Customer Reviews

Deep Cuts / Burning for You

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Deep Cuts, the first of the two discs included in this two-for, is actually a pretty good album. As of the release of Ghosts, the Strawbs began developing more along the lines of prog-pop than prog-folk/rock. Where not as strong as Ghosts or the follow up recording, Nomadness, Deep Cuts is along those lines but with a harder sound. The band is solid, and the songs, for the most part, are as well. The second disc, Burning for You, is really quite a weak recording. In fact, at this point the Strawbs were finished. In an effort to attempt to stay relevant to the sound of the times they lost that which made them original and ended up sounding like a second rate power pop band. It's a shame really as they had put together a rather impressive catolog of material that still holds up well to this day. Beginners should start with Hero and Heroine, Ghosts, Bursting at the Seams, and Grave New World. Nomadness, is unfortunately unavailable at this writing as it too is worth obtaining....Simon

In the early and mid 70's the Strawbs were one of my favorite bands.The addition of Dave Lambert on lead guitar and vocals in 73 was a Godsend at first, but the songs he wrote on his own became cheesier with each passing release. I do agree with another reviwer here that "Deep Cuts" has some fine moments, but "Burning For You", aside from the great title track is downright embarassing. If you're looking for a good starting point to get into with this band, for God's sake don't start here. Start with "Bursting At The Seams" or "Hero and Heroine" The band went into a steady artistic decline after they left A&M in 75. The material they released from 1969-1975 is by far, their best

My only real disagreement with Lawrance Bernabo, is that I like Deep Cuts much better than Nomadness. Nomadness was an artistic and marketing disappointment that brought an end to the Strawbs A&M recording contract. Deep Cuts represented a return to form. The album isn't totally consistent -- the Strawbs rarely were -- but I Only Want My Love to Grow in You, the Soldiers Tale, Simple Visions and Beside the Rio Grande are superlative tracks which stand comparison to the best of the Strawbs earlier work. The other tracks are all pretty good. Overall, the album is actually more like Bursting at The Seams (or at least the Cousins tracks on it) than the intervening albums. The Soldiers Tale, for instance, has a thundering final instrumental section that reminds you of Down By the Sea.

If you're a fan of the group, Burning For You is painful to listen to. Burning for Me and Cut Like a Diamond are the only good tracks; the rest don't even qualify as mediocre. I don't think the problem is John Hawken's absence, although he's missed. It's that the Strawbs always relied on Dave Cousins' songwriting, and on Burning For You he had run out of ideas. Maybe they had a contractual obligation to get an album out by the release date -- that's the only explanation I can offer.

One can see there is a consensus that the 2 cd's don't match up to the need to release Nomadness and Dave's solo album Two Weeks Last Summer (also a must for starving Miller Anderson fans) Deep Cuts contains some classic Strawbs material but Burning for You has only one or two acceptable songs which makes the package a little annoying...and yes boo hoo John Hawken is gone by this time. Kirby and Mealing create atmospheric texture rather than inventive fills. I saw the promo tour for the release of Nomadness just after Hawken had left. The keyboards were inoffensive but the energy and focus was somehow dissapated which carried over into these recordings

I do feel that those two albums by the STRAWS, have been wrongly apreciated. Here is a band changin to adjust themselves to please a wider audience without losing their artistic values.
The production is excelent, better than "NOWMADNESS" or even "GHOSTS" two great Strawbs albums that sound a little rushed. Dave Lambert sings the superb "Heartbreaker" and also on "I feel your loving comin on". Dave Cousins does the best vocals ever on "Simple Visions", "I feel your loving comin on" and particularly on "Cut Like a Diamond" a song he gave 100%.
It is a shame that "Hearbreaker" or "Cut Like a Diamond" were not "hits". Do not jundge this pair by other Strawbs albums. This two go along "Dealines", another great great cd.

If we had our druthers we would be happier to have "Nomadness" on CD rather than these two lesser albums from the Strawbs. Of the two "Deep Cuts" is clearly the superior album although still a notch below the group's apex with "Busting at the Seams," "Hero & Heroine," etc. If you are looking for an explanation of such the two key differences: the most important is the absence of keyboard player John Hawken, replaced by John Mealing and Robert Kirby, neither of whom add anything special to these songs the way Hawken did for so many tracks (especially on "Hero & Heroine"). The other notable differences is that David Cousins is teaming up more often with Chas Cronk in writing songs, but this does not seem to offer as much of an explanation for the changes as Hawken's departure. "Deep Cuts" is more of a mixture of light and dark than most Strawbs albums, giving us the chipper tunes "I Only Want My Love to Grow In Your" (nice job of singing the bridge by Dave Lambert) and "Charmer" with the moody narratives "The Soldier's Tale" and "Beside the Rio Grande." There is also a bit more reliance on acoustic guitar, as in "Simple Visions," although this is balanced by the much harder edged "My Friend Peter." "(Wasting My Time) Thinking of You" is a bit loopy, while "Turn Me Round" is more in the classic Strawbs style. Consequently, this album is more of a stylistic hodge-podge than any other work by the group. However, this serves to set up the simple elegance of the final song, "So Close and Yet So Far Away," with its piano and strings accompaniment. A rare romantic effort from David Cousins.

"Burning for You" is a shade closer to the dark side, a perception helped along by the opening title track, which is the best track on the album. Most of them, such as "Cut Like A Diamond," just seem like pale imitations of classic Strawbs' songs. The production values on this album are pretty bad and you cannot tell if it is an attempt to go "popular" or some equally horrible explanation. Not only is the music less textured than before but the vocals of David Cousins are not presented in the best manner, often placed over the music rather than within (listen and you will know what I mean). All this only serves to underscore for me the importance of John Hawken's keyboard playing to the group's success. Finally, if you just compare the last track, "Goodbye (Is Not An Easy Word To Say)" with the last track on "Deep Cuts," you get the best proof of the decline between the two albums. If you want to put "Burning for You" on the bottom of your list of Strawbs albums, I will not tell you nay.

If we had our druthers we would be happier to have "Nomadness" on CD rather than these two lesser albums from the Strawbs. Of the two "Deep Cuts" is clearly the superior album although still a notch below the group's apex with "Busting at the Seams," "Hero & Heroine," etc. If you are looking for an explanation of such the two key differences: the most important is the absence of keyboard player John Hawken, replaced by John Mealing and Robert Kirby, neither of whom add anything special to these songs the way Hawken did for so many tracks (especially on "Hero & Heroine"). The other notable differences is that David Cousins is teaming up more often with Chas Cronk in writing songs, but this does not seem to offer as much of an explanation for the changes as Hawken's departure. "Deep Cuts" is more of a mixture of light and dark than most Strawbs albums, giving us the chipper tunes "I Only Want My Love to Grow In Your" (nice job of singing the bridge by Dave Lambert) and "Charmer" with the moody narratives "The Soldier's Tale" and "Beside the Rio Grande." There is also a bit more reliance on acoustic guitar, as in "Simple Visions," although this is balanced by the much harder edged "My Friend Peter." "(Wasting My Time) Thinking of You" is a bit loopy, while "Turn Me Round" is more in the classic Strawbs style. Consequently, this album is more of a stylistic hodge-podge than any other work by the group. However, this serves to set up the simple elegance of the final song, "So Close and Yet So Far Away," with its piano and strings accompaniment. A rare romantic effort from David Cousins.

"Burning for You" is a shade closer to the dark side, a perception helped along by the opening title track, which is the best track on the album. Most of them, such as "Cut Like A Diamond," just seem like pale imitations of classic Strawbs' songs. The production values on this album are pretty bad and you cannot tell if it is an attempt to go "popular" or some equally horrible explanation. Not only is the music less textured than before but the vocals of David Cousins are not presented in the best manner, often placed over the music rather than within (listen and you will know what I mean). All this only serves to underscore for me the importance of John Hawken's keyboard playing to the group's success. Finally, if you just compare the last track, "Goodbye (Is Not An Easy Word To Say)" with the last track on "Deep Cuts," you get the best proof of the decline between the two albums. If you want to put "Burning for You" on the bottom of your list of Strawbs albums, I will not tell you nay.

...because, even though these are two uneven records, they still contain some of the Strawbs all-time best songs, and that makes it possible to forgive the lesser tracks (Isn't that the whole purpose of the "program" function on CD players? Skip the ones you don't like). Some of Dave Cousins best songs are here: "Simple Visions", "Turn Me Round", "Hard Hard Winter", "Burning for Me", "Cut Like a Diamond", and even "I Only Want My Love To Grow In You". Each is a small masterpiece, mixing folk, rock & prog with the kind of heartfelt lyrics only Cousins could write. So, yeah, there are more weak tracks then usual here, but just skip 'em and enjoy the classics.

These two CD's represent the finest of a band that the US was not very in tune to. Europe was their market place in the 70's. While Yes, Genesis and ELP were very successful in the states during this time, the Strawbs were almost unknown. This band was not a copy-cat band. Their writing and playing ability were second to none. But since commercial air-play of their music was minimal their music was spread by fans and college stations. They are a gothic sounding band with guitar and keyboard taking a front line. Most of their songs are emotionally charged and beautifully arranged. David Cousins (vocals) was a prolific and talented song writer. With the lead guitar player, David Lambert, they made many memorable songs togther. The song "Simple Visions" is one of my favorite songs of my music collection. If you are an artrock fan your music collection is not complete without this cd set. You will enjoy it.