Inner Views

Sonny Bono | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 2, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rhino Handmade/Super D
• ASIN: B0001MBJGG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #533,006 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I've got something to say., February 15, 2005

By 

Johnny Heering "trivia buff" (Bethel, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inner Views (Audio CD)

This is a limited edition (1,500) reissue of Sonny Bono's only solo album, released on CD finally. Inner Views is Sonny's "anti-masterpiece". It came out two years after he had his only solo hit, "Laugh at Me". The album was both a critical and commercial failure, but it's certainly an interesting failure. It seems to be very influenced by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in a superficial way, without really understanding what it was about Pepper that made it great. The album has 5 whole songs on it, totaling 33 minutes (the CD version is 69 minutes long). It opens with the 12 minute opus "I Just Sit There", which seems to be about how the world is changing... or something. Then we hear "I Told My Girl To Go Away", about the pain of inter-racial dating. "I Would Marry You Today" sounds like a song from out of the '50s, and seems out of place on a "hip" album from 1967. "My Best Friend's Girl Is Out of Sight" is about the perils of double dating. The album ends with "Pammie's on a Bummer", an eight minute freakout about a prostitute. This is one bizarrely entertaining album that has to be heard to be believed! The CD also includes all of Sonny's solo singles that were released by Atco Records, plus the instrumental backing track to "Laugh at Me". A very thorough job! Here is the complete track listing:

1. I Just Sit There
2. I Told My Girl To Go Away
3. I Would Marry You Today
4. My Best Friend's Girl Is Out of Sight
5. Pammie's on a Bummer
6. Laugh at Me (single version)
7. Tony
8. The Revolution Kind
9. Georgia and John Quetzal
10. Misty Roses
11. Cheryl's Coming Home
12. I Told My Girl To Go Away (single version)
13. Pammie's on a Bummer (single version)
14. My Best Friend's Girl Is Out of Sight (single version)
15. Laugh at Me (original backing track takes 9 & 10)
16. Laugh at Me (album version)

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "SLEEPER" album from one of the 60's best producers of 'pop' music, October 27, 2008

By 

CMW-Tzvi "Tzvi" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Inner Views (Audio CD)

When I call this album a "sleeper", I mean that it grows better the more you listen to it. This item only has the 5 songs released on the original LP platter, no extra tracks, no "bonus" surprises, etc. The songs are as follows:

1. "I Just Sit There,"
This must be what induced the previous reviewer to call the entire disc a "self-indulgent psychedelic-kitsch "classic" solo album". First, it IS a bit repetitive, and Sonny sounds like he's trying too hard to be 'hip' in what was the rapidly changing music scene of 1967. Hence the long (over 12 minutes!) song taking cues from various sources, especially the Beatles.

2. "I Told My Girl To Go Away,"
At first this sounds like it's a take off of "A Day in the Life", but with a typical 'pop' boy-and girl-breaking-up theme, but wait!! Listen to the lyrics carefully (or read them carefully from the insert- you may need to magnify the text to do this). Sonny appears to be writing about a cross-cultural or maybe even a cross-racial relationship! Pretty gutsy EVEN for 1967 in most of the country!

3. "I Would Marry You Today,"
A careful listen to (or reading of) the lyrics pictures a guy willingly entering into a rather disfunctional relationship: that MAY explain how things really were between him and his wife (Cher)!

4. "My Best Friend's Girl Is Out Of Sight"
This is possibly the previous picture from another angle: a guy who's with one girl (his girlfriend) but develops a crush on his BEST FRIEND's girlfriend, who apparently later becomes the BF's WIFE! Pop music did not (yet) take on these subjects in the kind of analysis Sonny gives the situation here.

5. "Pammie's On A Bummer"
At first listen, this song may be painful to take for some, but that's because (as you were warned by the title) the subject of the song is ON A BUMMER!! Sonny uses the darkness of the background to empasize that point. You wouldn't want a light 'happy!', celebratory background for this type of song- you'd sound like it was nothing to worry about. Look at the lyrics, and you'll see that this is a cautionary tale! Having lived through the sixties and part of the seventies among a loose hippy-college group of friends, I can picture this song's background only too well- I can give names if I'm pressed for proof!

Obviously, this is not a fit with the typical Sonny & Cher collection- a LITTLE TOO HEAVY for that crowd, but if you've ever heard of Sonny's other solo pieces ("Laugh at Me", "The Revolution Kind", etc. ... oh yeah, HIS version of "You'd Better Sit Down, Kids" also), you can see this as a logical part of his work.

Also remember that MOST of the songs that he & his then-wife put out were written by Sonny, as well as arranged and produced by Sonny- including her solo recordings most of the way through the seventies!

Admittedly, this is not to everybody's taste, but this description should help you know whether or not it might be for you.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Your mother's cooking sturgeon/your sister's still a virgin, April 22, 2005

By 

jon sieruga (Redlands, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Inner Views (Audio CD)

EP from Sonny Bono(sans Cher)is scattershot, half-baked, dated--but it's a glittering relic. A high-minded and spotty bid at success(with an underlying feel of complete indifference to the pop market). The effort could've used a better music editor, for the songs go on too long. The lyrics are a fruity batch of witticisms, but Bono's singing isn't bad and on the slower, tender "I Told My Girl To Go Away", he almost renders a throwaway classic.