Word: mckuen
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...popular of the current crop of English pop composer-singers, a wise, witty, upbeat force who neatly counterpoints Mick Jagger's pervading and well-publicized sympathy for the devil. As a soloist, Stewart displays one of those rare voices-a raspy, surcharged cross between Joe Cocker and Rod McKuen-that is instantly recognizable and that can draw all sorts of emotional magic from his own songs (Maggie May, Every Picture Tells a Story) as well as standards by Dylan (Only a Hobo) and Elton John (Country Comfort). As a sometime member of the good-time British rock...
...album he has opted for ballads instead of folk music that is geared to some prevailing national spirit. It is not entirely fair to compare Mary with the others since she does not write any of her own material. In recording songs by Elton John or by Rod McKuen. Mary has also been attracted to popular music, away from the folk sound of earlier years...
...they are not exceptional in any sense. Some lyrics and music on the album suggest other songs which convey identical sentiments more melodically or more eloquently. Paul Simon's "Song for the Asking" is done with appropriate warmth, but Paul Simon does it just as well. One song, McKuen's, relies entirely on Mary's voice, the album's one saving grace...
...dignity. The problem is the inherent pretentiousness of the play's "socially relevant" theme. In the second act cliche overwhelms originality. At arbitrary moments the lights suddenly dim to blue and an individual actor or perhaps the entire company whimpers some plaintive song that sounds like a speech Rod McKuen might have written for John Lindsay. A few times the self-indulgence runs so deep I expected the cast to start asking the audience for spare change...
yours in the struggle vladimir/merlin p.s. throw in the galleys to that damn fool book you've been promising and we'll throw in another hundred thou. with luck it'll sell better than Rod McKuen...