Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Album of the Day #154: MAGIC CHRISTIAN MUSIC BY BADFINGER

Artist: Badfinger

Title: Magic Christian Music By Badfinger
Label: Apple
Year: 1970
Songs: Come And Get It* [Paul McCartney]/Crimson Ship** [Tom Evans & Pete Ham]/Dear Angie [Ron Griffith]/Fisherman [Tom Evans]/Midnight Sun [Pete Ham]/Beutiful And Blue [Tom Evans]/Rock Of All Ages** [Tom Evans, Pete Ham & Mike Gibbons]/Carry On Till Tomorrow [Tom Evans & Pete Ham]/I'm In Love** [Pete Ham]/Walk Out In The Rain [Pete Ham]/Angelique** [Tom Evans]/Knocking Down Our Home [Pete Ham]/Give It A Try [Tom Evans, Pete Ham, Mike Gibbons & Ron Griffith]/Maybe Tomorrow** [Tom Evans]
Produced by: Mal Evans, *Paul McCartney & **Tony Visconti
Thoughts: A collection of songs from their Iveys LP,  songs from "The Magic Christian" and some new material, Magic Christian Music provides a strange listening experience. Most of the songs are terrible, particularly "Angelique", "Fisherman", "Walking In The Rain" and "Knocking Down Our Home", but there are still some fantastic material, from the singles ("Come And Get It" and "Maybe Tomorrow") and things like "Midnight Sun" and "Rock Of All Ages". These tracks (the good ones) prove what Badfinger could have been if they weren't so damn dead-set on being the next Beatles! Poppy stuff like "Carry On Till Tomorrow" and "Dear Angie" is not what Badfinger should have been doing. Instead, it could have been working a successful hard-rock sound like what you hear in "Rock Of All Ages" and even "Crimson Ship" (which I really believe is the true hidden gem of this record). Thanfully, on No Dice, they did figure out a really unique way to balance hard-rock and pop, creating this bizarre idea of "power pop", but on Magic Christian Music, the poppy stuff and the rocking stuff sound like they were recorded by two different groups. 
I don't think this album is that much a necessisty, at least not as important as No Dice and Straight Up are. It is obvious that, at the start of their career, Badfinger really didn't know where to go and as long as they were under the Beatles' thumb, they wouldn't be able to find their own personal sound. 

1 comment:

Brooke Saunders said...

Carry On Till Tomorrow is a masterpiece, check out my blog at www.fortunesicons.com/blog about my contact with Badfinger and trips over to GB in 1977 and 1980.

Thanks
Brooke