1072 - Mojo 81. Pearls Before Swine - One Nation Underground (1967)

Track Listing

1. Another Time
2. Playmate
3. Ballad To An Amber Lady
4. (Oh Dear) Miss Morse
5. Drop Out!
6. Morning Song
7. Regions of May
8. Uncle John
9. I Shall Not Care
10. The Surrealist Waltz

Review

Some more folk rock on the list, and while it is quite good and it does have quite a bit of variety to it, it never quite dazzles the way it might. There is one particular detail that makes it less than appealing and that is the fact that Tom Rapp has a bit of a lisp.

However you soon start to be able to live with the speech impediment and learn to enjoy the album. As I said there is quite a bit of variety here from the ballady first track to the aggressive Uncle John. However this is sometimes too much variety for one album and it seems a bit haphazard at times.

There is a very clear Bob Dylan influence to all this, particularly on the second track where even Rapp's voice seems to emulate Dylan. However he is never as consummate as Bob and so the comparisons become unfair to him... but he is the one which identifies with Dylan.

Track Highlights

1. The Surrealist Waltz
2. Another Time
3. Playmate
4. (Oh Dear) Miss Morse

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

"Another Time" is an acoustic song, the first that Rapp ever wrote, based on his experience in a car crash where he walked away unscathed, and, with "Morning Song", represents the most characteristic example of Rapp's later writing style. In contrast, "Drop Out !" and "Uncle John" are youthful protest songs. "(Oh Dear) Miss Morse" spells out in Morse code the word F-U-C-K, accompanied by banjo and organ.

Another Time: