Lost/Forgotten Album #101

[Jon]

 

A few months ago i tried to class up this joint by featuring an album by Sarah Brightman which failed to ignite any classiness whatsoever.

 

So if you fail, what do you do? You try, try again! Call this the second attempt to make CRB classy so we can get a bunch of pipe-smoking, cashmere sweater-wearing folks to join out esteemed  ranks.

 

This week is the 1976 release from Rex (or Rex Smith as the CD spine, incorrectly, states.) Who is this Rex Smith you ask? Well, he took over Solid Gold (remember those dancers?) from Andy Gibb in the early 80's, he was featured on the covers of the magazines "16" and "Teen Beat" (remember those?), was in the soap opera "As The World Turns" (remember that?) in the early 90's, starred in the mid-80's tv show "Street Hawk" (nope, i don't either), played Daredevil in an Incredible Hulk tv movie and has been in quite a few Broadway shows with two of those being "Grease and "The Pirates Of Penzance" as well as reprising his Broadway role in the "PoP" movie which also starred Kevin Kline and Linda Rondstadt. 

 

Plus..his brother is none other than Michael Lee Smith, the lead singer for Starz!

 

 

Rex

1. Trouble

2. Ten Seconds Of Love

3. Feeling Better

4. Stay With Me

5. Call Her "Easy"

6. Dead End Kids

7. I Can't Explain

8. Rock And Roll Dream

9. Violent Playground

 

 

Availability:Around $12.   

 

 

 

[Scott]

Rex "You Take My Breath Away" Smith?  That's the worst song ever made! And this album cover belongs in the worst album covers tournament (if we ever get to it) ... All things being equal I will give this a try because you posted it, but I'm going into this with a heavy "You Take My Breath Away" hatred.

To take my mind off of it, I will be staring at the fine art work you provided at the end of the post during the entire playback...  (and probably longer)

[Jon]

And yet another attempt at classiness falls by the wayside....

[RJhog (Admin)]

You can't say clASSiness without ASS!

[Scott]

Hers a classic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7rc3wOA99k&feature=youtube_gdat...

[Jon]

So what's better, the original video or this?

[Jon]

That is true!

[Scott]

So, I'm hoping your sense of humor regarding "classing" this place up was exactly that, humor...  Because this is just a very strange listen!  I will admit to being surprised to hear riffs and geetar oriented music coming from this guy.  I will assume this album is what career he was hoping for and this ....

and this...

...was him selling his soul to the Devil!  Because with a pedigree including a brother in a really cool band (Starz - yes I love that band!) he could've done better melting into a rock band than fronting one.  The vocals aren't good and again, I will admit to liking some of the riffs, and when we get to the Who cover, well, I'm calling it Blasphemy!  Overall this isn't working for me.  And so as far as classing the place up, you did that when you found that beauty you added as flair to this post!  She's freakin' awesome!

[Jon]

Listen to it again and play it REALLY loud. Seriously, it makes a big difference.

[Scott]

Ive been trying to get to this but my neighbors are home and I don't want anyone to hear me cranking up Rex Smith...

[Jon]

Well, you don't say Rex Smith, you say Rex! Jeesh!

[RJhog (Admin)]

I'll say that the gist of Scott's comments are right on the money.  But hey, I was really surprised with the first 3 songs.  I actually thought they were pretty good.  The riffs and overall guitar playing were much better than what you'd guess by looking at that album cover.  By the way, that would be a deal breaker even if the music was outstanding. 

 

After the 3rd song it really dropped off for me.  Stay With Me is absolutely terrible.  I mean awful.  And what's with the "live" bit at the end of RAR Dream?

 

Overall, much better than I had imagined, but not great by any means.

[Gordon Williams]

I got this on vinyl when it came out. I think both of the "rock" releases from Rex are very good listens. Not great, but still very enjoyable.

Now, the cover??? Yeah, I think we can all agree it's a bad one. Definitely NOT a "rock n roll" cover. I can even remember hearing about Rex breaking up the band, so he could move on and pursue his dreams...which were obviously to make it big in the entertainment field...and he did not really care what he was doing, as long as he was pursuing stardom. To each his own, as they say.

But, back to this album...the first three tracks are good rockers. On track 2, "Ten Seconds Of Love", I really dig the "breakdown" section....where the music builds as Rex counts down from 10 to 1, and then the band launches into a lead guitar section.

Track 3 has got a great groove, to me. I love the rhythm guitar playing behind the constant slide guitar that fills this track. I even like track 4...the first song to slow down. But the vocal work is good. The chorus repeats a little too much for me, but the lead section is nice...slower, well placed notes.

Track 5, "Call Her Easy", has a great main guitar riff. Driving off the bottom end E note, with alternating "fill" notes. Its got another good groove. Track 6, "Dead End Kids" is a decent song, but I'm not crazy about the guitar lead in this one. I think the cover of The Who is pretty good.

The last 2 cuts are both decent rockers...not as good as the first 3 tracks, but still not bad. Overall, I think this is a fine listen. One day, (despite the cover), I may just have to get this on CD. I'm wondering if the two "rock" releases for Rex are combined on one CD these days. The other album, "Where Do We Go From Here" is pretty good, too.

Good post Jon! It's a shame more people won't give this a chance, because they look at the cover and think it can't be any good.