Product Description
Though Paul Williams would achieve great commercial success as a songwriter, and some as a recording artist, in the '70s, his 1970 debut solo album Someday Man remains obscure even to many of his fans. Entirely written by Williams in collaboration with Roger Nichols (who also produced and played on the LP), it showed Williams moving away from the low-key folk-rock, country-rock, and mild psychedelia of his late-'60s group the Holy Mackerel, and toward the mainstream soft pop/rock for which he would become noted. The arrangements are at least as close to Burt Bacharach as early-'70s California mellow rock, though none of the songs are as memorable as the hit interpretations of other Williams material that would soon climb the charts for the Carpenters and others. [The 2010 deluxe expanded edition on the Now Sounds label adds 12 bonus tracks, though these are mostly for the hardcore collector, presenting instrumental backing tracks (on which some backing vocals can be heard) of four of the songs; work-in-progress instrumental session tapes of "The Drifter," a Williams-Nichols song that didn't make the album (though this basic track is the same as the one heard on the Nichols album Roger Nichols & the Small Circle of Friends) and "Someday Man"; mono 45 versions of four of the LP's songs, and demos of two of the album's tunes, "So Many People" and "I Know You." Steve Stanley's historical liner notes are extraordinarily in-depth, however, with first-hand memories from both Williams and Nichols, as well as excellent vintage color pictures, particularly the one showing Williams sitting on the steps of a huge, weather-beaten mansion.] ~ Richie Unterberger
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