Mark Wirtz - A Teenage Opera (1967)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Artist: Mark Wirtz
Album: A Teenage Opera
Released: 1967-68 / 1996
RPM (165)
Genre: Pop / Rock
Review by Richie Unterberger
"A Teenage Opera," like the Beach Boys' infinitely more celebrated Smile, was never truly completed as such; collectors have always wondered, however, if the project exists as a "lost" album of sorts. This 23-track sequence of tracks by Keith West, Tomorrow, Wirtz, Kippington Lodge, the Sweetshop, Zion de Gallier, and Steve Flynn (some previously unissued), is as close an approximation as can be delivered. The psychedelically-influenced baroque rock-cum-easy listening arrangements are interesting, but really this is too twee and precious to qualify as anything like a lost masterpiece. Nor is it much of an orchestral pop suite; it's more a grouping of songs with a similar sunny fairyland vibe, sounding like an in-progress version of a children's rock record. You're far better off hearing "Teenage Opera," "Sam," and the Tomorrow cuts -- which are the gutsiest and most durable selections here by a wide margin -- on RPM's The Complete Keith West compilation, or the original (and only) Tomorrow album.
Track List:
1. Theme From A Teenage Opera
2. Festival Of Kings
3. Grocer Jack
4. The Paranoiac Woodcutter #1
5. Mr. Rainbow
6. Glory's Theme (All Aboard!)
7. On A Saturday
8. Possum's Dance
9. Auntie Mary's Dress Shop
10. Love And Occasional Rain
11. Grocer Jack (Reprise)
12. Sam
13. Farewell To A Broken Doll
14. (He's Our Dear Old) Weatherman
15. Shy Boy
16. Grocer Jack's Dream
17. Barefoot & Tiptoe
18. Knickerbocker Glory
19. Dream Dream Dream
20. Colonel Brown
21. Cellophane Mary-Jane
22. Paranoiac Woodcutter #2
23. Theme From A Teenage Opera (End Titles)
|
