Search - John Simon :: John Simon's Album

AT LAST!!! After all these years!!!!

David Perry | the road to the next big thing | 05/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In 1970, I was in high school in Huntington Beach, California, and my best friend was a guy named Mike. He played piano, made very wierd movies (horror, not erotic) and had a copy of this record. It had been a selection on the Columbia record club, and he liked it. I liked it even more--but it was virtually ungettable, even in the year of it's release.



A couple of years down the road of asking where I could find this record at every record store I went to, I was in a very much missed emporium called Jeremiah McCain's (related to Hezekiah McCain's records of Belmont Shore) and impressed Dave, the entrepeneur of this musical cavalcade, into finding me a copy of this record at any cost. Some years after that, said Dave got me an airplay copy liberated from local radio, and I went home to play it on my flip over needle portable stereo. I still have that copy.



This album burns with holy fire. It tells the stories you love to hear. It has the BEST rock and roll horn section of all time (sorry tower of power horns) and is a great great GREAT lost classic. Listen to the crisp drumming, the Leon Russell lead guitar, the everything. This is one rockin record, for the true aficianado.



I am now fifty years old, I own nearly six thousand records tapes and cd's. My stereo is hand wired by extra terrestrial rocket scientists. Very few classic rock albums are improved by becoming CD's. I know of whence I speak. The original pressings of the LP are very bad, very high noise, typical of a Columbia non premium release of the time. The CD is well mastered, well balanced, and contains the songs you need to hear.



Good as Paul Simon (no relation) good as Leon Russell (who is on the record, along with Levon Helm, Bonnie and Delaney and Cyrus Faryar!!! ((but not his dog, rusty)) This is one fine piece of work. Listen to it ten times before you judge it--there is a lot going on here.



I tell you three times, it's true.



Pray for peace, fight for freedom, persevere...."

Is This A Rare Gem Rescued From The Vaults?

R. J MOSS | Alice Springs, Australia | 12/06/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There are any number of respected artists and their projects sitting out at the margins of the music industry, often unjustly so. Enhanced independant recording capacities have spawned increasing numbers of eccentric voices who would never have been invited to the mahogany boardrooms of musical directors. But back in the 1970s, a man whose peculiar range of musical sources would sit comfortably midst the voices of the aforementioned- the Will Oldhams, the Mark Linous', the Vic Chesnutts - namely, John Simon, made this album, whose reissue in 2005 therefore seems prescient. It's enjoyably light, pitched somewhere between the sensibilities of Van Dyke Parks and Paul Simon (on whose 60s albums he helped produce). Simon, John, also worked on The Band's two brilliant, groundbreaking albums that defined Country Rock with an impact comparable to Dylan's earlier Folk Rock synthesis. But don't go looking for some overlooked rockabilly kernel in Simon's outing. The sort of visceral raunchiness and agrarian yearning that suffuses those two unforgettable records is light years of lived experience away from Simons'. Simon's taste for Americana has the agreeable sound and scent of a shower which softens your tread on summer lawns. It lacks the hooks that might implant themselves in the musical memory.For all its knowledgeable polish, claims that it is a lost masterpiece are somewhat inflated. It is a delicate, sweet curio, unlikely to transcend its present fate."

Lost Classic

M. Gaines | Alabama, United States | 05/14/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Holy Moly ........what we have here is the essence of the first few Band classic's alongside some of the most creative arrangments chock full of special guest (Bonnie & Delany, 3/4's of Clapton's Dominos, members of the all girl group Fanny and Alabama crown prince Eddie Hinton) all collected together to support producer Simon's first 1970 effort.

This sinks into the soul with each repeated listening covering the gambit of every genre of American music.

Do yourself a favor and pick this reissue up before it slips back into the abyss, lost to the ages. What a shame that would be!

You can research the history of Simon on his web page at:

www.johnsimonmusic.net

***** Highly Recomended for all age groups!"