Singer man, do your work. Sing your song, make it hurt. Sing the tears, sing the pain. Make it all so real.

Steve Forbert - Jackrabbit Slim (1979) ***  

Nominated by: GK 

Music club: WTWMC

Playlist addition: Make It All So Real

I well remember Greg raving about this album back in 1979 - he's loved it for a long time and I daresay he knows every note and nuance of this album!

Yes, the hype at the time was 'the new Dylan' and it never does anyone any favours to be compared to his Bobness. Basically - any male singer songwriter writing erudite lyrics was tagged as such. Lazy journalism.

Romeo's Tune is easily the catchiest song on the album - it almost gave Steve a ticket to one-hit-wonder-land. Except it wasn't a mega-huge hit I don't think - more like a short-lived radio programmer's delight. Did it trouble the charts in Nu Zild? I'm not sure. Anyway, it gets the album off to a flyer.  

The momentum continues with the horn driven That Sweet Love You Give. I love punchy horn charts and this one comes alive with some out-of-character blatting stabs of brass.

Third track slows things down. A lot. I think a third up tempo song would have been better (that first three song thing).

Say Goodbye to Little Jo is more like a Springsteen song with chick singers (I'm not convinced he needed them here). It's catchy and could have been a hit I guess - was it released as a single? I don't remember.

Fav tracks apart from Romeo: Make It All So Real - just a lovely song as it casually lopes along. I can see why someone tried the new-Dylan tag on him - probably after listening to this song - at his Dylanesque best here. For me that's a slight issue for Steve - being original in the folk/pop/rock world - maybe why he never capitalised on the success of Romeo's Tune?; January etc is a good final song with finally some lovely gob iron (again with the female backing singers though - could do without them).

On the less positive side: slow paced songs - for my taste there were too many and I would have liked another Romeo's Tune or two. The cod reggae Complications doesn't work for me - not sure what he was aiming for there.

Some of this reminded me of The Eastern (last track) and Mike Scott (Make it so real). GK definitely likes these finely picked melodic troubadour types.

Overall, my reaction hasn't changed much over the years - I've never owned any of his albums. I can't understand why I am drawn to certain bands/singers and not others. There is nothing to dislike about Steve Forbert but he also doesn't ring my bell to the extent that I will buy his albums, so I'll go with a 3 star rating.