Saturday, March 17, 2018

"I'm As Good As You Think You Are..."

Howdy, everyone, 

I first want to thank Sammy Reed for calling my attention to the fact that sometimes, if you click on comments, or post a comment or next page, a spam ad is popping up in a new screen. I was unaware of this, and it seems to be a new problem. I tried three browsers, and it only happened to me when using Internet Explorer. 

I apologize for this, but don't know what has changed or how to fix it. If anyone has a suggestion, I'll be happy to hear it and try it. 

And now....


Can it really be four years (almost to the week!) since I've featured Gary Roberts. I guess it's because I just don't have that many of his records, because those I do have are almost uniformly ridiculous (in myriad ways) to be featured here.

Today we have a poem praising the idea of brotherhood, and suggesting the practice of believe in brotherhood far and wide. The song-poet makes a few key errors in writing a song about brotherhood, starting with the use of snark - as in the line quoted at the top of this post "I"m as good as you think you are" - which is not likely to encourage an outpouring of understanding. That pales in comparison, however, with the big payoff to the chorus, where it becomes clear that we should also treat each others as brothers and as equal, as long as everyone involved is.... Christian. That strikes me as a wee bit hypocritical.

Download: Gary Roberts - Brotherhood
Play:

For the flip side, the awkwardly titled "It's Because I Love Just You", the folks at Sterling made a perfect choice. Since the lyrics are so derivative and unimaginative, why not pair them with an unoriginal setting. Hence, they took the chords, tempo and nearly the melody from "Gentle On My Mind" for the first half of each verse, and then changed the rest, perhaps hoping not to get sued.

Download: Gary Roberts - It's Because I Love Just You
Play:




3 comments:

Timmy said...

Bro" is OK, it's just schmaltzy enough to pass the over & above & beyond test. But, dear friends, that flip side, & I won't even type the title of it, is thee sickest, most stupidest song ever recorded, outside of HELLen Ready's catalog. It has the same concept of someone ripping off John Hartford's classic "Gentle On My Mind". Except, it's way far too dolt-like & monotonous. Oh, I could go on about the evils that that side emits, but I won't burn your eyes with reading such vulgarities. Just remember this, Pandora's Box held a vile consequence, thusly this song is even worse. You have been warned. Listen at your own risk.

Sammy Reed said...

I can see this page through Chrome, and the popup ads open in Internet Explorer. I just have to close Int. Explorer and it's OK.

Stu Shea said...

Man. I like a lot of Gary Roberts' singing, but on both sides here, he's doing some sort of upper-class almost fake-British thing.

I wonder if Hartford's publishers would have bothered suing Lew Tobin if they'd known about the b-side...

Thanks for posting!!