We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
As we said with Carole King in her battle to follow up “Tapestry”, it’s not easy to do it again. As Don McLean found out in 1972 with the release of the self-titled followup to ‘American Pie”.
That it’s not another American Pie should be obvious.
That’s not to say there arent some pleasures to be heard. Even if some of the lyrical content is dark and depressing…especially in the semi-hit “Driedel”. His view of the end of the 60’s and the failures of his generation to generate the changes they thought they would into the 70’s is acute. “Bronco Bill’s Lament” is an interesting character study of aging cowboy actor who sees his life has been a sham.
He does lighten the mood with some nice acoustic love ballads like “If We Try” and “Birthday Song”. And his sometimes biting humor comes through in “Narcisissma” which includes some tasty acoustic work from the author and solid electric guitar from guest Buzzy Feiten.
And he giggles his way through an old English musical novelty tune called “On The Amazon” full of that special English humor and wordplay. It’s a joy.
But he does return to his abtruse ways with the albums finale “The Pride Parade”.
There is nothing on this record that will grab you by the throat like American Pie, The Grave or even Vincent…but then even Dylan had some misses with the hits.
I’m going to take a break for a couple of days. The next music blog will be on Monday.
