Neil Young

Playing Banjo, Which is unusual for Neil.



Dylan's-Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid Review



Most people see Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid as nothing more than a really long super-maxi-single for "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" with several unnecessary re-mixes of the B-Side, "Billy". While it's hard to argue that there are any other songs on this album (or any other album by Dylan or not) as good as "Knockin'", if you're only interested in Bob for his words you're going to miss a whole lot here. It is easily Bob's most instrumental heavy album (and since it's really a soundtrack, that's too be expected). Most people can't even really tell these songlets apart. Which means they miss all the fun goofy humor in the banjo-laden "Turkey Chase" (my second favorite song on the album). And of the songs that do have words, you get three different vocal versions of "Billy" (numbered 1, 4 and 7 for some reason) as well as another instrumental. Sure, all three offer up pretty close to identical lyrics - all which are little more than dumbed-down Cliff's Notes versions of the plot of the movie. Musically they do each convey a subtly different mood. Okay, "Billy" is not a particularly great song, but despite its reputation as an all-time classic, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" actually is. And regardless of Eric Clapton or Axl Rose's attempts to steal this song, the Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid version remains the definitive one. Sure, this album is a lost great classic, but it's certainly worth more than just that one song.

Linda Ronstadt Tuning

Poco -Crazy Eyes

Poco- Crazy Eyes

 

This was the fifth and final studio album to include founding member Richie Furay, who contributed only two songs: a nearly ten-minute tribute to Gram Parsons, "Crazy Eyes," and the closing track, "Let's Dance Tonight."
The other band members continue to mature as songwriters. Rusty Young adds the bluegrass-flavored instrumental "Fools Gold." Timothy B Schmidt offers the lovely ballad "Here We Go Again." On his third album with the band, Paul Cotton has two songs: the country/rocker "Blue Water" and the hard-driving "A Right Along." The album is rounded out with two covers: a lovely Gram Parsons ballad "Brass Buttons" and J.J. Cale's gorgeous "Magnolia."
Poco would continue to record for another ten years and even have a few hit singles after Furay's departure, but they were never as good without him. And, unfortunately, Furay's post-Poco career never really caught fire. As such, I've always treasured his work with Poco--it's among his best. RECOMMENDED

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