This record sounded kinda goofy and aimless to me when I first got it, but it’s one of those albums that gets better every time you hear it.
I’ve always thought that when a songwriter starts writing about certain subjects (dancing, writers block, the music business, the road, sex on the road, sex in the road, concepts) or is inclined to do tribute-y things it means that they’re beginning to run out of gas. As perfect a song as “Brontosaurus” is, it was very possibly the first sign that Roy Wood was getting tired. He still managed to put out around ten albums worth of stuff in a very short period of time after this before he disappeared into the misty moisty morning of the 80’s.
Wood is a great, under-appreciated talent who wound up writing a LOT of songs about dancing, but thankfully left the writer’s block songs to Pete Townshend, the concepts to Ray Davies and the tributes to… oh yeah, Eddie and the Falcons. Forgot about that. Still… Roy Wood is a hero, and I miss him.
Lots of extra tracks, one of which (“Blackberry Way”) might be the best combination of minor key verse and beer-drenched singalong chorus not sung by Mary Hopkin.
Keepers:
Turkish Tram Conductor Blues
What?
When Alice Comes Back To The Farm
Brontosaurus
Wild Tiger Woman
Omnibus
Blackberry Way
Something
Curly
