The Legend-News
New Items. I've acquired a ‘new’ C.W. McCall album. It’s The Best Of C.W. McCall, released in 1997 by PolyGram Special Markets. I bought it from Amazon.com.
There are no new songs on this album, just eleven cuts from the Original Six. The cover art is basically the front of the Black Bear Road LP, but the photograph appears to be a scanned image of the BBR cover which was then enlarged. The pixellation is obvious. And, although it’s black & white, the double-page photo on the inside of the booklet is the same BBR cover shot, but slightly wider: there’s more scenery on the right side of the picture.
Anyway, here’s the lineup:
- Convoy
- Jackson Hole
- Four Wheel Cowboy
- Wolf Creek Pass
- Old Home Filler-Up An’ Keep On A-Truckin’ Café
- The Gallopin’ Goose
- Audubon *
- There Won’t Be No Country Music (There Won’t Be No Rock ’N’ Roll)
- Long Lonesome Road *
- Green River
- Black Bear Road *
Based on that list, guess which lyrics will be the next up? :)
Although this is an audio CD, there seems to also be a cassette version. The songs marked with an asterisk (*) are indicated as “Bonus CD Tracks”. Tape must be getting expensive; the total time for the CD is 35:30, and subtracting the times for the * selections reduces the time to 27:30.
Historically, the song credits are very interesting. “Wolf Creek Pass” and “Old Home…” were written by ‘B. Fries/C. Davis’, while the other nine are credited to ‘C.W. McCall/B. Fries/C. Davis”. I will be updating the lyrics pages, based on this new information.
And the passage of time is apparent, too. Looking at the included songs, I would consider their sources to be one of the Original Six albums. Yet, on this album, “Convoy”, “Wolf Creek Pass”, “Old Home…”, “There Won’t Be…” and “Black Bear Road” are listed as “From the Mercury Nashville Album ‘Greatest Hits’”. As the Original Six have been out of print for years, C.W. McCall’s Greatest Hits is probably the most familiar release to most people. Chip, if you’re reading this, how about a boxed set?
Site News. I've made some changes to the discography section. While the previous format was suitable for the listing of what releases I had, the page was becoming unwieldy. I’ve moved the album details to separate pages.
My Collection. Scrounging through the local nostalgia shops, I did find two LPs: Black Bear Road and C.W. McCall’s Greatest Hits. I now know that the cover of Greatest Hits is the picture from the inside of BBR.
A last note: there is at least one other C.W. McCall compilation out there: Four Wheel Cowboy, another release from PolyGram Special Markets. There’s a listing for it at Tunes Network, but it’s “(Not currently available for purchase)”.