A weird album for Roger McGuinn to put out.
There are only four original songs on this LP but McGuinn, in the folk tradition, has no problems about doing covers as long as they fit in with the concept.
The problem lies more with the fact that the album is neither here nor there. It never quite flies like a thunderbird or Thunderbyrd (sic).
Having said that I can say that anything by McGuinn is interesting.
If my comments above sound a little pithy all I can say is … it’s late.
In another comment I had this to say: McGuinn in a way had more vision that his contemporaries and always seemed to be pushing the envelope. That’s not to say everything is good because some of his solo stuff I have heard is patchy as is a lot of the later Byrds stuff. But these are aberrations, and ultimately, I’m not sure if you can achieve greatness without putting out crap, as long as the crap is a result of risk taking. To take chances and to fail is always preferable to smug safeness. No ?
And that certainly is the case here. McGuinn is taking chances though here they seem to based on commercial considerations. The experimentation of the first half of the 70s was gone and safe MOR adult country rock and singer songwriter were the norm. It comes as no surprise, then, that punk would break and make music edgy and challenging again.
The rule is, though, that you can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
McGuinn has musical good taste based on a wide palette and musical brains in being able to distinguish between good and bad. If things don’t always go right for him musically, you can put that down to the almost inexplicable stew that a hit record, commercially and critically, is.
In the American music tradition he collaborated (as he had on many occasions) with lyricist Jacques Levy (who also collaborated with Dylan) but none of the songs here reach the heights of “Chestnut Mare”.
The album is played well. McGuinn was in good form coming of Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Review of 1976 and his band hit all the right notes. The album was produced by Don DeVito who produced Dylan’s “Desire” album ( perhaps that’s how McGuinn got his hands on the “Golden loom” track). DeVito also produced some other late 70s Dylan albums.
This, maybe prophetically, turned out to be McGuinn’s last solo album until 1990.
Tracks (best in italics)
- All Night Long – (Peter Frampton, Gallagher) – a strange selection but McGuinn does put his own stamp on the song.
- It’s Gone- (Jacques Levy, Roger McGuinn) – not a strong original but, again, McGuinn’s signature is unmistakeable and though it may not range with his best songs it is a fair facsimile.
- Dixie Highway -(Levy, McGuinn) – Ho Hum, despite some good lyrics.
- American Girl – (Tom Petty) – The magnificent Tom Petty song given a respectable and at times inspired reading. It’s funny hearing Roger covering Tom Petty who was ripping off the Byrds.
- We Can Do It All Over Again -(Barry Goldberg, Mentor Williams) – like a Eagles cast off, and that is not a good thing.
- Why Baby Why- (Darrell Edwards, George Jones) – The George Jones country song from 1955. Though Red Sovine and Webb Pierce, had a duet version of it that went to #1 in the country charts in 1956, Hank Locklin hit #9 country in 1961 and Warren Smith and Shirley Collie went to #23 in 1961 also.
- I’m Not Lonely Anymore– (Levy, McGuinn) – not up to even the best of the Byrds later country rock this song, but not too bad.
- Golden Loom– (Bob Dylan) – a outtake from Dylan’s 1976 “Desire” LP sessions. His version wasn’t released until 1991. Very Dylan and very pleasing.
- Russian Hill– (Levy, McGuinn) – a nicely evocative piece and the best of the McGuinn-Levy collaborations on this LP.
Last night in the middle of a dream
I started thinkin’ ’bout Russian Hill
And Ferlinghetti with his Coney Island mind
And you and me with some time to fill
We ate in Chinatown, we rode the cable car
We did what tourists always do
But in the dream you were a movie star
And I was someone too
And …
OK, this is not the greatest album but it is Roger McGuinn, but for the sake of completeness…. I’m keeping it.
Chart Action
Nothing no where
Sounds
Dixie Highway
live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Wt8f0gKho
American Girl
live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UwY_2jxd2s
Why Baby Why
live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUMj0Ik77hw
Golden Loom
live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a05vtxZIHg
and attached below:
Russian Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlvc-EmAr6E
Others
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj_Qpl0X9fA
Review
http://www.allmusic.com/album/thunderbyrd-mw0000535059
Bio
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/roger-mcguinn-p104158/biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_McGuinn
Website
http://rogermcguinn.blogspot.com/
http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/mcguinn/index.html
Trivia
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