Nominated by: El Prez
Music club: Wander to Wozza's
Playlist addition: Say A Prayer (Chapta)
This was one of my selections and as one of my first ever purchases, a no brainer for the WTWMC. It recently featured as one of my first five 12 albums on my Wozza blog. You can read all about it here. So it's been on my mind to have it as a selection for a long time.
Amigo Biggie Gee reckons this album is made up of the good, the bad and the ugly, and he's band on - as usual, so I figured I'd split songs up according to those categories.
First - the bad. There are only two - both solo artists, as it happens. Come on in Nash Chase and Craig Scott (the eventual winner of this Loxene Golden Disc year).
Something about Craig Scott turned me off. The boyish good looks maybe? Not his fault but there was just a vibe around him that I didn't connect with. Too obviously packaged as a clean cut crooner may have had something to do with it. I certainly never liked Smiley as a song. Still don't.
The Nash Chase song just never connected with me - I mean a song about death in the American civil war when you're 13? No thanks!
Second - the ugly. Only one - Timberjack Donoghue's dark satanic celebration hasn't aged well over 51 years. So, although this album stands as a cohesive yearly package, we'll avoid that one shall we.
That leaves - the good. That's the remaining nine songs. Of those I have five clear favourites:
- Say A Prayer - Chapta (my standout selection)
- People Are People - Ray Columbus (not on the Spotify version - maybe a dispute with RCA?)
- Garden Of Your Smile - Rumour
- Hey Boys - The Hamilton County Bluegrass Band
- Alright In The City - Quincy Conserve
Worthy finalists, every one of them!
When all twelve tracks are grouped together they represent many of NZ music's best facets of the seventies (a golden disc decade - see what I did there?).
We have some country (Hey Boys and Stand By Your Man), Suzanne singing her heart out, sublime soft harmony rock from Rumour, wacky vaudeville via Hogsnort Rupert, straight ahead sugary pop (Smiley), heavy folk rock (Come To The Sabbat), big ballads (Angelina), and big band jazz rock (Quincy Conserve).
It all works because it does. I've lived with this (and the LGD albums celebrating the years either side of '71) for most of my life and it's like reconnecting with an old friend (like Kevy and Biggie Gee Dawg) whenever I dig it out.
Bona fide 5 star classic!
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