Today, I have a Rodd Keith record that may resonate more with me than it does for others. And that's because the backing track is nostalgic for me - the track heard here is the exact same track heard on the very first Rodd Keith record I ever found, when I started looking for song-poem records way back in 1996. That was a song titled "Where Is the One?", which, oddly, I've never actually featured here, and I'll have to rectify that.
Anyway, this is Rodd in country-pop mode, with a bit of a twang, over that loping backing track, with "Gold Star", a bit of a story song that perhaps contains one verse too many - it's that rare song poem that lasts nearly three minutes and twenty seconds.
Download: Rodd Keith - Gold Star
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The flip side is "The Changing Heart", and I find this record positively weird. The song itself is straightforward enough, with a backing track this is mostly notable for some really nice drum fills, as I find to be the case on Preview records of this era.
But then, at the one minute point, and throughout the rest of the record, Rodd made a production choice what is one of his very rare misfires, as his production and arrangement was usually stellar. But in this case, he added some very ineffectual backing vocals, and more to the point, mixed them at the same volume as the lead vocal. The first time I heard the record, they seemed so ham-fisted, I thought maybe someone had turned the TV on - that's how out of place I found them. See what you think!
Download: Rodd Keith - The Changing Heart
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1 comment:
Boo Bop Aloo Bopp. - I like both of these Rodd sides. And that "mash-up" is one of the best, not only of yours, but of any mixed mashes I've ever heard... Well done, Bob!
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