Whose Garden Was This/Forest Lawn/Annie's Going To Sing Her Song/Dogs At Midnight/Molly Bloom/Angeline Is Always Friday/Crazy John/Cindy's Cryin'/I've Got Nothing But Time/Saturday Night/Uncle Jack/Jimmy Newman
Tom Paxton No. 6 was the final album on the Elektra label from this celebrated American folk singer. In keeping with the times he has added concern for the environment to his repertoire. (US:184 UK:23)
"Tom was not in a happy mood when he made this album. The topics and references include: terminal pollution, black lung, heroin, John Lennon, Joyce's Ulysses, The American Way of Death, and Johnny Got His Gun. Very powerful stuff. Unforgettable, unfortunately."
"It's not so much that there's anything unique here relative to Paxton's other albums; it's just that he stuck to what he knows best here and did so more consistently than elsewhere. Politics are front and centre as usual: Whose Garden Was This? written for the first Earth Day, somehow seems even more sadly relevant in the global warming era than it did in 1970. It's set in a sort of environmental post-apocalypse, and like all the best political songs, it's poetic rather than preachy, but the point is loud and clear to anyone willing to see it."
"The closing song, Jimmy Newman, is one of the more gently devastating anti-war songs I've ever heard. Topicality rears its head again along the way in Dogs At Midnight, about black lung, Uncle Jack, about a boy being removed from his home by the courts for no good reason, Cindy's Cryin', about heroin addiction and a codependent relationship, and Crazy John, a note of support for John Lennon at the height of his anti-war activism and the accompanying animosity from the press."
"These are vintage Paxton with the addition of strings and piano. This album makes my heart sing. It is one not to be missed."
"Tom wrote and sang some marvellous words. Some light and fun, and some quite serious, Even though decades have gone by since its inception, I would still recommend this."
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