I think this could be the last LP I bought in Australia before going back to New Zealand or one of the first I bought when I got back in NZ. Either way I got it purely on the strength of one song, 'Romeo's Tune' which was being played to within an inch of it's life on local radio in both countries. That single got to #13 and #21 respectively in those two countries but in the US it was his only high-end charting single ('Say Goodbye to Little Jo' made it as far as #85) and in Canada it broke into the top ten. It also has the distinction of being in the 1970 list of US 'one-hit wonders'.
As with lots of albums I bought over the years, despite buying an LP full of music based on just one popular track, I lived in hope that somewhere buried on one or both sides of this piece of vinyl I would discover a hidden gem or two. It had happened many times before, even that same year, 1979. When I bought Rickie Lee Jones' eponymous album because of 'Chuck E's in Love'. I was amazed and surprised at how many other tracks became firm favourites. (see my Vinyl Vault entry for Rickie Lee on June 7, 2020). The same happened in 1982 when Laurie Anderson's 'O Superman' came on the radio, I bought the album 'Big Science' and it changed my life !!
So back to Steve Forbert. What do we have here. Well, there was 'Romeo's Tune' as a given, and as mentioned above, his #85 charting song 'Say Goodbye to Little Jo' which was an equally good song in it's own right. As to the others, there's the (possibly) autobiographical 'Make it All so Real', the singalong 'Complications' and perhaps my pick of the crop, one of his so called 'diary' songs 'January 23-30, 1978'. That song has a thought-provoking last line ..
'It's often said that life is strange, oh yes, but compared to what?'
One thing this album had in it's favour was the producer John Simon. He has a history of producing some landmark albums, Janis Joplin's 'Cheap Thrills', The Band's 'Music From Big Pink' and 'The Last Waltz' as well as working with most people you can think of.
I'm going to massively digress here. In 1968 on my way back to England from Australia I stopped over in Hong Kong for 2 days. I bought a pair of shoes, a shirt and a suit - all hand made virtually overnight. I also bought an album. It was perhaps the weirdest album I'd ever come across up to that time. It was a 1966 release by 'The Baroque Inevitable' and the front cover stated .. "Being a Recital of the Hits of the Day, Performed in the Baroque-Rockque Instrumental Style Popularized by Bach, The Beatles and Other Notables of the 17th through 20th Centuries, AD". It had 2 Dylan tracks on there, 'Rainy Day Women #12 & 35' and 'All I Really Want To Do'. That was enough to justify the purchase. The music was exactly what it said on the tin. Baroque style renditions of currently popular songs. It could have been so many things - a parody - a farce - a complete shambles - but in fact it was amazingly clever with great musicianship and unique arrangements.
The reason I've just written all that is because I just realised, while doing this post about Jackrabbit Slim, that John Simon, producer of all those amazing artists and albums, was the arranger, conductor and producer of this Baroque Inevitable curiosity. What a stretch of imagination and what a show of confidence, to be secure enough to go completely off-centre and indulge yourself in such a project. Well done John. He was also the best person to produce this album for Steve Forbert. His background allowed him to bring out the best in Steve for this one highlight release.
Although Steve Forbert is still releasing material, nothing has really made the same amount of impact as this 1979 LP, but he has a loyal following and continues to be recognised in the industry, in fact in 2004 his album of Jimmie Rodgers songs 'Any Old Time' was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Traditional Folk category.
Despite the rambling, this post was meant to be about Steve Forbert and 'Jackrabbit Slim'. Sticking true to that, listen to a couple of the links below. Enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment