Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show - Fried Face (1974)

Casual radio listeners would remember Dr Hook for 'Sylvia’s Mother',  'The Cover Of The Rolling Stone', or 'When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman', but they were much more than just a novelty act, and produced some other great songs which were hidden away on their albums. Those causal listeners, however, would probably not have heard of the band's proposed fourth album 'Fried Face'. Songs which were recorded during the sessions for their first three records were considered for the fourth, and a cassette was complied, which has since leaked onto the net, and a vinyl copy was even issued in Holland, from which I've taken the cover. ‘Rain’ is a great early Shel Silverstein song that was recorded for the first album, as was ‘February Snow’, while ‘Monkey Gruntin’' was made up in the studio during the 'Sloppy Seconds' sessions, and ‘I Won’t Be Following You’ was one of a few songs demoed at Roy Chen's studio in Chinatown. ‘Someone To Talk To’ (aka ‘Nobody Hear’) was another Silverstein song, and possibly the first ecology song written in pop music. The project got as far as being given a CBS catalogue number, but in the end it never appeared, and the band's fourth album ended up being the 'Ballad Of Lucy Jordan' compilation. Because no acetates were ever made, and the only recordings were on cassette, it means that there are audio dropouts from time to time, but unfortunately these are the best versions that can be found online, and while some of these songs could be considered throwaways, there's enough good stuff on here to warrant a listen. The title of the album was taken from a conversation Ray Sawyer and Dennis Locorriere had during the ‘Belly Up’ sessions that, in part, goes something like -
‘What do you like to eat?’
‘Chicken.’
‘What’s your favorite part?’
‘The face… fried face!’

Track listing

01 Three Little Fishes
02 Long Tall Texan
03 February Snow
04 The Loneliest People 
05 Nobody Hears What I Say
06 Cops & Robbers
07 Rain
08 Long Hair
09 Hey Little Lady
10 The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan
11 Monkey Gruntin’
14 High Flying Eagle
13 The Millionaire