Danny O'Keefe Global Blues CD

 One of the great albums of the seventies
Danny O’Keefe sure picked an appropriate title for his 1979 release, with many of his songs depicting not only the current state of the world as in “Save the Whales” and “Atlas,” but also life in general and human relationships. His lyrical wit is just as amazing as it has always been, but the real surprise is to be found in the arrangements of the individual songs. “Livin’ in the Modern Age” & “The Jimmy Hoffa Mem. Bldg. Blues” dates back to the pre-rock era, with its jazz leanings making it sound like something coming out of Crescent City. The title track combines blues, rock and jazz in a highly original way and on “The Street” O’Keefe fuses some kind of a reggae/Caribbean rhythm track with Mike Boddiker’s excellent synthesizer work and Danny O’Keefe, Jay Lewis and Joel Tepp supply the howling guitars. The result is fabulous and lyric-wise the song has some interesting observations about street life that makes this song stand out. One of the lines goes like this: “Sign I saw on a wall yesterday – said don’t forget the SLA,” – a reference to the Symbionese Liberation Army & the Patty Hearst kidnapping in 1974! And the chorus: “Step into the future – Step out of the past – Nothing lasts.” But the rest of the song selections reflect the same high quality, both in terms of lyrics and music. Cuts like “(Keep Your) Back to the Wall,” Square Sun” and “Save the Whales” show how well Danny O’Keefe masters different styles. The first one of these is a great pop song filled with hooks and on the second he creates otherworldly sounds by clever use of guitars, keyboards, percussion and a Japanese instrument – a shakahachi – whatever that is! The album’s final song “Atlas” is a fitting end to this song cycle – and the decade. It’s quite a feat encompassing so many music styles on one record without losing sight of the goal. Danny O’Keefe is that rare kind of an artist, who’s capable of doing it. “The Global Blues” is a benchmark in Danny O’Keefe’s entire recording career. There’s something for all on this record and some of the topics he dealt with at that particular time are just as relevant today. Longtime Danny O’Keefe fans probably have the old LP version, if it’s not worn out by repeated listening a long time ago. This marks the first time “Global Blues” has been released on CD, along with several other O’Keefe recordings from the seventies like “O’Keefe,” (1972), “So Long Harry Truman,” (1975) & “American Roulette” (1977). All four Wounded Bird CD releases are highly recommended.
Submitted by sm.and (Hvidovre, Denmark) 
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