Consumer Guide Album

Dan Hicks: It Happened One Bite [Warner Bros., 1978]
Hicks's songwriting is somewhat straightened (Joan Baez could do "Cloud My Sunny Mood" or "Garden in the Rain") but only slightly diminished on this 1975 soundtrack for an unreleased Ralph Bakshi movie (he sez). But for some reason it sounds a little . . . loud, even forceful. I should applaud this modernistic development, but instead I'm thinking that I'd rather hear Peter Stampfel (or R. Crumb) cover "Mama, I'm an Outlaw." B-