Search - Rod McKuen :: Listen to the Warm

One day I'll follow the birds....

Scott G. Shea | Easton, PA USA | 06/07/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I don't own this album on CD, and I don't know if I ever will. I'd like to for posterity's sake, but the crackling of the vinyl always makes me feel like I'm listening to these beautiful words by Rod and arrangements by Arthur Greenslade in front of a crackling fire. This album has a very autumn-feel to it, from the burnt orange and yellow cover to the cold and lonely tone of tracks like "Brown October," "The Ducks On the Millpond," and "The Singing of the Wind."I'm warning you, this album will cause your heart to leap in your throat at times. It's lonely, isolated, and very real. I think many have experienced the emotions that Rod so vividly captures with his words, only we've never been able to say it as eloquently or we never had the moving soundtrack behind us. "The Singing of the Wind" comes close to bringing me to tears every time I hear it, especially at that moment when he says, "Years later I would hear the singing of the wind / and that day's singing would come back / that time of going would return to me / Every sun-grey day, April or August / It would be the same for years to come," over a mournful arrangement of strings.This album may have Rod's best closer in "One Day I'll Follow the Birds." Unlike most of Rod's spoken word albums, Listen To The Warm doesn't close with a song. I wonder how many have felt the way Rod did when he recited "One Day I'll Follow the Birds." You just want to leave town, become a hermit, leave the world and past behind you and just follow a funeral out of town.This album will move you in many ways but it's very melancholy. But how many people listen to Rod to be cheered up, unless it's The Complete Madame Butterfly? All in all, I'd rate this as Rod's second best spoken word album, with the first, of course, being The Earth with Anita Kerr doing all the arrangements. The day they reissue Listen to the Warm and finally put The Earth on CD may be the day I can acutally stop buying CDs."

LIKE GETTING REACQUAINTED WITH AN OLD FRIEND

Scott G. Shea | 08/21/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have all the original Rod McKuen albums, but with the advent of tape and CD it's been years since I've been able to listen. The order was processed and product sent immediately - new in the box! And such a delight to hear again. There's no one like Rod McKuen and thanks for getting to know Sloopy again!"

Yes, Listen to the Warm

Joe M. Hayes | Del Mar, CA | 03/20/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The greatest of all Rod McKuen albums. From his most famous poem "A Cat Named Sloopy" to the Epilogue: One Day I'll Follow the Birds," it just doesn't let down.Life, loneliness, love, lost love, this is an album for late at night when you want to remember the way things were or might have been.The arrangements are superb, the music haunting. Try this one and you'll play it over and over and...Joe M. HayesDel Mar, CA"