David Soul (1976) Kristofer David - LOST 70s GEMS

The star of Starsky and Hutch also had a huge hit with the definitive mid 70s soft rock ballad and smash hit Don't Give Up On Us; a Glenn Campbell easy listening number with big strings, defiant vocals and a saccharine flavour left in your mouth. It was a time where TV and movie stars Like John Travolta, Lynda Carter, Olivia Newton John etc. would release their own singles with heavily arranged AC pop ballad and schmaltzy messages, but this one turned out good mainly because David Soul wasn't a huge star at the time and the album is more reflective of musical trends at the time, this is a 76 album where the semi-Countrypolitan sound was still new and fresh as opposed to the discount disco records that some stars would cash in on later years. Many songs are honky tonk styled piano show tunes, very music hall and classic era, while the half baked song Landlord is a funky oddball number with it's buzzing percussion and offbeat delivery alongside whirring strings it sounds like a drugged up quirky sound. Seem to Miss So Much (Coalminer's Song) is more gentle folk pop ballad and at least closer to his big hit if not anywhere near commercial or lively enough, while Ex Lover and One More Mountain to Climb also bear piano and deeply resonant vocals carrying the plaintive air of Don't Give Up on Us. Topanga and Black Bean Soup have an acoustic Country jive to them with the latter bearing more of that funky old timey magic before ending with Kristofer David which is a fingerprinted acoustic tune complete with animated vocals acting out different voices. Ultimately Don't Give Up on Us, the closing track, is the only worthwhile tune here on an utterly forgettable album devoid of any of the pop hooks than that hit. But Black Bean Soup does have something, with it's violin, funky acoustic strum a countrified treatment of funk, in fact the plodding rhythm and hushed sensual vocals remind me of Leo Sayer You Make Me Feel Like Dancing form the same period. The duet is sung with passion particularly by Lynne Marta's raucously dispensed vocal, as they describe a relatively straightforward recipe with warbling swagger and some Down-home spirit as extra drums, louder violin and background chatter come in and join the party.


Then again, I change my mind and Kristofer David has a pure innocence to it as David sounds like John Denver, the addition of sound effects such as the continuous little chuckles, the animated growl, 'in character' responses from a female vocalist, the out of song interjection about "Love?!" which he shouts really loud make this a silly closer to Dr Hook. Soul has vibes of his mid 70s peers the John Denver and Leo Sayer's smooth AOR ballads and the quirky roots music of Dr Hook but nothing is better than a song like Kristofer David. Here he is singing a tune about the 'ladybug of love,' a lyric a little too earnest for an adult, and so it is recorded as if played live to a giggling classroom of children. Over the course of the song we get acted out asides occurring mid song by a female while Soul himself breaks away from gently singing to making his own farcical comments before it ends perfectly with the group of children joining in 'las las' before a gaggle of scattered applause; it's whimsical and not too serious like the whole album minus the big, big hit of course which completely does not belong here.