MAHAVISHNU OrCHESTRA "BIRDS OF FIRE"

Artist: Mahavishnu Orchestra

Album: Birds of Fire
Label: Columbia

Catalog: KC 31996
Year: 1973
Genre: jazz-rock fusion
Grading: VG+ cover / VG+ LP
Quantity: 1

Cover Designer: Ashok (Chris Poisson)
Artist: Ashok (Chris Poisson)

Grade: **** stars

After all these years I still can't wrap my ears around John McLaughlin and his all-star cast of jazz-rock fusioners ...  I know this stuff was technically spectacular, but after all these year I continue to find it dull, plodding, and self-pretentious. I guess I'm not alone since I can remember my local Penguin Feather record store having piles of the album on sale for like a dollar a pop.  I've tried to get it,but I just don't have the proper outlook, or DNA.  In fact, Chris Poisson's cover was the album's creative highlight for me.  The psychedelic colors were certainly eye catching, but so was that neat Pointillism he employed.  Imagine Georges Seurat, or Paul Signac having designed a Mahavsihnu Orchestra cover ...