5.17.2015

The Prophet - On Pleasure & Theme from The Prophet (Pleasure is a Freedom Song)




The Prophet: On Pleasure/Pleasure is a Freedom Song (1974) - Richard Harris/Arif Mardin

It's really hard to figure out where to start with this aesthetic train wreck. It's a musical interpretation of the famous work by Lebanese-American poet Kahlil Gibran. The music was written and arranged by Arif Mardin, and the prose poetry read by Richard Harris.  For the uninitiated, The Prophet is an iconic work that has become synonymous with first-year English majors, hippie-philosophers, and other patchouli-soaked denizens. To be fair the book *is* a great work. On the other hand, this record is self-indulgent, self-important, and generally atrocious, much like first-year English majors, hippie-philosophers, and other patchouli-soaked denizens. It doesn't help that some pretty big league names are involved in its creation. Below are but a few of such characters:

Richard Harris - legendary actor and singer of MacArthur Park.  Known for having exactly two performing voices (if an SCTV parody is any guide.)

Arif Mardin - Turkish-American record producer with some very notable credits. He wrote, arranged, and conducted the whole album.

Tony Levin (bass) - mostly known for playing with King Crimson and Peter Gabriel, and other notable progasaurus 'rock' bands like Yes, and Asia,

Steve Gadd (drums) - well known drummer who has played on just a stupid number of big albums. Best to just see his discography.

Barry Manilow (backing vocals) - ruiner of piano ballads for all of contemporary Western culture vis a vis dreck like Mandy, and writer of among other things, some pretty well-known 70s commercial jingles. In fact when he went on his first solo tour, he used to perform what he called V.S.M, (Very Strange Medley) - a compilation of all the well-known commercial jingles that started his career.

Jerry Wexler (Executive Producer) - legendary Producer and A&R man who introduced us to or produced such acts as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan etc.

I don't know what the fuck this group was collectively thinking, but clearly somebody had some cash to burn.


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