Review 1 of 2

LangMurphy writes:

5of 5 Stars

Middle: one minute of balls out rock. Nice cheerleader BG vocals.

Born in 69: great segue from previous song. Guitars rule this song. More great BG vocals.

On A Rope: Crunchin' guitars, yet again. More great BG vocals. (Are we seeing a trend here?)

Young Lovers: Starts off sounding like a Clash song but quickly asserts RFTC in the chorus.

Drop Out: Yah... geez... another great rockin' exercise. The horns play a large part of this song, too.

Used: 50's style guitar starts this off. Horns come in... New Orleans drum riffin'... Springsteen? S'ok... played great.

Ball Lightning: Back to rockin' with guitars and horns. We're back to great BG vocals. Some wordplay... which ain't the first time, but maybe the most obvious... "Want some cheese with your whine..."

Fat Lip: Kicking verses... half-time vocals in the choruses. Closest, maybe, to the vibe of Circa Now. Psycho Hillbilly at its best. (Circa Now, that is...)

Suit City: Balls out baby. Great riff, yet again, great BG vocals.

Heater Hands: Geez... can there really be this many great effin' songs on one CD? This one's somewhat Elvis Costello tinged... but no harm done. It rocks like I do in my dreams. Cheap entertainment, indeed.

Misbeaten: Starts off as a Gerry and the Pacemakers riff then moves into a Strawberry Alarm Clock type chorus. Oddly compelling.

Come See, Come Saw: 60's Soul from SoCal. Once again, the chorus raises the song above the verse.

Salt Future: OK... IMHO, this is the nugget of this CD. Wow... rocks hard, great gits, great horns, great vocals, great BG vocals. This baby shines.

Burnt Alive: Yah... took me numerous sessions to buy into this song. I originally thought, what a weak song with which to end a CD. I was wrong. An apparent anti-war song, it builds as it moves along. Salt Future is such a strong song, I thought, why not end the CD with that song? But after numerous sessions, I accept Burnt Alive as the final song. It works.

Gotta give kudos to the bass player and the horn section. No John Entwistle 64th notes on the bass... that's fine; it's solid and holds the bottom down. No fancy horn solos; all horn duties are designed to back up the mainline rocking and accent it.

Great songs. Without great songwriting, the performance is meaningless. RFTC combined great songwriting and great performances to produce a CD of music that this fifty-six year old considers some of the finest rock ever released.

If you like Kenny G... well, don't get this.

If you love rock music in it's mamy different forms, get this effin' CD. Then buy and send a copy to your kids. They will love you all the more for it.

Jul 2, 2008 00:31:05

Review 2 of 2

toddgold writes:

5of 5 Stars

One word: BRILLIANT!

Mar 2, 2006 10:14:26