LAWRENCE PAYTON: One Woman Man; Love Makes You Human (ABC/Dunhill D 4376).
Know the name? Yes, it’s the 4 Top . . . and his solo debut reveals him to be an accomplished romantic Soul balladeer, with slight stylistic traces of the modern Stevie Wonder in the pretty lyricism that surrounds him. Gil Askey has whipped up the most beautiful arrangement imaginable, languidly building from delicately jazzy electric keyboard, guitar and plopping rhythm, while flipside the soft beat is almost samba-ish. In fact, it’s the gorgeous musical setting that made me describe Payton as “accomplished” – he actually sounds a bit ill at ease, I now realise. Still, an instrumental album like this would be a treat!
JOHNNIE TAYLOR: We’re Getting Careless With Our Love (Stax STA 0193).
Yet another hit from Johnnie’s “Taylored In Silk” album, this Soulfully-sung slowie has a thuddingly dominant beat, back-up chix, squeaky strings and hints of “Hot Buttered Soul” during the more spacious moments.
NRBQ: Get That Gasoline Blues (Kama Sutra KA 586).
One of several oil crisis hits, this nifty ‘50s blues finds NRBQ at last in the Charts along with all the other backwards-looking groups who followed them but beat them to hitdom. From their early “Stomp” and work with Carl Perkins, NRBQ have always combined the traditions of Rock ‘n Roll and early 60’s Pop with modern freakiness – thus, they now add some particularly effective woozy brass and a noisy guitar break to a Commander Cody-type good-time chanted strutter that’s 98 octane great. By the way, the gasoline-derived PVC from which discs are made is not only getting scarcer than hens’ teeth, it’s also lethal – over-exposure to the stuff can help cause Angiosarcoma, a rare but fatal liver cancer from which seven vinyl chloride workers have died so far. Record collectors, beware! Continue reading “March 9, 1974: Lawrence Payton, Johnnie Taylor, NRBQ, Three Degrees, James Gang”
BYRON MacGREGOR: The British (unavailable anywhere).
Here it is – as previously exclusively reported – except that in fact, here it ISN’T! This is the Canadian star of “The Americans” doing the “British” version of his huge US hit, and no record company in Britain has the guts to release it! Phonogram have the first-refusal rights but are frightened of the obvious political implications. So, what is it that has got them and all the other companies to which it has been offered so scared? To the backing of “Land Of Hope And Glory”, dee-jay Byron proclaims in plummy tones that the three-day working week and all Britain’s other current problems have plunged the nation into more trouble than it’s ever seen: he then goes on to exhort “The British” with facts about how, by way of the Industrial Revolution, they once beat the World by being the first with every new advance . . . but reminds us that “The British don’t brag about anything – they don’t have to!” Then, after claiming “The British have never given up – and they won’t now”, he plunges into the collected quotes of Winston Churchill, using to telling effect in his argument “We shall fight on the beaches” and “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil and sweat”. No, this has not been a partly satirical broadcast on behalf of any party – it’s a heart-felt and immensely commercial call to the man in the street’s patriotism. If it had come out last week, it would have sold half-a-million, easy. Unfortunately, unless you tune in to Capital Radio at 2 o’clock this Saturday afternoon, when I hope to be able to play it on Tim Rice’s programme, you are now not likely to hear it. A pity, for as Byron concludes, “This is truly Britain’s finest hour!”
TERRY JACKS: Seasons In The Sun (out here on Bell 1344).
Well, there it is, sitting alongside at Number One! Now I discover that I have a 1964 recording of this Jacques Brel & Rod McKuen song on Capitol by the Kingston Trio, who did it in an echoing “Pop-Folk” style, using the original French “Adieu Francoise” unlike Terry’s Anglicised “Goodbye Michelle”.
Other odds & ends: that excellent Pop synthesizer instrumental from the Continent, THE PEPPERS’ “Pepper Box” (out here last October on Spark SRL 1100) is now in the R&B Chart; after all the “authentic” versions mentioned last week, I fear that the most immediately danceable version of “The Sting” is indeed by BOBBY CRUSH (out here on Philips 6006374); PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS’ “Jet” is coupled in America by “Mamunia”, which leaves the way open for “Let Me Roll It” (our B-side) to be the follow-up; GRAND FUNK’s latest is – surprise, surprise! – Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion” (Capitol 3840) . . . whatever will that be like?!
JIMMY OSMOND: Give Me A Good Old Mammy Song; I’m Gonna Knock On Your Door (MGM K 14687 – that’s in America only, so far).
“Hey mums and dads, kids and grads, gather roun’ – ‘cos Jimmy’s BACK . . . in YO’ town!” Yeah, what all those frantic American dee-jays would have been shouting in the good old days: trouble is, they’re all long gone, as is the vulgar kind of music that fitted their format. Hence the Osmonds, Cassidy, Cooper, and all our home-grown noisy Popsters do better here, where Boss Radio reigns, than in the cooled-out States. Admittedly, Little Jimmy O’s “Long Haired Lover From Liverpool” was a medium-sized hitlet in America a great many months before it broke through here, but since then he’s done nothing here. In fact, his Neil Reid-covering “Mother Of Mine” B-side was the original plug-side then, and right now his newie (due out here soon) is the other way up in America, where it is obviously hoped that the Levine & Brown-penned “Mammy Song” will echo that team’s success with Dawn (who, as it certainly sounds, possibly have already recorded this). Just as I dug “Liverpool” originally, I must confess to enjoying this frantic banjo-jangling romp, complete with an Al Jolson-aping sincere recitation insert! Anyway, the British A-side is going to be Jimmy’s similar to the original version of little (at that time) Eddie Hodges’ 1961 US hit, penned by leading Presley hit-mongers of the era, publisher Aaron Schroeder & Sid Wayne, who used that same “I’m gonna knock on your door, ring on your bell, tap on your window too” set of words that have taken Aretha Franklin into our Chart right now. The song’s a gimmicky chugger (less power-packed and noisy than the consequently still stronger Hodges cut) which doubtless will be gracing our airwaves for months to come. Over and out!
SISTER JANET MEAD (SISTER OF MERCY): The Lord’s Prayer (A&M 1491, due out here imminently on A&M AMS 7103).
Gawd strewth . . . following in the footsteps of those other great Australian songbirds, Helen Reddy and Olivia Newton John (let alone – and very applicable here – Judith Durham), and in the noble tradition of such overnight classics as “The Americans”, “Ballad Of The Green Berets” and “My Old Man’s A Dustman”, here’s – hold it, quit shovin’! – an Aussie nun – get in line there! – singing ever so sweetly to a buzzing and rumbling jog-beat Rock backing a generation-bridging – hey, let that cripple through there! – version of “The Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)” – have money ready! – which has already sold over two million copies in the last ten minutes. Say, did you ever know that it was penned by one Arnold Strals? And published by Rondor Music? Oh well, maybe they’re gonna give their royalties to the Australian flood victims, or somethin’ like that.
DICKIE GOODMAN: Energy Crisis ’74 (Rainy Wednesday RW 206).
The latest pastiche from the man who brought you “Flying Saucer” in ’56 and “Super Fly Meets Shaft” in ’73 is this typical mixture of “radio interviewer” questions and pertinent answers snipped from actual Pop hits of the moment. Thus the President is heard to answer questions concerning the current energy crisis in the voices of Helen Reddy, Brownsville Station, Stevie Wonder (very clever that one: “How much gas will motorists be allowed?” – “Just enough for the city”), Wings, and John Lennon. Other participants are Steve Miller, Elton John, Todd Rundgren, Ringo Starr, Charlie Rich, and the Carpenters. As the President (Helen Reddy) keeps saying when asked for a statement, “Leave me alone, leave me alone”!
SPINNERS: Mighty Love, Parts 1 & 2 (Atlantic 45-3006).
As by now you should have come to expect, the Spinners (Detroit variety) are yet again arranged / conducted / produced / created and toilet trained by Thom Bell . . . who, to my mind, is losing his touch, or else just becoming too predictable by half in his approach. There is nothing in this yelpingly-sung matt drums-propelled cooing chugger to warrant its being spread over two sides of a single. It sounds as if Thom and the lead singer (the rest seem to have been replaced by girls again) have been listening hard to Al Green and then applying what they’ve learnt to a Philly framework.
BLACK HEAT: No Time To Burn (Atlantic 45-2987).
Best R&B record of the week, produced by Joel Dorn and arranged by the group themselves, this slow burner of a hunky-chunky funker is full of searing synthesizer phasing, a rattling and booming ambiguous rhythm pattern, chanting back-up singing and a keening hollered and strained lead vocal line intertwined amidst all the other choppy noises. If you hadn’t guessed from my tortuous verbiage, I kinda like it! Continue reading “February 16, 1974: Dickie Goodman, Spinners, Black Heat, Fred Wesley & The J.B.’s, Cooker”
GORDON SINCLAIR: The Americans (A Canadian’s Opinion) (Avco AV 4628).
After going into great detail a couple of weeks ago about this Canadian’s “go it alone” call to Americans, and especially about Byron MacGregor’s best selling of the three hit versions (the other is by Tex Ritter), I now have heard properly this, the actual original version by the aged veteran Canadian broadcaster, television performer and political commentator who wrote and read his editorializing words over his own influential Toronto radio station CFRB on June 5th last year . . . and I must say that I prefer it. Instead of the deadpan radio announcer’s delivery of MacGregor, Sinclair speaks as if he really means and believes what he is saying, making in the process his politically potent opinions and observations far more palatable. When he says “And I was there – I saw that”, he sounds for real, unlike MacGregor, who only sounds risibly like Wink Martindale. Unlike the MacGregor version’s backing of “America The Beautiful”, Sinclair is supported on his reading by “The Battle Hymn Of The Republic” (and, at 4:40, takes nearly a minute longer to say the same words). As I reported before, Phonogram have the rights to both versions but do not so far plan to release either here. Having changed my mind slightly about their commercial appeal here, I now side with Capital Radio’s Tim Rice (who played a snatch of this very record on his US Hot 100 show last Saturday afternoon – all thanks to the RRM!), and think that, if label politics allow it, a back-to-back single of both versions would be viable. Anyway, look out for MacGregor, who’s now recorded “The British” and “God Save The Queen”! Really!
TERRY JACKS: Seasons In The Sun (Bell 52-432).
Another Canadian, Susan’s brother Terry of Poppy Family fame, is also leapfrogging up the US Hot 100 with this slowly chugging Pop treatment of a Rod McKuen-translated Jacques Brel song . . . in fact Terry, who arranged and produced himself (clever lad!), is moving so fast that Rod’s own rush-released reading has already been pipped at the post.
DeFRANCO FAMILY Featuring TONY DeFRANCO: Abra-Ca-Dabra (20th Century TC 2070).
In its first year of reactivation the Russ Regan-run 20th Century (Fox) label has chalked up nine golds (mainly due to Barry White) and one platinum award, the latter for this new ‘teen heart-throb’s singing family’s first hit, “Heartbeat – It’s A Lovebeat”. Little Tony’s newie, full of freaky synthetic effects, squeaky singing and choppy rhythms, is moving steadily enough to end up gold too, at least. Remember, the Osmonds took a surprisingly long time to take off here, so be warned! Incidentally, while on the topic, I’d just like to say how impressed I am by young Ricky Wilde’s current B-side, “Cassette Blues”. He’s like a mini Mick Jagger! Continue reading “February 9, 1974: Gordon Sinclair, Terry Jacks, DeFranco Family, Rick Derringer, Sam Dees”
JIM STAFFORD: Spiders & Snakes (MGM K 14648).
Jim’s previous US hit, “Swamp Witch” – and especially the flipside ageing Rocker’s geriatric “Nifty ‘Fifties Blues” lament – made me suspect that he could be an amusingly original talent, and now my suspicions are confirmed. His new Top Ten smash is a cheekily silly ditty, exaggeratedly enunciated in a chocolatey Country voice to a clucking wah-wah guitar, about a naïve schoolboy’s communication breakdown with the little town flirt . . . y’see, his idea of fun is to slip creepy crawlies down the front of her dress, while she has something else in mind! However, again it’s the flip which really brings home his sense of bizarre humour: it’s a banjo blues, with the odd equally exaggerated vocal that climaxes in the best blues tradition with these emotional words – “Came home the other night, talkin’ to you alone, and you told me he was a nudist . . . who came in to use the ‘phone, ooohh!” Like I said, he’s original and he’s amusing!
TOM T. HALL: I Love (Mercury 73436).
Hottest Country hit of the moment, getting Charlie Rich-type Pop attention, is Tom T.’s self-penned sugary slowie in the “Little Green Apples” / “Honey” mould. He loves little baby ducks, old pick-up trucks, slow moving trains, and rain . . . oh yes, and he loves yew tew. Being vocally more in the Jim Reeves style than in the modern Rich / Twitty sound, he’s even likely to hit here too. Er, sorry, I mean – “tew”.
LAMONT DOZIER: Trying To Hold On To My Woman (ABC 11407).
Lamont is indeed the Dozier from between the two Hollands, now split completely from his old partners and their Invictus label. Considering his past creative successes, it’s maybe surprising to find that his first solo smash is co-penned and produced by McKinley Jackson and not by Lamont himself . . . although this may of course be because of contractual obligations to his past publishers. Anyway, he should worry, as this lazily-lurching emotionally-chorded heart-tugging pure Soul slowie is not only a perfect vehicle for his agonized wailing but also a huge hit, both R&B and Pop. Continue reading “February 2, 1974: Jim Stafford, Tom T. Hall, Lamont Dozier, Natural Four, Diana Ross”
BYRON MacGREGOR: Americans (Westbound W 222).
Occasionally, but with merciful infrequency, America’s “Silent Majority” latch onto some stirringly patriotic single which echoes or amplifies their own sentiments. In 1974, their growing belief in an isolationist policy for America has been fired and fuelled (with, I fear, regrettable results for us) by the editorializing words of a Canadian radio station owner, GORDON SINCLAIR (owner of Toronto’s CFRG-AM), a Canadian who thinks it’s time to speak up for the Americans’ unappreciated generosity to other nations. Looking back as far as the San Francisco earthquake and naming, amongst others, Britain as not having paid off even the interest on its remaining debts to the US, Sinclair has come up with examples such as these to present a biased tally on which he scores off America’s record of foreign aid and supposedly superior engineering technology against the World’s alleged ingratitude and – especially – its lack of reciprocal aid after America’s own natural and economic disasters.
First broadcast, then televised and now recorded, this outsider’s call for America to go it alone has been answered, not only by congratulatory letters from over ten thousand thankful Americans (John Wayne included), but also by at least two cover versions of Sinclair’s original rather sombre single (Avco 4628). The late TEX RITTER’s posthumously-released version (Capitol P 3814) is so far very much the also-ran in comparison with both Sinclair’s and the actual runaway best-selling version by BYRON MacGREGOR. Like Sinclair, MacGregor is also a Canadian broadcaster, being the news director of Windsor’s CKLW-AM/FM – and Windsor being just across the river (and border) from Detroit, is, like Toronto, within radio reach of many Americans. (Its position also helps to explain MacGregor’s perhaps unexpected appearance on the usually R&B-inclined but Detroit-based Westbound label).
Now, despite this big build-up, do not expect the actual record to be anything more than a curiosity: to begin with, it is a recitation, read in an irritatingly grating declamatory yet deadpan “radio” voice to an ever-grinding background of “America The Beautiful”. Some of the phraseology is indeed unintentionally amusing – “I was there, I saw it,” in particular, combines with the overall tone to be devastatingly reminiscent of Wink Martindale’s “Deck Of Cards” (which of course Tex Ritter also recorded) – but ultimately the naïve argument (basically sound though it may be) and its inflammatory style of presentation makes this a dangerously political record, of no musical interest and with no Pop appeal for this country.
Phonogram Records who handle both Westbound and Avco here and thus have the rights to both hit versions, are in a potentially embarrassing position yet to date have no immediate plans for the release of either. In fact, until and if Phonogram can scrape together enough precious polyvinyl to press the few thousand copies that they hope to be able to sell here of whichever becomes the biggest hit in America (a diplomatic way of saying MacGregor’s), the best way for curious South-Easterners to hear “Americans” is to tune in at two o’clock on Saturday afternoon to Tim Rice’s excellent US Hot 100 programme on Capital Radio – a programme to which all readers of this column should listen in any case. To quote the record, “Come on! Let’s hear it!”
HARRY CHAPIN: WOLD (Elektra EK 45874).
To stay with radio and broadcasters, this imaginatively-arranged and written slowie (the best yet from Chapin) is the bravely-smiling story of the aging “morning dee-jay at WOLD-D-D-d-d-d . . .”, who’s “feeling old at 45 going on 15” and having to wear a toupee and watch his voice, which drinking seems to age. As every single detail of the story appears to ring so true, it must have been written from close personal experience of disc-jockeys just like the one described . . . of which, in fact, there are a great many! Thoroughly recommended to all American and/or radio freax . . . and brave dee-jays!
American Singles
LOVE UNLIMITED ORCHESTRA: Love’s Theme; Sweet Moments (Pye 7N 25635).
Here it is, that gloriously glutinous sickly sweet instrumental smash from America which has been played non-stop in discos and on radio since before Xmas! Swirling squeaky strings, snickety cymbals and an undertow of wukka-wukka wah-wah make this a cloying joy to the ears.
Mention must be made in the same breath too of the similar vocal smash by the man responsible for both – BARRY WHITE: Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up; Standing In The Shadows Of Love (Pye 7N 25633). Virtually the same me thing but with Isaac Hayes-style singing and heavy breathing, it is bound to join the “Theme” in our Charts and give Barry a double-headed success as in America. Oh, and the poor neglected girls from Love Unlimited even get a look in on the Four Tops flip! Continue reading “January 26, 1974: Byron MacGregor, Harry Chapin, Love Unlimited Orchestra, James Brown, Anne Murray”
MOMENTS: Sexy Mama (Stang ST 5052).
Now these are ma MEN, ma MAIN men! The super-sexy sweet-singing Moments are simply STOMPING up the Charts, both Pop and R&B, with this exquisite slow squeaky lover’s lullaby, which combines the recent amorous approach of the co-penning/producing Sylvia and the current sexuality of Marvin Gaye . . . ooohh, err, mmmm, YEAH! Music to grope by! Hey mama, let’s get it on . . .
EDDIE KENDRICKS: Boogie Down (Tamla T54243F),
WILSON PICKETT: Soft Soul Boogie Woogie (RCA ABPO-0174),
KOOL AND THE GANG: Jungle Boogie (De-Lite DEP 559).
After its modish misuse by white musicians, the term “Boogie” has now reverted to the actual musical style’s originators – except that the new black application of the term is just as inaccurate. Far from being steaming boogie-woogie or get-it-on blues, Eddie’s brand-new hit is merely another coolly sung dry pulsator in the “Keep On Truckin’” mould, while the Wicked Pickett’s newie belies its intriguing title by being no more than another (albeit bouncier than usual) of his “goodgod, yawll” dancers. Kool And The Gang use the term in the most spirited way on their latest (and greatest?) “Parrty” hit, which offsets a “get down, get down” chant with a gruffly gobbling caveman voice that’s been lifted straight from that early example of the genre, the Jimmy Castor Bunch’s “Troglodyte”.
JIM CROCE: Time In A Bottle (ABC 11405).
Famed American radio programming and chart tipster Kal Rudman predicted, before it was even issued as a single, that this album-culled acoustic guitar roundelay would be one of the all-time Christmas hits – and, blow me, if the genius wasn’t right slap bang on the nail with the record reaching number one (where it stays still) exactly on Christmas week! The wistfully worded and sung spiralling slow tinkler is not at all Christmassy, in fact, but it has helped to kindle a massive interest in the tragically killed (in an aeroplane crash) 30-year-old Croce, who is now posthumously enjoying a Buddy Holly scaled vogue, with three albums up near the top of the chart too. It is a great shame that so few people in Britain latched on to his previous excellent US number ones, the jolly “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” and “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”. Maybe there’s hope now?
MERLE HAGGARD: If We Make It Through December (Capitol 3746).
The big Christmas hit at number one in the Country Chart, Merle’s self-penned song of hope is a gaily lilting “pom, te-pom, te-pom” jogalong bouncer that’s full of nasally-sung Easy Listening appeal. What with its story of factory lay-offs and biting cold, it would have been a good release here last month (or, with a slight re-write, right now!).
The O’Jays and the Intruders represented the other side of the Soul Vocal Group coin — unlike the music of their Motown counterparts, theirs is uncompromisingly BLACK, still — so that the overwhelming reception under which they reeled at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls on the first date of the Philly Sound tour was especially gratifying to see.
The Intruders opened with Cowboys To Cowgirls before their current hit, I Wanna Know Your Name, brought swarms of young girls (plus one bloke!) clambering on stage to kiss them! After She’s A Winner, the group managed by way of their “street corner” reminiscing to set the “gang war” scene for their long romping finale, I’ll Always Love My Mama, so well that the song really came alive … as did the young audience, who erupted into unexpectedly enthusiastic applause for this (in Britain) lesser known hitless yet thoroughly deserving vocal group.
Billy Paul, accompanied by some excellent musicians, was himself so embarrassingly bad that after three consecutive bum notes he put a percentage of the audience behind bars (where we happily drank until the end of his set).
The O’Jays, in the shape of their Jimmy James-ish leader, Eddie Levert, are far more ebullient on stage than their image suggests. After Put Your Hands Together and Time To Get Down, the trio whipped up a Partty, Partty, Partty chant on When The World’s At Peace before softening for a full-blown tour de force on Skylark’s Wildflower. During Back Stabbers, a respectable young couple left their seats and walked soberly to the side where, amidst a seething throng of other dancers, they quietly went spare! Black music reaches the white middle class! The Soulful slow standout of the show, Sunshine, found the O’Jays in their old style, with Eddie wailing without the mike over a cooing back-up, rapping to the fellas about what they should be saying to their girls (thus getting through to the girls himself), and walking in the aisle. Love Train of course closed the show, with everyone up and dancing and the entire cast on stage.
Stateside newies
BARBARA JEAN ENGLISH: You’re Gonna Need Somebody To Love (While You’re Looking For Someone To Love (Alithia AR 6053).
This may or may not be the Barbara English who I used to know over nine years ago – if she is, she’s as stunning to look at as she is to listen to on this soulfully bittersweet slowie, a painfully cynical play on words (note the difference in the title between “BODY” and “one”) which she co-penned with its producer, the great George Kerr of O’Jays fame. Bert Keyes did the tinkling, plunking, cooing, sawing and thumping slow arrangement, which makes just the right slightly dragging backing to the hurtingly self-aware yet tenderly-meant emotions of the beautifully sung and breathily spoken lyrics. Let me just say that this had all the girls in the office going out of their heads when I was playing it one lunch-break! “Emotion” is a word that it is easy to bandy about, yet it was never more applicable than in the case of this stunner. Yeah!
LOVE UNLIMITED ORCHESTRA: Love’s Theme; Sweet Moments (20th Century TC 2069).
Poor Love Unlimited! The gorgeous gals of “Walking In The Rain With The One I Love” fame have a new hit LP in America called “Under The Influence Of Love Unlimited”, but this hit single culled from it doesn’t contain even a squeak out of them on either of its instrumental sides! Not, actually, that that matters, as both sides are gloriously schlock, pretty-pretty melodies by that arch Hayesian copyist, Barry White, who has concocted an eminently listenable mixture of swirling strings, glutinous guitar, snikkety cymbals, wukka-wukking wah-wah, bumping bass and blatant beauty which is both cloyingly sweet and naggingly irresistible at one and the same time. Mmmm, I can’t get enough of this sweet love stuff!
American Singles
THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Highways Of My Life; Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight (Epic EPC 1980).
As a complete contrast to “That Lady,” the 3 + 3’s newie is a delicately pretty slowie which owes more than a nod of recognition in the direction of Stevie Wonder’s recent romantic style, both vocally and especially instrumentally. With so much hot product out at the moment, there’s no knowing how this will go, although it certainly deserves to do well. As little of the Brothers’ Buddah-distributed material came out here, their choice of James Taylor’s wee-small-hours slowie as flip may surprise some of you: in fact, they’ve been consistently scoring Stateside with similar reworkings of such as Carole King and even Bob Dylan (“Lay Lady Lay“). Low-key, and nice. SMOOCH PICK. Continue reading “December 15, 1973: O’Jays/Intruders live, Barbara Jean English, Love Unlimited Orchestra, The Isley Brothers, Sly & The Family Stone, Chuck Berry”
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