Chesapeake Juke Box Band - Chesapeake Juke Box Band
Chesapeake Juke Box Band Review by Mark Deming.
There's a long and rich history in rock & roll of people
wanting to sound like the Beatles, which was OK when that meant writing good
three-minute songs and playing them with enthusiasm and imagination. Things
became more problematic when the Fab Four made Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band; after the Beatles convinced a generation that epic-scale overproduction
was art, more than a few musicians followed in their footsteps, forgetting that
most of them couldn't write songs as well as Lennon and McCartney in order to
cover their tracks. Steve Sawyer and Freddie McFinn were a pair of East Coast
tunesmiths who worshiped the Beatles and were convinced they could make a Sgt.
Pepper's of their own; a record company took the bait, and Chesapeake Juke Box
Band, the self-titled debut from the duo, was the result. Recorded with a large
cast of first-call session musicians (uncredited, but reported to include Tony
Levin, David Spinozza and Hugh McCracken) and with production and arrangement
assistance from Ron Frangipane, Chesapeake Juke Box Band is a grand and lavish
affair to be sure, with every tune conceived and executed on a grand scale. The
playing is expert throughout, Sawyer and McFinn's vocals (including blocks of
overdubbed harmonies) are fine, and the psychedelic ambience of this album is
palpable and impressive, especially on the side two song suite "Martha
& Walley Frizbee's Memorabilia." However, while Chesapeake Juke Box
Band may well possess even more widescreen grandeur than Sgt. Pepper's, the
songs simply aren't memorable, and the lyrics often sound either trite or
silly. Chesapeake Juke Box Band is an album that's developed a passionate cult
following since it came and went largely unnoticed in 1971, and not without
reason, but while the album is a triumph in the art of record making, as music
it's much ado about nothing.
Tracklist:
1. Chesapeake Juke Box Band - Until We Meet Again
2. Chesapeake Juke Box Band - Love
3. Chesapeake Juke Box Band - Jennifer
4. Chesapeake Juke Box Band - This Time
5. Chesapeake Juke Box Band - Has to Be
6. Chesapeake Juke Box Band - Daisies for the 8th of May
7. Chesapeake Juke Box Band - Sad Nite in Boston
8. Chesapeake Juke Box Band - Fizbee's Tavern
9. Chesapeake Juke Box Band - Chesapeake Juke Box Band
10. Chesapeake Juke Box Band - Door's Unlatched
11. Chesapeake Juke Box Band - Don't Howdy Doody on Me
12. Chesapeake Juke Box Band - Don't Cry Your Eyes Out
13. Chesapeake Juke Box Band - Crime of the Century
tks friend
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