Reviewed by Paul J Zickler
Released: June 1980 Johnny Rivers Borrowed Time Genre: Generic Pop Rock Rating: 3 out of 5 Highlights: Living Alone Who You Gonna Love? I have become the designated schlock pop reviewer here at The Listening Post. I have no problem with that. Millions of people have enjoyed the music of Cliff Richard, Jimmy Buffet and Barry Manilow, so who am I to tell them they’re wrong? Today was the annual half price sale at Lost in the Groove, our local used record store. I drove through 25 mph winds and sideways rain, across the Skagit Valley, and back to the small town where I lived for 30+ years to join the crate diggers. I even snapped a photo of Jack Green’s Humanesque, which I thought represented the quintessential 80’s album cover. I probably should have bought the record, but I was carrying 17 others up to the cash register at the time. But I digress. I bring up the used record store because, when I was there, I noticed that certain artists had, shall we say, a healthy number of units in stock. One of those was Johnny Rivers. In front of the plastic marker bearing his name were at least 50 copies of various albums spanning the many decade career of this sorta legendary American musician. He sold a lot of records, which no one really wants to buy anymore. But people bought them at one time, otherwise they would not have ended up taking up massive amounts of bin space at Lost in the Groove. Listening to this album from 1980, it’s easy to see how Johnny managed to string together enough success to continue playing music full time from 1958 until, well, now, as far as I can tell. He’s got a nice voice, which slides easily into any number of popular genres. He makes inoffensive, competent music that you can comfortably put on in the background of your life, occasionally noting a brief guitar solo or sweetly sung high note, then conveniently forgetting there is music playing for the next ten or twelve minutes. Virtually all of his hits were covers. Two songs on this album are originals. Do you care which ones? You do not. Are there any songs on this album you need to hear? If you like the Everly Brothers, you might want to check out Living Alone, written by Phil, who also sang harmonies. It’s a pretty song. It exists outside of time, not really relevant to anything that was going on in 1980, but if you’re OK with that, well, so am I. I decided to fully engage with the closing song on the album, Who You Gonna Love? As I listened to the intro, I had the thought that this reminded me of some of the mellow Christian rock I listened to in the early ’80’s. Then I paid attention to the lyrics, and sure enough, it’s a straight up you-better-believe-in-Jesus-cuz-the-world-is-a-mess song, complete with some spoken lines at the end “you know the party’s over” etc. It even has a little guitar riff very reminiscent of those Bob Dylan Gospel records (Slow Train Coming, Saved). So I guess Johnny jumped on that bandwagon as well. Again, I’m OK with that. It probably made him happy, and lots of people probably nodded their heads righteously while listening, just like I would have at age 15 if I’d come across this song on a Dove Records sampler. I didn’t, but that hardly matters. Johnny Rivers still goes on, as of Christmas Eve, 2022. I believe that’s a good thing, although I have had quite a bit of Irish cream in my decaf this evening. I assume this won’t be posted until 2023, so happy new year everybody!
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