Buzzy Linhart
Band members Related acts
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line up 1 () - Buzzy Linhart (RIP 2020) -- vocals, rhythm guitar, percussion, vibes
supporting musicians (1971) - Douglas Rauch - bass, percussion, lead guitar - Doug Rodrigues - lead guitar, percussion - John Siomos - drums
supporting musicians (1972) - Jeff Skunk Baxter -- lead guitar - Mark Klingman -- keyboards - Peter Plonsky -- electric tamoura - Peter Ponzol -- brass - L. Luther Rix -- drums, percussion - Danny Trifan -- keyboards, percussion
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Genre: rock Rating: *** (3 stars) Title: Buzzy Linhart Is Music Company: Kama Sutra Catalog: KSBS-2042 Year: 1971 Country/State: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+ Comments: double LP, gatefold sleeve Available: 1 Catalog ID: 4817 Price: $20.00 Cost: $1.00
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I occasionally go to a community yard sale in my neighborhood and there's a guy who sells records. I always look through what he's selling and usually pick up a couple of interesting items. Well, this was an album that I looked at for at least two years but never purchased. I know I asked the seller what it sounded like on a couple of occasions, but he'd never listened to it and couldn't tell me what it sounded like and since I didn't know much about Linhart I routinely passed on it. Well I finally succumbed to curiosity and I'm here to tell you that for a guy best known for playing vibes this is a surprisingly good rock album.
1971's "Music" was originally released on Artie Kornfeld's Buddah affiliated Eleuthera Records (catalog ELS 3601). Unfortunately the label collapsed after releasing two album (an album by the late Bert Sommer and this one), leaving Buddah/Kama Sutra to pick it up and re-issue it as "Buzzy Linhart Is Music". From a marketing perspective that wasn't exactly great timing since the album came out almost simultaneously with Linhart's solo debut "The Time To Live Is Now". As I said before, for a guy best know for playing vibes, the collection is surprisingly impressive. Linhart had a nice voice that was versatile enough to handle everything from folk-rock to bluesy numbers and even harder-rock oriented material. Starting out with an energetic bluesy cover of long time friend Fred Neil's "That's the Bag I'm In", Linhart and company (with cameos by the likes of David Bromberg and keyboardist Mark Klingman), effortlessly plowed their way through a thoroughly attractive and commercial set of pop and rock numbers. The entire first side is great, with the original 'Talk About A Morning' displaying every ingredient necessary for a top-10 hit. Other highlights included his cover of friend Tim Hardin's Yellow Cab'', the bizarre Indian influenced largely instrumental 'Sing Joy' and the psychedelic closer 'End Song'. Mind you the set isn't perfect. Linhart's penchant for scat singing (or vamping) was nothing less than irritating and he does a lot of it. Elsewhere Kama Sutra released 'Talk About a Morning' b/w 'Kilptrick's Defeat' (Kama Sutra catalog number KS-526) as an instantly forgotten single. Not life changing, but well worth tracking down since you can still find an affordable copy ...
1.) That's The Bag I'm In (Fred Neil) - 2.) You Got A Reputation 3.) Time To Go 4.) Talk About A Morning
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2) 2.) Everybody's Got (Buzzy Linhart) - 1:27 3.) Don't You Know (Buzzy Linhart) - 1:38 4.) Mother's Red Light (Buzzy Linhart) 4:22 5.) Kilpatrick's Defeat (Mark Klingman - Gayle) - 4:22 6.) Searchin' (JerryLieber - Mike Stoller) - 5:36
(side 3) 1.) Yellow Cab (Tim Hardin) - 4:27 2.) Willie Jean (Drew) - 10:38 3.) Step Into My Wildest Dreams (Buzzy Linhart) - 5:32 4.) Wish I Could Find (Buzzy Linhart) - 3:18
(side 4) 1.) Sing Joy (Buzzy Linhart) - 18:36 2.)
End Song (Buzzy Linhart) -
3:04
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Genre: rock Rating: 2 stars ** Title: Buzzy Company: Kama Sutra Catalog: KSBS-2053 Country/State: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+ Comments: minor ring wear; gatefold sleeve; includes inner sleeve; small punch hole top right corner Available: 1 Catalog ID: 6125 Price: $20.00
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Buzzy Linhart's third album for Kama Sutra, 1972's "Buzzy" teamed the singer with producer Todd Rundgren. The LP surrounded Linhart with an impressive backing band including Steely Dan guitarist Jeff "Skink" Baxter and Ten Wheel After drummer Luther Rix. That said, I'll readily admit this one did nothing to improve my appreciation for Linhart's talents. If anything the collection's versatility left me at a loss in terms of figuring out what Linhart's game was. Did he want to be a country star (witness the weird cover of Elton John's 'Take Me To the Pilot')? A bluesman ('Eye 1-2-C-U Shuffle')? A jazz star ('Tornado')? A pop artist ('Tell Me True')? A rocker ('Tutti Frutti')? Who knows since he didn't seem to excel in any of these musical niches. Buried in these grooves there was certainly some talent, but it just didn't reveal itself very often. Demonstrating Linhart's surprisingly nice voice and writing talents, best of the lot was the pretty country-tinged ballad 'Tell Me True'. Shame he didn't make an effort to churn out more material in this vein rather than his throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach.
"Buzzy" track listing: 1.) Tornado (Buzzy Linhart - Artie Traum) - 2:30 rating: * star Not to sound overly critical, but the bouncy 'Tornado' was an irritating jazz-tinged number that simply tried too hard to be cute and clever and ended up sounding neither. Linhart's strained vocals didn't help much. Totally unappealing and not a promising start to the album. 2.) Rollin' On (Buzzy Linhart) - 3:20 rating: *** stars An acoustic ballad featuring Linhart on acoustic guitar and vibes, 'Rollin' On' had a certain low tech charm. With a likeable, breezy melody (and an un-credited nod to Burt Bacharach and Hal David's 'What the World Needs Now') it almost sounded like a children's lullabye. It certainly wasn't going to get you overly excited, but stood as one of the album's isolated successes.. 3.) You Got What It Takes (Berry Gordy - Gwen Gordy - Tyron Carlo) - 2:45 rating: ** stars His cover of the classic 'You Got What It Takes' found Linhart seemingly trying to get down and funky ... You could just hear him trying to find a hip groove. Shame he didn't come close to that goal. His high-pitched nasally vocals certainly didn't help. Hard to believe it, but the James Taylor cover actually beats the crap out of this version.
- 1972's 'You Got What It Takes' b/w 'Tell Me True' (Kama Sutra catalog number KA 548)
4.) Boogaloother or Captain Hornbone's Last Desperate Truck (instrumental) - 1:10 rating: ** stars Not sure what was up with the goofy title, but the brief 'Boogaloother or Captain Hornbone's Last Desperate Truck' offered up an okay jazz-rock fusion instrumental. Shame the song faded out just as Baxter's guitar solo was starting to ramp up. Docked a star for the fact it was so brief. 5.) Sing Joy / Tutti Frutti (Dona Calles / Dorthy La Bostrie - Richard Penniman) - 8:30 rating: **** stars / rating: ** stars Previously recorded for a 1969 LP on Philips, the first half of the 'Sing Joy / Tutti Frutt' medley had a distinctive raga and psychedelic feel. The song actually sounded like Linhart had been hanging out with Donovan, or perhaps the Beatles on their brief trip to India. Yeah, stretching the song out over eight minutes in order to give each member a solo spot was a nice and democratic thing to do, but really didn't do anything to improve the song. Still, compared to the previous four tracks this one was actually quite innovative and enjoyable. As for the second half of the medley ... 'Tutti Frutti' sounded like it was recorded live in the studio. Not sure who thought it was a great song to record for the medley, but at least it was relatively short and showed some signs of life.
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2) While Linhart deserved some credit for being one of the first acts to cover an Elton John song, deciding to turn 'Take Me To the Pilot' into a country-tinged ballad may not have been the smartest move. The song's wonderful melody remained intact, but the country-rock arrangement (complete with some scat singing) only served to mess with a classic tune. And what was up with the throat tearing squeal at the end of the song? Even worse was the talentless scatting that ended the episode. 2.) Eye 1-2-C-U Shuffle (Buzzy Linhart) - 2:30 rating: *** stars Normally a horn-propelled slice of Chicago blues like 'Eye 1-2-C-U Shuffle' genre wouldn't do much for me, but this one actually generate a bit of energy. Again, it wasn't anything particularly original, but Linhart sounded fairly enthusiastic on this performance. 3.) Tell Me True (Buzzy Linhart) - 3:30 rating: **** stars Probably the album's most commercially oriented number, the ballad 'Tell Me True' featured a beautiful country-rock tinged melody and one of Linhart's most subdued and effective vocals. Wonderful performance and could have been a hit. 4.) Don't You Pay Me No Mind (Buzzy Linhart) - 3:55 rating: ** stars 'Don't You Pay Me No Mind' ended the album with another too cute stab at a rocker.
© Scott R. Blackerby November, 2024
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