Genre: progressive
Rating: *** (3 stars)
Title: Number One
Company: Mercury
Catalog: SR-61248
Year: 1970
Country/State: unknown
Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+
Comments: original banned cover
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4309
Price: $50.00
Cost: $66.00
Geez, this is a weird one. As the apparent brain trust behind 1970's "Number One" about the only thing I know about Alan Bernstein and Victor Millrose is that they enjoyed isolated mid-1960s successes as songwriters, placing a number of hits with artists such as Neil Diamond ('Girl You're a Woman Now').
Clearly a concept set intended as social and political commentary, the album melds together a weird blend of original song fragments, with news clips (I recognized Martin Luther King, LBJ, Robert Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan, ), brief narrative sections and assorted sound effects. The activist agenda addressed the usual array of topics, including nuclear war, poverty, race relations, war, gun control, etc. I can't say this has aged very well, though those same problems persist three decades later. As for the original songs, they're okay, if somewhat anonymous. Recalling something out of James Brown's catalog, the song fragment embedded in Burn the Night'' is probably the best of the lot. Overall it reminds me a little of an album by the UK band Warm Dust ("Peace for Our Time"), though the results aren't quite as abrasive.
In many ways the
cover art is actually more interesting than the music. Mercury
originally released the set with a cover photo showing a pair of naked young
children holding hands. Needless to say, the resulting uproar saw
Mercury hastily repackage the set with a bland picture of a
tree.
"Number One" track listing:
(side
1)
1.) Epilogue/There's a Baby (Alan Bernstein - Victor Millrose) - 5:05
2.) Burn the Night (Alan Bernstein - Victor Millrose) - 4:38
3.) The Sound of
Drums (Alan Bernstein - Victor Millrose) - 4:21
(side 1)
1.) They Call Me Gun (Alan Bernstein - Victor Millrose) - 11:06
2.) The Song Is
Mightier Than the Gun (Alan Bernstein - Victor Millrose) - 7:49