CURRENTLY SOLD OUT
 | Shop by category |
{"delay":300}
|
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in CDs
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on CDs
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- You may also like
I was about 11 and had been playing piano for a couple of years when family friends gave me the book and LP of "Songs of the Pogo." I was crazy about Pogo, so I learned all the songs. I still know several by heart. Walt Kelly was one of the great nonsense poets, and many of his poems demand to be sung. The settings he and Norman Monath devised serve quite well. They're easy to sing and play, and each melody is well-matched to the lyrics. The recording is definitely of its period. Apparently Mitch Miller had a big hand in the production, although his assistant Jimmy Carroll is credited as arranger. The singers and players throw themselves into the songs with conviction. Walt Kelly himself sings the lead on "I Go Pogo," one of the album's best tracks. I've now known the "Songs of the Pogo" for 50 years, and I guess I've always gotten more pleasure from singing them myself than from the recording. I have my doubts as to whether anyone who isn't acquainted with Walt Kelly's brilliant comic strip will appreciate this recording. "Pogo" was rarely broad and slapstick. It takes a while to get acquainted with all the characters and to tune into Kelly's odd little community in the Okefenokee Swamp. I am grateful to the people who made this reissue. Lacking master tapes, they worked from LPs, so the sound is not all it might be. The booklet contains the lyrics and several good essays about "Pogo." I would've enjoyed seeing some of the strips in which the poems originally appeared. That might well have been too much to put into the booklet, but could be posted on-line at one of the Pogo website. - Hoyle OsborneRead full review
