The entertainment career of Morton Downey, Jr., is best remembered for a talk show he hosted from 1987-89. He was a very direct and very opinionated host. Downey, though, worked in near obscurity for a number of years as a singer, but did have some success as a writer, producer, and disc jockey. Even though both his father and grandfather had some success in music, the youngest Downey barely made a blip on the record charts, with one very minor country hit in 1981. However, Downey took the opportunity to combine his music and his talk show in 1989 when Compose Records released his album, Morton Downey, Jr. Sings!. I don't think the album achieved its desired results.

The eleven songs contained on the album are either tributes to Downey's take-no-prisoners style, or portraits of the sorts of people discussed and invited to the program. It even has a bit of a talk show format to it, with the opening and closing tracks singing about Downey, the talk show host. The album opens with "Blue Collar King," which is sung by David Lloyd (whose full name may be David Lloyd Schoonmaker, but I have not been able to gather any information on this performer other than the credits that appear on the CD I own), who wrote or co-wrote every song on the album. As a songwriter, Lloyd is about as subtle as a kick in the crotch, and has the camp value of an Ed Wood movie. As a singer, Lloyd boasts that Downey puts talk show legends like Johnny Carson and Oprah Winfrey to shame. In the same song, he calls Downey a "pit bull of the airwaves," which does not describe either Carson or Winfrey. Shortly after Lloyd wrote and performed this ditty, his blue collar king no longer had a throne on the airwaves.

Downey, however, does sing lead on nine of the album's eleven songs. His first vocal appearance comes on the the second track, "Operate, Operate," about a doctor who only accepts patients who can afford his service. His main interest, though, is not the patient. It's about bilking insurance so he can afford his lavish lifestyle. The music has the same sort of tropical, laid-back arrangement one would find in a Jimmy Buffett song, without the laid-back attitude. The same holds true for "Senator Paperman," about a politician who speaks of being a man of the people from his mansion. It's the only song Downey had a hand in writing. The majority of the songs, though, have a country flavor, such as his tribute to an ambulance-chasing litigator in "Lawyer Named Sue," who will take a case if he can get a big pay day from it.

The poor whom Downey claims to champion don't avoid an overblown treatment of their situation. In "Old Man," Downey sings of a destitute person who can finally afford to treat himself to something special. Before he can do that, he's ridiculed, hit with a rock, then fatally run over by a car. Other gloomy portraits include "Lady Of The Night," about a woman who has grown tired of profession she has chosen who has chosen to end her life, and "Solution To Pollution," which concedes no answers will be found to the dilemma. One line even sings of "purple, acid rain," which is a kind of precipitation I have yet to see.

The song that gives me the most laughs, though, is "Mr. Yuppie's Birthday Party," which can be viewed as a 1980s update of the E. A. Robinson poem, "Richard Corey." While Richard Corey was polite and generous to the people in the community where he lived, Mr. Yuppie was only that way to himself. One day, Mr. Yuppie comes to the realization that he has little else to show for his life than his material wealth. Does Mr. Yuppie try and change his ways? The song wouldn't be on this album if he did. Instead, he goes to his room, throws himself a birthday party, and commits suicide. The song even includes the fatal gunshot, just in case someone couldn't figure out what Mr. Yuppie was doing.

No person or reputation goes unscathed, except for the singer himself. Downey sings about his show on the album's final track, "Zip It," which was also uttered often by the host on the air. He invites all sorts of people to voice their grievances on television. When their ranting and raving goes against his views, Downey lets them know that they can "Zip it!" I'm not sure that does anything except show that Downey loved to display his "sure-fire cure, called the Loudmouth Method." All he seemed to have accomplished was add one more loudmouth to the equation of any debate.

In spite of describing the content, I made the conscious decision to purchase this CD back in 1990, when I found an excellent bargain on it. It has been well worth the $1.92 I spent to get it. By then, Downey had seen his show come and go. If you go to the All Music Guide (allmusic.com) at this point, you will find that Downey lives in the hearts of the editors of AMG. In spite of me sending them notice, AMG has yet to note Downey's 2001 passing. They also have just one listing in his discography, and that one is Morton Downey Jr. Sings!. I don't know if he ever returned to the studio following this album, but Downey's official website lists other titles from him. I bought the album because I thought it would be filled with laughs, and I was right. I think that Downey and Lloyd meant well in criticizing certain American values in song, but their songs are unrelentingly gloomy. Some might expect that if these songs are an accurate portrayal of society, the Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse will soon make an appearance.

Songs:
1. Blue Collar King (lead vocal - David Lloyd)
2. Operate, Operate
3. Old Man
4. Hey Mr. Dealer
5. Mr. Yuppie's Birthday Party
6. Last American Hero (lead vocal - David Lloyd)
7. Senator Paperman
8. Lawyer Named Sue
9. Lady Of The Night
10. Solution To Pollution
11. Zip It

This is an entry in the "Let's Do Database Diving" write-off hosted by rkingfish. Follow the hyperlink to see a listing of entries and their buried treasures.

Thanks Rick.


Recommended: No

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