July 28, 2009
This week, we're listening in on music from Diane Birch, Betty Wright, Al B. Sure!, Nancy Sinatra, and Otis Taylor.
Listening to Diane Birch reminds us of the late, great, criminally underrated Laura Nyro. Known to most as a songwriter for writing (and recording) the original versions of "Stony End" (a hit for Barbra Streisand), "When I Die" (Blood, Sweat & Tears), "Eli's Coming" (Three Dog Night), plus "Stoned Soul Picnic" and "Save The Country" (both for the Fifth Dimension), she got lost in the singer-songwriter sweepstakes of the late '60s/early '70s ⎯ missing the attention that came to the Carole Kings, Joni Mitchells, and Carly Simons of the era.
Nyro's records are a brilliant mix of gospel/soul, introspective singer-songwriter elements, hippie imagery, and, most importantly, Brill Building pop formalism; and while most of her early albums exhibit a seemingly impossible balance of (and/or healthy tension among) those elements, that mix was never as perfect as it was on her first album (understatedly and very appropriately titled) More Than A New Discovery, but now known to most as First Songs, which she recorded when she was only 19 years old.
The album is one of those great, lost singer-songwriter masterpieces rivaling (and perhaps exceeding) records like Tapestry, Court & Spark, and Sweet Baby James. Despite the fact that there are 12 insanely catchy songs on the album, you'll rarely find a traditionally delineated verse-chorus structure within any of them. Other (non-hit) highlights include "He's A Runner" and "I Never Meant To Hurt You," but the album's piece de resistance is "Billy's Blues," a song just waiting to be recognized as the gorgeous soul jazz vocal masterpiece that it is, and by all rights should be a future jazz vocal standard.
Normally we're in the business of recommending Best Ofs or Essentials, but First Songs is too good to miss and plays like an undiscovered best of from a needs-to-be-discovered great.
July 20, 2009
This week, we're listening in on music from Jack White (The White Stripes, The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs), Petra Haden, Hall & Oates, and Spanish-language crossover hits.
We casually mention the Chi-Lites this week and in several other episodes
without going into the kind of detail that does them justice.
They're among the best examples of vocal group-based '70s soul in a class with the O'Jays, the Spinners, and the Stylistics.
Known predominantly for their chart-toppers "Oh Girl" And "Have You Seen Her?" (hits again in the early '90s for MC Hammer and Paul Young respectively)- both great, in the smooth romantic ballad mode (with strong nods to classic doo wop), yet in no way indicative of the wide range of things the Chi-Lites excelled at.
Although the "Chi" part of their name appropriately references their Chicago roots (they were as representative of Chicago soul as anything from Jerry Butler or Curtis Mayfield) the "Lite" part does them a minor injustice, as they were anything but lightweight. Oldies radio listeners only familiar with the big hits miss out on their many political ("[For God's Sake] Give More Power To The People"), spiritual ("There Will Never Be Any Peace [Until God Is Seated At The Conference Table]"), and psychedelic soul ("Stoned Out Of My Mind") sides.
Lead singer Eugene Record was their main songwriter and also a
contributing musician, a-typical of many of the period's top vocal
groups. Sure we like Hall & Oates, but we don't think John and Daryl
would mind us telling you that any self-respecting fan who loves
"She's Gone" but has never heard any of the above might be missing out .
July 14, 2009
If you were inspired by (or even moderately interested in) our segment on the film "Soul Power," you need to take a deeper dive into the sounds of '70s soul. When rock became a serious art form on FM radio in the wake of the Woodstock era, AM radio got softer and sillier with strains of novelty and bubblegum (not that there's anything wrong with that)ruling the charts.
Thankfully most R&B and soul records from that time continued to show growth, innovation, and passion. A sense of experimentation and exploration still characterized many of these sides. But don't take our word for it; just do a quick compare and contrast from our '70s Pop and '70s Soul School Of Rock chapters.
Black pride and political consciousness are everywhere on the Message In The Music playlist, from the positive ("Love Train," "O-O-H Child") and the critical ("Living For The City," "Respect Yourself") to the descriptive ("Ball Of Confusion," "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"). The best production techniques and emotional content are all over the Sweet Harmonies playlist, with tracks by the Delfonics, the Three Degrees, and the Dramatics-to name a few-that built on the earlier victories from Motown, Stax/Volt, and much of the '60s soul that came out of Chicago and Philadelphia. And if you take no other action, at the very least, we're begging you to click on the opening track from the '70s Soul Discoveries Essentials list.
July 6, 2009
This week, we're listening in on music
from Wilco, Scott Walker, The Lovin' Spoonful, Smokey Robinson,
Lindsey Buckingham, Marshall Crenshaw, Kool & The Gang, and The Time.
While we (and others) are rightfully extolling the virtues of Wilco's new album, many of us are also making the mistake of referring to it as their 7th album ⎯ when actually it's their 8th. Not counted in the musical numerology of their career are the two Mermaid Avenue albums they made with Billy Bragg in 1997 ⎯ with Bragg, Jeff Tweedy, and Jay Bennett adding music to the previously unaccompanied words of Woody Guthrie (at the request of Guthrie's daughter Nora).
In many ways these sessions are the missing link between the archetypical alt country sounds of AM and Being There and the broader pop sensibilities and experimentation the group achieved with Summer Teeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot when they became Wilco (The Great American Band). The albums are easy to miss but not easily forgotten once you've heard them. Wilco fans miss out when they think of them as Billy Bragg albums (or even Woody Guthrie albums), forgetting the artists split the writing/singing duties evenly, with Jeff Tweedy writing and singing lead on over a dozen tracks between the two sets.
Volume One's "California Stars" has become a Wilco standard of sorts at live shows. We tried to remedy this by including five Mermaid Avenue songs on our Wilco Essentials list in the hope that we inspire some revelation among fans. Most overlooked are Volume Two's "Someday Some Morning Sometime," which sounds like one of the best cuts that might have been on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and "Remember The Mountain Bed," which would have fit comfortably and proudly on Dylan's Blood On The Tracks or even Nashville Skyline.
