Can You Fly
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Artist: Freedy Johnston
Label: Bar/None Records
Category: Music
Average customer rating:
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
UPC: 032862002427
EAN: 0032862002427
ASIN: B0000048D3
Release Date: 1992-09-25 |
Can You Fly
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Tracks:
- Trying To Tell You I Don't Know
- In The New Sunshine
- Tearing Down This Place
- Remember Me
- Wheels
- The Lucky One
- Can You Fly
- Responsible
- The Mortician's Daughter
- Sincere
- Down In Love
- California Thing
- We Will Shine
Similar Items:
- This Perfect World
- Never Home
- Trouble Tree
- Blue Days Black Nights
- Right Between the Promises
Amazon.com
"Well I sold the dirt to feed the band," sings Freedy Johnston the opening track, "Trying to Tell You I Don't Know." It turns to be the truth: to finance this album, Freedy, a gifted but struggling songwriter living in N.Y.C., sold the family farm in Kansas he'd inherited from his grandfather. Not many have given that much to their music, and you can hear that fervid and passionate commitment on every song on this wholly fantastic album. While it was a risk worth taking--<I>Can You Fly</I> put Freedy on the musical map--the sense of loss and even betrayal haunts the album. "I left town with a hardcore band/ ...Mother, dear, will you remember me?" he sings on "Remember Me." And on "Sincere" he asks, "Mister, can you tell me where I've come from?" And on "Down in Love," a stunningly beautiful duet with Syd Straw, he sings, "No more dreams for me." This is a man who knows the exact cost of dream. <I>--Tod Nelson</I>
Customer Reviews:
A "lost" classic..........2005-02-27
I can't believe this record is 15 years old! A lost classic...one of the finest American pop records of the last twenty years...original, dark, and lovely lyrics which vascillate between themes like death and love with effortless elegance...
Really Great! No, Really Really Great!.......2003-08-10
New genre for this: Punk/Singer/Songwriter. I say that because of the great "skinny white kid" vocals. If you've heard a better album in the past 10 years please let me know because I would love to hear it. If you've never heard this one before, it may take a few listens to sink in, but when it does, wow! Just on a pure songwriting level it is awesome, but then add the great playing and singing (caution: you may either love or hate his voice), and it's really something special. As far as the individual songs, it's hard to pick favorites because they're all good (and they don't lose the listener's attention with the dreaded "sound the same"-ness), but here goes: Responsible, Lucky One, Trying To Tell You I Don't Know (a great opener), and The Mortician's Daughter. He has mastered the art of great storytelling in song without giving away too many details, as so many singer/songwriters tend to do. I read that Freedy doesn't like his voice on this album. It is pretty raw at times but perfect for the material.
Freedy's best.......2002-05-05
Pure pop for my generation. Clean guitars,great hooks and fantastic stories. What else could you ask for, nothing.
His best--so far.......2001-11-28
I caught Johnston live in 1991 as the opening act for The Chills and walked away with at least three of these tunes permanently burned into my brain. "Can You Fly" is vivid songwriting at its best. What set this LP apart from efforts by Johnston's folk-rock contemporaries and what set it atop so many of the decade's "best of" lists were its lyrics. After all, lots of songwriters can string together a catchy melody and some chords, but how many can pack an avalanche-sized emotional wallop into the few lines that go along with them? Not many, but Johnston does it on every song here and the best songs (especially "Responsible") are almost overpowering. "The streets are slick with dew and motor oil/A girl walks in and out of the morning sun/A barred window reflects the cloudless sky/No blue reaches those eyes" sings Johnston in a voice like a half-strangled plea, backed by the most sympathetic and punchy folk rock arrangements since the heyday of Simon and Garfunkel. This is one of the best releases by anybody anywhere anytime. Johnston, not for a lack of trying, hasn't reached these heights since (though "This Perfect World" came close), but this is achievement enough for one lifetime.
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