With a pedigree that includes playing with Caravan, Quantum Jump and Curved Air as well session work on albums by highly regarded artists such as Anthony Phillips and Gordan Giltrap, the name of bassist John G Perry will be familiar to many. What may not be so well known is that Perry recorded a solo album way back in 1976 that was somewhat lost in the musical climate of the time. The various bands he had played in and the musicians he had met during sessions allowed him to assemble an impressive cast of friends to perform on the album, among which were Caravan bandmate Geoffrey Richardson, producer and multi-instrumentalist Rupert Hine, arranger, conductor and future founder of The Penguin Cafe Orchestra Simon Jeffes, percussionist extraordinaire Morris Pert, original King Crimson drummer Michael Giles plus two members of Italian progressive band Nova, saxophonist Elio D'Anna and guitarist Carrado (or Corrado) Rusticci.
Competing in the market place against debut albums by The Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned, the rural airs and graces of the largely instrumental Sunset Wading never really stood a chance. The four vocal numbers are all very brief: I Wait My Friend features Beryle Streeter who does a remarkable impression of a theremin on this plaintive opening number. Confusingly, the words to How Goes The Night? feature in the song Devoke Water and the spoken poem On The Moor is recited in Morning Song! Thankfully the words to Sunset Wading are sung during the song of the same name and form a quite mellow end to the album with a track that is charmingly beautiful and serene.
The rest of the album is a mixture of various textures, from the piano and flute of Birds And Small Furry Beasts, the musical storm of, er Storm, the rocky Ah Well, You Can Only Get Wet! and the jazz fusion of Etude, there are certainly enough styles to keep one's interest alight. Throughout, the playing is exceptional, with hats off in particular to Simon Jeffes whose arrangements for the string quartet are entirely sympathetic to the music performed by the rest of the band. Perry himself contributes some fine bass playing in a variety of styles creating rhythms that are often funky and always great. The second side of the album, starting with Dawn, is a musical concept undoubtedly inspired by the Rupert Hine poem The Land Of The Lakes. Based around a day in the Lake District, and featuring unedited sound backdrops recorded on location and revealing "the first cock-crow at Down-in-the-Dale to the last breakfast hungry farm hound". Much of the music has a feel of being improvised or jammed, but with musicians of such calibre that is not a criticism, but a bonus, particularly as there maintains a cohesion between tracks, despite the different styles. That has a lot to do with the work of Richardson who, I feel, has always been immensely undervalued as a musician.
Sunset Wading is an album that fits in neatly with the music of Perry's most famous previous band mates, that of Caravan. Although not some great long lost classic album, it does provide 40 minutes of largely unchallenging, familiarly rural and interesting music. Had it been released a few years earlier then it would have undoubtedly made a bigger impact, but as is the case for a large number of albums that were out of their time, it has largely laid unnoticed for many years. Now's the time for rectification!
by Mark Hughes
Tracks
1. I Wait My Friend - 2:24
2. How Goes the Night? - 0:15
3. Devoke Water (John G. Perry, Michael Giles, Rupert Hine, Simon Jeffes) - 4:51
4. Birds and Small Furry Beasts (Corrado Rustici, Elio D'Anna, John G. Perry, Rupert Hine) - 3:19
5. As Clouds Gather - 3:45
6. Storm - 2:59
7. Ah Well, You Can Only Get Wet! (Corrado Rustici, Elio D'Anna, John G. Perry, Michael Giles, Morris Pert, Rupert Hine) - 1:56
8. Dawn (John G. Perry, Michael Giles, Rupert Hine, Simon Jeffes) - 7:05
9. Morning Song (John G. Perry, Simon Jeffes) - 3:09
10.On the Moor (Corrado Rustici, Elio D'Anna, John G. Perry, Michael Giles, Morris Pert, Rupert Hine) - 1:53
11.Roundelay - 0:51
12.Etude - 3:33
13.A Rhythmic Stroll (Corrado Rustici, Elio D'Anna, John G. Perry, Michael Giles, Morris Pert, Rupert Hine) - 1:12
14.Sunset Wading - 2:35
All compositions by John G. Perry except where noted Personnel
*John G. Perry - Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
*Elio D'anna - Wind
*Michael Giles - Drums,
*Roger Glover - Synthesizer
*Rupert Hine - Celeste, Keyboards, Moog Bass, Piano, Synthesizer, Vocals
*Simon Jeffes - Conductor, Koto, String Quartet
*Morris Pert - Marimba, Percussion, Vibe Master
*Geoff Richardson - Flute, Viola
*Geoffrey Richardson - Flute, Viola
*Corrado Rustici - Guitar
*Beryl Streeter - Sangbe Drum, Vocals
*Gavyn Wright - Violin
The history of one of Germany's most successful bands of the 1970's was shaped by numerous changes in the line-up, a willingness to take stylistic risks, and an attitude towards their work that was characterised by honesty and professionalism. The naked figures read like this - twelve albums with total sales exceeding two million and an average of 150 concerts each year, each of them usually sold out.
Musically speaking, Jane were never a band to do the expected, but they still had some recognisable trademarks. Breathtaking guitar solos, powerful keyboards, polished and mighty arrangements and an almost constantly dragging tempo added up to the typical Jane touch and were characteristic for a melodic hard rock that had no equal in Germany.
Jane were formed in October of 1970 in Hanover out of the remains of the band Justice Of Peace. Klaus Hess (g), Peter Panka (dr) and Werner Nadolny (org) were looking for a new challenge and got together with Charly Maucher (b). In the Spring of 1971, they were joined by Bernd Pulst, a singer with a powerful voice. Shortly after that, the quintet signed a long-term record contract. After almost one year of work, Jane's debut album "Together" was released in the spring of 1972. The German rock world reacted positively to the technically well-versed newcomers and their "unvarnished style of making music"
For the second LP, Wolfgang Krantz had to fill in for Maucher, who was sick, and Panka took the place of Bernd Pulst as lead singer. The initial success and their convincing live performances made Jane an attraction on the national touring scene. The band constantly commuted back and forth between stage and studio and absorbed numerous changes in the line-up effortlessly and without any quality loss.
Tracks
1. Redskin - 8:55
2. Out In The Rain - 5:43
3. Dandelion - 2:19
4. Moving - 3:56
5. Waterfall - 4:27
6. Like A Queen - 2:37
7. Here We Are - 5:38
8. Here We Are (Singe Edit) - 3:50
9. Redskin (Single Edit) - 2:40
All songs by Klaus Hess, Peter Panka, Werner Nadolny, Wolfgang Krantz.
Bonustracks 8-9
If you ever wondered what the love child of the Bee Gees and Crosby, Stills and Nash would sound like, wonder no more – the pointy-headed creature would sound like Tranquility.
The story of short-lived career of Tranquility is a difficult one to track; now largely forgotten, the band has neither a biography at AllMusic or a Wikipedia page. A fairly short history of the band’s 1971-1974 duration can be found on a page dedicated to Vanity Fare, but aside from that, little exists on the Internet about Tranquility.
The dichotomy of a band that references the Bee Gees and CSN in equal measure is not surprising, considering the band’s origins. According to the Vanity Fare page:
“The band was formed in 1971 by Ashley Kozak, formerly Donovan’s manager, and built around the song writing abilities of Terry Shaddick. Kozak had long wished for a “…gentle tranquil band that could create it own hybrid of pop, rock and English folk music” (CBS Inner Sleeve Issue III, 1973), and in Shaddick, he saw the focal point for creation of just such a band.”
From the meager info provided by AllMusic, it appears that Shaddick had a hand in all of the songs featured on Tranquility, and satisfied the intent of Kozak’s wishes, if not the spirit; Shaddick and company rarely hybridize pop, rock and English folk, but hit each of the points individually, song-by-song.
The best songs on Tranquility lean more toward folk; album opener “Try Again” is all innocuous confessional lyrics married to acoustic guitars and tight harmonies. Likewise, “Look at the Time, It’s Late” mimics the best of the Bee Gees’ late-60s-early 70s pop. Just as many times, the album aims for CSN or the Bee Gees and misses; “Lady of the Lake,” “Ride Upon the Sun,” and “Walk Along the Road” are pleasant but forgettable.
“Oyster Catcher” and “Black Current Betty” are almost jarringly out-of-place on an album full of CSN-lite offerings. Both songs recall 1967-68, when, inspired by Sgt. Pepper, every British album had to include a few music hall-type numbers full of twee Angliophilia. Of the two songs, “Black Current Betty” (which I’m almost certain should be “Black Currant Betty,” and the writer on the Vanity Fare page agrees) is the most listenable, even if “Penny Lane,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” or even “Hello Hello” by Sopwith Camel got there first and more memorably.
Tranquility is hardly a buried classic, even if the Vanity Fare page claims that the band “blew more than one big-name U.S. band off the stage.” All this begs the question: are some bands/albums better lost to history?
In the case of Tranquility’s 1972 self-titled debut, that depends on your tolerance for an album that veers wildly between introspective singer-songwriter offerings featuring CSN-type harmonies and English pop that would have sounded at home on Chad & Jeremy’s Of Cabbages and Kings.
Tracks
1. Try Again - 4:34
2. Ride Upon The Sun - 4:32
3. Where You Are (Where I Belong) - 6:24
4. Look At The Time It's Late (John Presley, Terry Shaddick) - 2:31
5. Lady Of The Lake - 3:24
6. Walk Along The Road - 3:24
7. Thank You (Tony Lukyn, Terry Shaddick) - 3:55
8. Oyster Catcher - 4:32
9. Black Currant Betty - 2:50
10.Saying Good-Bye - 5:42
All songs by Terry Shaddick except where stated
Tranquility
*Eric Dillon - Drums, Percussion
*Tony Lukyn - Vocals, Piano, Organ
*John Perry - Vocals, Guitar
*Terry Shaddick - Vocals, Lead Guitar
*Berkeley Wright - Vocals, Lead Guitar
Raised in rural Georgia, Johnny Jenkins was a hard-driving guitarist with a bellowing voice who played with a young Otis Redding in a blues group called the Pinetoppers. Jenkins' raw, firebrand vocals and enviable guitar-picking gave his solo debut, Ton-Ton Macoute!, a wallop that might've made him a star — if only slide guitarist Duane Allman and several other members of his backing band hadn't left to form the Allman Brothers. In Jenkins' capable hands, Bob Dylan's "Down Along the Cove" and Dr. John's "I Walk on Guilded Splinters" (later sampled by Beck for "Loser") can get even the stiffest legs shakin'
by Reed Fischer
Johnny Jenkins' Ton-Ton Macoute is a fine bowl of Southern gumbo. Aided and abetted by the likes of Duane Allman (this started as an Allman solo disc, but when he formed the Allman Brothers Band, Jenkins put his vocals over the tracks best suited), Dickey Betts, and those great guys from Muscle Shoals, Jenkins cooks on such cuts as "Down Along the Cove" from the pen of Bob Dylan, and Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone." But it is Dr. John's "I Walk on Guilded Splinters" which shines here and is the one which folks will recognize as the basis for Beck's hit "Loser." On the slippery "Blind Bats & Swamp Rats" you can almost feel the heat and humidity rolling out of the bayou. This reissue also includes the mighty fine bonus cuts "I Don't Want No Woman" and "My Love Will Never Die." Great Southern funk & roll for the discerning listener. It even includes educational liner notes which tell the tale behind each cut.
by James Chrispell
Tracks
1. I Walk On Guilded Splinters (Dr. John) - 5:50
2. Leaving Trunk (Sleepy John Estes) - 4:20
3. Blind Bats And Swamp Rats (Jackie Avery) - 4:45
4. Catfish Blues (Muddy Waters) - 5:20
5. Sick And Tired (Dave Bartholomew, Chris Kenner) - 4:42
6. Down Along The Cove (Bob Dylan) - 3:25
7. Bad News (J.D. Loudermilk) - 4:08
8. Dimples (John Lee Hooker, James Bracken) - 2:56
9. Voodoo In You (Jackie Avery) - 5:05
10.I Don't Want No Woman (Don Robey) - 2:12
11.My Love Will Never Die (Otis Rush) - 5:32 Personnel
*Johnny Jenkins - Vocals, Guitar , Harmonica, Foot Stomping , Lead Guitar
*Duane Allman - Electric Guitar, Slide Guitar, Dobro, Rhythm Guitar
*Berry Oakley - Bass
*Jai Johanny Johanson - Timbales
*Butch Trucks - Drums
*Paul Hornsby - Wurlitzer Piano, Hammond B-3 Organ, Rhythm Guitar
*Eddie Hinton - Cowbell
*Tippy Armstrong - Cabasa
*Pete Carr - Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
*Robert Popwell – Bass, Timbales, Shaker , Woodblocks
*Johnny Wyker – Shaker, Woodblocks
*Jimmy Nalls - Guitar
*Ella Brown - Vocals
*Donna Jean Godchaux – Vocals
*Jeanie Greene - Vocals
*Mary Holliday - Vocals
*Ginger Holliday - Vocals
*Johnny Sandlin - Drums
Johnny Harris is a composer, arranger, conductor and producer whose musical career spans more than 60 years. He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, specialising in trumpet and piano, and spent his early career in the 1950s playing in dance bands. Towards the end of that decade, he had his first opportunities to arrange as part of Cyril Stapleton’s band. His time at Pye Records in the 1960s saw him work with Petula Clark, Lulu and Françoise Hardy as well as a host of less familiar acts whose recordings have since been rediscovered by fans of Northern Soul and British girl singers.
For two years at the end of the 1960s, Harris was Tom Jones’ musical director. The two men formed a dynamic partnership, with Harris himself attracting a lot of attention as a result of his energetic conducting style. In 1970, he helped turn around the career of Shirley Bassey, with whom he recorded ‘Something’ and an LP of the same name which went on to become Bassey’s biggest selling to that point. The two recorded a total of six albums together, with the singer telling the NME in 1971 that in Johnny Harris she had found her ‘husband in music’. Harris moved to the USA in 1972 where he began a long musical relationship with Paul Anka, as well as working with George Hamilton, Lynda Carter, Diana Ross and many others.
by Graham Tomlinson
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Despite ambitions to write and record his own work, Harris principally made his name as a musical arranger. His 1970 album, Movements, comprised mellifluous brass and woodwind, combined with the then novel VCS3 synthesizer, on treatments of standards such as ‘Paint It, Black’ and ‘Light My Fire’. Harris began his musical career by arranging two legendary British soul singles - Lorraine Silver’s ‘Lost Summer Love’ and A Band Of Angels’ ‘Invitation’ - both staples of the Wigan Casino all-nighters.
1970 "Movements" is his most sought after release and it's aimed to please fans of soundtrack funk, groovy easy listening, and brit pop psychedelia. Highlights include the heavily comped "Fragments of Fear," the flutastic percussive groover "Stepping Stones," and his moody instrumental interpretation of the Stones' "Paint it Black" that is bound to excite the most seasoned of beat diggers.
Tracks
1. Fragments Of Fear - 4:08
2. Reprise - 1:10
3. Stepping Stones - 5:22
4. Something (George Harrison) - 6:14
5. Give Peace A Chance (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 5:55
6. Footprints On The Moon - 3:11
7. Light My Fire (Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger) - 4:49
8. Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb) - 3:30
9. Paint It Black (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) - 3:55
10. Lulu's Theme (Mono 45 Mix) - 2:25
11. Footprints On The Moon (Mono 45 Mix) - 2:57
All compositions by Johnny Harris except where stated
Fragments Of Fear" and "Stepping Stones" from the Columbia motion picture "Fragments Of Fear"
Bob Downes is a talented multi-instrumentalist and composer and this album was one of his incursions into the world of jazz-rock, although he was equally at home playing in a free jazz context with his acoustic Open Music trio. Originally released on Polygram's Vertigo label, Electric City boasts the cream of British jazz musicians including Ian Carr, Kenny Wheeler, Harry Beckett, Chris Spedding, Ray Russell, Daryl Runswick and Harry Miller.
Songs such as the opening "No Time Like The Present" might have invited speculation that Polygram perceived Downes' eclectic music as something of a Trojan horse into the lucrative rock market—indeed, it was also released as Downes' only 45 rpm single (backed with "Keep Off The Grass")—but this material's jazz element confounds any accusations of selling out. "Gonna Take A Journey," for example, begins as a free blowing session, culminating in a heavy jazz-rock jam underpinned by assorted guitars and drum,s and an ensemble riff over top.
Whilst the vocal tracks—half the album features singing—may not be to everyone's taste, Downes nevertheless manages to impart a feeling of fervent, almost naïve honesty and a considerable amount of tenderness, as in the ballad "In Your Eyes."
The ensemble arrangements are excellent and the solos—mainly taken by Downes and the guitarists (particularly Spedding and Russell)—are positively gripping. Downes is a virtuoso flautist, as evidenced by tracks like the bluesy "Keep Off The Grass," but he also demonstrates some fiery free-blowing saxophone work on numbers like "Crush Hour." Resplendent with cover art reminiscent of Zappa's Burnt Weeny Sandwich (Ryko, 1970), this is an essential piece of psychedelic jazz history.
by Roger Farbey
Tracks
1. No Time Like The Present - 3:02
2. Keep Off The Grass - 2:46
3. Don't Let Tomorrow Get You Down - 2:56
4. Dawn Until Dawn - 4:28
5. Go Find Time - 2:40
6. Walking On - 5:00
7. Crush Hour - 3:20
8. West II - 3:27
9. In Your Eyes - 2:20
10.Piccadilly Circus - 2:52
11.Gonna Tale A Journey - 7:09
All compositions by Bob Downes
On their eponymous second album, Out of Focus further develop their progressive jazz-rock sound, at the same time pushing in other directions as well. The rhythm section is still as upbeat and funky as ever, with those repetitive but odd rhythm patterns. There is now more sax in the mix, as well as the flute riffing, guitar wails, and chunky organ chords, with each instrument allowed ample soloing and no instrument over-dominant. If anything, this one dispenses with some of the heavy rock sound to get closer to the jazz influences.
They slow down the pace on the strange folk song "It's Your Life" as well as the even stranger "Blue Sunday Morning" with its airy flute, church organ, and bizarre song narration. Lyrics are even sharper, whether ripping into the banality of television or the hypocrisy of religion, with the dark-edged humor more firmly in place. On the suite "Fly Bird Fly"/"Television Program," the group veers from soft to full in-your-face intensity while staying on a bouncy riff. On long tracks like this one and "Whispering," they throw a lot of variation over repetitive grooves to create mesmerizing jams that are both incredibly loose and far more focused than the average jam band.
by Rolf Semprebon
As Mario Rossi’s excellent liner notes make clear, by the summer of 1971 and the release of their sophomore album, the self-titled Out Of Focus, the band have quite dramatically eschewed the loose, amateurish rawness that characterised Wake Up! in favour of a more structured, professional approach.
In it’s place, Out Of Focus have adopted a more jazz-rock oriented style in the songwriting. Neumüller has jettisoned the lead role for the flute on this album and he now shares his woodwind duties between flute and saxophone. I’ll come straight out and say it, however. I find the sax work on this album incredibly unsophisticated and grating. Neumüller demonstrates little mastery of the instrument but uses it extensively as a tonal layer in the arrangements, often in tandem with Hennes Hering’s organ lines and sometimes in unison with Drechsler’s guitar lines. Musically, I find it repetitive and unimaginative. Of course, I say this with the benefit of hindsight and the use across the decades of a sax by many rock and prog acts in thrilling ways. Let’s just say Theo Travis he is not. I suppose it stands as a legitimate experiment with a brassy, hard-bop sound that would come to ultimate fruition a year later on Four Letter Monday Afternoon. Nevertheless, what I’m hearing here is, to me, an annoying intrusion in some interesting compositions.
To speak in broad strokes, Out Of Focus have slowed down a lot. The tracks on this album possess a much more open sound, allowing their musical ideas more space in which to breathe. There’s a subtlety to the playing beyond the soft/loud dynamics of their debut. Many of the melodic sensibilities of Wake Up! have been retained but developed to offer a broader harmonic palette. Fly Bird Fly is a wonderfully tuneful example of the way in which they have reconsidered their songwriting. Everything is so much more controlled and restrained. This is particularly notable in Klaus Spöri’s much more delicate drumming and even more so in Neumüller’s vocal delivery. On this album he comes over as a heavy-lidded performance poet channelling Mick Jagger to vent his anti-establishment spleen; but he is distant, detached, almost astral in his sonic position and it’s a whole lot more palatable. What he is saying does now sound a tad juvenile, but back then, this was real and avowedly counter-cultural.
What Can A Poor Boy Do [But To Be A Street Fighting Man] offers a hint in its title. That we ought to expect something reactionary but it doesn’t actually manifest itself in this track. With its high-tempo, infectious and repetitive rhythm, this could just have easily have been on a Blue Note Recordings release a decade earlier. Or perhaps Out Of Focus were inspired by the De Patie/Freleng cartoons of The Pink Panther with Henry Mancini’s iconic theme tune because there are clear echoes of that too. I imagine that this must have been an audience favourite at the time, just because it’s fun. It’s Your Life also has its tongue in its cheek as it gently see-saws its way along like a children’s nursery rhyme, but with a lyric like “No more whipping your bottom/When you’re gasping, longing for it”, I don’t suppose it was in any way intended as children’s entertainment.
Things start to get serious with Whispering, which is primitive and barely listenable unless you’re under the influence of psychoactive drugs. Essentially the same four notes again and again for its 14 minute duration; it’s as underground and dingy and seedy as I imagine 1971 Munich ever got. It still has its counterpart today in the kind of minimalist, downtempo techno you’ll hear in the chill-out rooms of dance clubs all over Europe. For me to get the desired effect required four HobNob biscuits eaten quickly and dry one after the other, no liquid to cleanse the palate, then lie back and let the sugar do its work. What a trip, man. Genuinely. This is what was great about the underground psychedelia of its day; played by heads for heads. It is shamanic and intoxicating if you can find the time and the mood to go with it.
Blue Sunday Morning continues the lysergic theme with Jesus being bored in heaven and desperate to come down to Earth and partake of some weed, but by the time Television Program loops its repetitive, though likeable, motif round and round my head, I feel a little browbeaten. The biscuits have obviously worn off, and without those sugar-laden receptors in my brain firing off, it’s really quite difficult to keep focussed on the music.
Like Wake Up!, this is undoubtedly a product of its times but it’s also something that can transcend those temporal boundaries and have some relevance for our modern anodised and commoditised ears. This album reminds us how great analogue can sound and once again, Ben Wiseman’s remaster superbly and faithfully recaptures the thrumming warmth of valves and the simple chemistry between five musicians. The fin de siècle doom-mongery of the debut has been replaced with a certain joie de vivre. Or maybe they were just on better drugs? They certainly seem to be having fun and enjoying what they are doing a bit more. As psychedelic albums go, this is one of the better ones I’ve heard. It also compares with some of The Doors early recordings. Just as Jim Morrison is ‘retiring’ to Paris after the recording of L.A. Woman, and four years after The Doors were asked to change the word ‘higher’ to the word ‘better’ in their rendition of Light My Fire on The Ed Sullivan Show, Out Of Focus are stoned out of their brains and carrying Morrison’s ‘scrambled-egg mind’ torch to a logical apotheosis. The Germans are more hardcore than I think the Doors could ever have dreamt of, even with Morrison in their midst, but they are also quite an influence on the Germans.
by Jon Bradshaw
Tracks
1. What Can A Poor Boy Do - 5:52
2. It's Your Life - 4:31
3. Whispering - 13:34
4. Blue Sunday Morning - 8:20
5. Fly Bird Fly - 5:09
6. Television Program - 11:45
All songs by Out Of Focus
Out Of Focus
*Remingius Drechsler - Guitar
*Hennes Hering - Organ, Piano
*Moran Neumüller - Tenor Saxophone, Flute, Lead Vocals
*Klaus Spöri - Drums, Percussion
*Stephen Wishen - Bass
Murphy Blend, taken off their first, and only, album, "First Loss", released in 1970. Berlin band Murphy Blend were a bit of a mystery. Named after a pipe tobacco, they were a rarity in early German rock, combining the early psychedelic Krautrock sound with heavy rock, classical and blues. Apart from the fact that they sounded a bit like early Jane and Pell Mell, they were pretty unique, with a strongly accented vocalist in Wolf -Rudiger Uhlig ( who sang in English and also played a heavy, chunky Hammond organ ).The guitarist was Wolfgang Rumler, Achim Schmidt occupied the drum stool, and solid bass lines came from Andreas Scholz. They had the potential to go far, but they unfortunately split shortly after the album's release, with Uhlig moving to Hanuman and Scholz to Blackwater Park.
Tracks
1. At First - 4:38
2. Speed Is Coming Back - 6:03
3. Past Has Gone - 7:37
4. Präludium / Use Your Feet (Wolf Rodiger Uhlig, Wolfgang Rumler) - 5:39
5. First Loss - 7:52
6. Funny Guys - 3:50
7. Happiness (Achim Schmidt) - 0:03
All sons by Wolf Rodiger Uhlig except where stated
When he was around 13, Robert Charles Guidry began singing with a band around his hometown of Abbeville, La., deep in the Cajun swamps. The group played Cajun and country music and, after he passed through town and played a show, Fats Domino's music. It was a life-changing experience for the young man, and he found himself with a new ambition: to write a song for Fats.
One night as he left a gig, Charles said to his friends, "See ya later, alligator," and one of them yelled back, "In a while, crocodile." Charles stopped in his tracks. "What did you say?" he asked. The friend repeated it. At that moment, as would happen countless times in the future, the song "See You Later, Alligator" came to him, fully formed.
Fats didn't want the song, and told the young man he didn't want to sing about alligators. Somehow, though, the kid wound up singing the song over the phone to Leonard Chess, whose Chess Records in Chicago was the hottest blues label in town. Chess didn't hesitate: He sent the kid a ticket, and when Charles showed up at his office, Chess said something I can't say on the air. The sentence ended with the word "white" and a question mark, though.
Chess recorded him, though, and put the song out, changing Guidry's name to Bobby Charles; almost immediately, Bill Haley grabbed it for himself. Haley's record was one of the best sellers of 1956, and both Chess and Charles made some decent money from it. They tried follow-ups called "Watch It, Sprocket," which wasn't something people actually said, and "Take It Easy, Greasy," which was, but the record was a little too, well, greasy to be too popular. Charles recorded for Chess until 1958, but his records only sold locally. Along the way, though, he seems to have pioneered a genre called swamp pop.
He also got to realize a dream. One evening, Fats Domino played Abbeville, and Fats invited Charles to a show in New Orleans. The young singer said he had no way to get there. "Well," the fat man said, "you'd better start walking." And sure enough, a song popped into Charles' head: "Walking To New Orleans."
Bobby Charles signed with Imperial, Fats' label, but again, nothing hit. He admitted freely that he was part of the problem. He didn't enjoy touring, and he had a jealous wife who didn't like him leaving town. He continued writing and selling songs, and recorded for some local Louisiana labels. He and his wife parted company, and then, in 1971, he got busted for pot in Nashville. Rather than risk jail, he disappeared; he wound up in upstate New York, and saw the name Woodstock on a map. He'd never even heard of the famous festival, but the name appealed to him.
Arriving in town, he asked a real-estate agent about a place to rent and wound up in a house shared with two other musicians. They introduced him around, and Albert Grossman, who'd managed Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and many others, got interested. The next thing he knew, Charles was back in the studio with members of The Band, Dr. John and lots of other Woodstock musicians. The resulting album has some truly memorable moments.
It didn't sell, though. Charles focused on songwriting, but he wasn't comfortable in Woodstock, and in the end he went back to Abbeville, where he disappeared from public view for an entire decade. He had a good income from his songs, but a run of bad luck: His house burned down, and then his next house blew away in a hurricane. He kept writing songs, and he entertained visitors who came to Abbeville to meet him — people like Bob Dylan and Neil Young and Willie Nelson. His record label, Rice 'N' Gravy, put out several homemade albums, which mixed his old and new songs.
At 70, Bobby Charles was diagnosed with cancer, and he died in January 2010, unknown to most of the world he'd enriched with his songs.
by Ed Ward
Reissued here as a wood-paneled box set with 25 bonus tracks, Louisiana singer Robert Charles' lone album from the 1970s, featuring four members of the Band as his backup group, is one of the most sublime Americana records ever cut.
On the third disc of this wood-paneled box set of Louisiana singer Robert "Bobby" Charles Guidry's lone album from the 1970s, there's a half-hour interview with radio disc jockey Barry Hansen, better known as Dr. Demento. They laundry-list the records released that week in 1972, ranging from a posthumous Jimi Hendrix LP to John Fahey, Tim Buckley, Bonnie Raitt, Nazareth, Wet Willie, and Martin Mull. To which Bobby Charles comments in his gentle, stoned Cajun drawl: "It's too bad, a lot of good ones just have to get lost. It's unexplainable, but they just do." To which Hansen replies: "Well... a lot of times they get picked up the second or third time around."
Warm and crackling as a campfire, easeful and understated, all of it suffused with Charles' nuanced blend of humor and empathy, this 1972 eponymous album was one of the "good ones" that got lost. Think of this as the second or third time around for the album to finally find its people-- and there should be plenty of them. Considering that 4/5ths of the Band served as Charles' back up group here (augmented by Dr. John and Neil Young pedal steel guitarist Ben E. Keith), this is-- simply put-- one of the most sublime Americana records ever cut.
Charles' story started two decades earlier, when he wrote and recorded R&B standards like "See You Later, Alligator" and "Walking to New Orleans". The story goes that Chess Records signed the then-14-year-old sight unseen after he sang them "Alligator" over the phone. When he arrived in their Chicago offices, though, Leonard Chess flipped out: Not because Charles was underage, but because he was white. After touring through a pre-integration South, he wound up in Nashville by the late 1960s. A marijuana rap led him to head further north, where he ultimately fell in with the musical community centered around Woodstock, N.Y., recording at Dylan manager Albert Grossman's Bearsville Studios.
From the opening twang and snare snap of "Street People", it's clear Charles' songwriting acumen had grown beyond his early R&B roots. Over the slinking beat, he details an itinerant life of what one would label a "bum." But rather than spin some tale of hard luck and woe, Charles makes drifting from town to town and panhandling for spare change sound idyllic. "Wouldn't trade places with no one I know/ I'm happy with where I'm at," he drawls. A cowbell accents the punchline: "Some people would rather work/ We need people like that."
Elsewhere, there are organ-gurgling numbers about new love and community gossip, lilting ballads about watching butterflies, honking barroom numbers about growing old, and gentle, country-tinged numbers about spending all day in bed with your honey. And then there's the ode to Jesus to save him from his followers. All of it gets delivered with a sly grin and at a pace with which you might sip a beer on a back porch, cast a fishing line into a creek, or barbecue a rack of ribs: slow, unhurried, a sunny afternoon ahead of you.
Some 25 previously unreleased tracks augment the original 10-song album, ranging from the pleasant to revelatory. There are differently mixed singles, three songs released only on a Japanese box set, some half-baked songs, but also the sound of Charles' shuffling toward a follow-up album that he never quite got around to finishing. Or, as he put his M.O. on one chorus: "(I'm) staying stoned and singing homemade songs." There's the Band's telltale funk on "Why Are People Like That?", Dr. John's piano commingling with Garth Hudson's gospel organ swells on the elegant crest of "You Came Along". Fans of Will Oldham's Arise Therefore will swoon for demos of Charles dueting with the Band's Rick Danko over a sputtering drum machine.
When this set was originally made available through Rhino Handmade back in August (it's in stores now via distribution partner Light in the Attic), mid-album track "He's Got All the Whiskey" was already an album highlight. So it's uncanny hearing both it and "Street People" in a post-Occupy mindset. About as loud as "Chappelle's Show"'s intro, Dixieland horns, Danko's bass, and a snare's pop skitter about as Charles gripes: "He got all the money." It, of course, follows that "The Man" also has all the "whiskey/ power/ women," the biggest crime of it being that "he won't give me none." It's a simple protest from Bobby Charles-- good-natured at its heart-- and hopefully it won't get ignored this time around.
by Andy Beta
Disc 1
1. Street People - 3:44
2. Long Face - 3:35
3. I Must Be In a Good Place Now - 4:10
4. Save Me Jesus - 5:16
5. He's Got All the Whiskey - 5:17
6. Small Town Talk (Bobby Charles, Rick Danko) - 3:29
7. Let Yourself Go - 4:12
8. Grow Too Old (Bobby Charles, Dave Bartholomew, Fats Domino) - 4:04
9. I'm That Way - 4:03
10.Tennessee Blues - 5:01
11.Small Town Talk (Single Version) (Bobby Charles, Rick Danko) -3:31
12.Save Me Jesus (Mono Single Version) - 5:10
13.He's Got All The Whiskey (Long Version) - 6:45
14.New Mexico (Bobby Charles, Rick Danko) - 2:26
15.Homemade Songs - 3:44
16.Rosie - 2:51
17.Don't Be Surprised - 2:29
18.You Were There - 6:25
19.'Radio spot' (not listed on cover) - 1:03
All songs by Bobby Charles excepr where stated
Disc 2
1. He's Got All The Whiskey (Take 1) - 6:20
2. New Mexico (Demo) (Bobby Charles, Rick Danko) - 2:20
3. Homemade Songs (Long Version) - 7:56
4. Done A Lot Of Wrong Things - 8:17
5. Ain't That Lucky - 3:04
6. Better Days - 3:38
7. You Came Along - 6:21
8. Jealous Kind - 3:52
9. Whatever Happened - 3:27
10.Livin' In Your World - 3:40
11.Nickles Dimes Dollars - 4:01
12.Why Are People Like That - 3:43
13.Please Please - 2:49
14.Little Town Tramp - 2:58
15.Keep Cookin' Mama - 4:12
16.What Are We Doing? - 2:16
17.Cowboys And Indians (Bobby Charles, Ben Keith) - 3:01
All songs by Bobby Charles excepr where noted
Disc 3
1. The Bobby Charles Interview - 30:57
Musicians
*Bobby Charles - Vocals, Piano
*Jim Colegrove - Bass
*Rick Danko - Bass
*Dr. John - Keyboards
*Amos Garrett - Guitar
*Norman D. Smart - Drums
*Ben Keith - Guitar, Steel Guitar
*Billy Mundi - Drums
*Bob Neuwirth - Vocals, Guitar
*Bugsy Maugh - Bass
*David Sanborn - Alto Saxophone
*Garth Hudson - Keyboards, Accordion, Saxophone
*Geoff Muldaur - Guitar, Vocals
*Harry Lookofsky - Violin, Viola
*Hymie Schertzer - Saxophone
*Jim Colegrove - Guitar
*Joe Newman - Trumpet
*John Simon - Tenor Saxophone
*John Till - Guitar
*Levon Helm - Drums
*Norman Don Smart II - Drums
*Richard Manuel - Piano, Drums
After touring with Neil Young while still a teenager, singer, songwriter, and guitar hero Nils Lofgren formed the band Grin in 1969 with bassist Bob Gordon and drummer Bob Berberich. While his credentials as part of Young's entourage certainly attracted a few people to the band's early shows, Grin rapidly built a fervent audience of its own in the Washington DC/Northern Virginia area based entirely on the band's dynamic performances and Lofgren's six-string pyrotechnics.
Lofgren further parlayed his connection with Young into a record deal for Grin, and the band released its self-titled debut in 1971. Grin's sound was simple, no-frills, guitar-driven rock 'n' roll with pop overtones and catchy melodies. Although the debut album didn't set the world on fire with sales, it did well enough to merit a follow-up, and in '72 the band released 1+1. The album's lone single release, a clever slice of power-pop called "White Lies," would become a minor hit on AOR radio, rising as high as #75 on the Billboard magazine pop chart and propel the album onto the bottom end of the Top 200 album chart.
To help flush out the band's sound, Lofgren added his brother as a second guitarist after the second album, Tom Lofgren playing rhythm behind Nils' scorching leads. In 1973, the band released All Out, another fine collection of songs that rose almost as high as 1+1 on the charts, but yielded no singles, hit or otherwise. Disappointed by the band's lack of forward commercial momentum, CBS dropped Grin, who would quickly be picked up by A&M Records.
Gone Crazy would be the result, Grin's fourth and final album, released in 1973 and sadly suffering a fate similar to its predecessors. Many consider Gone Crazy to be Grin's weakest album, but I'd disagree – the band's four-album milieu is uniformly and consistently enjoyable. Grin's infectious pop/rock sound was a welcome digression during the hard rock early 1970s, and if Lofgren and crew could easily bang it out with the heaviest of their contemporaries, they also possessed an elfin charm and whimsical nature that sets their music apart from much of the decade's better-known bands.
Gone Crazy opens with a fierce rocker, "You're The Weight" offering up a concrete-hard guitar-bass-drum riff on top of which Lofgren lays down his potent vocals and measured wildcat solos. The song is as infectious as anything Grin had done previously and, in many ways, foreshadows Lofgren's soon-to-come solo debut album. The band slows it down a bit for the mid-tempo ballad "Boy + Girl," which features as much of Lofgren's keyboard skills as it does guitar. With trilling piano play that sounds like an old-timey, Western saloon soundtrack, Lofgren tries on his best blue-eyed soul shoes, the song engaging and hiding just a bit of nasty funk beneath the grooves.
"What About Me" returns the band to solid rock territory, Lofgren's wiry fretwork running like an electrical charge across the song's exotic instrumentation. While Lofgren's vocals here are a little more strained, they fit the chaotic feel of "What About Me," with the rest of the band throwing in their own shouted harmonies. Lofgren delivers a scorching solo at just past the two-minute mark, short and shocking and simply devastating while his grinning (sorry!) band members knock out the wild-n-wooly rhythms behind him.
"True Thrill" is a bouncy, pop-influenced tune with a slippery rhythmic arrangement, Nils' trademark guitarplay, a little vocal harmony, and some very fine basswork by Gordon. With a little label push in the right direction – perhaps a judiciously-placed $100 bill in the sleeve for a few station programmers – and the song could have been a hit on both AM and FM radio. By contrast, "Beggar's Day" (Eulogy to Danny Whitten)" is a blistering rocker and strictly FM radio fare. Written for his fallen Young bandmate Whitten, it is lyrically one of the best songs Lofgren has written, with powerful instrumental backing, passionate vocals, and some of Lofgren's nastiest guitar solos.
The gentle ballad "Believe" is the closest that Gone Crazy comes to a clunker, the piano-heavy tune relying too much, perhaps, on Lofgren's still-maturing keyboard skills and too little on his six-string mastery. Lofgren's vocals are slight, sometimes too sweet, and the band harmonies are simply precious, and the lyrics come from a solidly romanticist perspective, but the song could have benefitted from a little guitar grit. The album ends with "Ain't For Free," a bluesy mid-tempo honky-tonker that smolders in the grooves and features a different side of Lofgren's guitar skills.
After touring in support of Gone Crazy, Grin would break up in 1974 and Lofgren would stay with A&M Records, delivering his critically-acclaimed self-titled debut album a year later, fully launching a successful and varied career that is still going strong today. Although the Grin chapter of Nils Lofgren's musical history has been obscured by his later work, it's nice to once again hear the underrated Gone Crazy, one of the true hidden gems among the band's sparse catalog.
by Rev. Keith A. Gordon
Tracks
1. You're The Weight - 5:14
2. Boy And Girl - 4:31
3. What About Me - 4:25
4. One More Time - 5:11
5. True Thrill - 3:13
6. Beggar's Day (Eulogy To Danny Whitten) - 4:21
7. Nightmare - 3:42
8. Believe - 3:57
9. Ain't For Free - 4:17
All songs by Nils Lofgren
Grin
*Nils Lofgren - Guitars, Keyboards, Lead Vocals
*Bob Berberich - Drums, Lead Vocals
*Bob Gordon - Bass, Background Vocals
*Tom Lofgren - Guitars, Background Vocals
