Genre: rock
Rating: 2 stars **
Title: Two Sides of the Moon
Company: Track/MCA
Catalog: C
Year: 1975
Country/State: UK
Grade (cover/record): VG / VG+
Comments: gimmick cover with original inner sleeve
Available: 1
Catalog ID: 6228
Price: $12.00
I distinctly remember my local record store (geez, talk about an obsolete concept), literally having piles of Keith Moon's "Two Sides of the Moon" sitting around and literally being unable to give the album away ... I can also remember thinking something along the lines "If you can't even give it away, it must suck pretty bad ..." So, some thirty years later I ended up shelling out a buck for a copy of the album at a yard sale.
So before trashing this album, let me at least attempt to say a couple of nice things about the effort. On a personal level I guess you couldn't blame Moon for taking a stab at a solo album. Within The Who Roger Paltry, John Enwistle, and Pete Townshend had all released solo works enjoying various degrees of success (and dammit, that irritating Beatle Ringo Starr had begun to garner massive recognition for his solo work). Clearly Moon was meant to enjoy similar solo success ??? Besides that, MCA management was clearly willing to invest money and resources in Moon and the gut had a much bigger circle of friends and acquaintances in Los Angeles ... By my count the liner notes reflect support from an astounding 50 + people including everyone from the band Fanny, most of Jo Jo Gunne, to Ringo Starr himself (also credited with coming up with the album title). Needless to say, surrounded by so much talent, Moon's own limitations quickly become very apparent and on a personal level he must have had a hard time keeping afloat. As a non-writer (even Ringo occasionally managed to cobble together a song), Moon was totally dependent on outside material, including several miserable tracks that were apparently contributed to the 'cause' by guest musicians (guitarist Al Staehley donating 'Crazy Like a Fox', Fanny's Nickey Barclay responsible for the hideous 'Solid Gold', party partners John Lennon offering up 'Move Over Ms. L' and Harry Nilsson dumping off the awful 'Together', etc.). Realizing he didn't exactly have the world's most appealing voice (I seem to recall reading somewhere that Moon was actually tone deaf), Moon resorted to surrounded himself with layers of backing singers. Unfortunately that did nothing to salvage the vocals; merely serving to underscore what a crappy singer Moon was. Of course if you bought this to hear Moon the singer, shame on you - why do you think he was The Who's drummer ? Sadly, apparently not even comfortable with his own drumming, Moon only handled the sticks on three of the ten selections.
Speaking of the album title - the packaging was right up Moon's bad boy image; sure to appeal to any 15 year old, snot nosed adolescent male. Come to think of it I have to wonder why I didn't fall victim to it's appeal. Bet that wasn't even Moon's butt - I note he wasn't wearing jeans in the other album pictures.
So let's plow throw this debris field.
- If you were going to write a rock song for a Broadway production, I'm pretty sure it would come out sounding like 'Crazy Like a Fox'. Come to think of it, this is also what a rock song sung by a Broadway star would sound like. Simply horrible with Moon fighting for his life throughout the song. rating: ** stars
- Penned by Fanny keyboardist Nickey Barclay and backed by most of Fanny, 'Solid Gold' found a drunken Moon talking his way through some of the album's dumbest lyrics. The arch English accent wasn't even funny. rating: * star
- Moon was reportedly a big Beach Boys fan which may explain why this track had actually previously been released as a single. While in this instance you couldn't complain about Moon's musical taste, his version of the Brian Wilson was simply horrible (if you believe urban legends, Brian Wilson apparently broke down and cried when he heard Moon's version). Even though it was slathered with tons of orchestration and those ever present female backing vocals, the drunken lounge lizard vocal was literally cringe inducing. rating: * star
- Penned by the Stone Canyon Band's Dennis Larden, the country-rocker 'One Night Stand' was completely inappropriate for Moon. Another one that was simply painful to sit through. rating: * star
- Well, at least 'The Kids Are Alright' found Moon on familiar ground. He played the drums on this one and his bellowing vocal was largely hidden behind Joe Walsh's thundering guitar ... can you imagine what the alcohol tab was for these recording sessions ... rating: *** stars
- Having heard John Lennon's original version of 'Move Over Ms. L' (which I thought was pretty lame), all I can say is that it crushed Moon's comatose cover. rating: ** stars
- So finally a song where there was something nice to be said - no Moon's cover of 'Teenage Idol' sucked as bad as anything else on the album, but the song included a tasty Dick Dale guitar solo. In fact Dale's surf guitar solo was probably the album's lone musical highlight. rating: ** stars
- 'Back Door Sally' found Moon apparently trying to trot out his rock and roll credentials. He apparently didn't realize those credentials had expired. Another hideous performance that couldn't be salvaged with all of the orchestration in the world. rating: ** stars
- 'In My Life' has always been a puzzle to me. I've never been able to figure out if Moon was playing is straight or for laughs. Musically the arrangement was just Moon talk-singing his way through Norman Kurban's stark piano arrangement with a chorus in the background. On the surface it seemed to be a goof, but who knows ... rating: ** stars
- Penned by Harry Nilsson, 'Together' suffered from one of those hideous ersatz-Caribbean melodies that sounded like tourist-trap hell. The Moon-Ringo Starr comedy routine was even worse. You can only hope they were drunk out of their minds when they recorded it. rating: * star
Bless their cold corporate hearts, but Track/MCA marketing did their best to spin a hit off the LP, eventually watching for singles dive bomb into obscurity:
- 1974's 'Don't Worry Baby' b/w 'Teenage Idol' (MCA catalog number MCA-40316)
- 1975's 'Solid Gold' b/w 'Move Over Ms L' (MCA catalog number MCA-40387)
- 1975's 'Crazy Like a Fox' b/w 'In My Life' (MCA catalog number MCA-40433)
- 1975's 'The Kids Are Alright' b/w 'One Night Stand' (???)
Hard to accurate describe, but the album had a very mid-1970s Los Angeles feel - clearly a lot of money went into the collection and technical the backing was never less than competent, but in the end the results were soulless. It may have been meant as fun, but comes off as extremely sad and depressing.
"Two Sides
of the Moon" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Crazy Like a Fox (Al Staehley) - 2:09
2.) Solid Gold (NIckey Barclay) - 2:47
3.) Don't Worry Baby (Brian Wilson - R. Christian) - 3:29
4.) One Night Stand (Dennis Larden) - 3:38
5.) The Kids Are Alright (Peter Townshend) - 3:02
(side
2)
1.) Move Over Ms. L (John Lennon) - 3:11
2.) Teenage Idol (Jerry Lewis) - 2:17
3.) Back Door Sally (John Marascaico) - 2:24
4.) In My Life (John Lennon - Paul McCartney) - 2:40
5.) Together (Harry Nilsson) - 3:30
Who knows why, but in 1997 the Pet Rock label reissued the album in CD format with bonus material, including a couple of Steve Cropper written and produced numbers for a planned follow-up album (catalog number KBD 60038)
bonus tracks:
1.) U.S. radio spot - 1:02
1.) I Don't Suppose - 4:01
3.) Naked man (Randy Newman) - 3:18
4.) Do Me Good (Steve Cropper) - 2:41
5.) Real Emotion (Steve Cropper) - 2:56
6.) Don't Worry Baby (Brian Wilson - R. Christian) - 3:12
7.) Teenage Idol (Jerry Lee Lewis) - 2:15
8.) Together Rap - 1:57