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:: Classical Gas ::

:: Witchita Lineman ::

:: I Don't Want To Be With Me ::

:: Harper Valley P.T.A. ::

:: Little Green Apples ::

:: Fire Engine Red ::

:: Kansas City ::


Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. Fancy threads like Robert Wagner mighta worn when he was courtin' Natalie Wood, and a double necked lavender gee-tar with a sparklin' gold pick guard that'd a made Prince himself envious. Sometimes there's a man, sometimes, there's a man. Well, I lost my train of thought here. But... aw, hell. I've done introduced it enough.

I can't find much info on Vistone or Danny Michaels, but I can tell you that this certainly seems like one of those bargain imprint albums full of the usual covers you'd get in the early 70's. I don't think Vistone was a bargain imprint, however. This album kicks off with a decent bang, a nice little version of Classical Gas that made me think perhaps I'd stumbled across a long forgotten gem of guitar music, but once I hit the tracks with vocals my opinion changed.

Obviously the reason I picked this up is that there's a version of Wichita Lineman (called Witchita Lineman here), and while his singing is not up to the standard that Glen Campbell set, the arrangement is at least interesting (including a super short pedal steel flourish that only makes me wish they'd incorporated more pedal steel.) Every song ends with the same drum part, you'll notice. One kind of funny thing is that on the front cover, this album is called Danny Michaels Goes Middle Country, and on the back cover this album is called Danny Michaels and his Rebel Playboys Go Middle Country. I've tagged these as the latter; just seems more democratic. And what could be more hip and wild than a rebel playboy?? Sometimes you eat the bar, and well, sometimes the bar, it eats you. Here's side two, dude.


Tony

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 5:56 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.