Genre: pop
Rating: 2 stars **
Title: Compositions
Company: Guinness
Catalog: GNS
36048
Year: 1977
Country/State: US
Grade (cover/record): VG / VG
Comments: minor ring wear; cut lower left corner
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 5696
Price: $50.00
For a guy who's been active in music since the late-1950s, there's precious little information available on Robert John Gallo (aka Bob Gallo). I can only admire him for protecting his privacy. As far as I can tell, 1977's "Compositions" was his fourth solo release. It followed two albums released for his own Mandala label (1972's "A New Place To Live" and "Painted Poetry" and 1977's "A Place To Live" for Guinness.
The album seems to have been kind of a one man show with John responsible for producing and writing all of the material. Musically it's hard to describe this one. The first couple of times I heard it I walked away thinking I'd been conned into buying a collection of MOR lounge act moves and that's the predominant genre across these ten tracks, but the collection was quirky enough for me to keep coming back to it. (I stumbled across a great eleven word review of the album that captured it perfectly ... "Can't quite pinpoint it but there's something really fucked in here.")
- The opener 'Sweet Elephant' started out sounding like a slice of Liberace-styled keyboard flourishes, before shifting gears into something approaching a rock song structure, complete with martial drumming. Pretty, but forgettable..
- John's big band cover of the classic 'Tequila' was surprisingly funky (nice guitar) and may have been the standout track..
- Sounding like a cross between a comedy skit and a dry run complete complete with humming conductor and miscellaneous sound effects, 'I'm Going To Make You Love Me' was simply weird.
- The up tempo 'The Butterfly' offered up another weird mix of rock and big band sounds ... quite disconcerting.
- Featuring a nice acoustic guitar (and some hackneyed orchestration) 'The Sea' was a pretty, but forgettable ballad.
- 'Rainbow Song' was another track that tried to blend rock instrumentation (fuzz guitar and mellotron) with a big band horns ... call it a qualified success.
- And from here on it was basically more of the same. I'd love to tell you 'Open the Lid', 'I'm Down Again' and 'Never Look Back' were awe-inspiring compositions, but they simply weren't. Occasional nice slices of fuzz guitar, but that was about it ...
- The one exception was 'Summer Skies'. Not that it was a particular amazing performance, but as the lone vocal performance it kind of stood out.
It certainly won't show up on anyone's top-10 list, but had a certain quirky charm that might appeal to a few folks out there.
"Compositions" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Sweet Elephant (instrumental) (J. Acardi - B. Taylor) - 4:04
2.) Tequila (instrumental) (C. Rio) - 2:17
3.) I'm Going To Make You Love Me (instrumental) (J. Ross) - 4:29
4.) The Butterfly (instrumental) (Robert Gallo) - 2:56
5.) The Sea (instrumental) (R. Segall) - 3:14
(side
2)
1.) Umbrella Song (instrumental) (Robert Gallo) - 3:50
2.) Open the Lid (instrumental) (Robert Gallo) - 2:56
3.) I'm Down Again (instrumental) (Robert Gallo) - 2:39
4.) Summer Skies (Robert Gallo) - 4:07
5.) Never Look Back (instrumental) (Robert Gallo) - 2:56