Search - Loggins & Messina :: Best: Loggins & Messina - Sittin in Again

Rhino would have perfected this compilation

James Cantrell | Tennessee | 06/19/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Jim Messina began his career sitting in with Buffalo Springfield. Then he stayed with Richie Furey to found Poco and guide it to become a major player in the emerging Country Rock movement that, expecially when it is paired with Southern Rock, made the 1970s a great decade for music fans. The Country Rock of that era was more truly Country than most of the major stars of Nashville Country today, and it could rock with the best of 'em.



Jim Messina made a third major mark on the music by sitting in with and mentoring Kenny Loggins. They formed a talented pair, spurring one another. Though Loggins and Messina never dominated the charts, they were fixtures on the early and mid-'70s FM scene, which provided the era's best radio as it focused on originality and quality and all but ignored sales of singles.



The Best of Friends, the duo's 1976 'best of' album, contained only ten tracks, and one of them, 'Angry Eyes,' was presented in its half-length single version. I bought the vinyl in about 1979 because at the time I did not have the money to purchase more than one L&M album (though I always liked the duo, record money had to be allocated on merit, and Jackson Browne, the Kinks, Van Morrison, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan all came before L&M, and many others I saw as equal to the duo had to be represented as well). From the first time I played it, I was happy to have the best known songs on one album, but I also was bothered that the album did not include another two cuts (12 songs was about as long an album as we could expect then). I particularly wanted 'Listen to a Country Song' to be includued in the list of songs that current and future DJs would use as the basis from which to select potential Loggins&Messina oldies for radio airing.



This new Best Of album includes 'Listen to a Country Song' and the full version of 'Angry Eyes' among its 18 selections. I find no great fault with any song that is included, but I am bothered that 3 songs on the Best of Friends LP ('Peace of Mind,' 'My Music,' and 'Thinking of You') are missing here. That two of them were among the duo's 3 best selling singles is worth noting, but because many hit singles are junk, sales alone should not determine inclusion on a Best Of album. 'Thinking of You' is a beautiful song, one that is perfect for two men with acoustic guitars to play to an intimate crowd. It should be on any list of the 12 best Loggins&Messina songs. 'My Music' is simply a rousing jaunt, one that shows the fun-loving side of the duo almost as much 'Your Mama Don't Dance.' Messina wrote 'Peace of Mind' while still in Poco, and it is thus a concrete linking of Loggins&Messina with the beginnings of Country Rock in the 1960s.



Surely this disc could have included these 3 songs without cutting any of the 18 it features. Without them, I cannot rate it more than a 4."

Wher are SO FINE and FINALE

William J. O'rourke | Hermon, ME United States | 12/10/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Have loved L&M forever, but would like it if the record label would stop recycling what can be purchased and produce the title that we only have on warped vinyl. Would love to hear SO Fine and Finale on cd digital quality. Both are in my opinion hidden and "buried" gems or this band's body of work"