Ram Jam City reviews?

[becca]

I should be getting a copy soon of this collection of solo Danny Kirwan tracks, and I'm wondering if others would say it's a good representation of the solo albums and how it compares to the stuff he did as part of FM. I really love his blues and prog-rock sorts of things on the FM albums. Sands Of Time in particular I keep putting on again. I should see if I can get Dragonfly on CD-R or something if it's not on Ram Jam. He reminds me of Steve Howe of Yes somehow, those extar little twists that seem so casual. I wish he could have kept creating. :^(

[wetcamelfood]

I've written a review for the "Ram jam city" CD at the Penguin discography, here's the link:

http://www.fleetwoodmac.net/penguin/albums/ramjamcity.htm

Although there really SHOULD be a comp of DK's solo stuff covering all of his solo stuff, RJC is not really that (although many often think it is), it's basically just everything (except "Love can always bring you happiness") from his "Second chapter" album.

The one thing that IS noticeably different though is that they used "earlier" tapes for this CD (compared to those from the masters for the SC album) as the recordings on the RJC CD DON'T include the strings/horns etc. stuff that (obviously) Clifford Davis had stuck on to the SC (and other) DK album(s) after the fact in order to make them better (according to his "way of thinking" anyways) but I think (in many cases) they sound better without that string/horn stuff on there but that's just my opinion.

There are also 4 tracks which are earlier VERSIONS of four SC tracks which are interesting listing as well. I hope this (and my review) is of some help anyways and I hope some others can chuck in their opinions on this for you here as well. :)

John

[becca]

That's good for me if they leave off the strings and horns. I prefered the original Catch A Fire tracks before keyboards and things were added on by Island Records to make it more accessible or pop. Am hoping to hear the beautiful clarity soon (barring it getting lost in the mail). Thanks. :^)

Getting a bit excited now, I hope I have it before the dude in the red pjs breaks in. :^)

[becca]

It's here, a bit late but happy to have it. I really like Hot Summer Day (though maybe it would be a It's A Beautiful Day cover), it reminds me of The Housemartins and a bit of The Beautiful South. Wow! The rest is interesting but not his best, maybe something will grow on me. As a lyrisist Kirwan leaves something to be desired and is best like Nicks when it is kind of mystical-cosmic Morrison type stuff, sort of darkly grandiose. There are some nice instrumental flourishes her and there but a lot of tracks feel incomplete. Guess Fleetwood, McVies and Green brought in things to round off his earlier work. The booklet mentions Dragonfly as a highlight and hopefully I will be hearing that someday soon. Django Reinhardt is also mentioned and was looking through a Les Paul thing last night which has a photo of him with Reinhardt. That guy has influenced more guitarists than Hank Marvin or something.

[becca]

While we're revisiting past threads I'd like to say that you can often pick up this Danny Kirwan CD quite reasonably nowadays. It's something I do play every now and then, so has survived the test of time. It is an essential companion to Second Chapter and the Mac albums/singles with Danny for me.

Geez, my typing was atrocious in those old posts (cringe)... and I hadn't even heard the brilliant Dragonfly yet (gasp)!

[LesPaul7]

I have Second Chapter, and I really like it. My dad absolutely thinks it's brilliant, the arrangements, melodies, etc. I've never much looked into Ram Jam City though. I have Midnight in San Juan and Hello There as well. I enjoy all of his solo work.

[Conga]

I had all three of his solo albums digitally but have never, ever seen them in a physical format. I can't say I enjoyed Second Chapter, but the more I read about it the more I'd like to revisit it, but I've lost pretty much all files I had back in the day. Interested to check out Ram Jam City as I never checked it out because of my intial reaction to SC, but I'll remedy this when I can.

Do I have to go to Japan record stores or something for SC, Midnight and Hello or what? Even the CD editions are like $75 as the lowest price on amazon and that!

[wetcamelfood]

Do I have to go to Japan record stores or something for SC, Midnight and Hello or what? Even the CD editions are like $75 as the lowest price on amazon and that!

For MISJ & HTBB, yes. SC did have a short UK release on CD back in the early 90's but for the most part, yeah. Even then, the Japan ones are vinyl rips, though passable ones.

John