Ever entered
waroge head
into google?
Even if I was trying to get as few search results as possible, I couldn’t have produced these skimpy results. So who was Waroge Head? Who the hell knows?
All I know is that I have soft spot for Rod McKuen, mostly his albums but also some of his poetry. It comes from family vacations as a child. Along with Mason Williams and Zamfir cassettes, my parents listened to alot of Rod McKuen while we explored North America as a (perfect, happy) family in our truck/camper. Then as a young teenager feeling isolated and like no one really “got” me, I stumbled across my dad’s collection of Rod McKuen poetry books. These are the impressions that come to the surface when I think of Rod McKuen.
And Dave Loggins… the only thing I know about him is he wrote at least one awesome song that fits right into the Stanyan Street vibe of Rod McKuen: “Please Come to Boston”. I became familiar with this song through an excellent rendition by the band Jackopierce. The only other good song I know by Jackopierce is called “Vineyard”, which without it’s late 60′s / early 70′ s finding yourself imagery, is a complete tangent to this story so not worth mentioning further. But years ago, during the Morpheus days (not Napster, not yet Limewire), I fell in love with Dave Loggin’s song “Please Come to Boston” with the help of Jackopierce and years of late nights of restaurant jobs and university.
Well, crazy of crazies, here I am taking a bunch of the old vinyl from my parents house and putting versions of it onto my laptop with the awesome USB turntable I got for my birthday, and what do I come across but Rod McKuen doing “Please Come to Boston”. Two loves from two completely different stages of my life. On this album Rod covers the likes of Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Bob Dylan, and Carole King; does some original songs; and reads some of his poetry. And there it is Side One, Track Seven: “Please Come to Boston”.
And oh, it sucks.
Terrible arrangement. Terrible rendition. Just terrible.
arranged by Waroge Head
Yea, no wonder you can’t find this guy with a google search. Lord knows that both Loggins and McKuen must’ve tried to forget about him straight after this LP was pressed!