Lovin' Spoonful - Summer In The City - #274

Lovin' Spoonful - Summer In The City (CD)

I bought this CD (sealed) in a thrift shop just about two weeks ago for the grand total of the equivalent of one Euro. Sometimes I just buy items in these shops to check the music out, not because I'm a fan of their output. I then realized, I had a previous album (LP) of theirs sitting in my collection and that was a "Best Of" and I remembered I had a conversation about a month ago, where we talked about folks claiming the 60s were the best decade for Pop/Rock ever ... at least up to this point in time. My take, people claiming this know their charts from that time and that's it. They never dove into the deep end of the 60s and just dismiss everything that didn't make the top ten at that time.

And truth be told, there were a lot of substandard releases that didn't rightfully go anywhere. And this is where I come in. I realized just now, that I know the Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer In The City" and that's all folks, all I ever needed to know. I must have wiped the presence of the "Best Of" LP from my mind. Fast forward to 2026 and I'm listening to the CD mentioned above (and shown here) and ... seldom there was a more boring and helpless offering on CD by a totally untalented boygroup. Apart from the title song (and as far as I'm concerned only hit and worthwhile song), I began to ask myself, who on earth would record the other nine tracks that can be found here.

This is like almost all fillers and no killers (save the "Summer In The City" which has its merits even now). Nine of these tracks are a showcase of someone trying to fit musically in to the scene as it were back then and failing miserably. I've no idea wether the selection here is representative and I don't want to further inquire. Give it a miss, except when disaster is your middle name.

Cheers

Roland

R.I.P. # 273

R.I.P.

Two that have passed recently.

Joe Ely

It was July 4, 1991 when I witnessed the Flatlanders (including Joe Ely) on stage at the Montreux Jazz Festival. One of the best gigs I've ever seen at the lake. And if memory serves, Doug Sahm joined them on stage. From then on, I was a lifetime fan of the band. And there are even a few Solo Joe Ely CDs in my collection. 

Raul Malo

The Mavericks. Great, great band (in the beginning). Let's say, the first four albums and then it went all downhill and they became a MOR Pop band. But they will be forever a light at the end of the tunnel for me. I didn't like the fact that they took a hiatus for a couple of years, even though this was during their depression era, and popped up unexpectedly again (probably the money was in short supply). But they never caught up with their earlier success again. Still, when it mattered, they were a great band.

Cheers

Roland