Genre: pop
Rating: 3 stars ***
Title:  New Headings
Company: C.C Records
Catalog: SSI-1134
Year: 1977
Country/State: US
Grade (cover/record): VG+ / VG+
Comments: --
Available: 1
Catalog ID: 62122
Price: $40.00

Released by the tax scam CC Records label and credited to 'Chalice' 1977's "New Headings" was produced by Jeffrey and Paul Dengrove, The album featured a pair of side-long tracks that gave you the impression this might be some sort of Al Stewart-styled progressive-cum-historical work. One should have been so lucky !

I don't know how many of you are old enough to remember the first couple of years of Saturday Night Live. One of the characters Bill Murray played was Nick the lounge act singer. Nick was renown for taking a popular song and giving it a drawn-out, seemingly never ending, schmaltzy arrangement. Well, this was Nick's album and if the performances weren't bad enough, he got help from what may have been America's least talented female singer. Seriously, this was so bad that it actually warranted attention. We're talking bad as in Kaplan Brothers, Lucia Pamela, or The Shaggs - acts that didn't have a clue how truly awful they were.

- As if the blow hard song title weren't bad enough, 'South To the Polar Cap' subjected the listener to almost twenty minutes of horrendous cocktail jazz. Imagine the absolutely worst lounge singer you can picture accompanied by an equally horrible female vocalist. Picture the pair trying to harmonize even though both are tone deaf, seemingly reading lyrics from two different songs, and backed by a small jazz outfit that was seemingly hired because they were willing to play for minimum wage as opposed to any semblance of musical talent (the discordant sax solo was priceless). Add in a performance vibe that said 'we have something important to say' and you have a song that had to be heard to be believed. The pair's end-of-song moaning was actually painful to listen to. Geez, had they added another couple of minutes to this one and I guarantee you that any crowed they were playing for would have started looking for ways to escape to the polar cap. Call it music to interrogate Taliban suspects by ... who needed water-boarding when you had this tool at you disposal. And where in the world did the song title come from? Assuming you could actually sit through the song a far more appropriate song title would have been 'Those Changes'. rating: * star
- So was there anything nice to say about 'Tribute To Admiral Byrd'? Well, it was five minutes shorter than side one. Opening up with an exceedingly lane drum solo wasn't exactly an endearing move, but here's the funny thing ... parts of this jazz-rock instrumental weren't bad. The bassist was quite good and there was a segment of the song that actually had an enjoyable funk groove. Unfortunately, it didn't last long enough and the rest of the track was wasted on needless pseudo-bop moves. Still, it was better than side one. And for what it's worth, I'd guess that this wasn't the same outfit featured on side one. The sounds were simply way too different to be the same act. rating: ** stars

"New Headings" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) South To the Polar Cap (P. Murphy) - 18:50

(side 2)
1.) Tribute To Admiral Byrd (instrumental) (P. Murphy) - 13:50