Musicology

Kinky Friedman - Kinky Friedman 1974

Willie Nelson, an inspired choice, was originally supposed to produce Kinky Friedman's second album, but after some unproductive sessions in Nashville, ABC-Dunhill pulled the plug and sent Friedman into a Los Angeles session with Steve Barri, a Dunhill staff producer whose history ran more toward the Grassroots, the Mamas and the Papas, and Tommy Roe. As Friedman writes in the liner notes of the 20th anniversary reissue on Varese Sarabande, he knew the album was in trouble when he looked up to the control room from the studio and saw Barri disinterestedly painting his fingernails during a vocal take. Obviously, Barri and Friedman were not meant to work together, and frankly, this album suffers as a consequence. Friedman's witty country songs too often end up, in Barri's hands, sounding like Three Dog Night. If one can ignore the poorly chosen and terribly dated production style, Friedman's songs this time out nearly equal those on his far superior debut, 1973's Sold American. Besides the usual satiric jibes, like "Before All Hell Breaks Loose" and "Somethin's Wrong With the Beaver," Friedman essays some gentler character sketches, like "Rapid City, South Dakota" and "Autograph." Friedman also honors his buddy and occasional bandmate Billy Swan by resurrecting Swan's "Lover Please," an early rock & roll hit for Clyde McPhatter. The album's two most famous tracks, though, are "Wild Man From Borneo," a sly tune inspired by Friedman's days in the Peace Corps in that country, and the anthemic "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore," a shaggy-dog story about a barroom encounter with a drunken racist. It's a shame about the production, but otherwise this is a classic of '70s outlaw country. AllMusic.

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