Mason Williams Phonograph Record

Mason Williams | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002KAK
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118,866 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Overture

2. All of the Time

3. Wanderlove

4. She's Gone Away

5. Here I Am

6. Classical Gas

7. Long Time Blues

8. Baroque-A-Nova

9. Prince's Panties

10. Sunflower

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Classical Gas but not Classic Mason Williams, October 1, 2000

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mason Williams Phonograph Record (Audio CD)

It is ironic that the biggest detriment to Mason Williams as a singer-songwriter is Mason Williams himself. I picked up this CD so that I could listen to "Classical Gas" whenever the mood struck me. The only other song I tend to listen to is "Baroque-A-Nova," probably because I remember having both songs on 45s in the olden days. There are a couple of other songs I like on the album, not when they are sung by Mason Williams, but rather when they are sung by the Smothers Brothers, for whom Williams was a major contributor. The Brothers Smothers recorded both "Long Time Blues" and the "Life Song," while Dick Smothers did a wonderful solo of "Wanderlove" on "The Smothers Brothers Play It Straight." There is also one song, "The Prince's Panties," which serves as a reminder that Williams wrote a lot of comic songs, which may well have been his true forte.

I think the rationale for my preference is threefold. First, Mason Williams does not have a distinguishable voice or a singer's feel for his own music, which may well be why his instrumental pieces are his "biggest hits." Second, his songs work better when sung by more than one person, which is why they work so well for the Smothers Brothers (a good example would be a Williams song not on this album that the boys did, "The Three Song"). Third, producer Mike Post served neither the singer nor his songs well on this album. But if this is your one chance to have your own copy of "Classical Gas," then that is reason enough (Remember when the Smothers Brothers came back to TV and Williams played it on a clear guitar that had fishing swimming around inside?).

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an eclectic classic for the eclectic listener, May 13, 2001

By 

Steve Dallas - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mason Williams Phonograph Record (Audio CD)

I've known and enjoyed this album since childhood. Texan Mason Williams combines elements of folk, pop and country with a refined classical air, a measured amount of humor and the backing of a 45-member orchestra, making this album thoroughly enjoyable during its all-too-brief running time of 30 minutes. It starts off with an overture of the album's themes, then jumps to the snappy "All the Time", a "goodbye song" with an attitude. After the admittedly pointless (but forgivable, being only half a minute) "Dylan Thomas" comes "Wanderlove", an eloquent lovesong evoking the giddy and poetic beginnings of marriage. "She's Gone Away" is another snappy "goodbye song", this time from the perspective of the dumpee. Williams' overdubbed harmonies give this one extra power. "Here Am I" was described by Williams as "my way of doing Shakespeare today", and it does indeed bring the Bard in a comtemporary setting to mind. Noteworthy is the complicated job of mixing someone must have had to make this unique song work. The immortal instrumental "Classical Gas" is the reason many have bought this album, and it's certainly worth the purchase price by itself. This original version is far superior to the one Williams did 20 years later with Mannheim Steamroller, as the latter all but obscured the melody with a too-loud backup and only one guitar instead of the original's overdubbed twin guitars. "Long Time Blues" is an appealing country-pop song of heartbreak, "Baroque-a-Nova" is a sixtyish scat-instrumental which has a fun feel, and the looney "The Prince's Panties" is one chapter of a five-part musical Williams wrote but never released all of in one piece (Another appears on his 1968-1971 collection.). "Life Song" is a simple but profound half-minute pause for refreshment, then "Sunflower" (a musical take on a real-life sunflower Williams commissioned to be created by a skywriter) is a somber and beautiful instrumental to close the album. Alas, Mr. Williams, while providing great quality, only gives us half an hour of enjoyment, so I cannot give this album five stars. True, shorter albums were more the norm in the sixties, but you'd have hoped that an "expanded edition", with more of Williams' creations, might have been offered by Warner Brothers in the era of the CD.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Blast from the Past, January 27, 2004

By 

gesegnet (Boise, Id United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mason Williams Phonograph Record (Audio CD)

I was really surprised to see the negative comments on this album. My father bought this when I was a child in the sixties and I grew up with it so perhaps that is why I remember it so fondly. This is the album that introduced Mason Williams to the world and it is arguably his best work.
Perhaps the people who do not care for this album find it hard to relate to the period from which it came, in that sense it is dated. This is a sixties album no doubt. Mason Williams presents pop music with a full orchestra as backup, something that was just not done until Williams and other acts such as the Beatles decided to break the rules. The Phonograph Record also has some other gems as well; I personally like All The Time more than Classical Gas, although that is a personal preference. Wanderlove is picturesque and one of the most beautiful songs he ever wrote. Baroque-A-Nova is an excellent tune although you might prefer the instrumental version he later released. The Prince's Panties is one of the funniest songs I have ever heard, and Sunflower is the perfect vehicle to end the album.
Of course, the album does have it's low points, She's Gone Away proves once and for all that Williams is not a Rock N Roller, fortunately, he seems to have learned that lesson and avoided that pitfall on later albums.
Here Am I is an interesting experiment in psychedelic imagery, but in the end fails to deliver, and Long Time Blues shows that Williams doesn't even know what the blues is.
Other than that, the album really is joy to listen to, even after all these years, it stands as a testament to a time when pop artists were willing to break the molds and experiment, when anything seem possible.