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Santo

Son of a Working Man b/w Loisaida

Released 1983 on The Source UNLTD
Reviewed by Lawrence, Dec 2009ce

I feel kinda weird reviewing this record, as it’s not usually the kind of music I like. But it is pretty well done for that sort of thing.

Of course this is folk from a time when such things weren’t popular. This was the early Reagan era, and folk wasn’t considered edgy enough, or seen as too politically radical or as ‘hippie’. A few years later and this would change, and soon all the coffeehouses would be full of wannabee folk singers, thus making the genre a bit mundane and dull… Not to mention the politics shifting into something purely sexual, but I’m getting off-topic.

Well this recording is musically about the same as some of the better coffeehouse-folk out there, complete with speedy bongo-drums, earnest singing and the like. But what’s interesting here are the lyrics — getting pretty close to what one would consider “loner folk”. The a‑side is about Santo’s father would work himself to death and how Santo set out that “It won’t be my blood the puts money into another man’s hand…” The flipside continues the theme of survival, as Santo says “The best thing to livin’ on the street/ You can’t get no further down…” How can I NOT like a record such as this? I wish more folk singers were this honest about their lives…

Well from looking at Santo’s website it was his printing company that apparently came out with this record (from what I can tell…) And he’s still doing music, of course of which I can guess he might now be more reflective and wiser than the sharper-minded, younger Santo on this 7″. Anyways, if you can find any of his work it would definitely be worth a listen (at least…)