I fixed the title on this. It’s not “Jack Black” it’s him and a friend Kyle Gass forming the duo Tenacious D. and the song isn’t called “Greatest Song in the World” it’s called “Tribute” because, as the lyric says, “This is not the greatest song in the world, no, this is just a tribute…”

Unjustly undersung. Not enough people know about this one. Great cover of Men at Work’s “Overkill”.

Still deciding if I “like” or “love” this overall. Best tracks on here are the reworked “black” gospel numbers..weakest seem to be the reworked CCM ones (“Heart of Worship”,”Here I Am to Worship”).

Not outright awful but mostly unremarkable. “California Justice” is probably the most interesting tune here.

This one is a definite grower. Last time I listened to it was in 2006, called it “Wishy-washy”. Still feel “wishy-washy” about it in 2009 but this time I liked “Isolation” and “Atrocity Exhibition” quite a bit so there’s a possibility I could still grow to like this.

This was a #4 R&B hit and #28 pop when it was released in 1973. It comes from the IDENTIFY YOURSELF album.

Maybe this will grow on me with repeated listenings but so far I only like about 1/2 of it. I still prefer THE DIRTY SOUTH to this one.

Considering his wild man reputation, I expected frenetic charged R&B a la Little Richard or Esquerita. But this was fairly by-the-numbers raggedy 50s R&B IMHO.

The “lost gems” here are B sides “I’m Lookin’ for Someone to Love”, “Not Fade Away” and the silly but musically aggressive “Rock Me My Baby”. Buddy: you left us too soon.

Listening to the whole of this release tends to get tedious as it focuses on 2 main themes:

1) “I’m really hot and sexy..are you up to the challenge?” on songs like One Shot, Heartbreaker and Want It. [Though with the last one’s twist being “You lost your boyfriend to me because I’m ‘hawter’” as her DK girlfriends behind her say “Oooooooohh SNAP!”]
2) “You make me horny…can we have sex?” (Those would be Right Now [complete with the breathy “right there” outro suggesting that someone found the ‘magic button’], Ooh Aah, Touching my Body and Back Up)

Occasionally the CD gets over in spite of itself thanks to a nice musical backing as on the Spanish style guitar strum driving “Heartbreaker”. “Ride for You” attempts to break through the superficial tone with a call for a lover to give a strained relationship one more try and “Stay with Me” tries for vulnerability but those moments are too few and far between for this CD to be worth hearing anywhere but on a dance floor as a soundtrack to excess.