Customer Reviews

One Man Dog

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Still one of my favorite albums to this day. As an aspiring musician in the early 70s, and already a fan of JT, this album knocked my socks off. It convinced me that music should, above all, be fun.

If only music today could be as imaginative and fanciful. The songs on side two are more like movements in one long song than like individual selections.

With Alex, Hugh, and Kate Taylor, Carole King, Carly Simon, Dash Crofts, John Hartford, Red Rhodes, Randy and Michael Brecker, John McLaughlin and Linda Rondstadt, as well as producer, Peter Asher, it's a virtual who's who of late-sixties, early-seventies folk rock musicians, with a little jazz thrown in.

One Man Dog featured his most reliable and long-standing group of sidemen, Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel, Craig Doerge, and Leland Sklar. When I turned to bass, later in my own career, Sklar's primo bass licks on this album served as inspiration.

Any fan of James Taylor who doesn't have this album should definitely add this one to his collection.

I was lucky enough to first see James Taylor live in a small outdoor venue called Avaloch in rural Lenox, Massachusetts in the summer of 1970, after his first album recorded by the Beatles in London had been released and just before the release of the fabulously successful "Sweet Baby James" album by Warner Brothers. He appeared alone on-stage with a full head of long, long hair in a simple denim shirt and cut-up jeans with his four or five acoustic guitars, and for two and a half hours proceeded to absolutely enchant the sprawling lawn-full of hundreds of audience members with a spellbinding performance of all of the work from both of those albums. Although virtually unknown at the time, word of mouth had spread so quickly in the Berkshires area (who still considers him one of their own) that many of us went out to get this album to play before he appeared. The rest, as they say, is history. Everyone there became lifelong James Taylor fans.

This particular album is a curious one for Taylor, following in the wake of such extraordinary albums as "Sweet Baby James" and "Mudslide Slim", and it is a rather minor tone in a career with many such mellow, quiet moments as are occasioned by many of the songs presented here. Yet it is also a very memorable album, and most of us who owned the original vinyl version of this album have upgraded to the CD as it has become available. It seems to showcase different aspects of his talents in that he is much more somber, reflective, and open about his own uncertainties and personal troubles in the songs he sings, and in the delivery as well. But several of my favorites are here, including a spare and lean version of "Don't Let Me be Lonely Tonight", "Back On The Street Again", and "Fool For You". It, like most of his albums, has weathered the ravages of age very well, and it is as welcome on my CD as anything else I can think of. No one sings quite like Taylor, and it is a wonderful album to have playing as you are working your way through a quiet Saturday at home, reading or doing chores or kicking back with a Sam Adams and a few friends. Come on back to a better time, friend; sit on down with us and listen a while. This is vintage James Taylor.

I actually had the LP many years ago. I can remember relaxing and feeling all was right with the world when listening to James Taylor. There is a wholesome rock, but not "metal" quality to his writing which I always felt was a save place to be spiritually. JT takes me to a place where I can identify with his emotions, and work through them through his music. Terrific songs!

Yes, this is the same James Taylor we're all used to, but one with more freedom. This collection of tracks doesn't follow with the normal studio restrictions. I think this is the true James Taylor doing what he does best, bringing melody into the air. There are 18 tracks here, but the entire recording is scantly over 40 minutes. These little musical anecdotes are very interesting and extremely enjoyable, especially "Little David" where percussion consists of chainsaws and 2X4's!

I never tire of listening to this music. One the record, Side 2 is basically one large work, each song transitioning to the next. The variety of musical styles illustrate the depth and range of James Taylor's composition and performance genius.

ONE MAN DOG is a great work of art and is probably my favorite album of all time. The follow up to mega hits SWEET BABY JAMES and MUD SLIDE SLIM AND THE BLUE HORIZON, ONE MAN DOG often catches flack for its failure to live up to its predecessors. In some ways, these criticisms are correct, but overall they are too harsh and do not take into account the nature of the album.

This album is best described as a suite of brief musical experiments, in the vein of ABBEY ROAD. Stylistically, ONE MAN DOG runs the gammut much more (and to a greater degree of success) than any other JT album. Songs range from James' familiar easy folk rock ("Nobody But You", "New Tune") to country-tinged funk ("Chili Dog", "Fool for You", "Woh, Don't You Know") to smooth, bass driven jazz changes ("Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight") and everything in between. JT's backup band, along with his own versatile compositional talent, make these styles cohere effectively, convincingly, and seamlessly.

Some of the sounds on ONE MAN DOG are some of the most beautiful sounds ever recorded; the tambour of the instruments, the notes chosen by the musicians, Peter Asher's mastering, etc. all combine to create aesthetically orgasmic ear-candy.

The reason I give this album only 4 stars is because it is painfully undeveloped. The music is in many places raw and JT's attempt at fruition on his ideas falls short. The emotional highs developed by the medley of sounds and the brilliant organization of the tracks are cut short too abruptly by this failure to reach maturity on the songs. It makes for a bit of a bumpy ride.

In all, I highly recommend this album to anyone who is interested in out-of-the-ordinary albums or who is a James Taylor fan of any merit. At first listen, especially for those who are not familiar with much of JT's work, it may be confusing and unsatisfying. In the end, however, the music on ONE MAN DOG has the capacity to bring the listener to tears.

I recently upgraded to the CD version of this classic recording after wearing out two copies of the vinyl record over the years.The original vinyl record didn't even have any credits with it so you had to guess who played on it except for the back cover photo of the core members. I have been moved to tears many times while listening to this recording. The songs seem simple and raw at first, but the more you listen to it you appreciate how complex the material is and how all the musicians give a stellar performance. Even Jazz Fusion guitar player John Mcglaughin plays on one track he co wrote.James Taylor is truely one of the greatest singer songwriters of our generation who only gets better with age.

I'm only 39 but seem to really love this timeline in music. The singer song writer generation. James Taylor is my favorite but this album was not one of his more popular. Only one real hit on it but I really enjoyed the rawness of it. I just read his biography and listening to this really explains some of his perils and inner pain. One man parade, the first song really spells out to me that you better deal with yourself and not worry so much about out side influences. I really like the song cycles at the end as well.
If you are new to JT check this out. Its worth a look.

Along with Sweet Baby James and Mud Slide Slim, One Man Dog is among one of the best James Taylor albums of "Warner Brothers" years.

The most famous song off this album is of course, Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight, but there are many other hightlights -- too many to mention.

This album is different from the other albums in the James Taylor catalog due to the medley form on the second half of this CD (probably side 2 of the LP) most likely influenced by The Beatles' Abbey Road. Another aspect that separates this album from other JT albums is a lot of the songs do sound incomplete, and alot of them are not only 2 minutes or even 1 minute long! There are 2 instrumentals which are different for a JT album.

But the album does have a nice feeling as a whole and like the previous JT albums, it does have a laid back feel to it.

Bottom line, get this album with the previous two.

While a few of the cuts made the charts, the album itself was not a critical success. Of all the JT albums in my collection, this is the one I go back to over and over, and I never tire of it.

This is not a polished, studio album. Thus, rather than suffering from over-production, it pleases with innocent exuberance and creativity. With long-time sidemen, Craig Doerge, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, and Danny Kortchmar, and a who's who of pop and jazz greats, JT creates a winding musical path that surprises and delights at every turn, even after 30 years' worth of listening.

My favorite part remains the medley on side two (Hymn, Fanfare, Little David) which features such things as chain saws, cross-cut saws and hammers to create a complex, layered rhythm. Where others complain of these cuts' brevity and (for them) lack of development, I cherish them for the rare jewels they are. Songs like these are precisely why I became such a fan of the Beatles a few years earlier. They are playful, unpredictable, and timeless. Although I own most of his albums, and enjoy them all, this, for me, is certainly the best of JT, if not the best of 70s folk rock.