Gone Crazy

Grin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 26, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hip-O Select
• ASIN: B002PC4QZ6
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,034 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The fourth release in the cycle of albums recorded by Grin, the quartet led by guitarist Nils Lofgren, was their first for A&M. With somewhat of a tongue-in-cheek album title, Gone Crazy was hardly out of the ordinary for the burgeoning group. And as you can tell, the last part of their founder's surname had been providing for the band's full name.

Yes, it pictured Lofgren on the front cover doing a somersault, and yes, it featured colorful Beardsley-like sketches and doodles all over it. But the music inside is what mattered.

Featuring the production and recording skills of keyboardist David Briggs who worked on their prior records (for it was Briggs who helped recruit Lofgren as a short-term member of Neil Young's backup group Crazy Horse--the foundation block for their long-term studio arrangement), the album yielded two of Lofgren's early classics which became perennial radio and concert favorites: "You're The Weight" and "Beggar's Day."

Accompanied by his brother Tom on rhythm guitar, Bob Gordon on bass, and Bob Berberich on drums and vocals--it's Berberich's vocal work on "Nightmare" (with Nils on barrelhouse style piano) and again on the bluesy closer "Ain't For Free"--the songwriting was all created by the gifted Nils.

He wrote them as he saw them, felt them and experienced them. In the mournful pleading of "One More Time," he channels a soulful delivery as a man whose heart can't take the pain. And in the mellow, solo piano-driven ballad "Believe" you can hear the fragile emotions of a young man in love.

Today, as it has been the case for several decades, you can find Lofgren providing solos, accents and interplay on records and onstage with fellow singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. But at the heart of this long, fruitful career have always been his solid musicianship and his way with words. When you hear the songs, it kind of makes it easy to just Grin.

Nils Lofgren - Guitars, keyboards, lead vocals Tom Lofgren - Guitar, background vocals Bob Berberich - Drums, lead vocals Bob Gordon - Bass, background vocals

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tops for Grin, August 16, 2010

By 

F. J. PRISCO (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gone Crazy (Audio CD)

There's something to be said for all four Grin albums, and there are several compilations. But GONE CRAZY is the stepchild: the only Grin album on the A&M label, so represented by only one song on THE VERY BEST OF GRIN; then overshadowed by Nils' solo career on the A&M BEST OF NILS LOFGREN & GRIN.

All good tracks, but both put together still contain only half this album. Which is a shame: GONE CRAZY has some of the best & none of the least aspects of the three earlier Grin releases. Angsty rockers? check. Bluesy piano? check. Sensitive introspection to stand-on-the-table singalongs? Well, yes! In several ways, GONE CRAZY seems to summarize the band's career -- even reusing an earlier riff. But so what? They were stealing from the Stones ("Ain't For Free" has Bob doing a wonderful Jagger ripoff), why not themselves -- they had such great energy and enthusiasm, the only thing that mattered was how good it sounded.

And it did. GONE CRAZY came closest to representing the power of their concerts. Bob Berberich's bluesy crow highlights three great performances here, showing him to be Nils' Jagger-ish counterpart. Bob's obvious delight sells us in "Ain't For Free", and gives a different plaintive quality to "Nightmare" or "What About Me" -- closer to Steven Tyler really, but with his own quality, and Nils' guitar dances & stings around Bob's vocal.

And of course there's "Beggars Day" -- soon to be covered by their new label mates Nazareth on their one big album HAIR OF THE DOG.

Sure, 1+1 covers more musical territory. I respect that, but personally I don't find Grin at their best with orchestral sweetening. When I want the four-man hitting on all four cylinders, this is the album I reach for most. And there's still Nils' sensitive side in "Believe" and "One More Time".

In summary: No Grin album is perfect, but if you were to get only one, this should be it -- even if (or maybe especially if) you've already got the hits compilation(s). After that, you might as well get 'em all; it's your destiny ....