Customer Reviews

I Know What It Is To Be Young (Single)

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

 

 

I'm not sure whether this 4-minute song was recorded as a joke, but it's certainly ridiculous. The liner notes champion "a recording you'll play again and again. An inspired performance ...you'll want to share with friends and family."

Whatever. The orchestral backing is the kind of Rodeo Drive strings you found on your grandma's LPs (the ones she kept in the basement). Welles never sings, but he does pontificate with deadly force, propelling this junk into a camp classic. There's no Orson on Track 2, just a Perry Como-esque instrumental. Too much money for just 8 minutes, but I loved every horrible minute of it. If you loved William Shatner's ludicrous "Transformed Man" LP, check this out. Hmmm, maybe it IS a record you'll want to share with friends and family....

This spoken word monologue reveals Orson at his most misguieded. Backed by Ray Conniff wannabees, Orson puts the (in)appropriate sound and fury into the delivery of lines so jaw-droppingling banal that this recording must be experienced to be believed. It makes his wine commercials look like "Touch of Evil"! Incidentally, Orson only particpates on one of the two songs--but that's enough. You'll never ever play the second one, but you'll read the ludicrous liner notes again and again. Buy it today!

Believe it or not, this was Orson Welles' first recorded musical performance. "I Know What It Is To Be Young" is a violin-drenched, minor-key, Charles Aznavour-ish ballad in which the weepy Ray Charles Singers gush that their lives have been changed forever by the words of an old man (Welles), who then rumblingly recites his mystical wisdom. This includes the following: young people don't think about age as much as old people do...young and old people should get together more often..and winter follows summer. Wow! This is an insipid performance that will turn your stomach. And the "b-side", which doesn't feature Welles, is even worse! This is a must-get for fans of bad celebrity recordings.

What could I say,when enough said in the song,I consider myself a student learning fine art,when an Orsen Welles production comes out like this !

I got this CD, & I'm glad I did. Sure the poem is on the cornball side, but it's neat. And what makes it worth the price is the great Orson Welles' voice. He's got the perfect voice, he could have read the ingrediants on the toothpaste box and I'd have bought this CD just for the Great Orson voice. Orson still delivers a great hammy performance and I loved every brief moment of it. There's only one Orson "song" on this CD, the other is an instrumental piece of junk that you will only hear once to see just what it is. It's [...], but the Orson bit, great!

It's truly dreadful, but not dreadful enough to play often, and the price is steep for just one track. As the liner notes state: "This once-in-a-lifetime recording could well become a collector's item"; true, but that doesn't make it worthy of the cost.

From the point of view of reminiscing on life....
This record has some true thoughts; an older man/woman does know what it is to be young and a younger person cannot yet feel old, when they are yet young and living with zest.
I like this rambling snippet of philosophy on life.....