My review of the original vinyl release 40 years ago --updat
Max G. Bernard | Chicago | 05/07/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This was first released on vinyl 40 years ago. At the time, I wrote a review of it in the Chicago underground paper the Chicago Seed. That review is reprinted in the booklet for the CD release. The current CD includes two bonus tracks not on the original, recorded at that time, but not on the vinyl version. The CD really has two booklets, a "wrap-around," and an insert. Great history of the band and the times.
Here is my original review, with a little editing:
"This is the Blimp Works band's first album--and it comes across (to me at any rate) as a smashing success. The first thing worthy of mention is the quality of the recording--usually on a non-commercial label you expect (and get) lots of "scratch... screech...whirrr." even on the first playing and after a week you might as well use the record as a base for a flower pot. Not so with this one. One refreshing thing about the Blimp Works folks, as opposed to so many rock bands, is the fact that you can hear the lyrics--and they come through loud and clear on this record."
"And that's the second good point--Howie Berkman (who wrote all the songs in this album and does the vocals) really has a gift for words--words that really convey emotion and feeling.'Don't Kill the Babies,' the first cut on this album, is a gentle rhyming song with a simple message conveyed in the title:"
"'The answers they taught me/when my young mind was forming/are but crystaline vapors/like the clouds in the sky...Now assasins have murdered the heroes of my childhood/politicians imprison the friends of my school years/now they're rounding up those and they'll try them for treason/those who say don't kill the babies, they're too young to die.'"
"And for those of us for whom that might seem too "corny," Howie admonishes us that it's all gonna keep on happening 'until you have the courage to singb this song with me.'"
"About half the songs on the record are 'message' songs, but they ring true. You know from the soft, gentle rolling sound that the words are meant. Like in 'Revolution':"
"'We need some time to talk to you/It's no time for me to lie/aboutb the things we all must do/and it's no time for alabies/people dying/and thinking about the revolution/wondering if there's time...The students lie on grassy fields/the bloodstained flowers shiver now...the truth will out/it's time to change/they've shown their teeth and we have seen/they sacrificed a nation'sw youth/to feed a Wall Street death machine'"
"While rock superstars fantacize about hijacking starships, Howie tells us (in 'CTA') about Sally the waitress who couldn't get up the bus fare in the morning. And in 'Wouldn't It Be Funny' he warns us of the rude awakening that might come when "the thugs break down your door" the "night they make a law against being tall/and then illegalize being small...'"
"I really dug (supermuch) the sound of 'I Want to Make it Back to Puerto Rico,' but it's really a shame that an expression of love for one person had to be expressed in this song as necessitating the rejection of another--'she is gone, I am free...I love you more than I loved her before...when she was here with me.' 'Hello Big City,' the last song on the record, expresses the feeling that Chicago is homke, that they care about Chicago: 'hello Chicago, goodbye little country farm...the peace and quiet of the country just smoothers up my mind.'"
"The Blimp Works band has been very much a part of it all any time there was motion in Chicago. If you've been in this town any length of time, you've probably already heard them--at any one of dozens of benefits, at free music gatherings in the park, or at Alice's Revisited (where they're presently performing every Thursday night). They're a real people's band--they're not on a star trip."
The music holds up remarkably well after 40 years. Buy this. (There is another version listed on Amason, but that is evidently an unauthoried 'import' bootleg. This one is the authorized release, and a beautiful job was done on it, includng on the two booklets)."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1