Published on Jan 5, 2000
Has it really been nearly 25 years since Heart came out with
their debut effort
Dreamboat Annie? Although Ann and Nancy Wilson have kept
relatively low profiles over the last few years (save for their
stint with The Lovemongers), their music is still played on a daily
basis, cementing their importance in the rock and roll fabric.
But going back to
Dreamboat Annie, one has to wonder if there’s anything past
the two hits that have been overplayed to death by rock radio.
Sadly, the answer is: not much of substance is left.
Let’s get the two hits out of the way early. I’ll freely admit
that I’m so sick of hearing these songs on the radio that every
time they come on, I change the station. (I’m developing carpel
tunnel syndrome from the amount of times I change the radio station
in the car.) But hearing them in the environment they were created
in, it sounds a lot more natural, and the songs regain the glory
that has been wrung from their chord structure. The acoustic guitar
intro on “Crazy On You” is still a tremendous piece of playing, and
it helps to put the whole piece in perspective.
Granted, I’ve never been a big fan of the guitar solos on “Magic
Man,” and Heart would make this song weak in comparison to some of
the works they’d pen. But there’s still something intriguing about
hearing it, keeping this song fresh.
That leaves eight songs on
Dreamboat Annie — and three of them are used for variations
on the title track. Can we say “overkill”? No, better yet, can we
say “filler”? I mean, the whole disc is only 40 minutes long, for
crissake.
One version of the track was more than enough, thank you
very much.
Then again, after hearing some of the efforts on
Dreamboat Annie, methinks I’m complaining about the wrong
thing. Some tracks, like “Soul Of The Sea,” take a long time to
develop, but they prove to be worth it. Others, like “(Love Me Like
Music) I’ll Be Your Song,” are decent enough, but sink in their own
sugar-sweetness. Then there’s tracks like “Sing Child,” which fall
under the heading of “it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
These should be avoided.
Am I being too harsh? After all, this was a first effort, and
every band needs some amount of space to grow. Maybe that’s true in
the case of
Dreamboat Annie. But when it comes down to asking yourself
whether it’s worth investing in this disc these days, you do have
to look at all the aspects of it. When you get right down to it,
the answer is that this is a disc that’s really for the diehard
fans only. If you want the hits, there’s a number of greatest hits
and live albums out there that they can be found on. Otherwise,
Dreamboat Annie isn’t quite the Titanic, but it sure ain’t
the QE2.