****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
What Roger McGuinn's best solo work is happens to be a matter of personal taste. For me, this is the best record he has ever produced. It came on the heels of his legendary support of the Mystery Man on his Hard Rain tour in 1975. During that journey ole Rog met up with another legend, Mick Ronson (recently separated from his gig as David Bowie's lead guitarist and on-stage foil) and after Bobby came off the road, Roger and Mick hunkered down in the studio with Ronson taking on the producers role. To start the album they began with a song about what else?, the tour they had just come off of, of course. "Take Me Away" gives a quick and rocking synopsis of the goings on the previous year, complete with ringing guitars and a glorious Ahhhhhhh! at the end. Next up is what can be termed the title track, "Jolly Roger", a swashbuckling sea shanty about the pleasures of being a scurvy buccaneer on the high seas. Whenever I hear it I get the urge to talk like a pirate! Arrrrrgh Matey! Another stand out track is the humorous "Partners in Crime" a musical letter to and about the Chicago Seven (Google them, Folks!). He also fires up a great tune Dylan wrote but had not performed up to that time, "Up To Me" and takes what I would normally consider a batch of banality scribed by Joni Mitchell and makes it rock for all it's worth in "Dreamland". This record is so great that it made his next release, Thunderbyrd, seem rather a disappointment by comparison.
