Genre: rock
Rating: *** (3 stars)
Title: Hotgun
Company: Guinness
Catalog: GNS-36014
Year: 1977
Country/State: US
Grade (cover/record): VG / VG
Comments: cut top right corner
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4936
Price: $70.00
Tax write off labels ... hard to imagine that there's a collectors market for such an obscure subgenre, but there is !!!
Released by the Guinness label (reputedly a tax scam label), 1977's "Hotgun" stands as a pretty typical genre offering in that it's characterized by cheapy artwork and an absence of performance and production credits. Unlike many tax scam releases this one at least has writing credits - most of the ten tracks are originals credited to someone by the name of Victor. So what's this baby sound like? Well here's the interesting thing. This is a pretty entertaining collection of pop and rock collection. The anonymous singer/songwriter (assuming they're one and the same) is pretty friggin' good. He's got a likable voice that's versatile, yet very commercial. On a couple of tracks he even bares a mild resemblance to Emmitt Rhodes, early Eric Carmen, or perhaps Paul McCartney (whose insipid 'Silly Love Songs' stands as one of three cover tunes). Stylistically this one's all over the spectrum. The opener 'Joe Pepitone' sports a disturbing real person aura. 'Show Business' offers up a killer slice of fuzz propelled rock, while 'Nashville Bats' could have been a Thunderbird Newman outtake. Among the highlights, the gorgeous acoustic ballad 'My Father's Son', the static new-wavish 'Love Graph' and the rocker 'Straight Shootin' Woman'. In fact the only real missteps are a couple of the covers. Lennon's 'Whatever Gets You Through the Night' and McCartney's 'Silly Love Songs' are rote performances which add nothing to the originals. Elsewhere, nobody should cover a Starland Vocal Band song; certainly not something as dreadful as 'Afternoon Delight'. Those missteps aside, too bad the rest of these tax scam albums aren't nearly as impressive
"Hotgun" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Joe Pepitone (Victor) -
2.) Show Business (Victor) -
3.) Whatever Gets You Through the Night (John Lennon) -
4.) Nashville Bats (Victor) -
5.) My Father's Son (Victor) -
(side
2)
1.) Love Graph (Victor) -
2.) Silly Love Songs (Paul McCartney) -
3.) Afternoon Delight (Bill Danoff) -
4.) Fallin' In Love (Furay) -
5.) Straight Shootin' Woman (Edmonton) -