During the waning days of poor Krazy Bob's I would go in more often than not to scour his discount bins that were more often than not seeded with some really cool stuff. On the day where I found this 1977 CBC Transcription, I also found replacement copies for a couple of his albums that I had back in the mid '80s: On the Avenue (1978) and Rancho Banano (1980). I looked and looked hoping to find Drinking with the Continental Drift (1979) an album I never had, that would have filled in a missing piece. But it was either hiding or whoever dumped their records with Bob never had it and it wasn't there to be had.
It's been decades since I've actually listened to any of Joe Hall's stuff. Over the last few years I've listened to "Vampire Beavers" twice, once where I tried my friend into playing it at a party and I cleared the dancefloor, and the other time when I just felt like hearing it. Of his recordings there is a best of out there you can stream if you choose to ... you should, why not?
When I first got those two records I tried listening to them but never got into them, but dagnabbit there was something about them that just hit my funny bone. My favourite was the previously mentioned "Vampire Beavers" a song so odd it was awesome. However, the deliberately disturbing "High School Flesh" was hard to listen to as it was well, just creepy ... and that's just about all I remember.
Fast forward and I now had three albums to choose from. I figured I'd go with the one that was new to me. It really didn't matter where I started as I honestly didn't remember much from the other two ... whose fault was that? Mine, but I'm not here to assign blame. I'd start with the CBC recording. This was his third record but the first album attributed to Joe Hall and the Continental Drift. The album I found didn't have an insert, but I suspect it never came with anything other than a generic paper sleeve. The back cover contains the lyrics and band credits. The album was recorded in Toronto over the month of June in 1977.
The record, I have to say is decent if not memorable. It was also different than what I remembered from the later albums I had. This was leaning more into a bastardized Gordon Lightfoot vein than it was the Warren Zevonesque stuff I sort of thought of as Joe Hall.
The band here is capable, most notably Tony Quarrington who played lead guitar and provided harmony vocals. While the songs initially didn't grab my attention, the lyrics did reveal more was going on than you realize at first blush. Joe doesn't so much as sing as kind of talk in a sing song voice to tell the story. Maybe it's me wanting to read more into this than was actually going on, but after a couple of plays through I found myself listening to him more than the music.
I suppose that was part of the allure that garnered the attention of CBC. There was artistry in the lyrics and back in '77 that probably counted for a lot. The halcyon days of the late '60s and early '70s folk scene had given way to the angst of the singer songwriter and while Mister Hall didn't seem to fit into a simple category a musical no man's land seemed to be where he belonged. The first few plays through the songs struck me as unremarkable and borderline generic structured pop songs. I wish the music had more... pizzazz. It was the songs that were the vehicle for Joe Hall's poetry about the human condition. Yeah, I'm likely stretching it a bit, but it's hard to just view them as lyrics.
I'll pull a couple of stanzas to illustrate: There's a lot to choose from, I'll just use these ones.
"The Man Who Lives in Room 54"
the man who lives in room 54
enjoys giving freedom to flies
helping them find the hole in the screen
while the airplanes buzz outside
he'll soon be leaving there
he can go anywhere
everytime he closes the door
"Pirates Delight"
oh good christ are those for real
stoop sweet maid and gimme a feel
oh my you sure can dance
i think i best go
scrape out my pants
"Preparing to Begin"
i've left the latch unlocked
i know he knows the way,
i've honed my faith,
and quickened my will:
i curse his delay.
This is also the point where after playing the album through a half dozen times my subjective judgments about the music and the absence of a defining hook have lessened to where the music and the lyrics are paired nicely. I still think that this isn't an album suited to being casually played in the background. It'll sort of serve that purpose, but this is more rewarding when deliberately consumed. Sadly the time and energy required to let this one steep is likely the reason this is one of those albums that has been lost. Essentially a musical TLDR.
Of the course, I don't have enough letters after my meagre credentials to qualify me as an academic, or enough musical theory to give me credence as a critic ... I'm just a guy with a love of music, a decent ear and enough musical ability to give credit where credit is due, at least from my perspective.
Joe Hall was a conundrum ...
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