Roger mcguinn thunderbyrd album8/20/2023 This, maybe prophetically, turned out to be McGuinn’s last solo album until 1990. DeVito also produced some other late 70s Dylan albums. The album was produced by Don DeVito who produced Dylan’s “Desire” album ( perhaps that’s how McGuinn got his hands on the “Golden loom” track). McGuinn was in good form coming of Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Review of 1976 and his band hit all the right notes. In the American music tradition he collaborated (as he had on many occasions) with lyricist Jacques Levy (who also collaborated with Dylan) but none of the songs here reach the heights of “Chestnut Mare”. If things don’t always go right for him musically, you can put that down to the almost inexplicable stew that a hit record, commercially and critically, is. McGuinn has musical good taste based on a wide palette and musical brains in being able to distinguish between good and bad. The rule is, though, that you can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. It comes as no surprise, then, that punk would break and make music edgy and challenging again. The experimentation of the first half of the 70s was gone and safe MOR adult country rock and singer songwriter were the norm. McGuinn is taking chances though here they seem to based on commercial considerations. To take chances and to fail is always preferable to smug safeness. But these are aberrations, and ultimately, I’m not sure if you can achieve greatness without putting out crap, as long as the crap is a result of risk taking. That’s not to say everything is good because some of his solo stuff I have heard is patchy as is a lot of the later Byrds stuff. In another comment I had this to say: McGuinn in a way had more vision that his contemporaries and always seemed to be pushing the envelope. If my comments above sound a little pithy all I can say is … it’s late. Having said that I can say that anything by McGuinn is interesting. It never quite flies like a thunderbird or Thunderbyrd (sic). The problem lies more with the fact that the album is neither here nor there. There are only four original songs on this LP but McGuinn, in the folk tradition, has no problems about doing covers as long as they fit in with the concept. That was really a very magical moment in the history of the Rockpalast series which has lost nothing of its power, intensity and passion even after 42 years.A weird album for Roger McGuinn to put out. A well-coordinated band, stimulating their boss Roger McGuinn ('Pick it up McGuinn!!!!') to some top performances. The line-up of the band next to McGuinn was excellent: Rick Vito (lead-guitar, back- and lead vocals) came from John Mayall and was exactly one decade later a member of Fleetwood Mac for four years, Charlie Harrison (bass and background-vocals) was previously a member of the progressive rockers of Judas Jump and Tundra and later joined the West Coast legend Poco and Greg Thomas was playing drums for Loudon Wainwright III, Seals & Crofts and Leon Russell prior to the Thunderbyrds. The Thunderbyrds had their first and only album (simply titled Thunderbyrd) released. Before Roger McGuinn entered the stage with his Thunderbyrds as the top act of the night, Rory Gallagher and Little Feat had already rocked the Grugahalle. Final guest on stage: Roger McGuinn's Thunderbyrds. "The legendary first Rockpalast night from 1977 made rock history.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |