Steve Forbert - Little Stevie Orbit
#370
by Paul Zickler
September 1980
Steve Forbert
Little Stevie Orbit
Genre: Rootsy Rock vs. Country Folk
Allen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Paul’s Rating: 4 out of 5
Highlights:
Get Well Soon
Rain (Philadelphia Rain)
I’m An Automobile
If You’ve Gotta Ask You’ll Never Know
If you’re somewhere around my age (and really, why else would you be reading album reviews from 1980?), you might remember the very popular “Book of Lists” genre from the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s, and more specifically “The Book of Rock Lists” by Dave Marsh and Kevin Stein, which was an indispensable source of trivia in my late high school and early college years. I bring it up because of “Greil Marcus’ List of ‘The New Dylans,’” where Steve Forbert appeared at number 3, just after John Lennon. According to Marcus, “being labeled a new Dylan is regarded as the kiss of death -- only Bruce Springsteen has survived it.” I never understood in what sense John Lennon didn’t “survive” the epithet, unless Marcus was being morbidly literal, but I suppose in a sense it was true for Stevie. In the mainstream music biz, he never got past being a “new Dylan.” But 40 years have passed, and Dylan himself has gone through at least four or five new incarnations, so I’m going to try to listen to this album outside of the shadow of Bob, even if the very first vocals you hear on Get Well Soon could easily have come from one of those infamous Gospel Tour shows.
Never mind. The much more important question is, “Do I like this song?” You know what? I do! I like Forbert’s voice, his energy, his lyrics, the arrangement, the little fake ending. This is a really solid track. Cellophane City tries to stretch out and only partially succeeds. It would’ve been better had it clocked in at 4:33 instead of 5:33.
Song for Carmelita introduces Forbert’s unfortunate countryish tendency, but after 1:54 the song graciously bows out.
Next up is Laughter Lou (Who Needs You?), an almost-angry finger-pointer in the grand tradition of, oh wait, I’m not comparing him to anyone. This song isn’t bad, but if you’re going for the throat, just go for it.
Song for Katrina works much better in the Folk/Country vein, mostly courtesy of Hornsby-esque piano work and modest harmonica blowing.
Side One closes with a story ballad called One More Glass of Beer, which unfortunately suffers from reverb-drenched snare drum syndrome. The lyrics seem to have been written under the influence of something a bit stronger than beer: “And once I was a wagon wheel / And once I was a whale / I've been on other planets too / At least 15 I’d say / Been all across the universe / Been every whichy way.”
Side Two continues the honky tonk vibe with the instrumental Lucky, followed by Rain (Philadelphia Rain). I like the vocal work on this one, and really it’s only the drums that remind me of Nashville Cheese. There are some tasty guitar licks, and the slowed-down bridge works fine. The song’s just trying to be too many things at once, unfortunately.
I’m An Automobile, on the other hand, tries to be a joyful, high energy rocker and succeeds mightily. Do you ever find yourself listening to a song by an artist and going, “Why don’t you just write more songs like this?” I’m An Automobile is that song on this album. Nobody’s asking you to rewrite Romeo’s Tune, but why you gotta try to be Buck Owens? Schoolgirl has a fun vibe, and I get what you’re going for with the honky tonk piano and fiddle solo. I do want to like this song, but in the end, I just like your voice and wish you’d had a different band and listened to more early Elvis Costello and less Little Feat. I mean, Little Feat is great, but Lowell George had a kickass band to play those riffs, Stevie.
You don’t. If You’ve Gotta Ask You’ll Never Know lands right back in that sweet spot. “Don’t look to me so quizzically / I got nothin’ nice to say / These scenes are all clear as the day / But, oh boy, you’re just too f**king slow!” Bonus points for the topical references to the energy crisis. Ah, memories.
Lonely Girl is the obligatory slow ballad I would have skipped every time. I did not skip it this time because that would be cheating, but I will admit to reading the “Rock’s Rarest 45’s” and “Rock’s Rarest Albums” lists from the digital copy of “The Book of Rock Lists” I just checked out from Archive.org while Lonely Girl was playing.
The album ends with A Visitor, a song it would be easy to make fun of, since it’s about being energy within this form on this situation called earth; however, I am unable to resist smiling when Stevie sings “I came shooting down the universe,” and really, YOU try writing a metaphysical song about human incarnation. So what’s the verdict? Steve Forbert’s a fantastic singer and an OK songwriter. See, he’s nothing like Bob Dylan.
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