Music Reviews: Richard Thompson 1952 Vincent Black Lightning

I have always enjoyed Richard Thompson's music from his initial days as guitarist with folk/rock group Fairpoint Convention to what I think of as his most critical musical period with his then wife Linda and his later peripatetic solo career. Thompson remains one of the best living unheralded songwriter/guitarists which I why I mentioned him before here. Anyway I ran across a video of Thompson performing his song 1952 Vincent Black Lightning. Like much of Thompson's work this song combines Scottish/English folk music with American blues and country for a sound that's unmistakably all his own. I think that this piece is one that people will still be singing fifty or sixty years from now. It's a sad song but many of the best ones are. Young love, death and transcendence, this composition hits all the emotional high and low points. I like music that tells a story. It seems as if fewer songs can do that these days. Thompson's songwriting often manages to be somber and optimistic at the same time which is quite a neat trick. Anyway if you have a chance to see Thompson you should take it. He's quite the musician. This song is only a very small example of his capacities. If Trump gets elected perhaps he will force out the British Thompson from his residence in the United States. After all Thompson is a Muslim. So if we believe Trump and his mouth breather supporters, how can we really know what nefarious plans this guitarist has in mind?

Music Reviews: Freddie King: Going Down at Onkel Po's

Freddie King
Going Down at Onkel Po's

Late great Texas born bluesman Freddie King was one of my favorite musicians. He was a huge man at 6-6. King had a literally larger than life expressive baritone voice. Obviously King was best known for his exciting guitar style. King easily bridged the gap or in some cases was the gap between the post BB-King lead style electric blues and the blues-rock and funk of the late sixties and early seventies. King had a very aggressive guitar sound, shaped in part by his very large fingers and somewhat anachronistic country blues style usage of a thumbpick and index finger pick. Unfortunately King died tragically early at 42 from ulcers and pancreatitis. Like many blues musicians King's best work was done live. However, as with many other artists whose lives were cut short before they could put all of their musical and financial houses in order, King's discography was marred with posthumous live releases that to put it mildly, were utter crap. Some musicians found it very difficult to regularly produce high quality live releases. Just because someone happened to be recording at a concert didn't necessarily mean the concert was intended to be commercially released. There were many Freddie King bootleg releases which featured out of tune guitars, inaudible or occasionally overly booming bass, microphones that were too close or too far from the amplifiers, questionable mixing levels or other sonic issues that marred the music. And when you worked as often as Freddie King did, (a typical year could see him doing 300 performances or more) it was almost inevitable that there would be some off nights where the band was flat, poorly recorded or just uninspired. It just happens. As something of a Freddie King completist I own many of these releases, to my chagrin. Sometimes it seems as if every last single fly by night recording/publishing company put out a Freddie King concert release under many different names. To make things worse, often times these releases would cover the same concert or concerts, occasionally dropping or adding a song so that the company could claim that their release was unique. Purchasing or even bothering to listen to much of this stuff can leave you feeling akin to Charlie Brown immediately after Lucy has pulled away the football for the ten billionth time. All day sucker.

Fortunately "Going Down at Onkel Po's" is not a middling Freddie King release. This is a concert at Hamburg's Carnegie Hall from a seventies Freddie King German tour. The first thing of note is the overall sound. The bass can actually be heard, although probably writing that the bass can be felt, would be more accurate. The band is tight on this recording. I don't know how long the two men played together but on this night King's drummer was blues/soul great Calep Emphery, who was a fixture with fellow blues giants BB King and Little Milton. Emphery brought back both swing and simplicity to King's music, giving it a pulse and drive that was critical to a listener's enjoyment. The second guitarist steps out on slide from time to time while the rest of the band, including Freddie's brother on bass, provides some entertaining and occasionally surprising rhythmic accompaniment. There aren't any horns here but additional punctuation and chordal background is provided by two keyboardists. But make no mistake, this is the Freddie King show all the way. James Brown may have been the hardest working man in show business but there was a reason that some people called King the Texas Cannonball. He gives it everything he's got and then some. King here employs a very thick bassy feedbacky guitar tone that hits you hard right in your gut. As it is a live release with no producers telling King when to stop almost all of the songs run a little long, usually about 4-5 minutes, instead of the normal 2-3 minute run time. Some of them go much longer than that. 56th and Wichita rambles on for 10 minutes while Stormy Monday runs for 16 minutes and change. YMMV with some of these extended sets. King was not a jazz musician and couldn't do what they can do with additional space. Not everything on here is a home run. On the other hand, Ain't Nobody Business goes for about 7 minutes and I could listen to it for 20 minutes. King's voice speaks to me. 

So I guess what I would say is that if you're a Freddie King fan or are just curious about electric blues this is definitely worth your time. This was what modern blues sounded like circa 1975 or so. This was before blues had become preservation hall music. There are a tremendous number of nods to and quotes from the popular rock, soul and funk music of the day. That makes sense because Freddie King had developed a great deal of the vocabulary that then current rock, soul and funk musicians were using. The other thing that I liked is that as with many blues guitarists of his generation, there was always a lot of space and dynamics in King's music. This is a 2 CD set and can be found in many different places for reasonable prices. The below video covers a little less than 1/2 of the concert.

Music Reviews: Little Milton

Little Milton

James "Little Milton" Campbell (1934-2005) was best known and marketed as a blues musician and singer. However, placing him solely in this category was by his own admission somewhat problematic. Little Milton grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry and could have been the next Charley Pride. He was a lifelong country music fan. When he turned to blues in his teens and early twenties, blues was already morphing into rock-n-roll and post-war R&B. On the surface, Little Milton's sound, especially by the sixties and later, was different from the older music pioneered by Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and Jimmy Reed. Little Milton knew, respected and occasionally worked with the older musicians. Once, before a concert, Little Milton told Howling Wolf that he admired Wolf's expensive flashy cuff links. After the show Howling Wolf called Little Milton over and gave him the cuff links as a gift, jokingly warning him the next time Little Milton saw Wolf with something nice on, to keep his admiration to himself. Little Milton's musical arrangements and vocal timbre, (similar to that of BB King who was an influence), owed much to jazz, jump blues and the burgeoning soul and funk genres. Little Milton worked the same circuit as performers like Tyrone Davis, Bobby Bland and Wilson Pickett. So Little Milton was almost completely overlooked by white audiences during the sixties blues revival as he was not DORF. Unlike many other black blues artists Little Milton retained a solid, though declining popularity with black blues and soul audiences. Through the seventies and beyond his bands would always open with hits by contemporary black performers such as Earth Wind and Fire, The Commodores, Michael Jackson and Prince. He received little attention from the white blues market until very late in life. Life is funny like that. It's odd that different groups who will show up together at a sports event will often decline to attend a concert if either group thinks that too many of THOSE OTHER PEOPLE will be there. But so it goes.

Little Milton, BB King and Albert King 1970 Memphis

Little Milton had a rich smooth creamy baritone voice. But so did many other singers. But few people had Little Milton's vocal range and control. For Little Milton his voice truly was an instrument. He had the same amount of power whether he was singing in a velvet whisper or letting loose with one of his trademark bass to falsetto screams. If Little Milton had been born a different race or in a different time period he may well have become an opera singer. But he was born a black man in pre-war Mississippi so he became a bluesman. As far as guitar Little Milton was influenced by such heavyweights as T-Bone Walker, Ike Turner (who discovered him and got him his first record contract), BB King, Eddie Cusic and Joe Willie Wilkins. As alluded to earlier, because Little Milton's voice was so spectacular, a lot of his recordings, particularly during the sixties, featured his singing far more than his guitar playing. During live shows he would often not even put on his guitar until a third of the way through the show. So some people who were just there for guitar pyrotechnics might have missed out if they left early. Their loss. His live work would often feature a heavier thicker tone than he used for recording.  Little Milton understood that you can't have the volume and excitement turned all the way up or all the way down all the time. His approach was very dynamic. What makes me passionate about blues is how its best practitioners can use tension and release to move you adroitly through very different emotional states. Listen to Spring to hear what I am trying to express. Milton holds vocal notes for 12 seconds or more (!) and occasionally does the same thing with his guitar. 

There were about five major musical periods to Little Milton's work.
(A) Sun Records in the early fifties
(B) Bobbin and Meteor records in the late fifties
(C) Chess Records in the early to late sixties
(D) Stax Records in the late sixties and early seventies
(E) Malaco, Rounder and Evidence Records
My favorite work tends to be the Stax releases, which I think saw a balance between guitar and vocals, popular and classic, which wasn't reached before or since. But with Little Milton you can't go too wrong with much of his recorded output. If you like blues or soul but think that too many guitarists overplay then Little Milton might be someone you should hear. He very rarely overplayed and usually left audiences wanting more. He wasn't just doing 12 bar blues. Little Milton sometimes evinced frustration with audiences who only wanted to hear that or bands who were limited to that style. Little Milton's music always had a very strong groove and swing. I took this for granted but when I heard some rock groups cover his music the missing elements were painfully obvious. Occasionally I even listen to some of the sickly sweet love/pop songs he did at Chess. He was occasionally unfairly dismissed as a BB King clone. Little Milton worked very hard to find his own voice. He thought others should do the same. Little Milton, like some of his contemporaries such as Sam Cooke and James Brown, asserted control over his career. He managed and produced himself and later handled his own bookings and publishing, a rare feat in the music industry then and now. As he said of learning the business of music "Well, every artist should do that if they're capable of doing it. It'll keep you from being a total fool." He also strongly disdained the stereotype of an ignorant drunk disheveled black musician. Little Milton believed in taking care of business. He and his wife booked and promoted such artists as Tyrone Davis, Denise LaSalle, and Millie Jackson. And they did so for a much lower percentage than other promoters.

In the Wilson Pickett styled I Play Dirty Little Milton boasts to women that he "hits hard below the belt" and that they will "come back for more". This song was actually atypical for him because in most of his songs he was the one doing the begging. The 1958 song I'm A Lonely Man does sound similar to contemporary BB King work. Little Milton has said at that time he was just trying to get his name out there and play whatever was popular. I like the jazzy jump blues sound of She Put A Spell On Me. My favorite Little Milton song is his take on the Otis Redding ballad That's How Strong My Love Is. There's no guitar solo to speak of but his singing is truly sublime. The strings are a nice touch. That song has been proven in all 50 states to cause men to spontaneously propose marriage or women to suddenly conceive. Strong stuff. If you listen to no other song, you should listen to that one. On the other hand if you really want to hear Little Milton stretch out on guitar check out the live versions of That's What Love Will Make You Do and Tell Me It's Not True. His tone is round, crunchy and full without being too harsh or trebly. He explores the entire sonic range of the guitar, a novel idea which unfortunately is lost to most blues guitarists today. If You Talk In Your Sleep finds Little Milton cautioning his married lover not to spill the beans to her husband. I think most blues/soul fans are familiar with Little Milton's version of the Little Willie John song All Around The World or as it was known in Little Milton's remake, Grits Ain't Groceries. And Little Bluebird shows all the elements of the Little Milton sound, classy uptown horns, string section, strong deep bass, a guitar sound equally glassy and distorted and powerful masculine vocals that hold notes FOREVER.

Spring (Live at Montreux)  That's How Strong My Love Is That's What Love Will Make You Do
If You Talk In Your Sleep Walking The Backstreets And Crying 
Tell Me It's Not True (Live at Montreux) 
Grits Ain't Groceries (aka All Around The World) I'm A Lonely Man
Let Me Down Easy(Live at Montreux) I Can't Quit You Baby (Live) I Wonder Why  Steal Away
I Play Dirty So Mean To Me Little Bluebird She Put A Spell On Me Feel So Bad
We're Gonna Make It I'd Rather Go Blind I Can't Quit You Baby
You're Gonna Make Me Cry  His Old Lady And My Old Lady  The Blues Is Alright
My Dog And Me (w/Gov't Mule)

Music Reviews: The Chi-Lites, Stuff

The Chi-Lites

As much as any other music artist or group not named James Brown or The Jackson Five, The Chi-Lites were the primary group that would exist on a soundtrack of my childhood. I have many positive early memories that involve Chi-Lites songs. My father sang a lot around the house. I recall Chi-Lites songs being among his favored groups. People tend to look back through a rosy lens at the music of their childhood; I am likely no different in this regard. Nonetheless I do think that The Chi-Lites were special for their time and compare positively with a lot of the singers around today. The Chi-Lites (a Chicago based group, hence the name) were a smooth soul/R&B singing group that updated fifties doo-wop stylings for the then current pop/soul market. They combined soul, gospel, pop, funk and slight mixtures of rock-n-roll and even lounge music for a format and sound that was pretty perfectly balanced between sweetness and grit. A lot of their early work featured compositions which opened with heart felt spoken word intros that segued into passionate tenor leads, sparse instrumentation with occasional fuzzed out guitar leads and slickly harmonized backup singing. Like any other group that wanted to sell records and thus continue to eat, the Chi-Lites changed with the times, moving from the funk, romance and nationalist inspired lyrics of the early seventies to smoother semi-disco sounds of the late seventies and early eighties. I prefer the earlier sounds which are disproportionately represented here but to each his or her own. If you are into soul music or pop-soul with generally positive, or at least not overtly negative lyrics, The Chi-Lites may have something for you. Musically you can easily hear the family relationship between The Chi-Lites and Curtis Mayfield's music or some of Hendrix's clean toned ballads. 

The Chi-Lites' primary, albeit not exclusive, songwriter and lead singer was Eugene Record. His plaintive tenor defined male romantic need though it would take time before I understood his lyrics.

I enjoy the long intro to (For God's Sake) Give More Power to the People. It's like an airplane or rocket taking off. That music hearkens back to a time when change of all kinds was in the air and black people were unashamed and unapologetic of being well, black. There was a tinge of optimism in the air. I also like their version of Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues better than the original, a shocking bit of blasphemy for which my brother has flatly promised to ritually excommunicate me from the United Sound Church of Detroit. Speaking of Motown, You're no longer part of my heart is very similar to dozens of contemporaneous Motown works. If I were Berry Gordy or H-D-H I might have sued just on general principle. Oh Girl is a modernized blues lament with an added country twist. I always thought that it was a harmonica featured on that tune but it's actually a melodica. Prominent bass scatting on For God's Sake (Give More Power to the People) and Are You My Woman is provided by Creadel "Red" Jones. I love singing his parts while I'm driving. The Man and The Woman points out the necessity of duality for the creation and promulgation of life and morality. No matter how much men and women might occasionally get on each other's nerves, neither is possible without the other. That's a message which still needs to be heard. Trouble's A Coming is a gospel-rock tune which I had not heard before. It sounds to my ears like something which with different lyrics could have been on 1972 era Sesame Street. That's a compliment. Homely Girl is another countrified soul ballad which is similar to some Stax songs. Apparently Beyonce and a few other modern singers sampled "Are you my woman.." for their own songs which I have not heard. I'm not a huge fan of sampling, even if everything is properly credited and paid, which I believe it was. But whatever.

The Chi-Lites recorded for Brunswick Records which was run by the alleged Mafia associate Nat Tarnopol (who also "owned" Jackie Wilson). The scene from the movie The Five Heartbeats where Big Red dangles a recalcitrant musician outside of a hotel window for daring to question him about missing royalties was supposedly based on a real life incident between Tarnopol and a restive Jackie Wilson. Allegedly some of The Chi-Lites later discovered that not all credits and royalties had been properly paid or accounted for by Brunswick. There were battles within the group for recognition and money. Most of the original singers are now deceased. Like with any other family there were sudden tragedies which alternately brought them closer together and drove them further apart. I can't say who was right or wrong or who was stealing and who was living right. All I know is that they created wonderful music. 

Oh Girl   Have You Seen Her? The Man and The Woman  The Coldest Days of My Life

You're No Longer Part Of My Heart   A Lonely Man  Are You My Woman(Tell Me So)

(For God's Sake)Give More Power to the People   Trouble's A Comin

Inner City Blues(Make Me Wanna Holler)   Write A Letter To Myself   I'm Not A Gambler

Marriage License Let Me Be The Man My Daddy Was  Toby  Homely Girl



Stuff

Gordon Edwards, Eric Gale, Cornell Dupree, Richard Tee, Chris Parker
and Steve Gadd (l-r)

Stuff was a peculiar band in that it was deliberately made up of sidemen who ran in a lot of the same musical circles. I don't mean that they were untalented. Much the opposite, in fact they were all extremely talented musicians. But their best work prior to Stuff was generally done backing other people, not as leaders. The people with whom they recorded and/or toured separately and occasionally together is far too long to list completely here but included such luminaries as Aretha Franklin, King Curtis, James Taylor, Bill Withers, Joe Cocker, Steely Dan, Lena Horne, Dizzy Gillespie, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Billy Joel, Miles Davis, Paul Simon, Donny Hathaway, Carla Bley, Ron Carter, Barbara Streisand and many more. Although when tasked to do so they could and did provide some burning solos on their chosen instruments, with a few exceptions none of them were known as soloists. The group had no charismatic frontman or frontwoman lead singers. There was nobody out front dancing. So the odds of the group finding success in a crowded seventies R&B marketplace seemed to be relatively low. But for a brief glorious moment Stuff did have market and critical success. Stuff created a number of swinging danceable compositions that could equally be described as funk-jazz, R&B, pop-gospel, uptempo blues, and pop. Most, but not all of their work was instrumental. Some of their music was constructed so similar to vocal pop compositions that you're wondering what happened to the singer. Stuff's music was almost symphonic in arrangement. For Stuff, the almighty groove was the key. No matter if someone took a solo or not, nobody ever ever ever let up on the groove.  The band was the living incarnation of the Sly Stone song Everybody Is A Star. 

Of course for my money the best solo ever recorded on a Stuff cut was pianist extraordinaire Richard Tee's insane pounding gospel solo on Do You Want Some of This. The group was functionally and musically a democracy but was initially put together by Gordon Edwards, the bassist. On the infrequent occurrences when someone is singing on a Stuff recording, it's often Edwards. I wouldn't describe him as a great singer but he was a direct and honest one. Hear his raspy voice on Love of Mine. 
Other Stuff members included soul guitar demigods Cornell Dupree and Eric Gale and jazz fusion/funk/rock drummer Steve Gadd. Gadd was relentless on the drums. Dupree and Gale played intricate interlocking mostly clean guitar parts. Either one alone could sound like two guitarists by himself. If all you know of guitar is someone playing with as much volume and distortion as possible, these two guitarists may be a welcome revelation. The band also occasionally had a second drummer, who also worked in an R&B/jazz style, Chris Parker. Sometimes Bubba Gets Down is from a live show in Japan, where the band was quite popular. It's a 2/4 soca tune. On Need Somebody, which is the last track on the "More Stuff" album (starts at 29:54), it's Tee who's doing the singing. I like his voice a little more than Edwards' but it's all good. Parker and especially Gadd show why drums are so important to a band's sound. I think modern R&B has lost so much by eschewing drummers for samples and machines. I like this band a lot. For me it's good music to listen to while I'm exercising or cleaning the house. It's organic soulful music that will almost certainly draw out and dissipate negative emotions. Stuff recorded only three studio albums under their own name ("Stuff", "More Stuff" and "Stuff It") but the releases are easy to find. I'm not crazy about their slick cover of Orleans' Dance with me but that's because I like the original so much better. YMMV. Gordon's Theme is sublime. Stuff wasn't afraid to use space in their music.

Do You Want Some of This  Reflections of Divine Love  Sometimes Bubba Gets Down

Foots(Live at Montreux)  My Sweetness  Love Of Mine  How Long Will It Last

That's The Way of The World  More Stuff (Full Album)   

Honey Coral Rock/You Are So Beautiful  Dance With Me   Gordon's Theme

Music Reviews: Madame Butterfly

Madame Butterfly
by Puccini

For some reason I actually was more familiar with the gender bending remake M. Butterfly so it was good to recently see the original in the Detroit Opera House. The original story had much more in common with The Jerry Springer Show than with The Crying Game. When Madame Butterfly first came out it was considered to be quite trashy. So maybe a century from now people will think that Jerry Springer, Howard Stern and Wendy Williams are high art. You never know. I was actually surprised to feel some pathos while watching and listening to the opera, particularly during the tragic third act. While some people are able to become intimate with others and keep things on a even keel without serious commitment, other people who engage in the dance of life are like swans. They mate for life and expect their partner to do likewise. Many people think that these characteristics differ between genders but every individual is different. There are men who get one-itis and never ever get over their lost true love who rejected them in some horrible fashion. There are women who are quite comfortable using emotional or physical intimacy to extract things from men while never truly committing to any single man. But Madame Butterfly sticks with the more common and familiar tropes of gender expectations regarding which gender is more likely to have "love them and leave them" as a viable if not preferred option and which gender is more likely to stay up at night wondering if someone will call or have concerns about sexual intimacy occurring too soon. 

The story is simple. An American sailor named B.F. Pinkerton is looking to marry a Japanese woman. This woman is not really a woman by modern American standards. She's only fifteen. And she's a geisha. There are differences of opinion if this is quite the same thing as an American paid consort or high class (high cost) hooker. I have read that a geisha can entertain clients with conversation, music, and dance. Right. Anyway, Pinkerton clearly has only the most superficial attachment to the idea of marrying a Japanese woman. It's just something to do to pass the time until his inevitable return to America. He feels that just as he can cancel the contract on his Japanese house at any time he can do the same with a marriage -- with a Japanese woman anyway. The American Consul Sharpless, an older and wiser man, advises Pinkerton to take things more seriously. The young woman, Cio-Cio San (this translates as Butterfly), believes in the sanctity of marriage even though Pinkerton had to pay her marriage broker 100 yen to marry her. Pinkerton is pleasantly surprised by Butterfly's beauty and her desperate eagerness to marry him and show her love in any and all ways. She even converts to Christianity to be a proper "American" wife, something that enrages her relatives. The wedding is completed. The new husband and wife retire to their chambers to consummate the marriage. Shortly afterwards Pinkerton leaves. Three years pass. Butterfly's marriage broker is eager to pimp her out again, arrange a marriage to a wealthy Japanese prince. Butterfly won't have it because even though under Japanese law abandonment = divorce, Butterfly refuses to believe that Pinkerton has abandoned her. Sharpless has arrived in Nagasaki in advance of Pinkerton's return. Sharpless has a letter from Pinkerton. I bet you know what it reads. 

He starts to read it to Butterfly but when he sees how excited she is to hear from Pinkerton, Sharpless lacks the heart to read the rest. He suggests that Butterfly marry the Japanese prince but she's not having it. She shows Sharpless her son with Pinkerton. Butterfly has named the boy Sorrow. Sharpless says he will tell Pinkerton about his son. When Butterfly sees/hears Pinkerton's ship entering the harbor she and her maid get very excited. Butterfly says this is proof that she was right all along and that everyone else was wrong. Pinkerton really does love her and has come to take her to America. She gets all dolled up. She dresses her son in a sailor suit and gives him an American flag to wave. She dances and spreads flowers and cherry blossoms all over the place. She decides to wait for Pinkerton. Ten minutes, no Pinkerton. Two hours, no Pinkerton. Four hours, no Pinkerton. All night, no Pinkerton.

The next morning Butterfly sees Sharpless and an American woman in her garden. There's no way to hide the truth any more. When Butterfly asks who the woman is, she learns that the woman is Pinkerton's wife. Pinkerton had briefly been there but left when Sharpless criticized him. He's feeling remorse. But remorseful or not he wants to take his son back to America. Depressed, angered and humiliated Butterfly tells Sharpless that Pinkerton can have their son Sorrow, if he himself comes to get him. She then tells her son not to hate her. A servant takes Sorrow into another room and Butterfly commits hara-kiri using her father's short sword, dying just as Pinkerton returns. This ran just under 3 hours including intermission. The image of Butterfly waiting in vain throughout the night was pretty moving although I thought it went on a little too long. I think the performer was just standing there silently for about 10 minutes. This was a decent story, if only because it should remind people to, as King Floyd would say, to handle each other with care. I enjoyed the story more than the music but I tend to like baroque classical music more than any other classical music. And baroque this was not. This version of Madame Butterfly had colorblind casting. The opening performance featured Noah Stewart as Pinkerton (tenor) and Inna Los as Butterfly (soprano). Both are pictured above. Although the score is written for a tenor Stewart had a certain meatiness to his tone that made me wonder if he could sing in baritone range or if this could be redone for a baritone. His role is almost as thankless as that of Rigoletto's Duke but Stewart injected some real sympathy into what could just be seen as a one note player who tells a naive woman "Hey I got what I needed. Beat it." His regret and shame were real. Similarly Inna Los' reading of Butterfly showed that her suicide could have come as much from pride as from despair. I felt more sympathy for her than contempt. Obviously the libretto is in Italian but translations on the screen were available for us non-Italian speakers. All in all this was an okay show, not magnificent but not bad.

Love duet between Pinkerton and Butterfly on their wedding night

Music Reviews: Walter Hawkins-Love Alive

Walter Hawkins
Love Alive

If, to win a million dollars, I had to name the first three male gospel singers that came to my mind in 5 seconds, I would list James Cleveland, Edwin Hawkins and Walter Hawkins. It's almost certainly because those are the people whom I grew up hearing at home and at friends' or relatives' homes. I think of all of these people as downhome traditional gospel, especially in comparison to today's gospel music. Ironically though, at their height of popularity all these musicians, but especially the Hawkins Brothers were considered by some moldy fig gospel traditionalists to be somewhat avant-garde and too close to popular music, in particular rock-n-roll. As discussed previously, a great deal of early rock-n-roll actually came directly from gospel so no one should have been too surprised to hear gospel musicians turning it up and rocking out. People like Little Richard, Otis Redding, and James Brown borrowed heavily from the church. Musicians like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Aretha Franklin came straight from the church. And as James Cleveland famously noticed in one of his sermons, the Lord liked music. He commanded people to make a joyful noise. And what could be more joyful than hard rocking Hawkins style gospel music. Not much that's for sure. This music brings back a lot of memories, mostly good, some bad. Some of the songs on this release are often played at funerals. But that's life yes? This is music designed to be played loudly. I don't think anything here could ever be described as background music. This is music to shake your moneymaker to or to be precise it WOULD be music to shake your moneymaker to were the lyrics not all about loving God, experiencing bliss through salvation, hollering how much you love Jesus and how after death you've been washed white as snow of your sin. 

Yeah. I suppose if superfunk, bootyshaking and Jesus don't quite go together for you, you could always do what Ray Charles and Willie Dixon did. Just change the lyrics from "can't no one do me like Jesus" to "can't no one do me like that woman" and lo and behold you have a new song which you wrote all by yourself. Repeat as necessary. If you sped it up just a taste "God is Standing By" would be more recognizable as rock-n-roll. And since on the second half of the song the singers and musicians do just that it's impossible not to see the family links between gospel, blues and rock-n-roll. There's also a few songs which Walter Hawkins wrote which I thought were almost certainly traditional. Hmm. I have to do some more research on that. Anyway this is an INCREDIBLE album, made more so by the guest appearance of Walter's wife, the equally talented Tramaine Hawkins.  What she does on "Goin' Up Yonder" and "Changed" are beyond amazing.  My favorite cut though is "I Won't Be Satisfied" where Walter's solo and his ability to sing behind the beat leave me in awe. The call and response between the choir and Walter make me want to get up and dance.

Regardless of your religious affiliations or lack of same this is all very inspiring music. This music has helped me through a few rough patches in life. It's definitely music I like to sing along with as I'm motoring along to my corporate drone peonage. I usually don't like to make comparisons with music but here it I think it's worthwhile. Walter Hawkins music here stands in stark contrast to today's overproduced, effete, synthesized gospel music. It has about as much relationship to modern gospel as a oak tree has to a dandelion. The choir sounds just like the choir I heard in my maternal grandfather's church. The choir is tight. Nobody but nobody is off or late. Everyone is together. This release was produced with just the right amount of natural reverb that immediately lets you know that this was recorded in the seventies. There is an emphasis on the downbeat that would make James Brown proud. There is never any doubt about where the ONE is. None at all. So if you're curious about gospel music but like something with a strong lively beat you could do worse than to pick this release up. Love Alive is a classic cut. It also crossed over to an extent. Likely many old school gospel fans or soul music fans above a certain age already have this CD. But if it somehow escaped your attention because either you weren't around during the seventies or just can't remember the seventies well check it out and see if it speaks to you. This is intensely communal music. This is music that lets you know no matter what you're not alone. And if you're going through bad times in life, keep going. 

Goin' Up Yonder  I Won't Be Satisfied  Changed  I'm Not The Same Follow Me God is Standing By

Music Reviews: The Coasters, Valerie June

The Coasters

The Coasters were a 50s era black rock-n-roll/doo-wop singing group who had a wonderful mix of tenor, baritone and bass voices. Musicians who were associated with The Coasters included people like later saxophone R&B god, King Curtis and guitarist Adolph Jacobs. Although they were not strictly speaking band members, it is impossible to discuss or appreciate The Coasters without giving tremendous credit to their primary songwriters and producers, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Similar to Greek-American R&B/blues musician Johnny Otis, who assimilated into black culture and black music so thoroughly that he married a black woman, described himself as black and lived on the black side of the segregation line, Leiber and Stoller had a keen appreciation of the popular black music and culture of their time. Some people, even members of The Coasters themselves, were surprised that the duo had such a pulse on black humor and musical stylings. Perhaps this is because to a lesser extent Jewish Americans were also cultural outsiders and had their own rich tradition of using sardonic humor to mask social commentary. In any event The Coasters' voices and instrumentation were a perfect fit for Leiber's and Stoller's lyrics and music. Stoller often composed at the piano. He played piano on some recordings. The band name came from the fact that the members were all from the Los Angeles area but did not achieve success until they signed with New York based Atlantic records. Some of the early Coasters' music was actually recorded by the group The Robins, two of whose members became founding members of the Coasters. Leiber and Stoller wrote for the Robins as well. They also wrote Hound Dog and quite a few other pop, rock, and soul songs.

As mentioned, much of The Coasters' music could be understood as fun uptempo dance music. Much of it had hidden meanings. If you happen to be fond of deep male voices this could be the best group you haven't heard of as The Coasters had very prominent bass and baritone parts sung by such band members as Dub Jones, Billy Guy and Bobby Nunn. I'm talking DEEP. Even the group's primary lead/tenor singer Carl Gardner, had a very resonant voice the likes of which is a little bit harder to find today. The song Riot in Cell Block #9 has bass vocalist Bobby Nunn singing lead. It lifted the sound effects from the radio show "Gangbusters". It also swiped the then popular blues stop time riff from Willie Dixon's Hoochie Coochie Man to paint a picture of a prison riot. Although the song is somewhat humorous and does not explicitly mention race, most people in 1950s segregated America probably didn't miss the overtones of a racial uprising or slave revolt. This could be why when white singer Wanda Jackson did a cover of it, she changed the POV so that the song was glorifying the brave (and presumably white) prison guards instead of the (obviously black) prisoners who were telling their friends to "pass the dynamite cause the fuse is lit". Go figure.
Hearing Down in Mexico now always makes me visualize Jessica Alba or Salma Hayek in some low rent dangerous desperado domicile doing a down and dirty dance. I first heard the song as a kid and only recently as an adult realized that the song's subject matter was really about a trip to a south of the border house of ill repute, a subject matter that later bands like ZZ Top would return to frequently. Leiber and Stoller were inspired to give a musical "latin" tinge to the story, in part by living around the Los Angeles Latino population. 

The songs Run Red Run and What about Us are semi-explicit social commentary about class and racial inequities. Leiber and Stoller had been reading about Nat Turner, among other things. I like the harmony on Run Red Run. Along Came Jones reimagines a black hero for television shows. Framed, which strictly speaking was a Robins song, is another piece about an unfair justice system. Smokey Joe's Cafe details the problems involved in trying to flirt with someone else's lady. It's similar to what Lynyrd Skynryd would do a few decades later with Gimme Three Steps. Little Egypt finds the hero making an honest woman out of a stripper. Searchin, Yakety Yak and Charlie Brown are fun slice of life songs aimed squarely at the teen market. The narrator may be a leering lech in Youngblood but it's all in good fun, mostly. Poison Ivy is I suppose what you might call a safe sex warning song. The rap group The Jungle Brothers later used the bass riff from Shopping for Clothes. I LOVE this song. Everyone should occasionally take the time to "stand in the mirror and dig yourself". Shopping for Clothes is just the song you need if you're cruising down the main strip in your lead sled. I really like The Coasters sound and production. It amazes me that music recorded back in the 50s and 60s sounds so good today. It's not too loud. It has more bass response in the vocals than is currently popular. Of course I don't listen to much modern music so if there is anyone out there like that today chances are I wouldn't know of them. My take on much of modern R&B is that the women all sing like they're in a competition to see who can put the most vowels in any given word while the men generally sound as if someone has grabbed or crushed two of their most critical body parts. Anyway, my sonic prejudices aside I always liked The Coasters and hope you do as well.






Valerie June

It's funny how things work out. I meant to mention this singer and musician quite some time ago. Her debut major label release "Pushin' Against a Stone" came out in 2013. I purchased the CD back then but just like with books sometimes it takes me a while to get around to things. So it goes. I was reminded of her from reading about her experiences and receptions at some tour or another. So I dug out the cd and gave it a listen. 

I am fascinated by accents, especially those of women (heh-heh) and with the first note she sings it is very obvious that June is from the South. I like that she is not trying to sound as if she's from anywhere else. Actually I don't think she could. Her very strong accent reminds me of relatives I haven't seen in decades and of some I'll never see again. Accent aside she has a reedy, quirky, somewhat nasally voice that may not be to everyone's taste. It took me a while to get used to it but now I think it's something really special. Her intonation and vocal choices are miles apart from most modern R&B singers, though like the best of them she also comes out of the church tradition. I don't say she's better, just different. She's not overusing melisma. I can't really compare June to many other people. I will have to go back and listen some more. The only musicians who immediately come to mind are women like Dionne Farris, Rhiannon Giddens, Dolly Parton, Macy Gray, or Lauryn Hill. June describes her sound as "organic roots moonshine music". I guess that says it all. Labels don't really apply. She seamlessly mixes and crosses such genres as soul, R&B, gospel, country, blues, black string band music, folk, bluegrass and more. She's also a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. You can hear her instrumental skills a bit more easily on the solo or acoustic cuts.

The cd is recorded well. There's clarity without too much volume or treble. Such heavy hitters as keyboardist Booker T. of Stax fame and guitarist Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys guest on this release. There might be a tad too much Auerbach as he also gets songwriting and production credits and apparently takes a few solos but again overall this is a solid piece of musical work. I will have to go back and find June's self-produced cd's but the way it usually goes is either they won't be in stock or will only be available for insane amounts of money. Although the cd may put you in mind of everything from 60s beehive bedecked girl soul revues to Appalachian front porch singing groups and more I found that the different styles all fit together: primarily because of June's truly distinctive voice. If you're open to music that's a bit off the beaten path you could do worse than to give this a listen. It's nice to see someone make a successful debut singing in their own voice and not letting their image become overly sexualized. For my money Somebody to Love and You Can't Be Told are the cd standouts! Somebody to Love could be an answer song to King Floyd's Handle with Care. I am looking forward to hearing what June does next.

Somebody to Love   Wanna Be On Your Mind Pushin Against A Stone 
You Can't Be Told  On My Way  Tennessee Time (Live)  
Working Woman Blues (Live)  The Hour

Music Reviews: Ruth Copeland

Ruth Copeland

Ruth Copeland is a British singer/songwriter who for a time was married to an Invictus producer. Invictus, as you probably know, was the Detroit based record label that grew out of Motown after a dispute between Berry Gordy and three of his most important songwriters (H-D-H) For a brief time in the late sixties and early seventies Invictus was a semi-successful rival to Motown, going after some of the same local talent as well as venturing into more rock based as well as experimental or low down funk music that Motown initially avoided. This latter group of music very much included P-Funk. Copeland wrote or shared writing credits on a fair number of songs on Parliament's first Invictus release, Osmium. I was surprised to learn that she had co-written "Come in out of the Rain" which must rank among the funkiest and most soulful songs which P-Funk performed. The lyrics still apply today, sadly. Copeland also sang backup on that cut, I think. Actually there are a surprising number of early seventies Invictus songs which were written or co-written by Copeland. Repaying her favor with one of their own Parliament (well most of it) backed up Copeland on her two Invictus albums and resulting tours when she decided to become the label's first "blue eyed funkateer". The songs are well written and I love P-Funk so I like most of the two releases. However Copeland possessed a clear and piercing soprano that was nothing at all like the voices of contemporaneous soul performers like Aretha Franklin or Lyn Collins. Copeland's voice was much much closer to a singer like Freda Payne. So in my view there's a few times that Copeland tries to be a belter of songs rather than a crooner and generally misses. Her voice is not built for such things. She doesn't have a lot of resonance. She can get histrionic pretty quickly. 

All the same I like her voice. Nobody was going to mistake her for Dusty Springfield but then again we all have to find our own way in this world. If you were ever curious as to what P-Funk would have sounded like backing an Englishwoman with her own take on the funk well the record exists for you to peruse.

Her song "Crying Has Made Me Stronger" is a modernized blues  f*** you lament but told from the woman's point of view instead of the man's. It's almost an answer song to BB King's "Ain't Nobody Home". "Hare Krishna" is a very positive song which seems like it should have been a bigger hit. I believe that Copeland sings both lead and backup choir on that piece. She adds serious menace to a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Play With Fire". I enjoy the call and response with guitarist Eddie Hazel. Copeland gets nasty on the Clinton written "Don't you wish you had what you had (when you had it)" which I think is a sonic textbook on exactly how to play and sing ever so slightly behind the beat and make everything as funky as can be. "I got a thing for you Daddy" opens up with Hendrix inspired backwards feedback before going into a funky breakdown that sounded like something you would have heard in Detroit area strip clubs circa 1974. Or so I've been told anyway. "Your Love Been So Good To Me" finds Copeland in full coquettish sex kitten mode. "Thanks for the Birthday Card" is a more introspective song that wouldn't have sounded too out of place on a Neil Young or Carole King album. "The Music Box" is probably one of the least funkiest and most melodramatic releases P-Funk ever recorded. The lyrics are sad. There's a children's choir and crying added in for effect. YMMV on this. Copeland goes back to the Rolling Stones' catalog for her cover of "Gimme Shelter" which is most noticeable for making the song danceable. It also has a guitar solo which never stops. Again I like such things but I know other people can take it or leave it. "The Medal" is a slightly overwrought anti-war anthem.

If you are curious about blue eyed soul singers before Adele, Teena Marie or Amy Winehouse or just are a P-Funk completist and want to have everything they recorded then you will want to look for the Copeland albums Self-Portrait and I Am What I Am.

The Medal  Crying Has Made Me Stronger Hare Krishna Play With Fire Don't You Wish You Had What You Had (When You Had It) I got a thing for you Daddy Your Love Been So Good To Me Thanks for the Birthday Card The Music Box Gimme Shelter

Music Reviews: Hot Chocolate, Funkadelic: Maggotbrain

Hot Chocolate

Hot Chocolate was a racially integrated though mostly black British band that walked in the interstices between light funk, pop, calypso, disco, rock, soul and reggae. So they had a variety of different sounds but all of their different styles were held together by the insistent warbling tenor of bald Jamaican born primary songwriter and lead singer/front man Errol Brown. I think in the US they're probably best known for the song "You Sexy Thing", which charted as high as number 3. I don't think they ever had wild mass success in the US but they certainly did ok in the UK and Europe. Throughout the 70s and 80s they had many hits. Hot Chocolate was a band which consistently delivered the goods and got a fair amount of radio play if not critical recognition. They weren't really disco but were disco enough for some to write them off completely. Oh well you know that old Liberace line about crying all the way to the bank. I was motivated to write on them because I recently heard their hit "Everyone's a winner" on satellite radio. I hadn't heard that song for decades. It brought back some pleasant memories of times long past. "Everyone's a winner" was quite typical of much of Hot Chocolate's best work, what with the very heavy dominant bass line, low pitched drums, slightly distorted guitar (in this case a guitar synth) and triumphant group vocals. Hot Chocolate was not deep funk in the mode of James Brown or P-Funk but was reminiscent of bands like later EWF, Kool and the Gang or Tower of Power. 

Hot Chocolate wrote good songs with nice melodies and danceable rhythms. Their discography may not have any lost masterpieces that will make you rethink popular music but how many groups can really claim otherwise? 

Sometimes I wish the soloists in the group, particularly the guitarist, had been given a little more room to stretch out but apparently it wasn't that kind of band. You hear a little bit of what could have been guitar wise in the song "You Could Have Been a Lady". I LOVE that song. Groove was what Hot Chocolate brought to the table. Hot Chocolate was all about fun. I didn't know that they wrote the anti-racist song "Brother Louie". I had only heard the version by the group Stories and had no idea it was a cover. The version by Hot Chocolate makes it clear (thanks to the competing spoken word sections)  that they are condemning all forms of bigotry in all communities while the Stories version chickens out and is imo a little more self-interested. When I heard the Stories version I thought it was a just a ripoff/shout out to the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar". The song is also used in Louis C.K's show as intro/theme. Go figure. I like the updated blues song "Emma" and enjoy the rueful broken hearted lament of "So you win again". Brown eventually left the group to embark on a solo career which didn't do too well because (1) most people didn't know who he was outside of the group and (2) he had already mostly spent his creative muse writing for the group. It happens I guess. None or at least very few of us have limitless potential. I guess it would kind of stink to finally go out on your own and realize that you had already done your best work with people whom by that point had started to work your nerves. But that's what life is sometimes. Jorah Mormont would approve the track "Sometimes it hurts to be a friend".

Everyone's a Winner  You Sexy Thing  Brother Louie  Emma  I'll Put You Together Again
It started with a kiss  Girl Crazy  So You Win Again  Making Music
Man to Man  Rumours You Could Have Been a Lady Confetti Day
Sometimes it hurts to be a friend Heaven's In The Backseat of My Cadillac






Maggotbrain
by Funkadelic

Okay. Funkadelic is the greatest rock group of all time. Bar none. Story. End of. Some people will talk about The Rolling Stones, others will bleat about Led Zeppelin or The Ramones or blah, blah blah. Balderdash. Funkadelic did everything those groups did, did it first and did it better. And there were very few groups who could do what Funkadelic did musically. Nobody had the musical range and energy they did. Because of racist ideas about what is considered "rock" and who gets to listen to or perform "rock" music, at its creative peak Funkadelic was usually ignored by mainstream (white) rock critics or only referenced in passing when a white musician mentioned them as an influence. This has started to change somewhat in the past few decades but back in the day few people outside of a small dedicated cadre of fans in the black community or alternative rock community knew about them. Of course I am somewhat biased as Funkadelic was a Detroit group. To reduce Funkadelic to its simplest components one would have to imagine a group born from a simultaneous mind meld of Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Blue Cheer, MC5, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Hendrix, The Isley Brothers, Sly Stone and Cream with a little DNA of J.S. Bach, Jimmy Smith and Black Sabbath added in for taste.

Maggotbrain is the third Funkadelic album and the last with complete contributions by the original group. Unfortunately Funkadelic's business practices could be as anarchic as some of its music. After this album, much of the original band departed, fed up with lack of proper monetary or composer recognition, damaged by substance abuse issues, or just because they had other serious personal or musical issues with front man and bandleader, George Clinton. Well it happens. I always say whatever was going on behind the scenes is, certain criminal behaviors aside, rarely as important as the finished product. I judge musicians by their music. I usually don't care about their personal lives.

Maggotbrain is the definitive Funkadelic album. It combined all of their influences into a well produced release that is both wide ranging and tightly focused. This is guitar/bass/piano based funk. No horns. The title cut is, similar to what "Machine Gun",  "Eruption" or "Stairway to Heaven" would be for other musicians, a coming out party for Eddie Hazel and a redefinition of what could be done on the electric guitar. George Clinton told guitarist Eddie Hazel to play as if he had learned that his mother had died. Well that's a grim request but in "Maggotbrain" Hazel did just that, making a ten minute guitar journey that leads the listener through all the stages of grief to come out the other side. There are other uglier rumours about how the title was conceived. I think it had to do with copious consumption of LSD. Hazel's work on "Maggotbrain" shows how the greatest musicians can talk to us through their instruments. There were accompanying musicians on the track but recognizing greatness when he heard it, Clinton either cut them out completely or mixed them at very low levels. Some may argue for a Hendrix influence here but Hazel sounded like this even before Hendrix. I think it was parallel development. If you want to talk about greatest guitar solos of all time "Maggotbrain" must be on the short list.  Maggotbrain

"Can You Get To That" is a gospelly acoustic folk-song that owes a lot to both the Beatles and Sly Stone. I love singing along to this piece. A long time ago my cousins and uncles and I used to have friendly competitions as to who could sing along with the bass vocals on this song. I like singing in the low register though sadly my voice is only a modest baritone and not a real bass. I think that was Gary Shider holding down the low notes. The lyrics are suitably sardonic. "When you base your love on credit and your loving days are done/Checks you sign with love and kisses later come back signed insufficient funds.." I could really see someone like a Richard Thompson or Richie Havens doing a cover version of this. Well it's too late for Havens...  Can You Get To That
"Hit It and Quit It" is very simple lyrically as the singer details his desire for his girlfriend to shake it to the east, shake it to the west and move it all around. Quite understandable no? It's the drummer Tiki Fulwood and vocalist/keyboardist extraordinaire Bernie Worrell who really get a chance to shine here. Again this song has a lot of gospel and soul influences. If you don't shake your tailfeather upon hearing this music you might want to check what you're sitting on because it's obviously broken. Hit It and Quit It

"You and Your Folks" could be construed as a sequel to "Hit it and Quit It". If the previous song is an ode to sexual unity, "You and Your Folks" is a plea for racial/class unity. This song features the bass player, Billy "Bass" Nelson, on lead vocals. Production wise it appears that both the bass and the bass drum have been mixed a little higher than normal. Or perhaps Fulwood was just hitting the drums that hard. In any event this is a slow nasty funk song that will sonically invade your eardrums and leave funky larvae therein. Nelson is known to have very strong feelings about the proper role of bass (dominant) in funk and the proper tempo (slow) for funk. This song is an excellent example of that. If you simply just can't get enough fat bottom end in your life, this is the song for you. Hazel's reverbed guitar solo never really stops but it is mixed far below the vocals, bass and drums. You and Your Folks
"Super Stupid" provides a platform for guitarists Eddie Hazel and Tawl Ross to go off. Lyrically the song is about a drug addict who makes the mistake of snorting what he thinks is cocaine but is actually heroin. The lyrics aren't important. They are just building blocks to the glorious guitar meltdowns. This song is a little less danceable than others though for some strange reason I always imagine Godzilla doing the Charleston to this song. It's just a funky riff. Super Stupid

"Back in our Minds" and especially "Wars of Armageddon" are both freak out tracks that sound like things Zappa would later do. There's a lot going on the tracks musically but "Wars of Armageddon" is a free form jam I think might be more of interest to other musicians than us listeners. It's also a look into Clinton's id, which is not really something you necessarily want to see unfiltered. Back in Our Minds  Wars of Armageddon
I really enjoyed the mix of the various masculine (tenor, baritone, bass) and feminine (soprano, alto) voices. This is what updated soul, blues, rock, and funk sounded like in 1971. If you are at all any sort of fan of the music of that time, you already have this release. If you don't have it, I wonder why. This funk experience will leave you somber, exhilarated, exhausted, in a cold sweat begging for more.