Search - Arthur Alexander :: Rainbow Road: Warner Bros Recordings

We Dream About You, Rainbow Road...

David Wayne | Santee, CA United States | 06/14/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a re-issue of Arthur's 1971 album for Warner Brothers. "Rainbow Road" is the song Dan Penn claims he and Spooner Oldham wrote specifically for Arthur, though others recorded it first. Arthur could certainly sink his teeth into a sad song of such quality. As good as Percy Sledge's version is, this song really does seem to have been tailor-made for Arthur. I feel like at least SOME of this story, had to have really happened to him. I'm sure that Al Green could relate to the part about "a man heard me playing and singing my songs/he bought me fine clothes and paid the money I owed." It's parallels the story of how Green met his producer, Willie Mitchell! Other gems on this album include: "Down The Back Roads," on which Arthur proudly displays his country roots; "It Hurts To Want It So Bad" and "Mr. John," two typically-sad A.A. offerings that are so forlorn, as to be cathartic; "Lover Please" and "Burning Love," two covers that show Arthur's influences, and those he influenced; and "Thank God He Came," a very touching love song about Jesus. On covers of his own material, "Go On Home" and "In The Middle Of It All," Alexander shows newer shades of the pain he seemed to know so well. This would be Arthur's last album for more than two decades, and it was a good one. Unfortunately, like most of Arthur's work, it failed to sell. Tired and disgusted after more than a decade of paying his dues and coming up empty, Arthur retired to life as a bus driver. But he'd make a very-unlikely-but-successful comeback (see the album, "Lonely Just Like Me") just before he passed away in 1993."