Third in a series. To be considered a "chart scraper" album, an artist must have had only one album make the Cash Box 200 album chart* during the years 1976-85. Said album spent no more than two weeks on the chart, placing no higher than 196. They're all new to me.
Queen of the Neighborhood
| Released: 1977 (RCA) Produced by: Jimmy Iovine |
| Side One | Side Two |
|---|---|
| Beg Me Long Time Gone Queen of the Neighborhood Angry Times |
Everybody Loves a Winner You Sit in Darkness Laugh My Tears Away All My Love to You Grown-Up Man |
| Week | Position |
| May 7, 1977 | 198 |
| May 14, 1977 | 196 |
click photos to enlarge
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Billboard, February 26, 1977
Stereo Review, July 1977
Other review links:
Culture Catch
GloryDazeMusic.com
RateYourMusic.com
I won't even attempt to write something witty following Lester Bangs. However, I will say that I enjoyed the album slightly more than he did and I like Raymond's vocals more than he does. He bashes her as if she turned him down for a roll in the hay (which might have been what happened). It just hit me that the producer of this thing is the "visionary" behind Beats by Dre and Apple Music, so I've got issues with him for those forays but his production here is fairly straight-ahead. Bangs is right when he writes that the songs aren't memorable (read: bad songwriting). You won't be humming any of these tunes later on. You remember the generic music they used on WKRP reruns because of music licensing issues? That's what this reminds me of.
Of the "session hacks" mentioned above, the only one I've ever heard of is songwriter/guitarist Jimmy Crespo who was a member of Aerosmith from 1979-83.
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| Flame with Bruce Springsteen and Jimmy Iovine (is that Patti Smith on the left?) |
Allmusic
Discogs
Marge Raymond's website
*Cash Box chart information was taken from the book The Cash Box Album Charts, 1976-1985 (Scarecrow Press, 1987)
The Lester Bangs review is PRICELESS!
ReplyDeleteAnd the WKRP generic music comment is spot on.
Please keep sharing the scrapings.