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Marco Rossi — The Sincerest Form of Flattery
(Fruits de Mer friends of the Fish 67CD, 2023, CD)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2023-08-03

The Sincerest Form of Flattery Cover art

One man locked in a room. Shindig! magazine reviewer. Home recording gear. Love for 60s artists and music from Spirit, The Nazz, Strawaberry Alarm Clock, etc. Stir them all together and out come twelve covers of mostly obscure songs, plus the Youngbloods’ 60s anthem “Let’s Get Together.” Music reviewer Marco Rossi was working on an album of original material, enjoying the process so much that he spent the maximum amount of time he could recording. That led to trying his hand at emulating these 60s artists, using one mic for everything: The Left Banke, Spirit, Orange Bicycle, The Nazz, The Peppermint Trolley Company, The Youngbloods, PF Sloan, Paul Williams, Strawberry Alarm Clock, NRBQ, The Association, and We the People. In his opinion each of the original songs were flawless, so he felt no need to “fix” any of them, plus he didn’t have the courage to try. Only on “Let’s Get Together” did he fell compelled to add a guitar break with a big old Tom Verlaine-style guitar solo. I am unfamiliar with most of the songs on this album.  But what I did discover about the songs I know, is that Rossi created faithful covers, but smoothed the edges a bit. I am not real certain if I like his “Let’s Get Together” cover, even though everyone and his brother covered it back in the day. What I miss is the Youngbloods’ more agressive tremelo guitar, though Rossi uses a lot of studio trickery. An interesting observation of Rossi’s cover of PF Sloan’s “Here’s Where You Belong” is that he reproduced the West Coast Pop Art’s cover, not PF Sloan’s aggressive folk rock song. For me, the best song on the album is the cover of We the People’s “In the Past” that closes the album. This three-minute trippy raga rock song is outstanding. In addition to this Fruits de Mer CD, the label also released a very limited edition (100 copies) eight-inch lathe-cut with “Ivy Ivy” by the Left Banke, “My Friend” by Spirit, “LA” by Orange Bicycle, and “Forget All About It” by The Nazz. Those lathe-cuts were snapped up extremely fast. Lathe-cuts are a novelty, but the sound quality is not that good. The best listening experience is from the CD, which is still available. Overall, a very nice recreated snapshot in time that is worthy of your notice, as well as introducing you to music that has flown under the radar for decades.

Filed under: New releases, 2023 releases

Related artist(s): Spirit, We the People / American Zoo, Nazz, Marco Rossi

More info
http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/flatterycd.html

 

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