Warner Bros / Wea
1968
The Mason Williams Phonograph Record
About This Album
Producer Mike Post and composer Mason Williams packed all sorts of experiments into this half-hour listening experience called The Mason Williams Phonograph Record, and though there are some interesting moments from the clever singer, it is the instrumental masterpiece "Classical Gas" that displays the highest level of creativity. The 45 rpm was a number one adult contemporary hit in the summer of 1968 while the award-winning artist was writing for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. It became so successful that Williams has a separate website with everything one could want to know about the tune linked to his own http://www.masonwilliams-online.com. It won Grammys in 1968 for composition, performance, and Mike Post's arrangement, and maybe because of its huge popularity, it feels out of place in the context of this concept disc. The 27 seconds of folksy banter that make up "Life Song" or the "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" riff that is all 30 seconds of "Dylan Thomas" are disposable bridges between musical elements that matter, the closing instrumental "Sunflower" -- part of a film project where the songwriter "set up cameras in the desert" to capture "the largest flower ever done" -- a skywriting airplane drawing underneath the rising sun.
Track List (try tracks 2,5,7,9 and 10)

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