Customer Reviews

Playing Possum

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most people believe Carly Simon's best album is NO SECRETS. I would definitely have to say that I am in agreement with this, and even if this is to be argued, its success is certainly reflective of its artistic credibility - the album itself, along with its leadoff single "You're So Vain" both shot straight to #1. However, people's perception of her 2nd best album vary from BOYS IN THE TREES to COMING AROUND AGAIN. In my opinion however, PLAYING POSSUM wins the #2 slot!

An often overlooked, or perhaps "misunderstood" album, probably due to its erotic cover (front and back!), PLAYING POSSUM nevertheless shows Carly at her most melodic, turning out some of the most beautiful songs in her catalogue. Some reviews have labeled the album's songs as generic schmaltz, but if you're a good listener, you will hear a series of love songs that seem to follow a pattern ...

The album's opener "After The Storm" is an intense, sensual moment in Carly's music that may very well stand as her most elaborately produced song. She follows that with the powerful "Love Oout In The Street." However, Carly then provides us with a much needed breather in "Look Me In The Eyes" and the sexy "More and More." She continues with the album's most sexually overt song in the obsessive "Slave." Yet with this song, followed by the danceable "Attitude Dancing" one can see this cycle starting over again. Yet Carly, who is obviously intuitive enough to know that her audience needs occasional breaks from intense emotionality for a consistently listenable album, tones it down again with the thought-provoking "Sons Of Summer" and the gentle "Waterfall."

However, with the album's 9th track, one can see Carly branching out, stylistically, while retaining the sensuality so prevalent throughout the album - "Are You Ticklish" is perhaps Carly's neatest composition, musically: it's a 1930's-ish waltz complete with a whole horn section, including a memorable opening on clarinet that is so sexy you will find yourself blushing by the song's end. Carly finally concludes with "Playing Possum," the only song on the album that opts for autobiography instead of the not-so-subtle sexuality that's so obvious on all the other tracks.

The body of work that Carly has provided is quite impressive to say the least, but I do not think I have found an album of hers that manages to tap into the senses so well without being rendered excessive as this one. To me, that is why PLAYING POSSUM is her 2nd best.

Back in the 1970's I was enamored with the singer/songwriter soft rock sound prevalent of that era. When "playing Possum" was released in 1975 the single "Attitude Dancing" was receiving airplay on top-40 radio, while the melodic, gentle "Waterfall" was deserving of airplay on Pop/Adult radio. After purchasing the album and listening to every cut, this album clearly became one of my favorite albums of all time.

Anybody who appreciates artists like Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell and Carole King should add this "gem" to their collection. Better yet, go out and purchase the Carly Simon box set, where a number of tunes from "Playing Possum" are included in the project.

That album cover of "Playing Possum"-what can you say
and it was 1975. This CD is fantastic and i don't know
what happened-maybe it was the cover-I just can't figure
it out. Richard Perry produced it right after "No Secrets"
and "Hotcakes" Every song is greatand some of Carly Simon's
best work. I love the songs "After the Storm", "Love out in
the Street", THE TITLE CUT--every song is great, Okay i love
Carly Simon and she did her best work on Elektra--her best
albums are "No Secrets","Hotcakes", "Playing Possum",
and "Another Passenger" When she moved to Warner Bros. the
classic is "Torch" and of her Arista work the best are "Coming
Around Again" and "The Bedroom Tapes"
Although "Playing Possum" did not do well it belongs right up
there with her best CD "Boys In the Trees"

I have a little bit personal attitude to the album. In the 70's I was a student and Playing Possum accompanyed me nearly every day, but I did not know who was a singer and a did not know a name of the album. In that time in Poland under comunism it was impossible to get original vinyl record. I had of poor quality records on magnetophone tape by radio. Thanks to the internet I luckily found that it was Carly Simon. More than 25 years I was looking for her name and finally I've got it.

...this is one of the hottest album covers of all time!

Oh yeah, the music on here is really good, too.

This album changed my perceptions, at age seventeen, of the relationship between love and music. The much-vaunted cover is what it is--erotic but not nasty. Why controversial? One only has to take a look at the ubiquitous and redundant booty on albums and DVDs since then to appreciate the winning combination of dark desire and elegance on this one. It's perfectly emblematic of the music inside, the gorgeous harmonies offsetting Carly's sometimes raw vocals. Returning to it many years later is like biting into Proust's damned tea biscuit--the vocal glissandos and the lyrics, by turns earthy and introspective, come back in a rush, and one realizes the album is just as fresh, overall, as when it first appeared. That can't be said of many albums. Some may call it soft rock, but I think of the album as a whole as one of the catchiest tone poems ever. This is the essential Carly Simon, her writing and interpreting tightly composed songs about being out of control. She may be a slave to her lover, but we're slaves to her voice and manner. If you were ever truly seduced and had that person cross your mind on a rainy Sunday years later, Playing Possum is for you.

Like so many others, I just love the cover of this little album and as for what's found within the music, well that's just as hot. Carly's huge placement on the charts was a little before my time but as a kid I knew her singles and though I had a few albums handed down from aunts, I never got into her; but now that I'm older and understand her whole lyrical sexual and sophisticated world I'm all in a tither. This album includes the hit "Attitude Dancing" and "More and More" but also some interesting ditties like "Look Me In The Eyes" (I beg you when you love me look me in the eyes), and a whole song about watching some sexual antics out of her dirty hotel bathroom window ("Love Out In The Street") and with guest stars like Carole King and then husband James Taylor, its a true 1975 gem and I was completely surprised at how experimental she is with the music chosen. I know it sounds strange but this girl was not the typical folksy singer I thought she was. Now I can't wait to hear the other albums I had to have as I venture into a complete Carly Simon rehash.

The first time I saw Carly Simon's "Playing Possum", I, like everyone else, was excitedly stunned. You know what I mean. That cover pic has made rock and roll history as the sexiest (in a very artsy and classy way) album cover of all time - hands down and no holds barred.

What we have, musically, with "Playing Possum" is a mature, liberated, sophisticated woman's acknowledgement of her own wants and needs. For the most part, the album deals with sex. The artist has laid out the blueprint of her desires.

Carly's singing on this recording is much more raw and gritty, quite suited for the subject matter and her songwriting continues to be fascinating both in structure and the way she chooses to present herself:

The lush, soothing arrangement of the opening cut "After The Storm" grabs the listener right from the start and sets the stage for her opus of sexuality. "Love Out In The Street" is an almost raunchy rocker about a seductress beckoning the object of her desire ("I've come to know you so well from spying on you from my bathroom window in this cheap hotel") to just put it out there. A Caribbean feel is given to the alluring "Look Me In The Eyes", a song about wanting eye contact during lovemaking. "Slave" is a daring, brazen song about feeling so tied to another as to, literally, feel like a slave to the desire for that person. Carly sings this one with real burning, longing and hunger in her voice, just as the lyrics state she feels. "Are You Ticklish?" is a delightfully playful song dressed in a lilting, somewhat big band sound. "Attitude Dancing" is a fun, pop-rock dance number which fits the album's theme because it is so sexy sounding, itself. "Waterfall" is about an old lover breaking new ground, awakening sleeping feelings.

Carly adds to her own songs two other delights: Dr. John's "More And More" which has a nice, strip-teasy feel to it and Billy Mernit's "Sons Of Summer", a blue ballad recalling the fun of yesteryear. I really love Carly's layered harmony vocals on this number.

The title track, which is really another one of Carly's greatest compostions (I would have love to have seen this one released as a single, but alas...), asks of the once socially-conscious a question that can still be put to many today: "Are you just playing possum/keeping a low profile?" The message is still so apropos.

Cannot exactly explain why I like this record so much. It's my favourite Simon album. There really is something magical going on on this album. First of all Attitude Dancing is the song by Carly that I play most frequently. Don't ask me why, but there's something in that song that makes me sing along and gives me such a happy feeling. It just bubbles out of the speakers. Listen to the violins on this song!Sons of summer is so mysterious, it keeps you wondering. In Playing Possum Carly is singing about my own youth. Oh, what memories! And then there's the sleeve of course! LOOK at that! Now, lookin back, and regarding the technial production, this albur deserves to be
enhanced digitally, since the the sound quality as produced back in 1975 is not in confirmity with todays standard. Let`s hope for this improvement of the sound quality of the record, since Carly deserves it. Roger - the Netherlands

This album was overlooked by the public when it was released in 1975. Elektra released "Attitude Dancing" as the single, instead of the more deserving, more Carly-ish songs like, "More and More', "Love Out In the Street", or "Waterfall". Attitude was a "cute" song, but she has stated in previous interviews that she would've preferred "Slave" to be the single. "Slave" would've been an interesting choice, considering it was about feeling like a slave to the man in a relationship. Overall, it is a very good album, and of course, how can you overlook the GREAT album cover. This album deserved better record sales, and more radio airplay.