What a Lemon

Infobox Album
Name = What a Lemon
Type = studio
Artist = Gasolin'


Released = Start date|1976|8|1
Recorded = June 1975 at Rosenberg studio, Copenhagen and March 1976 in New York
Genre = Rock
Language = English
Length = 38:09
Label = Epic
Producer = Roy Thomas Baker
Reviews = * Review-Christgau|A-|name=Gasolin
Last album = "Gas 5"
(1975)
This album = "What a Lemon"
(1976)
Next album = "Efter endnu en dag"
(1976)
Misc = Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Alternate cover
Type = studio


Lower caption = Cover of the UK version

"What a Lemon" is an album by Danish rock band Gasolin', released august 11976 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. [ Bille (1997) p.177 ] [ Bundgaard (2003) p. 100 ]

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-negotiating 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. [ Bundgaard (2003) pp. 90-91 ]

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. [ Bundgaard (2003) p. 99 ] 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". [ cite web
url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Gasolin'
title=The Gasolin' Consumer Guide Reviews
accessdate=2008-04-09
last=Christgau
first=Robert
authorlink=Robert Christgau
publisher=RobertChristgau.com ] [cite web
url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/deans76.php
title=Pazz & Jop 1976: Dean's List, RobertChristgau.com
accessdate=2008-04-07
last=Christgau
first=Robert
authorlink=Robert Christgau
publisher=RobertChristgau.com ] It eventually sold around 20.000 copies in the United States. [Bundgaard (2003) p. 108] 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. [ Bundgaard (2003) p. 98 ] [ da icon cite album-notes
title = A Foreign Affair II
albumlink = A Foreign Affair II
year = 2002
notestitle = Den amerikanske drøm...
first = Peder
last = Bundgaard
pages = p. 6
format = CD booklet
publisher = Sony
publisherid = SM 2965-05
mbid = 8e10b0a9-aefa-485c-a125-72eb5092c924 ]

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.

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.

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).

Track listing

Side one

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

Side two

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

Personnel

Gasolin'

* Kim Larsen – vocals, rhythm guitar
* Franz Beckerlee – lead guitar, moog, harmonica, vocals
* Wili Jønsson – bass, keyboards, vocals
* Søren Berlev – drums, percussion, vocals

Additional musicians

* Wolfgang Käfer - string arrangements (all tracks except "The Last Jim")
* Palle Mikkelborg - string arrangements ("The Last Jim")
* Anne Linnet, Lis Sørensen – backing vocals ("Fatherless Hill")
* Hugo Rasmussen - double bass ("Lonesome Avenue")

Production

* Roy Thomas Baker – producer
* Freddy Hansson – engineer

Release history

Notes

References

*cite book
title=Politikens Dansk Rock 1956-1997
last=Bille
first=Torben
year=1997
url=http://www.saxo.com/dk/item/politikens-dansk-rock-1956-1997.aspx?searchkeyword=politikens+dansk+rock&searchurl=%2fsearch%2fsearch.aspx%3fkeyword%3dpolitikens%2bdansk%2brock%26pagemodule%3dfront
accessdate=2008-04-09
publisher=Politikens Forlag
language=Danish
isbn=87-567-5777-8
*cite book
last=Bundgaard
first=Peder
title=Gasolin' - Masser af Success
origyear=1993
url=http://www.lindhardtogringhof.dk/Default.aspx?ID=156&ProductID=1322445
accessdate=2008-04-27
edition=2nd Edition
year=2003
publisher=Lindhardt og Ringhof
language=Danish
isbn=87-595-2242-9