Monday, July 16, 2012

Roger McGuinn- Cardiff Rose

Cardiff Rose
Roger McGuinn, along with George Harrison, put out arguably the best albums of the seventies, although they were often underappreciated. His eponymous solo debut was letter perfect in every regard. This, his third, was even better. Sony has sweetened the deal with a studio demo of David Bowie's "Soul Love" and a live take on Joni Mitchell's "Dreamland."
His spirit is completely infectious throughout this disc. His collaborations with Jacques Levy were never finer. His humour, his jangling 12 string, his lusty and robust vocals give these songs vivid immediacey and compelling authority. Dylan would have been just another long winded songwriter in desperate need of an editor had McGuinn not disovered the gems hidden in the Minnesota tramp's rambling semi-tunes. And yet McGuinn never sought the limelight. He was always in service to the music. You'll get that from the opening track, "Take Me Away", a celebration of his participation in the Dylan-Baez Rolling Thunder Review. When I caught the Review in Toronto, McGuinn was clearly in heaven. He and Gordon Lightfoot seemed the two most enchanted with how wonderful the music was and how important it was for all of them to be anonimously involved in Rock's greatest one-off tour. "Jolly Roger" and "Pretty Polly" present McGuinn as lusty pirate. "Jolly Roger" emboldens the swagger and spirit as much as Stan Roger's "Barret's Privateers." "Friend" is quintessentially troubador music. "Rock and Roll Time" is pure new wave rock, stripped of all the corporate baggage that continues to drag music down. "Partners in Crime" is absolutely dead on parody of the hypocrisy among the Chicago 7. "Up to Me" takes an unremarkable Dylan song and turns it into a classic, as only McGuinn could do. "Round Table" is maybe now the most amazing track, describing as it does, a Crusade to convert the Islamic world and steal back the Holy Grail. Leave the Pyhton analogies alone, and consider what this song says and you have to wonder did Roger know something, even way back then...
All through this disc, you'll catch premonitions of punk, power rock, world music. It all reaches an astounding conclusion with his take on Mitchell's "Dreamland." It is worth remembering that at this point, Mitchell had begun to shed her fan base as she moved into a quasi-jazz styling of songs. McGuinn came through with this gem to remind everyone just what a protean writer Mitchell still was.
The bonus stuff is icing on an incredible cake. I still love this CD! The remastering is perfect. This had all the elements to it: great songs, perfect deliveries, wonderful sound. The Byrd was as high creatively as he could be and it was all about the Music. When everything else was bombast or corporate, Jolly Roger pirated what was still real about music and kept it afloat. Rock owes him an enormous debt, and this is the proof right here.

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