ALBUM: ‘Not Shy’ (1978)
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$
This Lindsey Buckingham-produced album is a perfect cutout. High expectations for this. It had one ‘hit.’ A couple of good songs. The rest, fodder.
Plus it had a big portrait of the artist’s face on the cover, similar to the cover of a Buckingham solo project I reviewed here.
The hit was ‘Magnet and Steel’ which sounded nice — the whole album had high production values but the analogy?
‘You are the magnet and I am the steel.’
Really? I’m trying to quit the use of ‘Really? But really? Go away simplistic and utterly useless metaphor. It conjures up scenes from a car junkyard with that big old magnet thing coming down from crane: Whomp, I am the magnet, you are the crumpled up steel that used to be a car. How about you are the honey I am the bee, or, bear, or, you are the pile, I am the fly. OK being gross. But didn’t any one of his Fleetwood Mac buddies say anything?
I was a senior in HS. I remember going what? Sounded like a TV show. Tonight’s episode of “Magnet and Steel’ will see our crack detectives solve another crime and then come together like, well, “Magnet and Steel.”
If this is a sexual reference as I saw one commenter suggest, then this critique may be a little harsh, in other words, at least it has a two-level meaning for ‘steel.’
Now there are a couple of songs I do like. ‘Make it Alone’ is good stuff. Hard riff, break-up song, guitar driven. ‘Hot Summer Nights‘ was on the radio momentarily. My favorite though is ‘Just the Wanting,’ a torrid little piece of a love song with one-bended guitar string all the way through. (see video below)