ALBUMS: Street Language (Crowell, 1983); Burton Cummings (1976)
MVC Rating: Crowell 3.5/$$; Cummings 3.5/$$
What a surprise to play both of these again. Remember I’m doing this in alphabetical order (sort of). So as I wind down the C’s I find these disparate but not so disparate albums.
I got my money’s worth, probably $3 each in 1980s dollars because there is some good music here.
Crowell may best be described as a country rocker. A little too commercial country for my taste, but there’s good singing and some good guitar and sax and a some really good, if not overproduced, songs. I’ve heard this is not his best album, which the consensus seems to be is ‘Diamonds and Dirt. But in a used record store, I think it retains its $3 value, maybe $4 if we gotta do the inflation deal. The opening two cuts are worth $3 alone. My favorite song, though, is Oh King Richard a catchy homage to legendary race car driver Richard Petty. Pretty good song.
Oh and Crowell covers a song (She loves the Jerk) by John Hiatt, who also plays on the record.
Burton Cummings on the other hand is a different cat. Lead singer of the Canadian band the Guess Who, he is often thrown in as one of the top rock vocalists in the biz, at least in the 1970s realm. Judging from the album cover and the video below, he also probably had the worst taste in jackets of any singer in Canadian history anyway. The video, with Burton in his pink jacket, does show off his storied vocal skills. (You’ll have to click twice to get to the video on YouTube but it’s worth it.)
But before he went solo, he and Guess Who bandmate Randy Bachman wrote an incredible string of hits (These Eyes, American Woman and Share the Land to name a few). Last I heard they were in a dispute over royalties, which Bachman claims benefited Cummings at the expense of himself. Not that Bachman should be hurting for cash. His post-Guess Who band, Bachman Turner Overdrive, had some major hits. (You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet and Taking Care of Business.)
So, Cummings’ solo album? Fair to middlin’. Voice is strong and he shows it off in a jazzy way.
Interestingly, Cummings covers ‘You ain’t seen Nothing Yet’ deconstructing it down to a piano bar lounge song. That takes away everything that was good about the song, namely the crunch of electric guitar introducing the stuttering title line.
This album, however, stands (get it) on ‘Stand Tall’ the song, anthem that was a wordwide bestseller. And if you sung it like Cummings, you’d probably keep the money too.
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.