Search - Jonathan Hoffman :: Best Friends

Jonathan Hoffman's debut album, "Guess I'll Have to Write My Own," was so successful, it "went balsa," as they say in the trade. Undaunted, Jonathan Hoffman returns with eleven new songs on his second CD, "Best Friends." Hoffman wrote all the music and lyrics in "Best Friends," except for the parts he took from other writers. He purloined the melody of Take Me Out to the Ballgame for the opening to his song, The Sox Finally Win the Series. Intellectual property lawyers standing in line to sue will be disappointed to learn that Take Me Out to the Ballgame is now in the public domain. However, these same lawyers will be pleased to discover their own feature role in the lyrics of another tune on this CD, Steal This Song, his tribute to music wannabes who simply aspire to have their songs considered worthy of being stolen on Morpheus, Audiogalaxy or any of the other Napster clones. Like Hoffman's first CD, this one features songs about family and friends (Best Friends; Sirota, It Must Be Love; Miss South Eugene); satirical work about the music business (The Singer-Songwriter Formerly Known as Me; Steal This Song); and plaintive commentary about the failings of his baby boomer generation (Aftermath). But this second CD takes off in several new directions as well. It features his satirical and unrepentant response to I'm a Woman (I'm a Man); his mocking paean to the Fenway Faithful (The Sox Finally Win the Series); and even songs about his adopted shelter dog (Our Chaperone; Blue Yellow Lab). The last of these even features some blues wailing by Watson, the shelter dog himself. No animals were harmed during the making of this CD. Whether any will be harmed by listening to it is a more complex subject requiring further study.