track - Closet Chronicles.  The do-over is monumentally unoriginal, but at least it yields a (comparitively) better song.

Then, Lightning's Hand is almost metal (if they allowed sailing shanties in metal).

Dust in the Wind (the track everybody remembers from "POKR") doesn't even try to pretend like it fits in with anything else on the LP.

So, is it an album?  No.  The concept for a good prog album was buried in there.  Kansas just dug in the wrong spot.

Up next, an artist I've already covered twice teams up with a songwriter I've already covered twice.  It's Alice Cooper with help from Bernie Taupin on "From the Inside."  Their scores are both one and one right now.  I'm curious to see what the tiebreaker yields...

"Flowers of Evil" by Mountain

Editor's Note: The vinyl cover is much less washed out

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Filed between: Mott the Hoople and Michael Martin Murphy

Obtained via: mistakenly thinking this version of Mississippi Queen was the studio version (I call this one a happy accident)

Key Tracks: Flowers of Evil, Crossroader and (the NOT studio version of) Mississippi Queen

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately: Recommended Listening (3/4 stars)

So, one side is a set of studio sessions and the other side is a couple of live songs.  How does that work out?  Pretty well actually...

Except for a live version of Mississippi Queen, this is a record lost to time as far as I know.  I'd never heard any of the tracks before (or even heard OF them, for that matter).  And that's a shame.  "Flowers of Evil" is a solid power-prog-psychedelic rock record with a few tunes that could have been classics.

The title track rails at Vietnam with a simultaneously humanistic and nihilistic spit of bile.  Much of the LP follows
suit.

Crossroader is thick, heavy and bluesy.  It's easily the best thing on "Flowers of Evil."

Side two is all live, and it's only two songs - a 25 minute jam and an even heavier version of Mountain's (sadly) only hit.  But it fits right in with the feel of what came before it.

Basically, if you like Cream, you should check out "Flowers of Evil."  It's a familiar sound in a package you probably haven't heard before.  Ahhh, the wheels of fate turn in mysterious ways.

So, is it an album?  Yes.  "Flowers of Evil" often folds back on itself with that thunderous, insistent guitar and lyrics detailing the futility and perserverence inherent to being alive.

Up next, we get even proggier (is that even a word?) with "Point of Know Return" (is that even a pun?) by Kansas.