Me? I could take him or leave him. He was a hell of a singer and all that, but he was also really cheesy at times. Though I really liked “My Own Way to Rock,” mainly because the guitar solo was so good. Considering my limited budget as a teenager, I never felt the urge to spend my money on his stuff.
The one album I found a while back that is pretty much essential listening was his 1980 two-record collection, The Best of Burton Cummings. Good gravy, those two platters were full of goodness. The cheese? Still there — and lots of it. I just pretended the songs were fries and gravy and made Poutine. The reason I’m not writing about that one is that I stumbled upon Dream of a Child and figured it was worth my time to listen to one of his records in its entirety.
I always thought Burton was huge everywhere post Guess Who. I mean, I remember seeing him on TV playing music a festival with his white grand piano, and on the same bill was Ted Nugent among others ... I just assumed he was a big deal. Turns out, he never really cracked the U.S. market. although I'm sure he sold a lot of records for all that. “Stand Tall” from his '76 debut was a gold-selling single according to the RIAA database, and the album charted as high as No. 30 but didn’t go gold. The next one sold less, and oddly, Dream of a Child - his biggest-selling album at home - just missed cracking the Top 200 in the US.
Dream of a Child is a really good album. I've been playing it off and on for a few days and I have to say I really like this one. Not every song here was a banger for me, but there were enough classic memories and some new-to-me stuff that pushed it over the top.
I'll break the album into sections and see where this goes:
The Familiar (Nostalgia)
- “Break It to Them Gently”
- “I Will Play a Rhapsody”
My goodness, “Break It to Them Gently” still feels like the precursor to Renegade by Styx. I don’t know why I paired them together — musically they’re nothing alike — but I can’t separate them.
“I Will Play a Rhapsody” is a song that should have never worked. Good Lord, when Burton rrrrrrolls his rrrrs on rrrrrhapsody (he does it on the word through one time, too, but still), I get the giggles, but the song still gets me in the feels. Bastard. Well played, Mister Cummings.
I was also today years old when I realized that Randy Bachman played guitar on many of the songs on the album, including these two. Which makes sense when you read the thank-you credits and see: “…Randall Charless for being a new friend and an old one.”
The Cheese (Curds)
- “Hold On, I’m Comin’”
- “Wait By the Water”
- “When a Man Loves a Woman”
- “Shiny Stockings”
- “Dream of a Child”
Cheese? Wait, what?
Okay, maybe not cheese, but these were the ones I couldn’t fully wrap my head around. They’re not bad - I’d just rather hear Burton sing Burton and not record covers.
Now, it must have been awesome to book Steve Cropper to play guitar on “Hold On, I’m Comin’.” This predates The Blues Brothers, and it really does grow on you after a couple of listens.
“When a Man Loves a Woman” - granted, it’s a classic, and it could have been worse. He could have recorded a version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” so small mercy. The dude can sing, we get it.
The Bobby Darin cover “Wait By the Water” is actually really fun and hearkens back to another time, but man, he delivers it with gusto. Kind of border on Vegas baby, but whatever.
“Shiny Stockings” is just a silly, fun, goofy jazzy ditty where Burton probably likely inspired the Micro Machines guy by trying to fit as many words as possible into a stanza. John Moschitta Jr. could squish thirteen words into a second ...
I hadn’t actually noticed how many songs were covers until I started pulling the album apart. Weirdly, as I expose the component parts, the album shouldn’t be as good as it is. It’s a good example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
The Surprises (New To Me)
- “Takes a Fool to Love a Fool”
- “It All Comes Together”
Burton does country? Sure, why not. Hold my beer. “Takes a Fool to Love a Fool” still sounded like Burton, just with pedal steel. This shouldn’t have been this good to me.
Oh my, “Takes a Fool to Love a Fool” was awesome. Randy Bachman is so good on this one. He’s in the pocket, adding just the right amount of goodness to push it over the top. The sax solo by Jim Horn was killer too. This song should have been a hit. So good.
The Musicians (Some of Them)
Talk about bringing in the best of the best. It must be nice.
- Drums: Jeff Porcaro, Jim Gordon, and Rick Schlosser. It piqued my interest that Rick was listed alongside Jeff and Jim on some of the tracks. Who knows — maybe he added some punch with overdubs or extra fills?
- Guitars: You know I love guitars, and Jeff Baxter played on a couple of songs, Randy Bachman played on a lot of them, and Dick Wagner played lead on “Break It to Them Gently.”
- Bass: Provided by Burton’s second lieutenant, Ian Gardiner. Pronounced Leftenant ... that's right, I still don't know how phoenetically that works but it does. Like Ralph and Ralph ... except one is Raif. Best not to dwell on this, and I'm sorry to waste your time.
Burton Cummings produced the album and was apparently mentored by the legendary Richard Perry. Again, how cool is that? The album was engineered and mixed by Howard Steele. This is a great-sounding record.
I'll probably pull down the double album best of more than this one, but it doesn't have "It All Comes Together" which means that I'll play this one now and again.
Post Script: I'm proud of myself, I got the whole way through and not once did I mention Burt's moustache. Until now, because I just can't help myself. I know when people think of moustaches and Burts, it's Reynolds you likely think of first ... but come on, look at that STACHE! That's a marvellous bit of upper lip covering. Maybe it's just a Burt thing. I wonder if Burt Bacharach had one?
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