Customer Reviews

Dancer With Bruised Knees

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In theory I shouldn't like this album. Although I try to listen to anything I can get my hands on, the majority of my listening time is taken up by punk and post-punk music. Thus, this quiet domestic album recorded by two Canadian sisters who sometimes sing in English and sometimes sing in French should turn me off.

The complete opposite is true, however. I love this record and find it both sophisticated and simple. The songs are beautiful, the lyrics resonant but not pretentious (Dancer With Bruised Knees is a good example--what a fantastic title! ). Dancer came out in 1977, a rather strange offering amidst the tepid pop that dominated the airwaves and the cutting edge New Wave/Punk that dominated the underground. Dancer, with its down-home production and all-around musical bliss, was instantly praised by critics from Rolling Stone to the Village Voice.

There's much to admire here. The title track is wonderfully metaphoric. Walking Song stands on its own as a simple (but nevertheless heartfelt) poem about relationships. No Buscuit Blues is simply flat-out fun. Shipwrecked and Be My Baby are both quite hooky. My favorite, though, is First Born, an homage to mothers singing about the singular pleasures of parenting that special first-born baby boy. Yep, when a song like this can get a confirmed bachelor like me humming, well, that's praise in itself. (I typically detest banal songs about the joys of parenthood--though I'm sure this has something to do with the fact that I don't have any children :-) But First Born's harmonies and heartfelt lyrics win me over every time.

I strongly recommend this fine album.

I love this album so much that when I went to live in France and didn't bring any music, I was forced to go out and purchase a copy in France for about four times the price I paid at home. Today I own yet another copy on CD, and when I listen to it, it sounds as fresh and authentic as it did the very first time I heard it almost thirty years ago. Amazing talent--also true of their "French Record" and self-titled album. And of course, with time they've also provided for our future, by giving us Rufus Wainwright, whose music is as astonishing in its own unique way as was the McGarrigles. BUY THIS ALBUM--I've never played it for anyone who didn't LOVE it--I can't imagine a regret!!

I've loved Kate and Anna's work for decades, but I'm afraid to say there are diminishing returns on the later work. However, this one (their second I believe) is classy. Exquisite lyrics, melodies and phrasing. To my ears a nicer production than the first one.

That sweet humming intro at the start of Dancer with Bruised Knees is an all-time favourite, and the scathing lyrics and superlative arrangement of Southern Boys can stand alongside anything else you'll ever hear in folk music.

Kate and Anna McGarrigle always have faith in their music. They are blessed songwriters. They wity and they like their songs to be good as ever. They love to sing. They love to write songs. They love their folk songs.

Loved to hear their sweet voices after thirty od years they fill myheart with joy.I thank the system that they are still around to hear

This has to be one of my favorites; I bought the vinyl back in the mid-seventies after hearing it at a party. The McGarrigle Sisters are just charming, combining delightful harmonies with a wry sense of humor. These songs seem lightweight at first until you've lived some life; now "Kitty Come Home" and "First Born Son" choke me up. It's an album that can truly stand repeated listening from end to end (except perhaps "Be My Baby" which I skip). I think it's their best effort and I treasure it.

This album is well over thirty years old now. Name me another album from this era which holds up nearly as beautifully. Or from any era! It will still be magnificent fifty years from now. This was the McGarrigles' second album, and no more eloquent example exists to refute the "sophomore jinx" theory that a recording artist's second album is always a disappointment. Kate and Anna understood what they could do well, and they do it here. They didn't try to "rock out" or, god forbid, attempt disco---laugh if you want, but a lot of worthy artists of that era were pressured to hop aboard the disco juggernaut. And many fatally crippled their musical credibility doing so. But that's another topic for another thread.

The album radiates confidence. Confidence in the singers' vocal abilities, confidence in the quality of the material, confidence in the arrangements. Confidence that "quiet" moments will not lose listeners. Confidence that full-out emotional vulnerability is not a bad thing in a song. This album is very folk-flavored, but far too colorful in musical mood to match the aural image sometimes conjured up by the term "folk". Penny whistles, concertinas, organ, piano, acoustic guitar....all are deployed with unerring mastery of taste and unerring musicianship. Just listen to the playful organ intro to "Be My Baby" (not the Phil Spector hit), or the few seconds of heavenly pennywhistle two-thirds into "Kitty Come Home". Each has that wonderful quality that makes you think, I've never heard this before, but it is exactly what is needed. Think of the opening few seconds of the Stones' "Monkey Man" for that same kind of transcendence.

And, most important of all, not one song here is less than wonderful. Some are masterpieces.

The McGarrigles put out too few albums, and with one exception they are all stunning. (Monto Pronto, the follow-up to DWBK, was their one disappointment.) With Kate now gone, the poignant moments of this album resonate even more. Even classic albums like "Sgt. Pepper" and "Exile on Main Street" have their nay-sayers, but I have never read a review of this album that was not worshipful. I'm not big on worship, but if any album earns it, 'Dancer With Bruised Knees" does.

If you are a fan of Kate McGarrigle fan you won't want to miss this one.

I was very happy with the very prompt delivery of this order. It arrived quickly and in perfect condition.

If you are at all familiar with the McGarrigles, you will instantly love this CD (assuming you can find it). Typically wry and witty, also very musically sophisticated. Anna's songs are real musical gems with kicky lyrics (Dancer With Bruised Knees, Be My Baby, Kitty Come Home, Shipwrecked). Kate's songs seem a little more dated, because her lyrics are generally more important than the music, but her lyrics are as always a little off-center and funny. I'm not sure I agree with the reviewer who liked First Born because it was such a wonderful homage to parenthood; well, maybe if the mother didn't care much for the child. That said, Kate's song Come A Long Way is my favorite on the album, although Anna's Kitty Come Home, a way over-the-top quasi-religious, beautiful song, comes in a close second.

The traditional French folk songs arranged by Kate and Anna are really wonderful, and make me jealous that I don't have such wonderful folk music in my heritage. I heard a snippet of Anna's French song Naufragee Du Tendre (Shipwrecked) from Kate & Anna's French album, and it was a different arrangement. This version is very "Edith Piaf".

If you like unusual music, good vocals, interesting arrangements, and can find this CD, go for it.