Gordon by Barenaked Ladies

Gordon

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Gordon

Features

Audio CD (July 28, 1992)

Original Release Date: July 28, 1992

Number of Discs: 1

Label: Sire / London/Rhino

Catalog Number: 26956

Reader Reviews
This very early Barenaked Ladies disc shows their background and their sourcing of ideas. Some of the songs are very well produced, others are not. What struck me first -- and other reviews haven't really addressed -- is the frequency with which the songs on this album are derived from particular other songs or song styles. Sometimes these relationships are obvious -- for example, the vocal harmonies in "Brian Wilson" are Beach Boys style harmonies but without the high falsetto. (The harmony on "Be My Yoko Ono' on the other hand reminds me more of the Four Freshmen.) 'Box Set' musically relates to bossa nova, but even more directly to Barry Manilow's Copacabana. The take-off is well done enough so it's not immediately audible, but if you listen to these two songs one after the other you can almost see the Barenakeds yukking it up in the background. The most direct quotation, though, is the even less likely "I Love You" which is scored like, performed like, and features harmonies similar to several Manhattan Transfer songs. It even includes an excellent take off on Cheryl Bentyne in the verse that goes "You've given me a start, I ain't no doctor ..." that's sung really quickly, (just as C.B. often does). For those who only know the Barenakeds from their recent radio outings, "Everything to Everyone" is probably a better choice --it has better production values and somewhat better songwriting, plus it's more consistently like itself -- there's fewer musical references to other things. If you want to hear the Barenakeds from the early days, when they listened to lots of different music, and did takeoffs of it, and could have gone on to be what they are today -- or could have turned out to be another Weird Al Yankovic -- type band -- this record's really fine.

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