The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

One of my favourite things about The New York Times is their obituary section.  I know it sounds kind of morbid, but it's a great way to learn about people.  As an example, I read their obit on Noël Godin just the other day.  I'd never even heard of this guy, but he sounds like someone I would have liked to have known.

As I'm writing this, I'm just finding out about Jon Small, who long time readers might recognize from my post on 23 May of this year.  I also learned a lot about him that I didn't know.  In fact, one of the great things about reading these obituaries is learning things I didn't know about people that I already admired.

During the weeks I was away from writing these, we lost the great Tim Curry.  I was a fan of his work from the time I was a child when I first saw him in the villainous role of Rooster Hannigan in Annie.  (I even discovered we shared a birthday, which utterly delighted me.)  Over the years, I became quite enamoured with his work.  In spite of his penchant for playing villains, which I get the impression he relished, I loved watching him move so seamlessly between comedy, drama, horror, sci-fi, and musicals--and that was just in The Rocky Horror Picture Show!  He even managed to have a side hustle as a voice actor in many animated films and television series aimed at children.

His Times obituary mentioned something that caught me off guard.  Between 1978 and 1981, Curry released three albums.  I don't know why this caught me off guard--between Rocky Horror and Spamalot it's not like I was unaware of his singing capabilities.  I guess I just always associated him with stage musicals instead of more "pop" fare.  This intrigued me--and, frankly, continues to do so--so, naturally, I did further research.

The albums featured covers of songs by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Irving Berlin, John Sebastian, The Beatles, Squeeze, Burt Bacharach/Hal David, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins.  Starting with his second album, Curry began recording his own compositions, co-writing six of the album's original nine songs, the bulk of them with either guitarist Dick Wagner (who had previously worked with Lou Reed and Alice Coooper) or famed composer Michael Kamen who also played keyboards and oboe on the album.  That formula, for lack of a better word, continued on his third and final album.

This week, primarily because I don't remember anyone else mentioning it in all the TV news reports I saw, I thought I would submit Tim Curry's second and--peaking at #53 on Billboard's Top 200 Album chart--most commercially successful album.  Originally released in 1978, the album featured, in addition to Wagner and Kamen, legendary musicians such as David Sanborn on the saxophone and Motown bassist Bob Babbitt.  Please enjoy Fearless (the expanded edition featuring "single edits" of certain songs).  God knows I did.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that it's not easy having a good time.  Even smiling makes my face ache.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill