Let's see- a 6 foot 7 long blond-haired gay man delivers a mostly blues-based cover album with Rod Stewart producing side 1 and Elton John twiddling knobs on the flip. Sounds like a soundtrack for a Tiburon hoedown when all those fleshy fiftysomethings get out the Hawaiian shirts and the floppy hats and the bottles of expensive wine and have themselves a Saturday afternoon. Except it's not. It's actually pretty good, and even a recipe for certain disaster- a white man trying Willie Dixon's "I'm Ready"- is shockingly strong. Remember that tune on Ziggy Stardust, "It Ain't Easy"? That was a cover by someone named Ron Davies (no relation) and I didn't know that either, and Baldry not only cops it for the album's title but delivers a better version than Bowie's. Not everything works- his shot at The Faces' "Flying" stinks, but it's the last song of the album so you can lift the needle without fumbling to find the next groove. It's a buck- why wouldn't you want to own a record by a man named Long John Baldry with photos of a pensive Stewart with headphones staring wistfully into the distance and a cowboy-hatted Reginald Dwight looking yearningly toward what one can only assume is a, well, I'm not going to make that joke.
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