What a Lemon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What a Lemon
What a Lemon cover
Studio album by Gasolin'
Released August 1, 1976 (1976-08-01)
Recorded June 1975 at Rosenberg studio, Copenhagen and March 1976 in New York
Genre Rock
Length 38:09
Language English
Label Epic
Producer Roy Thomas Baker
Professional reviews
Gasolin' chronology
Gas 5
(1975)		 What a Lemon
(1976)		 Efter endnu en dag
(1976)
Alternate covers
Cover of the UK version
Cover of the UK version

What a Lemon is an album by Danish rock band Gasolin', released August 1, 1976 on Epic Records in the United States, some parts of Europe, Japan and Australia. It is the third of four albums with English lyrics that Gasolin' released between 1974 and 1978 in an attempt to break the international music market. The album received good reviews from leading American rock critics, but lack of airplay and the fact that the record company invested only small efforts in promotion and distribution did that it never earned the band the public acclaim it was striving for. [1] [2]

Contents

[edit] History

By the start of 1976 Gasolin' was the most popular band in Denmark. Their latest LP Gas 5, issued the previous year, had sold 65.000 copies and earned them a Gold record. But the band had ambitions of international fame, and while re-negociating their record contract with CBS they demanded to have an album issued in the United States as a part of the deal. A compromise was made that granted them a record contract with Epic Records, a subsidiary of Columbia, the equivalent to CBS in the States. In cooperation with Englishman Mick Moloney and Danish author Jan Bredsdorf, the band wrote English lyrics to the songs from Gas 5. In March Gasolin' traveled to New York to re-record the lyrics; however upon their arrival, Epic's A&R chief Lennie Petze estimated that the English lyrics needed further development and assigned the "clean-up" task to Epic employee Dan Beck who had an aspiring talent for poetry. [3]

The resulting album was released on 1976-08-01 and received positive reviews from leading American music magazines like Rolling Stone and The Village Voice. [4] In the latter, Robert Christgau awarded it the rating A- in his Consumers Guide and positioned it as no. 19 on his 1976 Pazz & Jop Dean's List. [5] [6] It eventually sold around 20.000 copies in the United States. [7] It was also released in Australia and Japan, but on the bands request it wasn't initially released in Denmark. However it ended up on the Danish top 20 chart thanks to Gasolin's popularity in their home country and direct import by a number of record shops. Finally the band ceased, and the record was officially released in Denmark as well. [8] [9]

[edit] Title

The album was released in the United States as Gasolin' , but renamed What a Lemon for the rest of the world. The disparity is due to the band releasing previous albums named Gasolin' . All told, Gasolin' released three albums named Gasolin' : Their first Danish album, their first British album and their first American album.

[edit] Album cover

All editions but the English of What a Lemon were released with the wall-painting of the unlucky girl losing her knickers from the original Danish album Gasolin' 3, surrounded by a white border. She had however already been used for the first English album, so instead an alternative cover with photos of the band members was chosen for the English edition.

[edit] Songs

The track list is nearly identical to the original Danish album Gas 5 (1975), except that "1975" and "Good Time Charlie" were omitted and replaced by "Rabalderstraede" and "The Last Jim". "Rabalderstraede" is the Danish version of the title song, "What a Lemon". "The Last Jim" is an instrumental taken from the Danish album Stakkels Jim (1974).

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Side one

  1. "What a Lemon" (Music: Gasolin' / Lyrics: Gasolin', Skip Malone, Dan Beck, Jan Bredsdorf) – 4:57
  2. "Fatherless Hill" (Music: Kim Larsen, Gasolin' / Lyrics: Larsen) – 4:16
  3. "Lonesome Avenue" (Music: Larsen / Lyrics: Larsen) – 3:25
  4. "Rebel Run" (Music: Gasolin', Tommy Petersen / Lyrics: Beck) – 2:58
  5. "Lots of Success" (Music: Gasolin' / Lyrics: Gasolin', Beck) – 3:40

[edit] Side two

  1. "It's All the Same to an American Dane" (Music: Gasolin' / Lyrics: Gasolin', Mick Moloney, Beck) – 3:54
  2. "Lady Oh Lady" (Music: Gasolin' / Lyrics: Gasolin', Moloney) – 2:43
  3. "Sad Song of the Bluebird" (Music: Gasolin' / Lyrics: Gasolin', Moloney) – 4:31
  4. "Rabalderstraede" (Music: Larsen, Wili Jønsson / Lyrics: Gasolin', Mogens Mogensen) – 4:50
  5. "The Last Jim" (Larsen, Franz Beckerlee) – 2:55

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Gasolin'

[edit] Additional musicians

[edit] Production

[edit] Release history

Region Title Date Label Format Catalog [10]
United States Gasolin' August 1, 1976 (1976-08-01) Epic Records stereo LP PE 34149
Europe What a Lemon August 1, 1976 (1976-08-01) Epic Records stereo LP EPC 81436
Australia What a Lemon November 15, 1976 (1976-11-15) Epic Records stereo LP ELPS 3781
Japan What a Lemon 1976 (1976) Epic Records stereo LP 25AP 301
Scandinavia A Foreign Affair II[11] 2002 (2002) Sony Music Entertainment double CD SM 2965-05

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Bille (1997) p.177
  2. ^ Bundgaard (2003) p. 100
  3. ^ Bundgaard (2003) pp. 90-91
  4. ^ Bundgaard (2003) p. 99
  5. ^ Christgau, Robert. The Gasolin' Consumer Guide Reviews. RobertChristgau.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-09.
  6. ^ Christgau, Robert. Pazz & Jop 1976: Dean's List, RobertChristgau.com. RobertChristgau.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  7. ^ Bundgaard (2003) p. 108
  8. ^ Bundgaard (2003) p. 98
  9. ^ (Danish) Bundgaard, Peder (2002). "Den amerikanske drøm...", p. 6 [CD booklet]. Album notes for A Foreign Affair II. Sony (SM 2965-05). A Foreign Affair II at MusicBrainz.
  10. ^ Wenneberg, Jan. Min Gasolin' samling (Danish). Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  11. ^ Reissue bundled with The Last Jim

[edit] References

v • d • e
Gasolin'
Kim Larsen · Franz Beckerlee · Wili Jønsson · Søren Berlev
Bjørn Uglebjerg
Studio albums
Gasolin' (1971) • Gasolin' 2 (1972) • Gasolin' 3 (1973) • Stakkels Jim (1974) • Gas 5 (1975) • Efter endnu en dag (1976) • Gør det noget (1977)
Gasolin' (1974) • The Last Jim (1974) • What a Lemon (1976) • Killin' Time (1978)
Live albums
Live sådan (1976) • Live i Skandinavien (1978) • Derudaf Forever (1993)
Compilation albums
Supermix 1 (1980) • Rabalderstræde Forever (1991) • A Foreign Affair (1997) • Gasolin' Forever (1999) • The Early Years (2000) • A Foreign Affair II (2002) • The Black Box (2003)
Videos and DVDs
Gasolin' (2006)
Languages