ANDY WILLIAMS: You’ve Got A Friend (CBS 7378).
Andy can sure pick ’em – this time, Carole King’s beautiful song. Don’t expect any subtlety from this version tho’: for that, hear those by Carole, James Taylor or Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway. Strict-tempo flip.
FRANK SINATRA: Lady Day; What Now My Love (Reprise K 14098).
Bob Gaudio and Jake Holmes’ lovely slow tribute to Billie Holliday may not be general enough in its message to rival “My Way,” but the melody should appeal. Brisk flip.
JOHNNY CASH: Singing In Viet Nam Talking Blues (Columbia).
I never thought that there could be a Johnny Cash record that would get me honestly raving about it – here it is though. Johnny and his wife, June Carter Cash, went to entertain the boys over there in Vietnam recently, and got sufficiently shook up as hell by their experiences to inspire this autobiographical account of them.
I am told that Tom Paxton has written similar songs: however, the story told here is obviously what really happened to the Cash’s, and the talking blues style is indeed common property. The way in which this story unfolds, and the strength of the content, is truly attention-grabbing. Normally, Cash is one of my least favourite stylists, but this telling it like it is record has powerful magic for me. Play “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’-To-Die Rag” after it.
SUGARLOAF: Mother Nature’s Wine; Medley: Bach Doors Man/Chest Fever (UA).
This group, totally ignored here, do seem to have something about them that I really like – maybe it’s a sense of subtlety allied with versatility and good musicianship. I must get their albums.
The A-side of this follow-up to “Tongue In Cheek” is from their latest LP, but while good it is less noteworthy than the flip, taken from their first LP (available here).
At the Band’s exceedingly dull Albert Hall show (where one might as well have been listening to their records with the treble turned up full), Garth Hudson delighted some and bored others with his over-long and over-florid organ intro to “Chest Fever” – Sugarloaf’s organist has done rather better, beginning in a mock Bach manner before the rest of the group fill in with several layers of guitar and bass, all at a tempo-less pace, before the organ eases into a very powerful start to the tune proper. Heard good and loud, it is great.
THE FOUR TOPS: In These Changing Times (Motown).
Oh, wow. The Four Tops have a new record. You all know what Levi Stubbs sounds like, but you’ll have to get the album by 100 Proof Aged In Soul to hear why so many discerning Soul fans have been raving about his brother Joe ever since he made “Alabama Bound” (on the “Apollo Saturday Night” LP) the most Soulful waxing in history.
Joe was with the famous Falcons back then, and now he has grown too big-headed (according to General Johnson) to stay in 100 Proof after experiencing real success for the first time in a long career. A shame. Anyway, listen to the ‘Somebody’s Been Sleeping In My Bed’ album and pay close attention to his two tracks, the incredibly driving ‘Backtrack‘ (presumably it’s too late for this to be a single?) and the unbelievably sexy ‘Ain’t That Lovin’ You‘ (on which he chats up a chick who is guaranteed to turn on every male listener that hears her).
WHATNAUTS: I’ll Erase Away Your Pain; I Just Can’t Lose Your Love (Stang).
George Kerr is Boss! I finally reached this conclusion just the other day. It was his production work with the O’Jays and Linda Jones that made these R&B greats my very favourite Soul Vocal Group and Female Singer respectively, and his more recent work with the Stang and All-Platinum labels that has endeared the Moments and now the Whatnauts to me.
Those of you who are completely out of touch with what REALLY goes down on the American Soul scene will be lost here, deep in the world of delicate harmonies and wailing falsettos, where it is the form rather than the substance that matters. This is the world of the Soul Group Freak. A world in which singing styles do not change, because there is no other direction in which they can go, and yet stay within this world. The audience does not want change, anyhow. To this audience, there is no bliss comparable to being lost and carried away in the sweet mind-easing softness of a good Soul Vocal Group song. Suspend reality and hardship, just float amidst the enveloping anaesthetic.
The Whatnauts latest U.S. hit, produced by George Kerr with Nate Edmonds and written by him with Sylvia Robinson, is the crystalization and epitome of all that has ever gone before it in this style: the crystalization of the idea that this music lightens one’s burdens, the epitome of all that is typical about the style.
“I’ll Erase Away Your Pain” . . . the title, repeated many times throughout the song along with the lines “Little girl don’t change, don’t change, stay just the way you are; little girl please stop your crying, ‘cos I’ll erase away your pain,” the title and the whole song just says it all. And the performance . . . the performance! For sheer delicacy and lush beauty, this record beats the entire output of the Delfonics and all the other better-publicized Soul Vocal Groups. You’d better believe it!
Rarely have I heard such pure high-flying tensile wailing, such absolutely “right” vocal interplay, such mind-numbing perfection. George Kerr is a wizard. Nobody else can so successfully reverse the accepted rules and traditions of instrumental accompaniment. On all his productions, the voices become lead instruments while the drums merely act as an aid to the melody, and the melody depends on what the voices do, supported by subdued strings, piano, guitar and a little bit of staccato brass. Meandering is the best word to describe the style. And both sides of this record are the best example of the style. Unless you import it, you will never hear it.
THE RAY CHARLES ORCHESTRA: Booty Butt (Tangerine Record Corporation).
Surprisingly high in the U.S. Pop Chart is this delightfully underplayed instrumental gem by Ray Charles and his orchestra. Taken at a lazy yet funky pace, it shifts emphasis from instrument to instrument until it finally ends up (after a spurt from Ray’s piano) with a vocal verse from the Genius himself. Umm yeah!
REDEYE: Red Eye Blues (Pentagram).
This is the group whose jolly Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young-influenced “Games” has just recently been issued here by MCA. Their American follow-up is very different, being a chunky slow beater given a deliberate reading that only on the occasional harmony accents betrays the CSN&Y sound. Continue reading “June 5, 1971: Whatnauts, Ray Charles Orchestra, Redeye, Wadsworth Mansion, James Brown”
DIANA ROSS: Reach Out I’ll Be There; (They Long To Be) Close To You (Motown).
Diana has tackled the Holland-Dozier-Holland classic in a completely different style to the original. Paul Riser has arranged it with a very soft electric bass and chinking cymbal slow intro, over which Diana, some chicks, and a piano gradually build up from her almost recitation start to (and this is over halfway through the record) a soaring extended climax. Not surprisingly, this last portion is stridently noisy in the time-honoured Ross tradition . . . this record, with its violent changes in volume, will be the disc-jockey’s bane!
Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson have done another good job of production, as usual. On the flip, taken from the “Diana!” tele spectacular, the canned applause segues into a none-too-subtle version of the Bachadaventers’ song, however.
THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY: I’ll Meet You Halfway (Bell).
Hey, Pop Pickers! Look at the goodie I got for you here! Nice, huh? Aw, sheee . . . No, seriously though, this is a very fine example of “family appeal” inoffensive twaddle. When it gets released in this country, it is bound to delight all the Mums and Dads who listen to the BBC and who, I feel sure, make up the majority of singles buyers.
ELVIS PRESLEY: Life; Only Believe (RCA).
Sorry there’s no pretty pic of El accompanying this review, but it seems that he does get a goodly share of RM’s pictorial space – now then, no complaints and silence in the ranks. Presleyites will remember me letting it all hang out (verbally) rather more than usual over my review of “Rags To Riches,” which really did hit me harder than anything else by the King in years, so that it was gratifying to see RCA issue it as the A side in this country. This new one is good too, but doesn’t have that magic for me.
“Life,” by Shirl Milete (and not Rick Nelson), is another of those ponderous slowies at which Elvis seems to excel these days, and gradually picks up power as it progresses along its resonantly heavy way. “Only Believe” is a rather nice “sacred” song, on which the Imperials help out, and it is more like the El of old. Incidentally, any old fans who are hoping for doses of Rock ‘n’ Roll in “That’s The Way It Is” should be prepared for disappointment. Musically it is nowhere near as interesting as his TV special. Continue reading “May 29, 1971: Diana Ross, Partridge Family, Elvis Presley, Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose, Sugarloaf”
THE CHI-LITES: (For God’s Sake) Give More Power To The People (Brunswick).
Eugene Record (Richard Williams’s favourite Soulster) sings lead, writes and produces (with direction by Willie Henderson) on this fast-rising U.S. smash. The Chi-Lites were previously a sweet Soul Vocal Group, but here have followed on in the funky social conscience shoes that the Temptations recently vacated. Those of you lucky enough to have heard the Tempt’s last hit in that bag, “Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite The World),” will know how ear-shattering and mind-messing the intro to that was: well, on this, the side opens with a piercing synthesised noise that’s not unlike an air-raid siren getting warmed up! There’s a great chunky funky driving rhythm, lots of bass vocal rumbling, a bit of crowd cheering, and a touch of the old Vibrations sound about the vocal (which is full of interplay) at times. Very nice – let’s hope we get it here, too.
JAMES BROWN: I Cried (King).
It will come as no surprise to regular readers that I love this (and virtually every other) James Brown newie, so, before your attention wanders elsewhere, I must convince you that this pleading impassioned slowie is extremely, outstandingly, “It’s A Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” good. Helped out by a female chorus and relaxingly unstrident tasteful backing (apart from his voice and the song’s form, this is the nearest he’s come to an “easy listening” sound), Mr Brown wails, swoops and screams with ten times more real Soul than I’ve heard from him for ages.
The chicks begin it all with a mellow “Keep me in pain” before J.B. eases in with his beautifully modulated screech, “I cried, I cried, my heart filled with misery.” Later, although he doesn’t need to, he asks the girls “Tell me what I’m singing,” and they chime back from stratospheric heights, “Soul … Soul … Soul.” Further, to set the mood, he advises “Listen to my rap – so turn your record set down, real low; Brother Jock(ey), you turn yours down, too.” Fabulous. When it comes out here, we evidently get his “Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved” hit as the flip: in America, they have (and not before time!) “World, Part 2.”
EDWIN STARR: Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On (Gordy).
Talk about noisy intros: the one here does its best to beat those of the “War” series, and succeeds. The under-rated Edwin hollers out the definitive credo, “I like the sound of funky music,” and for the rest of this pile-driving powerful cacophony (no criticism intended) funky music is exactly what is in the Gordy grooves. More so than in “War,” I think that here Edwin fully realizes the exciting potential he showed in, but never followed up after, “Agent 00 Soul.” There’s a different and good raucous version of “Cloud Nine” on the flip, for extra value. Sheee . . . the U.S. singles are so good this week! Continue reading “May 15, 1971: Chi-Lites, James Brown, Edwin Starr, Honey Cone, Brenda & The Tabulations”
JAMES BROWN: Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved (Parts 1 & 2) (King).
With Bobby Byrd doing his “Get on up, get into it” thing, the latest hit from Mr Brown obviously harks back to “Get Up I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine’ in some ways. In fact, it is much less tightly organised and much jazzier, with some very nice brass and guitar: consequently, it also seems less strong as material. Do hear the superb “Sex Machine” album for the best of J.B. (Polydor 2625 004) – it’s great music for balling!
WILSON PICKETT: Don’t Let The Green Grass Fool You (Atlantic).
More from Gamble-Huff Productions Inc, and while this finger-poppin’ beauty doesn’t have the Philly Sound it does have the mellow Philadelphia feel and exquisite guitar picking fill-ins. Better than “Engine No. 9”, everything about this is lovely, from the interplay of that guitar with the plopping conga beat, the solid bass and smooth organ, to the chix chanting and Wilson’s screaming. A very happy-making record.
THE TEMPTATIONS: Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) (Gordy).
Since the comparative failure of the boys’ fantastic (to my mind) “Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite The World)“, which has yet (if ever) to be released here, the guys at Gordy have obviously realised that the Tempts’ funkadelic run is over, for the time being. Now they’re back in their slow “I Wish It Would Rain” bag, with some very slinky strings doing moody bass runs and entwining the subdued harmonies in hypnotic disarming lushness. Incredibly restful and . . . brrrr! . . . imagination stimulating. Continue reading “February 20, 1971: James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Temptations, Spinners, Bill Moss & The Celestials”
JOHNNIE TAYLOR: Jody Got Your Girl And Gone; A Fool Like Me (Stax).
Guess you could call Jody a playboy, ‘cos he don’t do nothin’ all day ‘cept spend money and ball . . . usually your old lady. Yup, now we know who’s makin’ love! Good Gawd, y’all – it’s great funk. Charlie (Roy Brown Fan Club Prexy) Gillett digs the slow flip, and so does Doctor Soul, although I disagree with Charlie about Johnnie’s lack of vocal character on earlier material: here I think he does sound colourless, whereas his bluesy mid-’60s slowies were full of powerful personality.
DIANA ROSS: Remember Me (Motown).
A nicely written song of sweet but sorrowful parting, in which one gets the impression that Diana has the upper hand – like, she’s splitting and the bloke is all cut up over it. Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson both penned and produced, and I think spoilt their song by making it a bit too strident as it progresses.
THE WHISPERS: There’s A Love For Everyone; It Sure Ain’t Pretty (Hard Core Unemployed) (Janus).
Presumably this superb male Soul Vocal Group is the same that cut the outstandingly beautiful ‘As I Sit Here‘ (and a version of ‘Doctor Love‘) on the Dore label a few years back. In any case, this Sugar Pie De Santo-penned slowie is the follow-up (on yet another label) to the group’s recent big hit on Soul Clock, ‘Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong‘. Lovely singing on this good side, yet the prettily-constructed lurching slow flip, with its strong message, is even gooder!
THE MAIN INGREDIENT: I’m So Proud; Brotherly Love (RCA).
Yet, the Impressions’ oldie slowie done with exquisite harmonious taste, to help make this column a real Soulful treat for Christmas. Both sides are beautiful, restful gems of vocal music.
RAY CHARLES: If You Were Mine (abc/Tangerine) Track One, Side One of Ray’s brand new ‘Love Country Style’ album, the title of which would have been enough to put me off had not Simon Stable played me Track Two, Side One. This is a fantastic version of Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring Of Fire’, on which it could truly be said that Ray Charles gets his own back at Joe Cocker, and proves who’s the boss.
Anyway, returning to the single, it’s a joyous Jimmy Lewis composition that lightly skips along to a breezy backing of guitar accented beat and tambourine chinking, and features Ray in fine voice (including a telling delayed break near the end). As you can just hear him say on the fade-out, “That’s all right”.
EDDIE FLOYD: The Best Years Of My Life (Stax) Eddie’s wife has given to him the best years of his life, says he, so that he doesn’t seem to mind over much when she also gives him a baby son who just don’t look like him. (Shades of the old Ska hit, ‘How Come A Chinese Baby Calls Me Daddy?’) Certainly, Eddie has given to us his best single in a while, full of nice flow funk.
JOE SIMON: That’s The Way I Want Our Love (Sound Stage 7) Back in ’64 Joe made a bitch of a record called ‘Say (That Your Love Is True)’ on Vee-Jay (available here ILP 943, a compilation album called ‘Doctor Soul’). Since then few of his records have been anywhere near as good or exciting, certainly not this one. Fast for a change, it is however his best for about a year, even though his voice is as expressionless as usual.
THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY: I Think I Love You (Bell) Now America has its own telly series about a “carbon-copy Cowsills” family singing act, and Bell Records proudly proclaim this single from it is already their fastest selling record in history, since Genesis yet. They’ve moved over 300,000 units in the first few weeks, wow! Just be careful when and if it is released here – don’t add “Lie Down” to the title. Ring-a-ding-ding?
ANDY WILLIAMS: Home Lovin’ Man (Columbia) A Greenaway/Cook/Macaulay slowie, ultra relaxed and smoochy, all about a home-returning nautical type.
GARY PUCKETT: I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself (Columbia) Well, for starters, you can do a straight Pop revival of the oldie that Isaac Hayes recently resurrected. How’s that grab ya? Then once you’ve made that sound like ‘Young Girl’, you can go do the other thing.
THE BOX TOPS: Let Me Go (Bell) Randy Newman wrote this husky-voiced heavily plodding slowie, and the boys do it in the upcoming ‘Pursuit Of Happiness’ flick.
MAC DAVIES: I Believe In Music (Columbia) … in which case, you’d have thought that the ‘In The Ghetto’ writer could have come up with a rather more musical item than this incredibly dull dirge.
ROBIN McNAMARA: Got To Believe In Love (Steed) Another bloke with conviction, Robin (who’s from the cast of ‘Hair’, as must be several thousand other aspiring young show-biz types throughout the world by now) has dropped his castrato ‘Lay A Little Lovin’’ voice a bit but stays on the Bubble Gum route.
UK American Singles
WILSON PICKETT: Engine No. 9; International Playboy (Atlantic 2091032) If ‘Cole, Cooke & Redding’ was Wilson’s best slowie since 1964, then this superb slab of Gamble & Huff funk is his best dancer in nearly as long. What’s more, since the British kiddie-winks are finally catching up with the modern sound of Soul (witness ‘Ball Of Confusion’s success), this might even do well here, even though it IS the sound and not the song that is strong in this case. Straighter beat flip, with great verbal imagery.
NEIL YOUNG: Only Love Can Break Your Heart; Birds (Reprise RS 20958) mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, MMMM! The only one of CSN&Y that matters, on two self-penned tracks from his new solo album — since all discerning record buyers will be after the “Gold Rush” at their neighbourhood record mart anyway, these two slowies (purposeful, lurching top; delicate flip) will be hits as part of the album if not as a single.
STEVIE WONDER: Heaven Help Us All; I Gotta Have A Song (Tamla Motown TMG 757) Slow plodding start before a big chorus build-up on a rather spiritless itemisation of all the things that could do with help from up above. Decidedly lack-lustre, whereas the flip is altogether brighter and breezier.
THE CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARD: You’ve Got Me Dangling On A String; Patches (Invictus INV 504) Ho, ho, ho! Seen what the flip is? Yup, the original version, so that this really is a double shot of Soul. Nice fast top, but I fear it may be a bit too messy and indistinct to make a big impression here. Wait for 100 Proof’s ‘Somebody’s Been Sleeping’.
ROBERTA FLACK: Reverend Lee; Business Goes On As Usual (Atlantic 2091-033) Yeah! Goosebump-raising Roberta lets us know “this is a song about a very big, strong, black, sexy, Southern Baptist minister”, the “Country Preacher” himself, and she sure can raise the temperature too once she quits rapping and slides into this slinky subtle slow funker. Atmospheric is the death-march flip’s best description.
ELVIS PRESLEY: I’ve Lost You; The Next Step Is Love (RCA 1999) Well, this Howard/Blaikley-penned tremulous-voiced stop-go slowie isn’t exactly ‘Lawdy Miss Clawdy’, but then the latter was cut fifteen years ago. This’ll be fine for his newer fans. Why don’t we get his current U.S. hit treatment of ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’?
JOHNNY CASH: 25 Minutes To Go; I’m Gonna Try To Be That Way (CBS 5252) Cash is not exactly subtle in his many attempts at getting the inmates of the various prisons he’s played at to love him, so that this condemned man’s song must have made him plenty of fans at Folsom (from which album it comes). Quite a jolly tempo.
JAMES STEWART & HENRY FONDA: Rolling Stone (Stateside SS 2179) If you haven’t seen “The Cheyenne Social Club,” why not? It’s the most endearing flick I’ve seen for many a moon, and this excerpt from the soundtrack is a lovely memento, full of character. Who knows (other than the Shadow), it could be another ‘Wandering Star’.
TONY BENNETT: MacArthur Park; Eleanor Rigby (CBS S 5255) Almost a completely different song in Bennett’s hands, it might just as well BE any old song (albeit well sung). Exciting brass and suspenseful arrangement on the excellent flip.
GRAND FUNK: Closer To Home; Aimless Lady (Capitol CL 15661) Capitol’s “Heavy” group, a three-piece, makes all the right noises on both of these tracks from their new elpee. As were Blues Image recently, they seem hung up on being “Captain of your ship” … what aspect of the new subculture am I missing in failing to dig the relevance of this expression? Anyway, nice seaside sound effects, and even moog strings later.
BOFFALONGO: Dancing In The Moonlight (United Artists UP 35144).
Oh, I love it! I hope that those of you who, as regular readers, reckon that our tastes are similar will love it too. Bear in mind that my favourite disc of 1969 was Tommy James & the Shondells’ Crystal Blue Persuasion, and rush out to hear this similar in spirit, glorious, joyful little beater. PLEASE, Radio 1, plug this original version.
FAITH, HOPE & CHARITY: So Much Love; Let’s Try It Over (Crewe CRW 3).
An all-happening happy hollering female group Friends Of Distinction-like R&B beater that I personally have been waiting to hear for some time. No disappointment, as these chicks can sing, and I mean REALLY sing! Kinda energetic, it’s Pop enough to catch on here too, having been big both R&B and Pop Stateside. Fabulous powerful slow Soul flip, not to be missed. Van McCoy & Joe Cobb co-penned/produced.
BOBBY (BORIS) PICKETT AND THE CRYPT-KICKERS: Monster Mash; Monster’s Mash Party (London HLU 10320).
Well, speak of the …! I mentioned this classic 1962 U.S. smash first indirectly and then, just the other week, directly in my reviews of the music from “MASH” (saying latterly that it was a revived hit in America), and – here it is! Those too young or too thick to remember (it wasn’t actually ever very big here) will probably wonder what I’m on about when they hear it, but hopefully there are enough nostalgicats in the land who missed it first time round to make it a hit now. One of my very favourite records … a revealing insight, yeah?! (Early-60s freaks will note the subtle label alterations). Whatever happened to the Transylvania Twist? Continue reading “August 29, 1970: Boffalongo, Faith Hope & Charity, Bobby (Boris) Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jim Reeves”
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