Customer Reviews

Perfect High

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

 

 

I've been moving the mouse between four and five for at least that many minutes, believing as I do, that any Bob Gibson, is a grand event. It's just that this one has never been my favorite. Bobby and I used to talk about why, since I love every note that ever fell out of the man's mouth, and we decided it wasthe way the whole thing hung together. It's more surface, more casual, light, with few exceptions, and when they come, as in "Army of Children" they seem a little harsh, a little out of place in the mix. Not that 'light's a bad thing... No matter what CD I've put in, each time I drive south from our Mendocino home, I do so humming, " Bobby! Don't forget your boots..." from "...Desperado" the story of Gibson and Wild Jack on one of their legendary, excursions... The voice is solid - clear, inviting and wonderful. The twelve-string and banjo, are strong, and the material is catchy - "Rock me Sweet Jesus" is just dandy! It's rousing, he soars, and more, it's the evidence of the nimble, duality Bobby brings to each song of "Issue". "Box of Candy..." with Tom Paxton, is deft and clever, [also true] and contains the single funniest tag line since Danny Thomas's first spit take... "Heavenly Choir" is all the more haunting, because he is now up there leading it. And "BaBa Fats"... Well, any album containing that particular bit of "Gib-Stein" wisdom, at their most amused, most, tounge- in-cheek best, deserves the "High..." that is nearly...almost...perfect. The last few years of his life, Bobby grew to love the "house concerts" people begged for, state to state, region to region. He saw them as personal "thank-you's" to all the "Middleaged Groupies" he loved and who loved him. As his strength began to wain, he'd compensate, pulling from a bag of performance skills that left him a fine and spellbinding, story teller. He always closed those concerts with the mystical BaBa, and he always left them, wanting more. Pick your number, four or five...This nearly, perfect offering is no different...

With his days as urban-hip folk revivalist twenty years behind him, and freshly clean after kicking some nasty drug habits, Bob Gibson settled into his new role as an older-but-wiser singer-songwriter. "The Perfect High" may not be his musically strongest album from this period, but it is certainly the most entertaining. With only a pair of exceptions ("Army of Children," "Leaving for the Last Time"), Gibson and his ghost-lyricist Shel Silverstein play it for laughs this time around, with jocular and satirical portrayals of one-night stands, middle-aged groupies, Canadian prisons, and even drug abuse. The results are truly fun, and Gibson seems happier than he had been for years.

Bob Gibson and Shel Silverstein get together to do a musical romp in the '60's ballad style. The songs are all brilliant Silverstein lyrics that Gibson puts to music with his Gibson 12 string guitar. From experience and almost mystical insight the Perfect High wraps up the CD. For anyone who has dealt in any manner with chemical dependency, the Perfect High will grab you and take you for a walk down memory lane.

On one of the tracks, Bob sings a duet with Jo Mapes. She sounded beautiful. Unfortunately, I can't find anything she has recorded.

I enjoyed the CD but I wish I could have heard some more of Jo Mapes.