Crocodile Harris
Give Me The Good News
Tracks:
- Give Me The Good News (G Coxall/C Harris) (4:55)
- Hollywood (T McCully) (3:22)
- Standing At The Edge Of The World (T McCully) (4:14)
- Melina (C Harris/M Fowler-Brown) (3:17)
- Portrait Painters Dream (C Harris) (5:40)
- Savage Eyes (G Coxall/C Harris) (4:05)
- The Great Seducers (C Harris/M Fowler-Brown) (4:01)
- Let's Live For Today (Mogol/D Shapiro/M Julien) (3:24)
- Falling Leaves (C Harris) (3:02)
- Miss Eva Goodnight (T McCully/M McCully) (2:31)
Produced by Tully McCully
Assistant Engineer: Kevin Shirley
Musicians:
- Crocodile Harris: Lead Vocals, piano, backing vocals
- Tully McCully: Guitar, bass, percussion, backing vocals
- Ian Smith: Brass
- Roger Dwyer: Brass
- Allan Faull: Lead guitar on 'Savage Eyes' and 'Miss Eva Goodnight'
- Henry Barenblatt: Rhodes on 'Falling Leaves'
- Merton Barrow: String arrangement on 'Give Me The Good News'
Release information:
1983, WEA Records (LP: 24-0212-1, Cassette: 24-0212-4)(German Pressing)
Buy Crocodile Harris MP3s at:
Rhythm Online Music Store
'Give Me The Good News' can be found on CD on:
SA Party - South Africa's Greatest Hits
Comments:
The single edit of 'Give Me The Good News' was only 3:23 minutes compared to 4:55 for the album version.
'Miss Eva Goodnight' is a re-recording of the 1974 hit single.
Review:
Robin Graham made the big time with the timeless hit 'Give Me The Good
News', reaching number 14 on the local charts, but selling numerous copies
worldwide with particular success in France {650 000 copies sold! - ed}. It
should come as no surprise then when I say that this is the stand out track
on the album.
Although having said that, 'Miss Eva Goodnight' featuring a certain Allan
Faull (of Falling Mirror fame) on guitar certainly vies for the title of
stand out track on the album. This is different to the version on the 'Best
of SA Pop' CD, being harder rocking and faster. This song fared better than
'The Good News' in SA as it made number 5 on the charts, perhaps the line
'Dictatorship was never honest' made 'Good News' a little bit too much bad
news for the apartheid government.
Like these two singles, the rest of the album features that same big
production sound and driving piano which is somewhat reminiscent of
Meatloaf. (However I don't think Harris would have fared as well had he
called himself "Babotie"). The production comes courtesy of Tully McCully,
who plays guitar on most tracks and wrote or co-wrote the majority of the
tracks, including having a hand in both singles.
Lyrically, a number of the songs cover the issue of marriage and
infidelity. 'Savage Eyes' begins with the line 'The Battle of Marriage has
just begun' while 'Great Seducers' talks of men having affairs and includes
the line 'Another man's wife is sleeping alone.' With this album, Harris
shows a consciousness of social issues and delivers this in full blown rock
style with a powerful, passionate voice. Forget Elton, this is the real
Crocodile Rock.
--John Samson, May 2002
Webpage:
Crocodile Harris
All info supplied by John Samson, April 2002.
South Africa's Rock Classics
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