VAN DUREN - Are You Serious?
Purse-lipped and sleepy-eyed on the black-and-white cover of this 1977 debut for Memphis indie Big Sound Records, Van Duren was waiting for a closeup that never quite came. Having grown up and casually played with Big Star's Jody Stephens and Chris Bell earlier in the decade, it's only fitting that when the time came for Duren's own material to be released, it too bore Anglo-leaning, proto-power-pop tendencies. Similar to Emitt Rhodes, Paul McCartney or Todd Rundgren, the piano work is as impressive as the rockers--songs like "Waiting" show he learned just as much from pre-Wings Paul as Chilton/Bell.
Reader Comments (1)
Good for any occasion this is pure pop genius. Why this album is chronically overlooked is beyond me.