Remember that great seventies movie starring Burt Reynolds where he was a North Woods lumberjack? Where he was sittin’ on the tree stump eatin’ johnnycake? No? How about the one about where he was the gold miner in the Klondike, roundin' up his malamutes, packin' his grubstake on his back? Well, that could be part of the reason why the album “Mr. Lumberjack” by Hal Willis never caught on—America never felt the romantic fever for sawing logs or panning for gold like they did for driving the big rig.
You wouldn’t think DJs would ever be at a loss for words, but being tapped to pen the liner notes for the album seem to stymie Bill Claiborne of radio station WSM in Nashville. Here’s the best hyperbole he could muster:
“It is my wish that someday those of you who are listening to this album will have the pleasure of meeting and talking to Hal Willis and once you do, you will, like me, find a loss of words to describe what most of us here in Nashville call ‘Hal Willis, the Nice Guy’”.
Now myself, I would talk at length about Hal's off-kilter growly scat singing, which was truly the best part of the album.
Oh, and wife Ginger’s vocals on “Winding Wana Bago” WILL result in a spit-take, or your money cheerfully refunded.
Mr. Lumberjack – Hal Willis
Lumberjack Man
North To Alaska
My Thumb & Shoes
Knopper the Topper
Springtime in Alaska
Dig Me a Hole
Jack the Lumberjack
The Parson From Paint Rock
So Right But So Wrong
Winding Wana Bago
Creole Rose
Klondike Mike
Arc Sound Limited 851, Toronto, Ont.
6 comments:
You're making that Burt Reynolds stuff up, aren't you? See, I can tell that sometimes you're just having fun with us.
At least I hope so.
Actually, I just have fun all by myself, but in a potentially public place. I am only here to amuse myself, and it is to my constant amazement that there are a few people who seems to be amused by me as well. No, there are no Burt lumberjack movies to the best of my knowledge.
I myself am taken by the mystical ability of Mr. Lumberjack to cast no shadow.
I love the way a guy in Toronto wearing a Hudson's Bay coat is singing about Alaska and being reviewed by someone in Nashville.
Music truly is a universal language.
Oh, and it appears Arc Sound released some other great hits. They were the people who brought you.
* "The Esso Trinidad Steelband On Tour" and
* "I Walk the Line and Other Country," where Newfoundlander Dick Nolan gives his "interpretations" of Johnny Cash songs.
"Well, that could be part of the reason why the album “Mr. Lumberjack” by Hal Willis never caught on"
Actually, the song "Mr. Lumberjack" was a top 5 country hit in 1965, eventually selling over a million copies.
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