McVicar: Original Soundtrack Recording [Soundtrack]

Editorial Reviews
Album Details
The Soundtrack of the Film that was Used as a Vehicle for Roger Daltrey's Acting Career, his First Major Non-musical Starring Role.

Tracks:

Bitter And Twisted
Just A Dream Away
Escape Part One
White City Lights
Free Me
My Time Is Gonna Come
Waiting For A Friend
Escape Part Two
Without Your Love
McVicar

Album Details

The Soundtrack of the Film that was Used as a Vehicle for Roger Daltrey's Acting Career, his First Major Non-musical Starring Role.

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely fantistic!!!.......2007-01-27

To me this is Roger Daltrey at his best. The only track I didn't particularly like was "Bitter and Twisted". The others were all very good.

My favourites have to be:

Waiting for a friend.
Escape (parts one and two).
Free me.
White city lights.
Without your love.
McVicar.

Overall I give this album 100% 10/10

You Better You Bet.......2006-12-09

Roger Daltrey has never been able to escape his legacy in The Who to have what many fans would have predicted to be a highly successful solo career.

But it stalled over the years due to poor choices in material, his political stance - during a promo tour he refused to cross a picket line of striking workers in the TV industry, knowing the cancellations would limit publicity and hurt LP sales - and playing the band's music without the moniker - he had to fund one tour literally out-of-pocket due to weak ticket sales.

But through these uneven times came a 1980 gem, the soundtrack to McVicar. The movie, in which Daltrey starred and co-produced, was about bank robber John McVicar, who co-wrote the screenplay.

And with The Who performing, along with tour keyboardist John Bundrick, it has a musical punch often lacking in Daltrey's material, though the songs were written by Billy Nicholls and Russ Ballard.

Free Me is one of the finest performances by Daltrey, with Bitter and Twisted & McVicar of equally outstanding quality. Two surprising tracks are the instrumentals - Escape 1 and Escape 2 - that fit into the flow of the CD, which oftentimes doesn't happen in soundtracks.

Maybe because Daltrey had a huge artistic investment in the project or due to the work of his bandmates without the music being written by Pete Townshend - and probably a combination of both - McVicar is his finest solo effort and an absolutely fantastic soundtrack.

Roger Daltrey's best solo album ever.......2005-02-18

I have worn out 2 copy's of this album on vinyl.Now it's finally out on CD.This is one of Roger Daltrey's best solo albums out there.Although I liked the movie of it.And Roger Daltrey does a good job playing the Bank Robber John McVicar.The soundtrack is amazing.My favorite songs are 'Free Me','My Time Is Gonna Come', and many others too.I've been a Who fan for a long time.And 'McVicar' is one of the best Who albums I've listened to.

One of the Absolute Best.......2004-11-05

I've listened to this recording on a cassette made from vinyl in 1985. McVicar is one of the classic Daltry albums that has more of a "WHO" flavor than any his albums that proceeded it. Anyone who has any type of WHO collection should add this IMMEDIATELY.

A de facto Who album.......2004-09-12

Along with UARM, I consider this Roger's greatest solo album, and it works so well because it's a de facto Who album. Though there are other musicians present on the album, the fact remains that all three of the other bandmembers played on these tracks, even contributing backing vocals on a couple of tracks (such as "My Time Is Gonna Come"). Even his biggest solo hit, "Free Me," came from this album; it reached #20. It's sad how most of Roger's solo career was a joke, since he made horrible decisions about which material to record and with whom to work, coupled with how he didn't seem to be able to find a unique voice for himself as a solo artist. He needed the other guys in the band to be worth anything musically, and here it shines through brilliantly. Consequently, this is the soundtrack to the movie of the same name; it's said that Roger's performance as John McVicar is also his greatest acting role. The songs are great, the music is loud, hard, and rocking, Roger's vocals are top-notch, it features his famous primal screams, along with softer songs like "Without Your Love," it tells the real-life story of bank robber John McVicar very well (McVicar himself co-wrote the screenplay), and there is not a dull moment or throwaway song to be found anywhere. Right from the angry nasty energy of "Bitter and Twisted" all of the way through to the final crescendos of "McVicar," it majorly cooks.

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