Sagittarius - The Blue Marble

 I would be truly impressed if you knew the name Gary Usher. The man did a lot of things, but none of them really ever panned out to much of anything. That's because nearly everything he did just seemed to miss the mark by a few inches. I've been trying to write about this album since mid October, but now a month later i finally know how to respond.

When Gary was a young man, he once played a song that he and his friend Brian wrote. When he was done, Brian's dad said "not bad, Gary, now usher yourself the hell out of my living room." That's about as good as it got for Gary.

On paper, the man did everything i should adore: he produced anything that seemed like fun, he made up band names for his studio projects, he helped write at least 9 more certified hits for the Wilson family singers (they lived near the seashore or something), but he made an album that got my hopes up way too high.

I looked at the cover of The Blue Marble by Sagittarius and thought "this is either the greatest concept album noone talks about, or i'm going to be really disappointed. It's my fault, really. I flipped it over, took one look at the cartoon drawing of a man in a nightgown sitting on the moon and rubbed my hands like a bum at a trash can fire.

Damnit Janet, i mean Gary. "In my room" is the perfect set up song. I was thinking, ok i know where Brian Wilson went with the stuff they wrote together, but now i'm going to get to hear the weird Gary Usher lucid dream about looking at earth from outer space. Yippee! Needless to say, i was really upset at having anything close to a similar opinion as Murray Wilson. Nevertheless, when it was over, i very much wanted Usher to get the hell out of my safe space.

The first 2 tracks are totally great, completely weird, but then he goes serious country, and where did the concept go? Who the hell is Gladys? Is she a serpent woman, why are you hissing? How much did you pay that trumpeter for one repeated note?

Side a has so much wasted potential.

Side b opens with the title track. Again, it's perfect for the concept, but that concept has yet to materialize. In the cinematic adaptation of my writing these reviews i'm giving Gary a noogie like Biff in Back to the Future. Mcfly! Mcfly! This isn't an unrequited love album, Mcfly!

Usher has the most perfectly strange voice for what this album should have been; he sounds like the drawing on the back, his blend of moog synths and traditional instruments is phenomenally bizarre, but his lyrics serve no discernable purpose.

Gary, dear. You created an amazing concept album, but forgot to actually include the concept. These are YOUR songs, you're allowed to change the lyrics. Hell, you're allowed to pay someone else to write the lyrics but retain full copyright of that "work for hire" for the next century thanks to Bozo McChersexhusband. I mean, i can respect that this is what you wanted, but all i can say about it is "make like a tree and get out of here."

It is what it is. These songs are unique. It could have been amazing, but it isn't. It's worth a listen for the truly interesting things people made with Bob Moog's crazy electronic wizardry, but as an album it belongs buried way back in the miscellaneous crate so noone unsuspectingly suspects it will be amazing.

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