Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 03/07/06
Label: Castle Music

In which the dead, former Who drummer gets bored in 1974 waiting for his band mates to finish filming "Tommy" and decides to do what all '70s rock stars did - make a solo album. Spurred on by his great drinking pal, Ringo Starr (one of no fewer than eight guest drummers on the project!), and featuring Harry Nilsson, Joe Walsh, David Bowie (possibly), Steve Cropper, John Sebastian and a host of top US session players, Keith - who can't carry a tune in a bucket - records a set of cover versions including songs by John Lennon and Brian Wilson.

Of course, this being the 60th anniversary of Moon's birth, we also get enough out-takes, remixes and the obligatory, approach with caution, "bonus material", to turn the original ten track album into a monster 50 track double CD. Which is nice…if you're a Who collector or have just bought a new, bigger CD holder from IKEA. If not, it's a big price to pay to satisfy your rock heritage curiosity.

The music? Oh, it's a reasonable, if unremarkable, collection of country, rock'n'roll, '70s pop and even the odd Who cover, "The Kids Are Alright", and a snatch of a playful "My Generation". "Crazy Like A Fox" and Lennon's "Move Over Ms L" are at least sprightly, but at best Moon's vocals sound like a bad Alex Harvey. No wonder Brian Wilson reportedly burst into tears on hearing his take on "Don't Worry Baby" and the album was panned on release.

CD 2 boasts the 25 out-takes and rarities and while John Sebastian's guide vocal mix of "Don't Worry Baby" just emphasizes Moon's vocal shortcomings, the most interesting of these oddballs is the appearance of Dick Dale. The '60s surf guitar maestro was persuaded into the studio by Moon and his overdub track to the soporific "Teenage Idol" is fantastically, dangerously over the top. Elsewhere, the blueprint of Wayne Coyne's own love of the cover version is clearly audible on the out-take of "Lies", which could appear on any recent Flaming Lips album and hold its head up high, in an ELO sort of way. In fact, it should have made the original album on this showing.

We should mention the inclusion of three songs from the abandoned follow-up album - yes, incredibly, there was one. Legendary Stax producer, Steve Cropper was parachuted in along with a no-booze regime and the difference to Moon's vocals is marked. Sadly the songs weren't great. "Real Emotion" sounds like an early demo of the "Minder" theme tune sung by The Goodies, while a cover of Randy Newman's "Naked Man" - allegedly featuring Bowie on sax and backing vocals - is probably Moon's best performance.

Keith Moon drums on maybe three of the 50 tracks here and there's a 17 second track of him chatting, presumably included because he uses the word 'bastard'. Can you hear the sound of that barrel being scraped? Go see the biopic, but don't expect this album to rock your world.

    by Andy Strickland