Where the Sidewalk Ends
If you've heard Shel Silverstein's bawdyFreakin' at the Freakers Ball, your notion of the man who wroteWhere the Sidewalk Endsmight've been skewered. Silverstein was nothing if not a tad twisted. But his twists and turns in world of children's arts were well considered and infectiously charming. When he recorded poems and rhymes fromSidewalk, the book was nearly a decade old. But he brought the words to life, albeit a funky, sometimes nasally delivered, sometimes abruptly jolted life. Silverstein knew that his changes in voice pitch, his quickly dashed mixes of spare guitar and pinched singsong delivery, and, most of all, his rhythmically fetching words were ideal for hearing.Sidewalk, which took home a 1984 Grammy for best children's album, still stands boldly above (or at least apart from) so much of what's recorded for kids. One should expect nothing less than pretzeled genius from the guy who wrote such pop hits as "The Unicorn," "A Boy Named Sue," and "On the Cover ofRolling Stone." And that's what comes through on this expandedSidewalk, with its 11 newly added snippets (including "Hector the Collector," "Hungry Mungry," and "If I Had a Brontosaurus"). If it's a rhyme you're after, look no further.--Andrew Bartlett