Werner Becker is not, by any stretch of the imagination, Germany\u2019s answer to Barry White.<\/p>\n
Oh, you haven\u2019t heard of him? If you\u2019re under the age of 40, that\u2019s no surprise; even if you\u2019re of my age and the name draws a blank, that could be expected. However, if you refer to him by his Anglicized name of Anthony Ventura?<\/p>\n
Hmm\u2026 still no?<\/p>\n
Truth is, Ventura\/Becker is an artist whose recorded work would probably be found hidden in the recesses of your parents\u2019 or grandparents\u2019 record collection. His instrumental renditions of popular songs from the \u201960s and \u201970s resulted in a slew of adult contemporary albums apparently designed to help increase the chance of fornication and subsequent reproduction, known as his \u201cJe T\u2019aime\u201d series of releases.<\/p>\n
Take, for example, his 1979 release Music For Making Love<\/i>\u2014another one of my \u201cwhat the hell am I doing in this section of Internet Archive\u201d adventures. It doesn\u2019t appear that this album was ever released in the United States\u2014knowing how prudish we are over here, the cover alone should have been evidence of this. (The version I\u2019m reviewing was released one year later on Ariola; it initially was released in Germany by RCA Victor, but the track listings are identical.)<\/p>\n
With Ventura behind the keyboard, he and a nameless group of backing musicians plow through 16 tracks of some renown. And while I can\u2019t say this music is gonna make you want to get your freak on, it is nice, mellow background music that one might, for example, have expected to hear playing at the doctor\u2019s office. This might sound like a veiled insult; it is not meant to be. It\u2019s simply something you\u2019d expect to hear in the background, not demanding much (if any) of your attention to detail.<\/p>\n
The choice of songs, however, leads me to question how some of this could be considered as romantic music. I mean, \u201cIn The Ghetto\u201d?!? If I were much, much younger and was putting the moves on some nubile young woman and that track came on, chances are good that I\u2019d lose\u2026 um, focus. \u201cHotel California\u201d?!? Maybe it\u2019s just me, but when the wife and I are in the mood and we have background music, the last thing I\u2019m thinking is, \u201cYou know what would put me in the mood? A two-minute guitar solo!\u201d (Not that there\u2019s one on this version.)<\/p>\n
Look, it\u2019s easy to take cheap shots at this album due to its title and track selection. The question becomes: is this worth listening to? And\u2026 I gotta admit, it\u2019s not terrible. I can\u2019t say it\u2019s good<\/i>, but it\u2019s definitely not the worst thing I\u2019ve listened to in my life, even if I was getting FM100 flashbacks over here. (They were the muzak radio station in Chicago when I was a kid\u2026 doubt many people would get that reference.)<\/p>\n
There are, however, some cringe-worthy moments. Take, for example, the electric organ on \u201cKilling Me Softly.\u201d I guess, if I were trying to get laid at the roller rink in 1979, this one would work. Other than that, the organ work makes this one sound extremely dated.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t say that Music For Making Love<\/i> is going to deliver on the promise of its title, nor can I say that this one is essential owning and listening. It is, however, a relatively accurate snapshot of its time and the particular style of music that Ventura was perpetuating. It has some kitsch factor and is nice background music, but that\u2019s about all it has going for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10933],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-46827","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-anthony-ventura-and-his-orchestra","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46827"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46827"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}