Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Beyond the palace hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard (Bruce Springsteen)

I now have a car to drive around Doha's streets (of fire). This is cool because I can now play some of the CDs I've been buying while living here in Qatar. Yesterday I bought The Best Of Lobo. Yes, I did! Who? Lobo!

You will probably know him via the seventies big hit - Me and you and a dog named Boo. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the collection - mostly laid back countryish west coast pop, He knew his strengths and rocking out wasn't one of them. A perfect CD for the cool interior of a Nissan Tiida on a 35 degree day in Doha while waiting for the lights to change.

The liner notes are almost as entertaining and refreshing as the music. A great quote from Lobo (Roland LaVoie to his mum) connects to my last posting on high/low culture:
"I was merely good as a pop writer, only acceptable as a singer. Whatever makes a commercial singer, I had it. And it was never that I sounded so good. As far as I can figure, it had something to do with believability and simplicity...it was simple stuff: no hidden meanings, no fancy workups, no musical advancements."

Here he is in his bad hair, bad shirt, bad miming, simple but believable prime with another of his huge hits.

No comments:

Post a Comment