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Thanks, again, Tim!
I confess I'm a couple of Wally Pleasant CDs behind. They're hard to find in stores; you mainly get them from his Miranda Records. I first encoutered Songs About Stuff in the used bins, and liked it so much I got on his mailing list, and get alerted to tours but seem to have missed some new releases. Sorry Wally. "Wally will be touring EVERYWHERE! HE'S TAKING OVER THE WORLD!" and he will be happy to write and record a song for any occasion, claims his web site. Mostly, he hangs around the E. Lansing MI area, but does go on the occasional tour.
Songs About Stuff is his first album, from 1992. It feels like a first album; just Wally and his guitar. It's a staggering amount of fun, especially for those of us who weren't too stoned to remember college but sometimes regret we weren't. Wally laments your (not necessarily his) lack of success with women in She's In Love With A Geek, That's Evolution, First Love and Bad Haircut. If I Were is a flight of speculative fancy on the order of Simon and Garfunkel's El Condor Pasa or Cat Steven's Moonshadow. Musical legends get deconstructed in Dead Rock n Roll Stars, though still (I Wanna Be A) Pop Star. His Hippies Lament is more effective than your average Cartman insult, though he also regrets his Lost Weekend In Las Vegas. A lot of his songs are more spoken (or at least blurted out) than sung, sort of reminiscent of the patter songs of Jimmy Durante. Sort of. Frankly, this is my favorite of the three albums reviewed here. It's utterly without pretense or guile, never hitting a false note; full of clever lyrics and nice tunes. He must be a blast live. More sophomorically folksy than Loudon Wainwright III (another of my favorites) or as commercial as Weird Al Yankovic's original songs (alas for him), these remain unrepentent and listenable.
Welcome to Pleasantville has a lot of fun songs on it, and is an attempt to go commercial that doesn't quite take off. I Was A Teenage Republican, both the solo and the George Bush Megamix Version, deconstruct the Reagan/Bush years. With another Bush in office, the same jokes work. Hmm.... Anyway, his anti Smoking song also works and he goes back to talking about his profession in Rock Song and does the 50s in the Rock-N-Roll Yard Sale. His sense of humor, college-level searching for Truth-with-a-Capital-T and self-deprecating patter really shine in How I Got Lost On The Road Less Travelled But Then Got Instant Karma On I-96. Sort of Weird Al's Albuquerque from someone who has taken too many Senior philosophy courses. Sort of.By Houses of the Holy Moly, Wally has graduated (or at least left) college and wails his Post Graduate Overeducated Out of Work Blues before falling into his Stupid Day Job. Wally claims I'm Nice, a change from his selfish past. Didn't help him get a job at Enron. Just as well. Topics range from Alternateen to Toxic Waste Party and Wonderful Sex. The Cat Came Back has as many versions as there are returning felines, and he puts his stamp on this rock ballad variant. Still, what makes this album worthwhile, all by itself, is Song for Bob Dylan. Done Dylan style, he skewers folk singers and commercial expectations with a precise ear. This is the song that replaced I'm In Love With A Geek as the most frequently played on Shockwave. "Bob Dylan was the first Bob Dylan, who was billed as the next Woody Guthrie...."
There are two more Pleasant CDs that I don't have, but are on my list. I do want to hear Wreck of the Old 486, which sounds like a computer song I should collect...
Dave Romm is a conceptual artist with a radio show and a web site and a very weird CD collection. He reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E here.
Thanks (again), Dave!
Yeah, think I'd like to hear 'Wreck of the Old 486' also. Have an old 486 that currently functions as a door stop, but if we
had a boat, it'd be better used as an anchor.
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