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| | Mr. Gone | | | Music Artist : | | Weather Report | | Music Style : | | General | | Record Label : | | Sbme Special Mkts. | | Release Date : | | 2008-03-01 | | Store Price : | | $6.99 | | Artistopia's Price: $6.99 | | Usually ships in 24 hours | | |
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CD Tracks/Songs
Disc 11. Pursuit of the Woman With the Feathered Hat
2. River People
3. Young and Fine
4. Elders
5. Mr. Gone
6. Punk Jazz
7. Pinocchio
8. And Then
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Other Artist Albums
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Customer Reviews of This Album/CD |
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 I like this one!
Submitted on: 2009-09-23 |
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First of all: the infamous 'disco track', Jaco's "River People" is an amazing song, and way of ahead of its time - I would call it a predecessor to Deep House, Nu-Jazz or what have you.
This is the infamous LP that got a one-star review from Down Beat. Personally, it's one of my favorites, and has great WR songs such as Zawinul's "Young And Fine". However, in the WR discography I'd rate it as "average", after gems like Black Market, Mysterious Traveller and Heavy Weather (which, by the way, I consider one of their weaker efforts) |
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 Wonderful music. A great experimental album from an ever changing experimental band.
Submitted on: 2009-08-09 |
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This was a tough nut to crack for many after the more accessible "Black market" and "Heavy weather" albums of the Jaco Pastorius era. Weather report were in a transitionary state and this is the album which emerged. It clearly wasn't what people had come to expect from them and there was a lot of controversy about it at the time. The "jazz purists" hated it and thought WR had sold out to DISCO. Absolute poppycock!! Weather Report were never a band for the jazz purists anyway. There is nothing on this album that remotely resembles disco, however there are incessant "pea-soup pea-soup" hihats on "River People" which Jaco draws our attention to and sends up himself.
I believe that "Mr. Gone was a very deliberate progression of the band who's name suggests constant change. In my opinion, it was their best to date after the brilliant 1974 album "Mysterious traveller". (Yes, Weather Report were good before Jaco Pastorius joined them.) This album contains some of Jaco's most beautiful bass lines.
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 The Antithesis of a Rock-n-Roll Band
Submitted on: 2009-02-28 |
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The infamous 1978 album that received a one-star (out of a possible five) from Down Beat magazine got a debate going between the band and the publication, fans amongst fans and critics versus critics in a controversy that still brews today concerning the merits of the eight tracks.
That the follow-up to the brilliant Heavy Weather was certified gold got lost in the mix of the noises that challenged this experiment in sound, with the inclusion of elements as diverse as disco to avant-garde. The trio of Joe Zawinul, Jaco Pastorius and Wayne Shorter are riding a crest of popularity after the cross-over hit, Birdland. But rather than play the rock band game of the era and crank out a clone album/single, the trio pursues a parallel trail to 1974's Mysterious Traveller.
The percussion/drummer spot is unsettled, with Manola Badrena, Peter Erskine, Tony Williams and Steve Gadd handling the duties. The 37:15 is split into two compositions each from Shorter (The Elders, Pinocchio) and Jaco (River People, Punk Jazz), with four numbers by Zawinul; The Pursuit of the Woman with the Feathered Hat, Young and Fine, Mr. Gone, And Then.
That Zawinul used the studio as an artistic laboratory cannot be denied. That the "flaws" of the album are based on the group attempting to stretch the sound is a plus....and not a fallen star.
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Rolling on
Submitted on: 2008-09-02 |
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| As with all the previous WR albums, Shorter and Zawinul put together a great supporting cast for this work. The upbeat tempo of the album makes it a favorite for me on road trips. A must have for any WR afficianado. |
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A experimental failure, but an interesting one
Submitted on: 2008-04-26 |
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Weather Report's credibility with the critics was finally shattered with Mr. Gone. Not only did it feature the occasional concession to disco (this was 1978, after all), but the entire album had an electronic, studio-project feel that didn't fit in too well with the jazz ideal.
Yet this album isn't all that bad: "The Elders" is an eerie Wayne Shorter piece in the b-movie soundtrack style, and "Pursuit of the Woman with the Feathered Hat" is a decent world-fusion piece descended from the Tale Spinnin' days. As far as clunkers -- well, the ballad "Young and Fine" is a quintessential elevator tune.
The meat of the album, though, lies in the experimental oddities. They range from mildly weird (Shorter's "Pinocchio", rearranged from the Miles Davis days but faded out after just 2 minutes, Jaco's "Punk Jazz", which begins with a speedy bass-drums duet but switches into a somewhat cheesy ballad after a minute) to humorous (try not to crack a smile during the goofy disco-from-outer-space of Jaco's "River People") to downright bizarre (the title track, an avant-garde (?) attempt to reproduce jazz swing, walking bassline and all, using analogue synths). This album also has "And Then", a "song" featuring the vocals of Maurice White that never quite develops a direction but just fades out. Very strange.
Anyway, a lot of Weather Report fans dismiss this as a one-off failure, preferring the chops-heavy 8:30 and Night Passage. But this album is also the last Weather Report album to feature really interesting experiments with sound. If you're curious, definitely pick it up.
[This review is based on the 1990 issue of this album; the 2008 reissue has an identical tracklist.] |
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