Herb's "Blow Your Own Horn" CD

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AM Matt

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First off, I got the West Germany CD NOT the Japan one. The song "Red Hot" is indeed the "remix" version which adds another 1 minute. The song "The Midnight Tango" reminds me of the late Lawrence Welk 1965 song "Apples And Bananas"!! I also liked the long version of "Garden Party" which runs 5:15 (NOT the 3:50 short version) & NOT the remake of Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band 1972 song. The Motown songwriting team of Holland/Dozier/Holland makes an appearance on the title track to "Blow Your Own Horn" & the song "True Confessions". You hear the "aahhs" in the song "Paradise Cove" which I also liked. One more thing, the song "Sundown" almost reminds me of Herb playing the trumpet part of the late Gerry Rafferty 1978 song "Baker Street". By the way, NOT the 1974 remake of the Gordon Lightfoot song. The CD was $ 129.95 when I special order it from Records & Tapes Galore in Saginaw, MI. Matt Clark Sanford, MI
 
Herb's "The Midnight Tango" vs. Lawrence Welk "Apples And Bananas", you decide: Matt Clark Sanford, MI
 
I was always a fan of this album right from the get. It disappoints me to this day that this album was so underrated and largely ignored. Whereas RISE (the album) was regarded as a 'potpourri', BLOW YOUR OWN HORN was reviewed harshly as 'an album of leftovers'. I suspect that if there were a hit off of this album, the bias would've been more favorable... but that's all water under the bridge now. Thankfully, Herb saw fit to re-release the digital tracks on his website. "Latin Lady" (my personal favorite) sounded phenomenal when cranked up!
I only wish that "Sueno Precolombino" and "Noche De Amor" from the latin released version were added as bonus tracks. I did needle drops on these two for my CDR, but it would be nice to have copies without ticks, pops and white noise.
 
I think it sort of struck me as "leftovers" since it seemed to not have a central theme. And to be honest, I never warmed to it that much--not that it was bad music or anything, but something just never caught my ear. "New" were some tracks penned by ex-Motown writers. And of course, the Karen Carpenter tribute song. "Red Hot" was an OK album track for me originally, so having a remix of something previously released felt kind of empty (although it does sound better in the remix--not as muddy). The Calderon tracks seem like something that came out of the Fandango sessions (along with the two that were left off of the album). This combination of producers and/or writers could be why it never stuck with me.
 
'BLOW YOUR OWN HORN' (SP/CD 4949) has been discussed previously. For AOTW I moved on to SP 4950.

JB
 
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