Monday, September 21, 2015

John R. Taylor's Greatest Hit

 
For much of their last two decades at the forefront of the song-poem world, Tin Pan Alley seems to go through a variety of wispy, wimpy-voiced vocalists interspersed with backing musicians who didn't seem to know what they were doing.
 
So it was a pleasure, and yet also frustrating to find this outlier, a record performed by the otherwise completely unknown John R. Taylor. Aside from the resolutely awful vinyl pressing, I genuinely like this record - the band is cooking, especially a hyperactive drummer and very involved lead guitarist. And John R. Taylor is a bit over-the-top, but not in a Bob Storm way - just an intense, all-in performance of a lyric which benefits from such a reading.
 
While it's a far cry from great, I actually believe this singer singing these words (well, aside from the disconnect between the very adult singer singing about "another boy". I truly wish he'd recorded more material for Tin Pan Alley, and hope he's not the same John Taylor who went on to help form Duran Duran.
 
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The flip side is "When the Day Kissed the Night", and it shows to me that even a singer of this style who sounds good singing forceful, upbeat material will start resembling the unctuousness of a Bob Storm when handed ballad material, although in Taylor's case, he just sounds a little pretentious, rather than ridiculous. I don't find any aspect of this record appealing.
 
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4 comments:

Timmy said...

Oh, come on, Bob ! This second number here is a superlative, schlocky, laxative made for just the type of mood we all love. Least I think so...........
THANX.

Stu Shea said...

This guy reminds me a bit of another old guy trying to keep up: one of the guys known as "Alan Poe" on Preview--the one who did "Week End Man" and "I Am Not Going to Be Your Fool." Great find!

Eddie said...

Thank you. Tin Pan Alley is now officially my favorite label. Final answer.

Sammy Reed said...

9/27/15:
I just GOT to share this thing, buddies - a NEW IMAGE that everything seems to fit together in, musically and lyrically, that's on E-Bay now (as of the date of this message). Get a load of this!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Image-Say-You-Love-Me-Obscure-Psych-Fuzz-Garage-Tin-Pan-Alley-MP3-HEAR-MINT-/221889297393?hash=item33a9a1fbf1

Very unusual to hear a "good" New Image - Probably a GREAT New Image!
Now, is it worth 180 bucks, I'll leave that for other folks to decide.