Genre: rock
Rating: 3 stars ***
Title: Broken Bow and Idabell
Company: Broken Bow & Idabell, Inc
Catalog: none
Year: 1976
Country/State: Shreveport, Louisiana
Grade (cover/record): VG+ / VG+
Comments: gatefold sleeve; includes lyric insert and original sticker
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4976
Price: $150.00
Normally something as bizarre and goofy as this album would be a major turn off to me, but there's something charming about this self-financed vanity project ...
First a quote from the liner notes - "One garage. One album. Two Fools. 3 years. You see here two guys who wrote and recorded their own album, in a studio they built with their own two hands. The music is indescriable: one critic tried - he said ... :it is a social antedote for disco madness, a kind of ... soothing rock and roll Renaissance ... in the modern music sea of same-ness ... I see a combination of Harry Nillson [sp], Randy Newman, and Joe Walsh in their style ..." But whoever heard of a real love song for married people, or a Calypso song with a country & western break, or a song titled: "Please Buy This Song."
The two guys were Tom Colquitt and John Crow (I think) and their labor of love took the form of 1976's "Broken Bow and Idabell". Literally recorded in a garage that the pair converted into a recording studio (you can see studio pictures on the back cover), these guys wrote all 15 tracks (!), handled most of the instrumentation, and were credited with arranging, engineering, mixing and producing. From a technical standpoint they did a wonderful job as the album's production values matched that of a big budget label. Musical the set bounced all over the spectrum, including snippets of Monty Pythonesque humor (the Calypso-turn-C&W 'At the Laundrymat'), pop ('Something's Coming'), hard rock ('Time To Be Free') and progressive moves ('Never Have I Seen'). Sure it wasn't perfect. Their quirky sense of humor ('Please Buy This Records') probably pissed off lots of potential fans and some of their poppier stuff bore a weird resemblance to America (check out 'Everything Is Fine'). Also, nothing here was particularly original, but then when's the last time you heard a top-40 act turn out something truly original? Besides, even though it took 'wm three years, these guys sounded like they had a lot of fun recording the album. In case anyone cares, 500 copies were apparently pressed, helping explain some of the asking prices I've seen on dealer lists.
"Broken
Bow & Idabell" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Something's Gone Wrong (Tom Colquitt - John Crow) - 1:09
2.) Keep Me In Mind (Tom Colquitt - John Crow) - 2:40
3.) Spittin' On the Keys (Tom Colquitt - John Crow) - 2:55
4.) Dear Lord (John Crow) - 2:02
5.) Please Buy This Song (Tom Colquitt - John Crow) - 3:19
6.) Spanish Lesson (John Crow) - 1:40
7.) Everything Is Fine (Tom Colquitt) - 3:58
8.) Never Have I
Seen (Tom Colquitt
- John Crow) - 4:58
(side
2)
1.) Something's Coming (John
Crow) - 3:16
2.) A Friend (Tom Colquitt) - 4:15
3.) At the Laundrymat (John Crow) - 2:10
4.) Without Her (Tom Colquitt) - 4:02
5.) Un Paid Bill (Tom Colquitt - John Crow) - 4:02
6.) Time To Be Free (Tom Colquitt - John Crow) - 2:13
7.) Goodbye and Goodnight ( John Crow) - 2:47
For those of you curious, here's what the sticker looks like:
