Charles
Blackwell and His Orchestra, Those
Plucking Strings (RPM). Arranged by Charles Blackwell and
produced by the legendary Joe Meek, the instrumental LP Those
Plucking Strings was originally planned for release on Meek's
own
short-lived Triumph label in May 1960. Triumph went out of business in
1960, however, and Those Plucking
Strings didn't come out until this
2006 CD. Almost certainly this was mastered from the test pressing that
turned up in April 1997 at a London record shop, not the original
tapes, as there's some audible sonic imperfection (although this
doesn't seriously impair its listenability). As you'd expect from a
Meek-brainstormed instrumental album, the driving concept is pretty
quirky, setting skiffle songs (which were already out of fashion in the
UK) to orchestral arrangements with mild pop-rock touches. So it is you
get to hear classics like "Lonesome Traveller," "Rock Island Line,"
"Kisses Sweeter Than Wine," "Freight Train," and "Pick a bale O'Cotton"
played with an almost raw energy by pizzicato violins, cellos, and
violas, the rock quotient added by drummer Andy White (famous for
playing on the Beatles' "Love Me Do" single) and guitarist Eric Ford
(later to play on Donovan's "Sunshine Superman"). It's unavoidably
cheesy, yet at the same time it has a ridiculous energy that's
appealing in spite of itself. The strings dance through the songs with
real verve, the guitar and drums add some propulsive grit, and the
tempos often accelerate like a freight train with failing brakes.
Meek's hand can definitely be heard via the dense concentration of
instrumentation and considerable echo on the violins, and there are
definite similarities between these tracks and the orchestral backings
he'd oversee on many of his 1960s singles (like Heinz's "Dreams Do Come
True," for one). Plus the songs really are catchy. As contrived as the
whole project was, it's a likable guilty pleasure, for (or, perhaps at
least in part, because of) all its silliness and rushed-sounding
execution.
Graham Bond,
Singles & Rarities Vol. 1
[bootleg] (Rock-In-Beat). While the appearance of rare Graham
Bond material is welcome in any context, it must be acknowledged that
this bootleg is a pretty patchy collection of odds and ends from his
early recording career, much of which has actually been available on
official CD reissue. There's little here that hasn't been officially
issued at all, the big find being a version of "Wade in the Water"
that's identified as originating from a 1963 EMI audition. It's
actually not as good as the official versions of the song that Bond
recorded later in the '60s, particularly as saxophonist Dick
Heckstall-Smith does not appear on the track, but it's an interesting
early relic nonetheless. After that cut opens the CD, the disc presents
six sides on which the Graham Bond Quartet backed the fine, underrated
British blues-rock singer Duffy Power. These numbers are okay (though
not great), but all but one of them (an alternate version of "Farewell
Baby") appeared on the legit 2002 Power CD compilation Leapers and
Sleepers. And while the three subsequent live June 1963
recordings,
which are pure jazz, are interesting, they were issued long ago on the Solid Bond LP compilation—not an
easy thing to find nowadays,
admittedly, but something that anyone likely to spring for a Bond
bootleg in the first place might already own. Rounding things off are
four fair, if unremarkable, rhythm-and-blues instrumentals from a rare
mid-'60s EP by Jamaican guitarist Ernst Ranglin, on which Bond's band
(billed as the GBs) served as the backup musicians. The packaging on
the CD is minimal, further confining its value to completist collectors.
Kiki Dee, Love Makes the World Go Round: The Motown
Years (Universal). This 18-track compilation includes
everything from Dee's early-'70s Motown album Great Expectations, as
well as two additional tracks from her time with the label that
surfaced on the rare budget Kiki Dee
album in 1974, along with four
previously unreleased 1969-70 outtakes. While it's good to have this
fairly rare material thoughtfully combined into one package, it
reinforces the sense that neither Motown nor Dee realized the potential
from their unusual association. Part of the problem is that there are
too many undistinguished cover versions that can't help but suffer in
comparison with the classic hit interpretations -- not only of songs
made famous by fellow Motown artists like Stevie Wonder and the
Miracles, but also hits by Dionne Warwick, Jackie DeShannon, Dusty
Springfield, and Deon Jackson. Also, however, Dee's voice just isn't as
powerful or imbued with character as those of Motown's top talents, and
there's sometimes a sense of listening to an understudy for Dusty
Springfield, albeit a competent one. So it's more pleasant than it is
essential, though it's certainly pleasing enough if you're looking for
enjoyable generic examples of the late-'60s Motown sound, albeit with a
white British singer rather than a black Detroit one. Occasionally,
too, she gets a chance to sink her teeth into some more satisfyingly
adventurous material, like the luscious "Oh Be My Love" (co-written by
Smokey Robinson) and the uncommonly stark (for Motown) ballad "Jimmy."
Floor,
First Floor
(Radioactive).
The only album by the Danish band the Floor is heavily derivative of
1967 British pop-psychedelia, to the point where most knowledgeable
listeners would simply assume the musicians were British if not
informed otherwise. There are observational story-songs; upbeat
pop-rockers with a mild vaudevillian/music hall bounce, a la some of
the work from the period by the Beatles and the Kinks;
baroque-classical-tinged strings; some flower-power-tinged lyrics; and
an eclecticism that runs from relatively straight rock to
self-consciously arty compositions. It might not be the most original
piece of work, in the quite literal as well as musical sense, since
none of the songs were written by the band, unless some of the
songwriting credits were pseudonymous. But it's nonetheless decent,
tuneful material with some attractive vocal harmonies, and more varied
than many such records from the time. Some of the tracks are
forgettable, yet others are a fair ways above average, including the
delicately folky "Hush," which has a beguiling winding melody, and
"Thinking Mr. Jones," whose "I'm Only Sleeping"-like backwards guitar
features prominently in a tale of domestic infidelity that's very
English in its gentility. "A Rainbow Around Us" rocks harder than most
of the album, and is one of its highlights, with its mixture of sunny
pop harmonies and well-oiled British Invasion/folk-rock-influenced
jangling guitar.
Dorris Henderson with
John Renbourn, Watch the Stars
(Fledg'ling). The second and final record Dorris Henderson did with
guitarist John Renbourn sharing billing as accompanist, 1967's Watch
the Stars, was similar in most respects to the first, 1965's There
You Go. Again, it matched the American folk singer's strong,
emotive
voice to Renbourn's excellent picking, through the guitar work isn't as
flashy or striking as what he'd play on subsequent Pentangle and solo
releases. A little texture is added via contributions by bassist Danny
Thompson (who of course went on to play and record with Renbourn in
Pentangle) and guitarist Tim Walker (who also wrote one of the better
tracks, "It's Been a Long Time"). The material was a little more
adventurous than the largely traditional debut had been; there were a
few traditional folk songs here, but also covers of material by Bob
Dylan, Hedy West, and British folk singer Anne Briggs, as well as a few
originals by Henderson herself. To its credit, it includes some
material which is more moodily melodic than much folk of the time.
"Mosaic Patterns" (co-written by Henderson and Briggs) and "Gonna Tell
My Lord" (written by Henderson alone) are particular standouts in that
respect, the latter featuring some of her most stirring, spiritual
vocals. The 2005 CD reissue adds, as a bonus track, the non-LP 1967
single "Message to Pretty," a cover of a song from Love's first album.
Unlike everything else on the record, it's actual electric folk-rock,
though it wasn't as good as the original, with a vocal that was a shade
too melodramatic.
John
Lennon, D.J. Winston O'Boogie:
WNEW-FM [bootleg]
(Unicorn). This two-CD bootleg might not be a proper John Lennon
recording, or something of interest to anyone but diehard enthusiasts.
But for what it is -- a good-quality tape of Lennon's guest DJ spot on
WNEW-FM in New York on September 28, 1974, the commercials thoughtfully
edited to a minimum -- it's pretty good and entertaining. There are no
unique Lennon musical performances here, although some of his records
are played. Instead, you hear him banter with DJ Dennis Elsas; talk
about his own records and career, both solo and with the Beatles; and
hear him introduce and play a few of his favorite oldies, including the
obscure nuggets "Watch Your Step" (by Bobby Parker) and "Some Other
Guy" (by Richie Barrett). Lennon sounds pretty upbeat and happy to be
there, perhaps because his Walls and
Bridges album was about to hit
the shots, and he was eager to talk about and promote the LP (which he
did, playing and discussing several of its cuts). Most interesting,
however, are the opportunities to hear John talk about some topics that
didn't come up in interviews often, whether it's his rather dismissive
rating of the Yardbirds (Jeff Beck excepted); his disclosure that the
opening passage of "Some Other Guy" is similar to the intro to "Instant
Karma"; and the revelation that he was a fan of some of the Electric
Light Orchestra's early records. Elsas keeps him engaged with an
appropriate balance of questions and comments; it doesn't even annoy
Lennon when, as is inevitable, he's briefly quizzed about the prospects
of a Beatles reunion. While there's more conversation than music on
these discs, you also hear, in their entirety, the records they play,
whether by the Beatles, Lennon, the oldies Lennon brought to the
station, or, most unexpectedly, Splinter (produced by George Harrison).
It's a nice souvenir of one of Lennon's most open interactions with the
listening public during his solo years.
Miriam
Makeba, Her Essential Recordings:
The Empress of African Song [DVD] (Manteca). The packaging on
this 40-song, two-CD anthology of this major South African artist—most
of it taken from recordings spanning the mid-1950s to late 1960s,
though there are a few from the 1970s too—leaves something to be
desired. The tracks are sequenced so that they jump back and forth
chronologically, and while there are well-written liner notes of decent
length, the song listings themselves do not spell out the dates and
sources for each recording. That makes it necessary to cumbersomely
shift back and forth between the notes and listings to figure out what
part of Miriam Makeba's career's being represented by what's coming
through the speakers. Whether or not you're one to get bugged by such
details, however, there's no denying that this set does contain a lot of good music,
even if its
sampling is rather scattershot. Her most famous recording, her 1967 hit
version of "Pata Pata," is here, but some tracks go all the way back to
mid-1950s South African recordings with the Manhattan Brothers. Again,
chronological sequencing would have really helped, but taken all
together, you do get a sense of the considerable ground she covered in
the 1950s and 1960s, from somewhat dated (but charmingly hokey)
jazz-pop backings to earthy rhythmic recordings that drew considerably
more from indigenous South African styles. There are also hints of
Latin music, torch jazz songs, duets with Harry Belafonte, gospel, and
even a bit of rock'n'roll. The constants, however, are Makeba's
reliably mellifluous, spirited vocals, as well as (with only a few
exceptions) a fine eye for integrating South African folk and popular
styles with some Western pop sensibilities. It might not be the most
coherently assembled Makeba compilation, but you'd have a hard time
beating it for the amount of diverse quality music it stuffs into two
discs.
Judy Mayhan,
When I Think of You
(Shayomi). Though a talented singer-songwriter, Judy Mayhan has only
sporadically been able to release records. This archive release of
previously unissued material, largely recorded in January 1979 (though
three live tracks were done in March 1977), helps fill out both her
discography and listeners' picture of her stylistic range. For while
she's primarily thought of as a folk or folk-rock musician, Mayhan's
singing and writing also encompasses jazz, pop, and mildly experimental
shadings. The studio sides in particular are impressive: sparsely
produced with a haunting, slightly reverberant atmosphere, they
sound more like they were done in the 1960s than the late '70s, so free
of 1970s slicknesss is the ambience. While her cover of Jimmy Webb's
"The Moon Is a Marsh Mistress" is about as close as she gets to the
mainstream, the wordless "The Bells" is something you might expect to
find on an avant-garde album, her chilling wordless vocals backed only
by chimes. At other moments, she sounds like a hip torch singer; on
some originals ("Nobody's Home"), like a slightly dark early-'70s
singer-songwriter. Most of the time, there's no instrumental backing
save her own piano playing (and, on a couple of the live performances,
bass). But her folkie roots resurface on the cover of Richard
Fariña's "Swallow Song," where she switches to banjo, and which
sounds just as stark and simply produced as any early-to-mid-'60s folk
revival recording, though this too was done in 1979. It's the most
memorable song on the disc, performed with an ageless scary conviction,
though the warmer piano-based tracks have their merit as well. As an
obscure reference point, those who enjoy the proficient yet
slightly off-kilter, disquieting style of jazz singer Patty Waters
might enjoy this too, though Mayhan is more conventional and accessible
than Waters.
McKinley
Mitchell, The Town I Live In
(RPM/Shout). All of the material McKinley Mitchell cut for the small
One-Derful label is on this 24-cut compilation, including everything he
put on 1962-64 singles for the company; LP-only items from the sole
album he did for the label; three songs that didn't show up until they
were issued on a Japanese LP; and two alternate takes. While Mitchell
may be a fairly minor '60s soul singer, within that category, he's one
of the better ones, combining more-melancholy-than-usual gospel-fire
soul with shades of blues, jazz, and pop. Too, although he recorded
until 1985, this is certainly his most significant work. While he does
recall Bobby Blue Bland on many of the sides, it's not in a blatantly
imitative way. And if the arrangements likewise often look to popular
trends in the early days of soul -- "Tell It Like It Is" is a little
like early-'60s Motown, and "I Found an Angel" like Sam Cooke --
they're very well done. His R&B hit ballad "The Town I Live In" is
an obvious standout, but there are numerous other fine songs, like its
B-side "No Love (Like My Love)," on which he sounds rather like Howlin'
Wolf gone slightly soul-pop. "You're Not Gonna Break My Heart" is about
as raw as early-'60s soul got, though a smoother more Bland-ish style
was more typical for the singer. Sometimes the songs were too obviously
derivative -- "Watch Over Me" of the Miracles' "You Really Got a Hold
on Me," for instance. But on the whole it's worthwhile stuff, from the
era just before soul got codified into a more recognizable popular
music style.
Clive
Palmer, Banjoland (Sunbeam). Although he was part
of the Incredible String Band when they recorded their debut album in
1966, Clive Palmer left the group after its release, largely vanishing
into obscurity. He did keep recording and performing, however, and in
late 1967, he recorded this solo album, produced by Peter Eden (who had
been involved in Donovan's early management and productoin). Eden
couldn't find a label to release it, and the material didn't come out
until it was rescued for this 2005 CD reissue. Though its archaic,
acoustic folk was, as Eden states in the liner notes, "wonderfully at
odds with what the rest of the world was preoccupied with at the time,"
it's a surprisingly good listen. While all of the songs were
traditional tunes (sometimes from quite ancient sources), it's not at
all a stodgy revivalist exercise. It's hard to finger why this projects
more charm and liveliness than many a similar folk revival recording,
but it certainly does. There's a droll irreverence to Palmer's
arrangements, banjo playing, and dry vocals, even though he apparently
didn't bother to change the gender for passages that seem intended to
have been sung by women. He also invests some songs, such as
"Ma-Koush-La," "I Hear You Calling Me," and "Smiling Through," with an
inviting bittersweet melancholy. There are virtually no nods to rock or
pop in the production, but it's not solely Palmer and his banjo; Wizz
Jones adds guitar occasionally, and "Stories of Jesus," far less
expectedly, is graced with a string quartet. While this isn't
incredibly similar to the Incredible String Band's work, it should
appeal to many ISB fans, and isn't really that far
removed from the ISB's more traditional folk-based stuff, which was
heard more on the sole album they did with Palmer in the lineup than on
anything else they recorded. The CD adds four quite tasty bonus tracks,
two of them being country-swing-oriented Palmer-Jones duets from a
late-'60s BBC radio program, the others recorded by the pair at Jones'
house in late 1967.
The
Rolling Stones, Touring History Vol.
5: Rare Video
1964-1968 [DVD] [bootleg] (Bad Wizard). This bootleg DVD
compilation of
performance clips from the Rolling Stones' career might not be complete
or technically top-notch. But there's a lot of material -- almost two
hours' worth -- and of the numerous unauthorized vintage Stones
compilations, it's one of the better ones, if frustratingly imperfect.
It includes some of their most significant early television
appearances, such as their early-'64 live presentation of "I Wanna Be
Your Man" and "You Better Move On," which seems to be the earliest
footage of the band that's circulated; their infamous 1964 appearance
on Dean Martin's variety show; their exciting spot at the 1964 NME
Pollwinners' Concert; and their 1965 Shindig
"(I Can't Get No)
Satisfaction," their first live performance of that classic. Less
excitingly, there are also numerous less compelling mid-'60s clips that
were mimed to records; promo films for "We Love You," "2000 Light Years
Away," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," and "Child of the Moon"; and their portion
of The Rolling Stones Rock'n'Roll
Circus, which, while good, is
easily available on official DVD. While the overall quality's decent,
there are also the usual not-quite-impeccable transfers common to
bootleg product, as well as some clipped beginnings and endings. As
entertaining as it is, it emphasizes the need for a legitimate discs,
or discs, that would anthologize this material with the technological
quality it deserves. There is one brief but amusing clip that will
probably never show up on anything official, though: a 1964 cereal
commercial for which the Stones provided the jingle (which is
surprisingly bluesy and rowdy).
Bob Seger, Lookin' Back (The Limited
Edition Company/Hall of Fame Recordings). Accurately subtitled "20
Early Seger Rarities On Compact Disc!," this brings together many of
Bob Seger's hardest-to-find tracks from the first five years or so of
his recording career, spanning 1966-71. The problem is that it's not
exactly an authorized production, as its limited availability, sketchy
liner notes, and lack of a catalog number make clear. Nonetheless, it does exist on a CD, the label given
as "The Limited
Edition Company" on the back cover and "Hall of Fame Recordings" on the
disc itself. And it does
include desirable rarities,
particularly his first batch of singles from 1966-67. Those comprise
about half the CD, and include some smoking garage-roots-rockers,
particularly the gritty "East Side Story" and "Persecution Smith," a
frenetic takeoff on Bob Dylan's "Tombstone Blues." Other of those early
songs aren't so good, but there are other high points, like his
soul-rocker "Heavy Music" (parts one and two both included), "Vagrant
Winter," and "Chain Smokin'," as well as the novelties "Sock It To Me
Santa" and "Ballad of the Yellow Beret." The last half of the disc is
mostly taken from slightly later recordings, including "2+2=?" (one of
the great underrated anti-war rock songs of all time), seven tunes that
also appeared on his late-'60s LP Noah,
and the early-'70s single
"Lookin' Back." These tracks (and indeed all of the cuts on this disc)
find Seger searching for a style to some extent, from garage rock and
blue-eyed soul to the Traffic-style "Paint Them a Picture Jane" and
protest numbers. Yet it's not a stretch to note that they also include
some of the rawest, most passionate music and singing of his entire
career. What's really needed,
however, is an
official release of this material that would not only boast the best
sound possible (though the fidelity on this disc is pretty good), but
also offer more than the mere fragmentary discography that serves as
this compilation's thin excuse for liner notes.
Ananda
Shankar, A Life in Music
(Saregama).
To most of the West, Ananda Shankar is most familiar for the records he
made at the beginning (1970's Ananda Shankar) and end (2000's Walking
On) of his recording career, which were the only ones to gain
relatively wide distribution outside India. However, Shankar did
continue to record fairly often for EMI India in the interim. That
period's well represented by this overdue two-CD compilation, which
draws from seven of his Indian albums between 1975 and 2000. On most of
these instrumental recordings, Shankar pursued what has been generally,
though pretty accurately, classified as an East-West fusion of sorts,
melding sitar and traditional Indian music and instruments with rock
and funk arrangements and modern recording technology. Often that's a
recipe for disaster, or at least cheesiness, but Shankar usually
managed to make it effective. On the earlier tracks in particular,
there's often a lagging-behind-the-trends psychedelic funk feel, with
unpredictable but galvanizing shifts between Indian-flavored
melodies/rhythms, careening synthesizers, wah-wah guitars, acid jazz
organ, dancing cinematic strings, and a quite hard-charging solid
rock-influenced beat. From a twenty-first century perspective, these
sound at once dated and futuristic, stuffed with quasi-psychedelicisms
that some would consider passe, yet run through a blender in a way that
has no obvious counterpart on more familiar American and European
recordings of the period. Some other selections tilt more toward the
Indian music-overlaid-with-modern-beats-and-production style, and are
both more conventional and less impressive. The best half or so of this
compilation, however, is quite dynamic, and makes a case for Shankar as
one of the ablest and most balanced fusioneers of Western and Eastern
forms.
Clare Torry,
Heaven in the Sky
(RPM).
Clare Torry will forever be known mostly as the guest session vocalist
on Pink Floyd's "Great Gig in the Sky" on the Dark Side of the Moon
album. However, in addition to singing on many other UK sessions from
the end of the 1960s through the mid-1990s, she also recorded some
obscure solo singles and wrote some of her own material. Heaven in
the Sky collects 18 recordings from 1967-84 on which she's the
featured singer. It's not entirely clear what has been previously
released from the otherwise thorough liner notes, but it does reach way
back to the late 1960s and early 1970s for a few rare solo singles,
including a 1970 45 she did under the name Alice Pepper. Because it's
taken from numerous sources (including commercials, television themes,
and soundtracks) reaching across almost two decades, it's unavoidably
patchy. But it does sound as if, had things worked out a little
differently, Torry might have had a career as a respectable
singer-songwriter in her own right. She has a strong, soulful voice and
exhibited some promise as a soul-pop composer, and certainly sounds to
these ears like a greater talent than, say, her friend Kiki Dee. The
highlights do tend to be the earlier tracks, such as the previously
unissued 1969 outtake "Midnight Train," which is fine blue-eyed soul,
and the melodramatic ballad (from the same year) "Love for Living,"
which Robin Gibb helped produce. And for those who liked her
contribution to "Great Gig in the Sky," "Theme from Film 'OCE'" (from a
1977 film soundtrack) has more of the same kind of beautiful wordless
high vocalizing, though she infers in the liner notes that she was
reluctant to record in a style so explicitly reminiscent of that famous
Pink Floyd guest spot. Much of the other material falls down not so
much on the singing, which is usually good, as the material, which is
often ordinary or even drab mainstream pop. Still, the better parts are
impressive, and make one hope that some of the other rare/unreleased
recordings referred to in the liner notes are eventually issued on CD.
Pete
Townshend, Jai Baba
(Eel Pie). In the
1970s, Pete Townshend participated in three limited-edition albums
devoted to Meher Baba: Happy Birthday
(1970), I Am (1972), and With Love (1976). While Townshend
was just one of several musicians
and poets involved in the recordings, they immediately became
sought-after items among Who collectors, as they did include several
genuine Townshend solo tracks that did not appear on standard
commercial releases (although a few of those came out, either on the
original LP or as CD bonus tracks, on releases of Townshend's first
solo album, Who Came First).
The idea behind this two-CD 2000
compilation, available through the www.eelpie.com website, was a very
good one, combining all three of these scarce albums onto two discs, as
well as adding one bonus cut (a live 1972 version of "Parvardigar"). Be
cautioned that this is probably for serious fans only: there's only
about one album of actual Townshend solo material here, and even this
material generally isn't quite up to the standard of what he was
putting on his commercial releases of the 1970s, whether for the Who or
his solo recordings.
All that taken into consideration, almost all of the Townshend solo
cuts are worthwhile, and if they have something of a one-man demo
quality, that adds to the inviting sense of personal informality they
project. The tracks he contributed to Happy
Birthday in particular
are standouts, including the brooding, reflective "Day of Silence"; the
pious "Content," which did appear on Who
Came First; his own version
of the Who's hit "The Seeker"; the bright, country-influenced "Mary
Jane"; the peculiar braggadocio of "The Love Man"; and a cover of
"Begin the Beguine" that, while it sounds like a lousy idea on paper,
is surprisingly heartfelt and appealing. The ten-minute instrumental
version of "Baba O'Riley" (from I Am)
is also more interesting than
you'd expect, the clattering synthesizers evoking an eerie mystery of
their own. His three songs from With
Love have a delicate
sensitivity sometimes missing from his Who compositions of the time,
though all of them ("Sleeping Dog," "His Hands," and "Lantern Cabin")
were officially issued as bonus tracks on a CD reissue of Who Came
First.
The rest of these records are rather hit-and-miss, from highlights like
Ronnie Lane's rough-hewn "Evolution" (which appeared on Who Came
First), to interesting-but-esoteric items like experimental
composer
Ron Geesin's atmospheric instrumental "With a Smile Up His Nose They
Entered" and Mike Da Costa's goofy poem "How to Transcend Duality and
Influence People." Billy Nicholls does a few songs in an appealingly
shaky, high Townshend-esque voice, but some of the other contributions
are wimpy singer-songwriter efforts (albeit with a fascinatingly dated
aura) and somewhat grating spoken word pieces. Still, even these are of
interest for serious Townshend followers, as they give a sense of the
context of his devotion to Meher Baba (and some of the other people he
interacted with as a result of that association), which informed a
great deal of his songwriting. The pieces of these recordings
that have emerged on standard Townshend solo releases might be enough
for general fans, but for specialists, it's quite enlightening (and
usually entertaining) to hear them whole, as they were originally
assembled.
Kim Weston, The Motown Anthology
(Motown). The two-CD, 48-track size of this anthology might be taken to
signify a definitive collection of sorts of Kim Weston's recordings for
Motown. But while it's of considerable use to Motown collectors, it has
to be approached with some caution by less completist-oriented
listeners, and can't be classified as a definitive best-of. For one
thing, it doesn't include any of her duets with Marvin Gaye, instead
being wholly devoted to solo recordings. In addition, the emphasis is
very much on rare material, as no less than 34 of the cuts were
previously unreleased. So while it does lead off with some of her more
familiar Motown songs that actually did find official release in the
'60s (including her hits "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little
While)" and "Helpless"), it's for the most part a dig through unexposed
vaults, and doesn't even include all of the solo Motown tracks she put
out during the '60s. With your expectations duly adjusted, this is
still a worthwhile compilation of one of the Detroit label's less
celebrated artists, though it doesn't reveal Weston as one of Motown's
more talented ones. She was more likable than spectacular, with a
softer, sometimes jazzier edge to her singing than most of her peers at
the company, occasionally slightly reminiscent of Dionne Warwick. The
jazzy inclination really comes out on "Love Trouble Heartache and
Misery," one of the highlights among the unreleased numbers, and the
similarity to Warwick is strong on "I Don't Know If I'm Coming or
Going," though at other times Motown seemed to be trying to put her
into a Mary Wells bag she really didn't fit. Greatest Hits & Rare
Classics remains a preferable compilation for the general
listener due
to its greater and more thorough concentration on her official Motown
discography (including her "It Takes Two" hit duet with Gaye). For the
Motown fanatic, though, this does offer a lot of unreleased (if
somewhat second-division) material penned by major writers at the label
like Smokey Robinson and Mickey Stevenson, the most interesting of
those tracks being the earlier ones, when the Motown sound wasn't as
formulaic as it would become later in the 1960s.
Various Artists, Going Underground Vol. 2: The Dutch Music
Scene [DVD] [bootleg] (Missing in Action Archives). As
unauthorized DVDs (as this one likely is) go, this one might strike
even those who collect these kind of things as mighty esoteric,
compiling about an hour of footage from Dutch progressive rock bands of
the late 1960s and early 1970s. The general US/UK fan is likely to have heard of a couple
of the acts,
Focus and Golden Earring. Plus many collectors who dig further than the
hit parade may have heard, or even own records by, the Outsiders (not
exactly a "progressive rock" band, but they make the cut anyway), Group
1850, and Ekseption. The others—Sandy Coast, Earth and Fire, Solution,
and Kayak—are barely known even in the dedicated collector world. If
you do have a specialized interest in this sort of stuff, however, this
is fairly well done, even if seems like most or all of it was taped
from television retrospectives, and not taken from the original source.
Too, much of the material is lip-synced; not all of the songs are
performed in completion; and a few (though not most) of the clips are
obviously not pre-1975, but taken from reunions. Still, there's some
decent material here, like Earth and Fire's mixture of heavy rock, pop,
and progressive elements; Group 1850's bizarre, cryptic "Mother Nohead"
(unfortunately overlaid with distracting captions). The Outsiders,
sadly, are represented by one of their least impressive recordings
("Cup of Hot Coffee"), and don't actually even mime a performance in
that clip, instead romping around on a boat. Golden Earring's
performance of their huge international hit "Radar Love" is mimed too,
but by the standard of lip-synced videos it's pretty good, and quite
dynamically executed.
Various Artists, The Philly Sound Get Down: Funky Philly
Instrumentals (Distortions). No original labels or
release dates grace this package of two dozens Philadelphia funk
rarities, presumably from the late 1960s (and possibly very early
1970s) by the sound of things. Nor will any of the artists ring any
bells of recognition, even with the vast majority of specialist
soul/funk collectors. Nor do the paragraph-long liner notes give us any
clues about who these cats were, and whether all of this stuff was even
officially released at the time. In a way, though, that's cool, making
you feel almost as though you're an archeologist digging up
unidentified objects from a civilization that, while certainly not
lost, isn't exactly well documented. For all its relative anonymity,
however, the quality of the music is
pretty good.
Many of the cuts bear a specifically Philly regional spin on the funk
sound: horn sections that sound as if they've sneaked off the football
field to get into something hipper, peppy and upbeat rhythms, and a
certain sweetness to the melodies and arrangements that set them apart
from the more gutbucket variety of funk being ground out by James Brown
and his imitators. There might not be anything here as hit-worthy as
the chart singles by Booker T. & the MG's, but neither is it as
faceless as so many rarity compilations are. And plenty of
idiosyncratic touches bubble upward to catch your attention, like the
elephant roar in Philly Four's "Elephant Part 2"; the oddly echoed
horns of Willis Wooten Ork's "Do the Train"; the deft blend of brass
and wah-wah guitar in RDM Band's "Butter That Popcorn"; the
exceptionally tight party funk of Brass Rail's "Penguin Part 2"; and
the almost doleful cast of the Interpretations' funk ballad "Lineman."
The twenty-fifth and final track, "Bonus Funky Philly Virtue Acetate
Beats," strings together snatches of cuts that (at a logical guess)
come from acetates produced at Philadelphia's Virtue Studio, and might
not have been used in full due to their deteriorated sound quality.
Various Artists, Scratch My Back: New Rubble Vol. 5
(Past & Present). The woman-sung wing of the British Invasion was
far more oriented toward pop and ballads than the harder-rocking sounds
associated with the male UK rock groups. There were, however, some
records by female artists with tougher rock and soul arrangements and
vocals, even if they were hardly on the level of raunchiness (or
quality) of the Rolling Stones or Who. This compilation brings together
17 such rare sides from 1964-70, mostly by names who'll ignite little
recognition on either side of the Atlantic, though Billie Davis had a
big 1963 hit in the UK (not included here). It might be longer on
energy than excellent material, but nonetheless it's a good listen,
both for the high-voltage performances and the sheer historical
interest of hearing a side of 1960s British rock that's rarely been
given any attention. And while it's uneven stuff with little in the way
of tunes that sound like they should have been hits, there are some
good, solid efforts to enjoy; considering how few people pay attention
to this sub-genre, in fact, it's likely to be the best comp of this
sort ever done. Davis's "Whatcha Gonna Do," which sounds more like a
tough girl-group record than the stereotypical British Invasion one,
does seem worthy of hit status. Tammy St. John does the rawest version
of "Boys" likely to have been recorded; Tracy Rogers offers a quite
good cover of the throbbing "Baby," first done by the underrated male
British R&B-pop combo the Sorrows; Alma Cogan, a pre-rock pop
singer, does convincing, even propulsive girl group music with "Snakes,
Snails, Puppy Dog Tails"; Samantha Jones summons credible blue-eyed
soul-pop with "Go Ahead"; and Dawn & the Deejays' "These Are the
Things About You" comes about the closest of anything here to the
catchy pop-rock commonly associated with British Invasion rock groups.
If you want novelty, there's "Sock It to Me" by Judy Carnes, who was
famous for dancing with that slogan written on her belly on the Laugh-In TV show.
Various Artists, The Stax Volt Revue [DVD] [bootleg]
(Cat's Meow). The availability of any live footage of Stax/Volt
performers in the 1960s is to be welcomed, even if it's in an
unauthorized guise with slightly grainy image quality. That's what you
get on this approximately hour-long TV, where the performances are
good-to-superb, and the packaging subpar. Aside from the
less-than-optimum (though perfectly watchable) quality and utter
absence of track listings, liner notes, or extra features, it's billed
as being "Live on Dutch TV 1965!" Not so -- it's certainly live and
filmed at just one venue (Booker T. & the MGs also functioning as a
backing band for other artists), but it's certainly not from 1965, as
these performers didn't travel together to Europe until after that (and
some of the songs they sing are from post-1965 releases). It's almost
certainly from the Stax}/Volt tour of Europe in early 1967. All such
shortcomings noted, these are still pretty exciting clips of Otis
Redding, Sam and Dave, Booker T. & the MGs, Eddie Floyd, Arthur
Conley, and the Mar-Keys, playing and singing live, not miming to
records. Redding and Sam & Dave's showmanship might come off best,
but Booker T. & the MGs play a really hot version of "Green Onions"
on their own, while Arthur Conley lets loose on his classic single
"Sweet Soul Music." It's fine document of an important part of '60s
soul music that would be yet finer if a better source for the material
could be found, and the package correspondingly improved.
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