A Tramp Shining

Richard Harris | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 2, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: MCA
• ASIN: B000002ONN
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,071 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #39 in Music > Pop > Oldies > Baroque Pop

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available.
Genre: Vocals
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 2-MAR-1993

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The last I heard of Janet..., November 25, 2003

By 

Steven Cain (Temporal Quantum Pocket) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Tramp Shining (Audio CD)

... she was married to some guy... Dang it...

I may never have heard this album had I not had a major crush on a certain Janet W., who I met at college. She kept raving about the album, and as a means of creating more common ground I picked it up, just to be able to flash my own copy (vinyl in those days).

Surprise surprise, I was blown away. Richard had always been one of my favorite actors, but nothing could have prepared me for the intelligent way he negotiated so many stunning Jimmy Webb songs. He also went on to repeat the dose on The Yard Went On Forever.

While the epic Mac Arthur Park was the rightful mega hit, there are many wonderful songs on this truly classic album. My personal favorites include Mac Arthur Park, Paper Chase, Didn't We, Name Of My Sorrow and Lovers Such As I.

No, Richard didn't have the kind of voice that could challenge Jack Jones and Tony Bennett, but he did have a very pleasant voice and this, combined with his exceptional acting prowess, enabled him to add a magic of his own to the already intriguing Webb masterpieces.

This is one of those rare comings together of two great artists who between them created a stunning whole that was even greater than the sum of the considerable parts.

Janet? I think she became an accountant... Sigh...

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No one has ever done it better, December 5, 2002

By 

John R. Eneix (Pickerington, Oh United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Tramp Shining (Audio CD)

I was in college in 1968 and stopped at a buddy's house to bs.
He pulled out an album and said listen to this song. The song
was "In The Final Hours". He knew I had just gone thru a rough
relationship and felt the song appropo for my mood. I cried
then in 1968 and I still get tears in my eyes when I hear that
song and the album it accompanies. VH1 recently had their list
of the greatest 100 love songs of all time. Guess what-every song
on this album could've made the list. When a songwriter with the
insight of Jimmy Webb hooked up with a singer with the interpretive skills of Richard Harris perfection was achieved.
There has not been a pairing since that approaches these 2 artists and i feel safe in saying there may never be again. I can
only say that I feel fortunate to have lived at the time this
album was born.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this ones a lifesaver!!, April 2, 2003

By 

Benjamin Fischer (Cleveland Heights, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Tramp Shining (Audio CD)

If you have a soul in your body, and if you have one shred of emotion in that soul, then MacArthur Park will move you to tears my friends. The first time I heard it was 1969. I was in a methadone clinic in Scranton Pennsylvania. Up until that point I was living off a steady diet of government cheese and whatever beer I could lick off the floor of the bar. It was the lowest point in my life people (well, '85 was worse but that's besides the point). I heard the heavenly strains of the baroque orchestra backing Dick Harris' sonorous voice through the padded walls of my own private hell, and I immeadiately yelled for my orderly to "CRANK UP THE JAM". I knew then that I had a new lease on life. The recording had so much scope, so much ambition. It filled me with a sense of purpose in this mad world and it soon became a rallying cry for my personal transformation.
When I play MacArthur Park for my stepson and his friends they laugh and tell me that it's "overproduced," has "poor arrangement," that "the chorus comes in constantly at anticlimatic times," that the the lyrics are "hilarious," the orchestra sounds "syrupy" and that it's a perfect example of "70's excess." What do I do? I tell them they're wrong, wrong, wrong!! This is the inner cry of a kid lost in a city with a heart full of sorrows and a head full of acid. Bottom line: MacArthur Park is 8.5 minutes of overblown easy maddness that will bring a tear to your eye and jump in your step!!! This is the soundtrack of YOUR LIFE.