ALBUMS: ‘Alive on Arrival; (1978); Jackrabbit Slim (1979); Streets of this Town (1988);
MVC Ratings: Alive 4.0/$$$; Jackrabbit Slim 4.9/$$$; Streets 4.5/$$$$.
I blinked once and it was gone..
A poignant line in his 1988 album ‘Streets of this Town’ digs at the heart of Forbert’s pathos.
I used to to think this was guilty pleasure music. But after re-listening to Forbert I can throw the guilty out. This is just a pleasure — and part of that is because of his pain. Forbert suffered early from Dylan comparisons like all those at that time with a guitar and a catchy songs that paint a picture. He suffered because of the high expecations, early success and youth. Look at the cover of ‘Alive on Arrival.’ He’s a baby-faced kid, albeit with a 50-year-old Rod Stewart/ Dylan-esque voice.
Forbert isn’t Dylan. He’s a pop-folk singer who slung his guitar over his back and left his crappy-but-it’s-mine Mississippi town for NewYork city. His first album ‘Alive on Arrival’ was, at least side one, a slam dunk. He opened the album shutting a door on his past by calling Laurel, Miss., a ‘dirty stinking town.’
Forbert was from Meridian, which was near Laurel (can you smell it from there?)
For an in-depth Rolling Stone piece at the height of his initial success, go here.
That debut set up the expectations. He came out next with an album that had a blockbuster single ‘Romeo’s Tune,’ a momentary brush in 1979 with the stratosphere. I saw him on the heels of that second album and remember a great show in Atlanta at a small venue.
But alas, like many, the follow-up pressure seemed to have gotten the better of him for a while and he made the scene in New York but watched his creative space get smaller.
From ‘I Blinked Once, 10 years after Romeo:
The nineteen seventies was ten long years,
was ten long years to sing a song
It kicked off madly with a New Year’s cheer
I blinked once and it was gone
Gone, gone I blinked once and it was gone
Looking from present, he has a strong body of work and has had excellent musicians behind him on various albums including Wilco and Nils Lofgren. In addition to these vinyl records, I have about three other Forbert CD’s,each good in their own way.
Favorite line from a good song called, January 23 – 30, 1978: “Some say life is strange, but compared to what, yeah.”