August
12, 2005 (I
was 60)
Hirth
From Earth/Hirth Martinez
Warner Bros. BS 2867 released May 1975
Hirth From Earth
is the album I’ve been waiting for, the album I’ve been expecting Harry Nilsson
to make ever since Schmilsson. But Hirth
Martinez is not Harry Nilsson –or is he?
Compare the cover photos with those on Nilsson’s Duit On Mon Dei.
From Earth
is a superb album. Robbie Robertson’s production
is a part of the talent operating here, but all the songs were written by
Martinez and the resemblances to The Band’s music are fleeting and
understated. There is a large orchestra,
fifty musicians, twelve violins, but the orchestration is never
overwhelming. The strings, horns,
synthesizers, congas and concertinas appear selectively throughout the
program. This is nicely embellished Roll
and Roll, vamping from New Orleans jazz flavors to neo-vaudevillian ballad, and
Martinez’s guitar work and vocals are the featured instruments. Singing stretched postures, he evokes
characterizations –at times the rasping madman of the mountains, at other times
a Gaspby romantic playboy. Through it
all it’s the persona of Winter Again,
that of a recently-aging poet, which seems to be the most personally
reflective.
My wife looked at the pictures and
said, “Ah, that’s not Harry Nilsson.” A
friend who visited a few days said, “I played it twice. I didn’t like it at all.” So play it more than twice.
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