Best Friends by Jonathan Hoffman

" 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 Napster.

Many of the same excellent backup musicians return from Hoffman's first CD, except that the violin and piano on the first album have been replaced with Jim Bryan's mandolin, Paul Connor's dobro, and some other outstanding guitar work by Jon Lindahl and Greg Roberts. These fine musicians do their best to protect the innocent public from Hoffman's voice and acoustic guitar work.

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.

In addition to the eleven songs listed on Best Friends, the CD contains enhanced features for fans of the Oregon Ducks. Inserting the CD in a CD-ROM drive on a personal computer gives the listener the option of either listening to the eleven songs and reading the lyrics, or else hearing a twelfth bonus track, "It's a Great Day to Be a Duck", accompanied by a slide show of Hoffman and other Delirious Duck fans celebrating the most successful season in Oregon sports history. USC, UCLA, Washington, and Oregon State fans may choose not to avail themselves of this option. Dweeb Ducks can even copy the song onto their hard drives and, if they incorporate herein by this reference thereto the WARNING to BEWARE of the aforementioned lawyers as aforesaid, and notwithstanding the provisions of 18 United States Code Annotated §2319, can burn the Duck song onto a CD in order to have access to Duck Music in their Duckmobiles.

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.

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