#664: Currently listening to....

Five Man Electrical Band -- Absolutely Right, Money-Back Guarantee, We Play Rock and Roll.
Rascals -- See, Carry Me Back.
Mary-Chapin Carpenter -- Passionate Kisses.
Rush -- Time Stand Still, Force 10.
Albert Hammond -- Free Electric Band.
Chicago -- Questions 67 & 68.
Tracey Ullman -- The B-Side.
Strawbs -- Shine On Silver Sun, Down by the Sea, Part of the Union, Lay Down, We'll Meet Again Sometime, Martin Luther King's Dream (live), Why and Wherefore, Floating in the Wind, Absent Friend.

...Am moving into another musical-boredom phase -- have a big bag of half-unheard CD's I've been taking to work with me, stuff for further investigation, & I'm getting bored with THAT, too. But I still stumble over some interesting things now&then....
Along with their two Top 20 hits, the Five Man Electrical Band's BEST OF also includes a handful of minor hits & some halfway decent off-the-wall stuff -- "Money-Back Guarantee" is silly & catchy & has some good choruses that stick in your head. & they try like hell to sell it. It was a minor hit. "We Play Rock and Roll" is all new to me -- a funny piece recalling a show the band played where there was allegedly no one in the audience under age 45, & the crowd kept calling for polkas & foxtrots.... 5MEB also try hard on this one -- a few more extra musical touches & it coulda been a hit....
The version of "Passionate Kisses" included on MCC's ESSENTIAL seems to punch-up her vocal & mute the instrumental accompaniment -- & this is not a good thing, because in this version, MCC doesn't sound as excited as her band & backup singers. It's supposed to be a ROCKER....
ESSENTIAL isn't a bad cross-section -- it DOES include the excellent "The Long Way Home," but I miss "Downtown Train," "A Lot Like Me," "This Shirt," "Middle Ground," "You Win Again," "Come On, Come On"....
For me, "Time Stand Still" is enough all by itself to get Rush into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. & "Force Ten" is pretty freakin' great, too....
Continuing to explore the Strawbs' HALCYON DAYS best-of (British version), & continue to be mildly disappointed. The end-of-the-world "Down by the Sea" is easily the best thing here, along with the over-the-top "Hero and Heroine" -- but EVERY great Strawbs song is pretty melodramatic.
But then you get to "Absent Friend," which has GOT to be a JOKE -- it's SO melodramatic, so overdone, even keeping in mind its low-key 3 a.m. jazzy-bluesy lounge-lizard setting. Could've almost fit-in on mid-'70s adult-contemporary radio. But I couldn't listen to it without laughing, & most of their stuff is meant to be Taken Seriously. Maybe by this point they were in on the joke?
Example: "Martin Luther King's Dream" is pleasant enough -- though certainly not stunning, & has a grand enough subject -- but they didn't include the great, angry live "Where is This Dream of Your Youth?" or the noisy live "Man Who Called Himself Jesus"? Why would they ignore their best work? Were they wary of giving Rick Wakeman too much space? Who compiled this?
*AHEM* Sorry. Meanwhile, "Part of the Union" is an excellent, hilarious pro-union singalong that could've been a hit in the U.S. "Why and Wherefore" is an excellent fiery rocker that -- according to the liner notes -- is made up of two British B-sides glued back-together. "Lay Down" is an above-average singalong.
Have also started noticing how often leader/main songwriter Dave Cousins' subject-matter mostly comes down to the inhumanity of Man & shattered love affairs as contrasted against the gorgeous pastoralness of Nature. The good stuff is Really Good -- but will it be enough to make me buy the American best-of ... or listen to any more of their original albums...?
More soon....