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Album : Gideon
Artist : Kenny Rogers
Genre : Country, Pop
Year : 1980
- Tracks - (favorites in pink)
01.) Goin' Home to the Rock02.) Gideon Tanner
03.) No Good Texas Rounder
04.) Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer
05.) The Buckeroos
06.) You were a Good Friend
07.) Call Me Up
08.) These Chains
09.) Somebody Help Me
10.) One Place in the Night
11.) Sayin' Goodbye
12.) Goin' Home to the Rock
You're Kenny Rogers. You've had two straight smash-hit albums ("The Gambler" (5x-platinum; 1978) and "Kenny" (3x-platinum; 1979). How do you possibly follow them up?
Answer : by doing a concept album, a retrospective story of a cowboy (and somewhat of a scoundrel) named Gideon Tanner. All songs were penned by Kim Carnes, who wrote them with Kenny Rogers specifically in mind. He returned the favor by singing a duet with her on the one radio-play hit from the LP, Don't Fall In Love With A Dreamer.
I picked this LP up a couple weeks ago for $2.99 at Half Price Books. It was in pristine condition; maybe a dozen scratches or so. So I removed them manually, which helps preserve the original audio quality, especially the highs and lows.
Gideon was a wonderfully pleasant discovery for me, with fantastic lyrics (thank you, Kim!), excellent musicianship, smooth vocals, and almost no filler. Tracks 10 and 11 are ballads, which I found to be a bit ...well... slow. But I could've marked all the other tracks above in pink. Track after track is one treat after another.
Truth be told, Gideon didn't quite meet the dizzying success of its two predecessors. It only achieved single-platinum status. Surprisingly, Amazon doesn't offer this album as MP3 downloads, and the audio CD will run you a mind-numbing $49.99. Presumably because it's an import. Over the years, only nine people have left comments/ratings for the album on Amazon. Fame is apparently fleeting.
If you come across this album - vinyl, CD, or otherwise - snatch it up, and give it a listen. You'll not be disappointed.
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