Advantages: perfect pop songs, mature, amusing and catchy Disadvantages: slightly dated production
This album contains some of Brain Eno's most commercial songs ever and some of John Cale's most atmospheric lyrics ever. Recorded in 1990 at Eno's home studio the sessions began amicably enough but by the end the two men were hardly speaking as Cale began to resent what he saw as Eno's constant tinkering with perfectly good recordings. The daggers between the faces on the album cover reflect this tension.
However none of this is apparent when listening to the record. Without doubt one of the cheeriest albums I own there is a perpetual sunny atmosphere throughout, which occasionally spills over into outright goofiness. The absurdity of the sea shanty "Empty Frame" is infectious and I defy anyone not to grin along with the tune. But somehow it avoids embarrassment and silliness.
Other highlights include one of Eno's most romantic tunes ...
Advantages: Good performance by Robert Redford Disadvantages: It's about baseball
lose for his financial gain. When Roy refuses to play ball (not literally!), things begin to get nasty. Can Roy save his career and the reputation of his team? And will he manage to sort out his complicated love life?
I don't like baseball. I don't like films about baseball either. I recently watched Field of Dreams about a reincarnated baseball team and thought it was rubbish. Yet while sitting flicking the channels the other night, The Natural caught my attention and I ended up becoming engrossed. Baseball aside, this film is quirky and slightly off the wall. Oh, and the fact that Robert Redford is in it helps too!
As Roy Hobbs, Redford is playing a man that is quite a bit younger than he was at the time - he would have been nearly fifty, yet Roy Hobbs is in his thirties for most of the film. Although this is immediately obvious ...
Advantages: A collection of fine music.... Disadvantages: None...
I grew up listening to Eric Clapton and JJ Cale as totally different singers and always wondered what they would sound like if they came together and made music combining the two styles and I was delighted to find this compact disc in my favourite music shop.
This long overdue result is champagne in the veins, absolutely mind-blowing music. It's a bluesy; slow burning and twangy album and old slow hand gets even slower. It is however Cale who dominates most of the album by writing 11 of the 14 tracks. This is a hybrid sound that I find unique but I can still hear the Cale and Clapton styles.
These songs are affectionate and powerful but they use very little vocabulary to articulate so much. The pleasant-sounding connection between these two veterans of rock and the blues is flawless. Their subtle, rumbling voices and elegant ...
Personnel: J.J. Cale (vocals, guitar); Mac Grayden (slide guitar); Weldon Myrick (steel guitar); Buddy Spiker, Shorty Lavender (fiddle); Walter Haynes (dobro); Ed Colis (harmonica); David Briggs (piano, organ); Bob Wilson, Jerry Whitehurst (piano); Tim Drummond, Carl Radle, Norbert Putnam (bass); Karl Himmel, Chuck Browning (drums); Diane Davidson (background vocals). Engineers: James Long, Joe Mills, Jim Williamson. Recorded at Moss Rose Studio, Nashville, Tennessee on September 29-30, 1970 and at Bradley's Barn in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee on October 2-4, 1970 and June 9, 1971. NATURALLY has stood up over the years as a perfect debut. When released in 1971, it introduced J.J. Cale fully. In the decades since, this album, along with its follow-up, REALLY, have remained perfect entry points into Cale's laid-back grooves. His music is deceptively tricky--the surface textures pull you in like a restful chair, but the interlocking rhythmic base is full of subtle tugs and pulls that are far from standard-issue slow boogie. Cale's songs have also proven to have the breadth to be covered by others, and this album includes the first appearances of both his "Call Me the Breeze" and "After Midnight" (a hit for Eric Clapton). A sterling cast of players (including Buddy Spicher, Carl Radle, David Briggs, Norbert Putnam, and Tim Drummond) backs Cale. NATURALLY is a perfect introduction to J.J. Cale's work.
Album Reviews
Rolling Stone (3/2/72, p.57) - "...This quiet and leisurely album from an excellent guitarist, vocalist and songwriter is a charmer...one of the most enjoyable debut albums in some time..."
Titles on disc 1
1.
Call Me The Breeze
2.
Call The Doctor
3.
Don't Go To Strangers
4.
Woman I Love
5.
Magnolia
6.
Clyde
7.
Crazy Mama
8.
Nowhere To Run Nowhere To Hide
9.
After Midnight
10.
River Runs Deep
11.
Bringing It Back
12.
Crying Eyes
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Listed on Ciao since
18/08/2005
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