Eight long years after his last album was issued in America,
Harry Belafonte emerged, like the proverbial groundhog on February 2, to see what the weather was like. As it turned out, he should have stayed underground, because
Belafonte's one and only effort for Columbia turned out to be as dismal as his most listless albums for RCA in the 1970s. Unable to find enough contemporary product to work with,
Belafonte used four songs from early-'70s songwriter
Jake Holmes (a stalwart on his worst RCA albums) to round out this generally boring collection.
Ralph McTell's "Streets of London" can be a poignant lesson in self-pity if not for
Belafonte's mannered performance, and surely there must be a better
Hoyt Axton song for
Harry to sing than "Mary Makes Magic." Even
Bob Dylan's "Forever Young," combined in a medley with the South African "Jabulani," misses the mark. A sorry effort for what once was one of the most versatile and exciting recording artists in history -- now relegated to being filed in the "has-bins" at record stores.