Customer Reviews

Whirlwind

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

 

 

Pay no attention to Andy8047's review. He apparently thinks that if an LP had no major hits then it must not have been a good album. If you are a casual fan of Andrew Gold, I would suggest his compilation CD which spans the majority of his career as a solo artist. However, if you are a fan of Gold and are not familiar with this album, I can promise you that you will not be disappointed with this purchase. It is true that you will not find songs that sound like "Thank You For Being A Friend" on this CD. Personally, I am grateful for that. I've always considered this album to be the one where Andrew Gold matured as an artist - and I use the word "artist" as a major compliment - a singer, songwriter and, yes, a rocker. This is the Gold offering that shows his more rocking side and he does it well. Imagine "Lonely Boy" with a bit more edge and you've got the idea for this one. Musically and lyrically, there is not one bad track on this CD. I would probably have only given this four stars (his "What's Wrong With This Picture" would be a five star effort) but I wanted to offset the ridiculous 1 star rating given by the only other reviewer at the time I wrote this. If you've got other Andrew Gold CDs and you are wanting to find out what he was doing during this period in his solo career, I highly recommend this one, especially if you are wanting to hear the gifted singer/songwriter with more of a rock edge.

A. Gold is one of those obscure backup musicians with a great gift who had a couple of nominal hits. This alblum however is the best Mr. Gold ever put together. He is an adept song writer and has a voice that just makes you kind of cock your head to the side like a dog and try to listen even harder. The guitar work is exceptional, mostly single coil heavily chorused and beautiful tone. This master talent never got a major break but this is a major work-give it a listen! Kmac

William Shatner will always be Capt. Kirk; Kelsey Grammer will always be Dr. Frasier Crane; David Cassidy and Donnie Osmond will always be associated with bubblegum pop music. When a person becomes famous for a particular role or a particular sound, they're typecast in that role or style of music, and people can't see them doing or playing anything else. What an albatross that can be around the neck of talented people. Makes one wish for the days of The Beatles, or Elton John at the peak of his career. Both played just about every style of music and fans not only accepted it, they loved it.

Some people forget that Andrew Golds' first hit was a rocker called "Lonely Boy". His version of "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" rocks as well, and to a lesser extent so does "Go Back Home Again", all off of his breakthrough second solo album. He does seem to show a softer side more often, but he is capable of doing both. Let's not forget the fact that he was also Linda Ronstadts' guitarist during this time, and everyone knew and accepted the fact that she could be mellow AND rock her ass off on the same album or live show. Why not AG?

The thing with "Whirlwind" is that the tracks are not multi-layered; it's a three piece band with a stripped down sound. The liner notes in the CD version explain his reasons for doing a stripped down rock album (critics saying Southern California Rock sound is dead; punk rock becoming popular). Maybe if he had mixed in more songs like "Lonely Boy" or "Go Back Home Again" with tracks like "Stranded On The Edge" and "Kiss This One Goodbye", the perception would have been different. The fact remains that this album rocks. And it's good. I bought it when it first came out, and my one complaint then was that it only had nine songs. That has been rectified with the bonus tracks on the CD release. Andrew got typecast as a balladeer with the album "All This And Heaven, Too" after "Thank You For Being A Friend" became a hit (the album cover of AG in a tux and tophat didn't help) and then became the theme song for the silver-haired generation sitcom "The Golden Girls", the latter probably being the kiss of death, and the reason some people can't accept him doing anything else.

A gifted talent such as Andrew Gold has proven he can write great pop songs as well as rockers, and be successful at it. The critics and all the people who persist in typecasting him as a "one style" songwriter/performer just need to catch up with the rest of us.

Must confess I haven't listened to this since I ditched my turntable and lost the ability to play the vinyl. This is Andrew Gold's attempt to be a rocker. My problem with it is that, although it's catchy and nicely done (as you'd expect), there's no real change of pace throughout. Thing is, if you're into loud rock music, you probably wouldn't want to listen to Andrew Gold anyway, and if you're into Andrew Gold, you probably wouldn't want to listen to loud rock music.

My advice, unless you're a completist, is to get ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO, or THE SPENCE MANOR SUITE first.

This is a rockier album. Andrew Gold was best known, and rightly so, for his ballads and there are none here. For some reason, he felt people wanted to hear a rockier side to him, and it hardly works, in my opinion. I think to the first three albums and stand out tracks come to mind. This is just poor middle of the road rock.

I'm sorry to say that there are no major hits from this album. Andrew Gold's contract with Asylum records expired after he recorded this album(this one is his fourth). Gold was one of the musical guests on NBC's Saturday Night Live on May 24,1980,the last show for the remaining original cast. Gold performed KISS THIS ONE GOODBYE. He probably was on "home base" with the cast when they took their final bows. Gold even briefly dated actress Laraine Newman,who was one of the original remaining SNL cast.