Lou Christie's "Paint America Love" album: great lost classic or an unknown dud?

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I was wondering if anyone here had heard this album and what they thought, as it's been receiving some attention lately (I think it appeared in one of the Wire's lists). Although Christie is best known for his hit "Lightning Strikes" and writing the Tammys "Egyptian Shumba", I feel that some of the songs here deserve to be as critically lauded as those two songs. The album has a very old-fashioned feel, and most of the songs wouldn't feel out of place in the 1950s, even though it was released in 1971.

Since the album is long out of print, I'll upload the first two songs on the album as a sampler, if someone is interested:

Wood Child: http://www.mediafire.com/?4xovudjxdrb
Paper Song: http://www.mediafire.com/?81gk0dfecud

― Belldog, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 05:52 (eighteen years ago)

Thanks for posting these! Had no idea this existed. Christie's very underrated, seems only people from Pittsburgh remember him much at all. These wouldn't have sounded out of place on a '70-'73 Beach Boys album either. He's in a little over his head with the lyrics ("it's a free show, / watching trees grow" (!)) and productions but I dig this kind of stuff.

― Joseph McCombs, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 20:25 (eighteen years ago)

cool i've never heard this. i like lou christie, he had weird noises in his head. i was just listening to the original sinner comp the other day. the alternate mix of "lita" on there is practically dub.

― tipsy mothra, Wednesday, 26 December 2007 20:55 (eighteen years ago)

fifteen years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXidF34p_OM

was kind of obsessed about lightin' strikes the other day and it led me to this record, it is really really weird, everything about it including the relationship between christie and twyla herbert

I presume twyla wrote most of it but they both seem like tremendously weird people, the outro to wood child is every bit as "unhinged pop" as anything brian wilson or I dunno the beatles or the millennium were trying at the time right?

― Florin Cuchares, Sunday, 23 July 2023 09:43 (two years ago)

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