And on the face of it, this album is a simple collection of country & western "oldies"(even by 70's standards) whose repertoire is taken from the bluegrass & gospel heroes that inspired the artist in his younger days(similar to the rock & roll "farewell" album that John Lennon would do two years later in 1975).

But this album, the Blue Ridge Rangers(his first solo album after disbanding CCR over legal and familial issues), rapidly shows itself to have an underlying thematic unity that reveals itself as one of the most low-key and honest of the "concept albums" that came to maturity in the late sixties.

For instance, the name of this album suggests that this is a group-effort being released by someone calling themselves the "Blue Ridge Rangers", but that name is actually taken from one of the songs contained on the album itself, namely 'Blue Ridge Mountain Blues'; and local legend in my hometown claims that Mr.Fogerty handled all of the instrumental/vocal chores on this album all by his lonesome self...a thus-far unverified fact not disputed by the liner notes on the sparse CD booklet(which has no credits and only says: Arranged and Produced by John Fogerty) or by the album cover itself, which features John himself as no less than 5 different members of the Blue Ridge Rangers: Fiddler, Banjo-Picker, Head Singer, Double-bass player & Guitarist.

Continuing with this, we have to ask: "Why did a man who was the primary creative focus behind one of music's top acts choose to release an album of Other People's Songs"? The answer is simple, as we see that, except for the cajun good-fun of 'Jambalaya', his selection of songs and the raw emotion that he pours into performing them show an incredible tinge of sadness and loss for something/someone extremely close to him. He pretended to be "Someone Else" and chose to sing "Other People's Songs" simply because "They" could say what he wanted to say easier and less painfully than if he had said it or sung it or written it himself...it was comfort to know that "Someone Else" had gone through what he had went through, that "Someone Else" had been as lonely as he felt right now, lonely enough that he literally had to "be" every single member of a fictional band.

This period was so painful that 'Blue Ridge Rangers' is the only album from which he did NOT extract any material for his mid-90's live event extravaganza, 'Premonition'("What about Eye Of The Zombie?", you ask? Well, FYI and UjustME...'Going Back Home' was used as a warm-up and 'Headlines' was used as a sound-check with updated verses; both are among the great bootlegs from that era, if you want to go searching for them).

Ultimately, I believe that 'Blue Ridge Rangers' was a cathartic episode for Mr.Fogerty, who was saying goodbye to his old bandmates, and the past in general, while trying hard to look ahead to a brighter future. The beautiful part is that he does so while still somehow managing to turn in an extremely respectable performance, unlike other singers' therapeutic sessions which happened to make it onto the market.

I heartily recommend this album, not only to Country & Western or John Fogerty/CCR fans, but also to anyone "into" the revealing side of classic rock albums...I mean, you can easily find any and all of these songs on Other People's Albums, but they would not provide you with any of the insight into the heart and soul of one of Rock's legendary greats.

"Lost World" is a straight-ahead, middle-of-the-road groove rocker, while "Isn't Life Strange?" sounds like something that KISS might have covered(believe it or not...just listen to "Great Expectations" on 'Destroyer'), and "Singer In A Rock & Roll Band" is the closest that the Blues ever came to 70's funk(ironically enough, considering its title) and is one of the greatest "goodbye kisses" that a band ever gave to its audience(right behind the Beatles' Abbey Road medley with "The End" and Cream's farewell concert).

In all, recommend this to someone who doesn't have a Moody Blues collection and tell them to start their "7 Shades Of Blue" here, in reference to the "Core 7" albums at the heart of the Moody Blues collection.

The characters are humourous and the plot meaningful, with a really emotional climax("You are who you want to be!" the boy yells to the Iron Giant, en route to saving the town from an incoming nuclear warhead; Giant closes his eyes and says to himself, "...Superman", just before impact; the boy watches the explosion, then says softly, "I love you..."). I'm not ashamed to admit that if I had been lucky enough to watch this for the first time in a full-size theatre(instead of at home on VHS), I'd have been crying like a baby.

BUT...

That honour only goes so far! They're willing to reissue a feature as Walt originally intended, but that feature has been "edited for content"(as the green screen at the beginning of the feature says). And it's not just "Melody Time"; "Make Mine Music", "The Three Caballeros" and others all carry that familiar distinction.

Why do they persist in "homogenizing"(for lack of a better word)Disney's classic works, while the modern studios are going full force in what they're censoring from the past? I mean, they take out a few seconds worth of Pecos Bill's cigarette, but the old lady character from "Atlantis" smokes like a chimney!

This says to me that there are too many cooks in the kitchen; doesn't everyone wish that there was someone who could be the strong head of Disney the way Walt was? Overseeing everything from story construction in animated features to the foundation and expansion of Disneyland, all without missing a step?

That rare Ringo gem is worth the (lowered) price of the album alone, what with it being a Ringo-written, Ringo-sung piece of music that rolls along extremely well! Especially if you're a die-hard Beatles fan who mixes and matches solo Beatle songs into pseudo-new Beatles albums like I do.

Other things going for this album are the fact that Ringo sounds a lot more comfortable on these songs than John or Paul did on their early solo albums; and the fact that all of these songs are fully-realized SONGS, and not just snippets or drawn out pieces of songs like those from Paul(on McCartney) and John(on Plastic Ono Band) make this a nice addition to your Beatles solo collection(notice I said "Addition"; this is most definitely something to pad out an already existing collection, and not a "must-have" piece of music history).

All in all, you won't be disappointed with this purchase.