A Song A Day: Link Davis, "Trucker From Tennessee"

JULY 7, 2017

“TRUCKER FROM TENNESSEE” (WRITER: ABBIE PETTY–LINK DAVIS–WILMA LEMONS)

ARTIST: LINK DAVIS

RELEASED 1956 ON 7” 45

Link Davis, born in 1914 in Texas, pretty much played any style of music that he had to in order to forge a career. He sang, fiddled, played sax, piano, and harmonica, and created a niche by being able thrive in a variety of genres, including Western swing, Cajun, hillbilly, country, and R&B.

His first and biggest hit was an early 50s Cajun/Western fusion called “Big Mamou,” and he went on to record for several important record labels of the era including Okeh, Mercury, and Starday.

He never again had a smash, but continued to record discs for whatever labels would have him, and he found work as a session musician on hundreds of records all across the American south and west. This superb, well-researched article notes that he played saxophone on hit records by the Big Bopper and Johnny Preston.

Eager to support his family and stay relevant, it was inevitable that Davis himself would try and keep up with the newest trend, and in the mid-50s, that was rock and roll. Since early R&R really was a fusion of blues, swing, and hillbilly music, it wasn’t a stretch for him.

In summer 1956, Starday released his 45 of “Don’t Big Shot Me” and “Trucker from Tennessee.” Despite being 42 years old when he sang these sides, Davis’ delivery of this raucous new music is utterly convincing. “Don’t Big Shot Me” is full of witty lyrics and moves with a rocking, reckless beat that entertainingly updates Western swing. But I dig “Trucker from Tennessee” even more.

One reason that I love “Trucker from Tennessee” is that the lyrics—innocent trucker turns rock and roller, turns out to be great at it, gets famous, and even steals the narrator’s girl—are both ridiculous and completely believable in the world in which Davis lived, a world where catching the right trend could make a success of you but also a world in which your livelihood and security were always on the line.

The song has three writing credits—Petty-Davis-Lemons. “Petty” is Abbie Petty, and “Lemons” is Wilma Lemons. I know nothing about either of them, unfortunately, except that they and Davis created a lasting work.

Another reason I love this thing is that it really bops. Davis plays a pretty hot sax solo after the first chorus, and the piano and steel guitar are right on point. The rhythm section smokes as well. This is just an outstanding performance of a funny and catchy song. It careens and caroms all around, as any good fusion of four or five musics ought to.

Davis, who seems to have lived the standard musicians’ life of ripping and running, died in 1972 from complications related to stroke. He was just 57.

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A Song A Day: Monsoon, "Indian Princess"

JULY 6, 2017

“INDIAN PRINCESS” (WRITER: MARTIN SMITH)

ARTIST: MONSOON

RELEASED 1982 ON 7” 45

In the times before “world music” was even a buzzword, artists such as Sheila Chandra—who happened not to be white or easily pigeonholed—were viewed almost as a curiosity.

Ms. Chandra, of Indian heritage but born in 1965 in England, was known at an early age both for her beauty and her acting. At age 14 she was cast in a British TV drama, where she remained until 1981. 

When she left the series, she fell right into pop music. Steve Coe, head of Indipop Records, apparently found an old demo tape of hers and recruited her to front his Asian fusion group Monsoon.

The group's first single, “Ever So Lonely,” featured beguiling instrumentation and Chandra’s crystal voice. On its re-release as a 12” single, the song was a surprise hit, rising to #12 on the British pop chart.

Sheila Chandra, 20 years old when “Ever So Lonely” charted, seemed to tire of the pop star whirl pretty quickly. After three further Monsoon singles, all less successful than the hit, the group dissolved. Three members of Monsoon (Coe, Martin Smith, and Chandra) chose to play the long game, retreating into studio work and allowing Chandra to develop herself creatively.

In 1984 she released her first solo LP, Out on My Own. Over time, working closely with Coe, she ventured further into experimental vocal territory, releasing several albums/CDs worth of chants, folk melodies, and drone pieces before really hitting her stride with a trilogy of influential and utterly singular CDs (Weaving My Ancestors’ Voices, The Zen Kiss, and Abonecronedrone) for Peter Gabriel’s Real World label between 1992–96.

Following a break, Chandra released the excellent This Sentence is True, in 2001, in a partnership with the Ganges Orchestra (which included Coe). She spent the next few years touring solo as well as singing with various ensembles including Imagined Village and Ancient Beatbox.

Unfortunately, in 2010 she began suffering from burning mouth syndrome, a rare but awful malady especially devastating to a singer. She is not expected to sing again, as doing so causes her extreme physical pain. Sadly, Coe, an extremely successful musician and producer in several genres, passed away in 2013, ending a great musical partnership.

Sheila Chandra has found a new career as an organizer, writing two books: Banish Clutter Forever and the new Organizing for Creative People. She mentors artists, advising them on their career choices and in how to work creatively in a world that doesn't encourage such pursuits.

This is a long, roundabout way of getting to today’s song, “Indian Princess,” the b-side of Monsoon’s third single, a cover of the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Martin Smith wrote “Indian Princess” and it’s both a perfect vehicle for Monsoon’s sound and for Sheila Chandra’s then 21-year-old pipes.

A luscious production, “Indian Princess” begins softly with sitar, tabla, and (probably) tanpura then adds slowly—a piano here, some extra percussion there—before cresting into a gorgeous flute solo. The music and lyrics paint a dramatic, downcast picture and the song is performed nearly perfectly by all concerned.

Even if she eventually chose not to, Sheila Chandra sure could sing pop music.

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A Song A Day: Etta James, "Look Who's Blue"

JULY 5, 2017

 

“LOOK WHO’S BLUE” (WRITER: DON GIBSON)

ARTIST: ETTA JAMES

RELEASED 1964 ON 7” 45

By 1964, Jamesetta Hawkins—stage name Etta James—had been an R&B star for nearly ten years. She was just 26.

By the late 1960s, however, changing musical tastes and drug problems had largely derailed her career. She never quite regained her late 50’s/early 60’s popularity despite making excellent records in a variety of genres. The rise of the Motown and Stax labels helped push Chicago-based Chess Records (she recorded for their Argo subsidiary) into a smaller corner of the popular consciousness.

This doesn’t mean her records weren’t good, though. Her second single of 1964, “Loving You More Every Day,” did reach #7 on the Billboard R&B charts, doing great business in a swath of the country that included Baltimore, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Norfolk, and Wilmington.

That wasn’t meant to be the a-side of the 45, however. Initially slated for publicity and radio was “Look Who’s Blue,” a version of Don Gibson’s 1958 country hit (!) that Ms. James recorded in Nashville with legendary arranger Cliff Parman. The two had worked together in the past, and Parman had also enjoyed recent success with Brenda Lee and Connie Francis.

The Etta James version of this typically fine Gibson song did retain a sort of country stroll, but opened up the arrangement with a tempo that swung rather than went boom-chaka-boom. The backing vocals, Ms. James’ soaring lead, and the uncluttered sax-led arrangement were glorious throwbacks to an R&B style that was, sadly, already being forgotten.

Despite getting some airplay, including a top 10 placing in Texas, “Look Who’s Blue” was soon flipped over for the more conventional side of the record. And it was successful. Meanwhile, “Look Who’s Blue” was never issued on a contemporary album and faded into the wallpaper of time.

Today, “Look Who’s Blue,” in its original mono mix, gets a bit of the attention it deserved more than 50 years ago. Hope you enjoy. 

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A Song A Day: The Impressions, "Choice of Colors"

JULY 4, 2017

“CHOICE OF COLORS” (WRITER: CURTIS MAYFIELD)

ARTIST: THE IMPRESSIONS

RELEASED 1969 ON 7” 45 AND ON THE YOUNG MODS’ FORGOTTEN STORY LP

Happy Independence Day. Here’s Curtis Mayfield, one of America’s great songwriters.

Having already stated his place as a black man in America in the 1960s with the proud “This is My Country,” and singing songs of uplift like “We’re a Winner” and “Keep on Pushing,” he now cast a challenge to his fellow people of color.

Do you respect your brothers’ woman friend? And share with black folks not of kin?

As Sly Stone did in “Stand,” Mayfield seems to be urging people to stop waiting for someone else to lift them. Mayfield’s message was always that it’s all in you. And your love is better than your hate.

                People must prove to the people/a better day is coming/for you and for me

                With just a little bit more education/and love for our nation/we can make a better society.

While that seems impossibly square in some ways, Mayfield had lived it; he knew that hard work could get you out (and keep you out) of trouble. And as a successful black man, Mayfield had come up against his share of challenges from the often corrupt industry in which he worked.

He was an incredible musician and a hard worker. He was a positive presence in Chicago, and in the world. He got big but stayed in Chicago and helped others create music. Curtis Mayfield was a hero to me, and I don’t have many heroes among people I never met.

That he was able to cast the challenging message of “Choice of Colors” in sweeping, gorgeous, symphonic music was the gift of Curtis Mayfield. He made music to show us that your better self is stronger than anyone else’s bad self.

The lyrical and musical quotes from “We Shall Overcome” are almost too on point, but with Martin Luther King dead less than a year, it’s not as if this was canned and bottled history. Curtis Mayfield, Sam Gooden, and Fred Cash had a message to deliver and they did it with panache and skill.

This superb 45, issued in June 1969, reached just #21 on the Billboard pop chart, though it went to #1 on the magazine’s R&B list. Shamefully, top 40 stations in the Impressions’ hometown of Chicago didn’t even bother to program the record, and it also failed to get exposure on similar radio channels in New York. It was a moderate hit among pop audiences in Los Angeles, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Toronto, and huge among both black and white audiences in San Francisco/Oakland.

We’re in a lot of trouble right now in this country, with a President who spews bigotry and ignorance as his minions shred the social fabric. The only thing any of us can do right now is persevere through our current troubles, not lose hope, and not let the misguided drive us off our course of love.

Happy 4^th, Curtis. America misses you.

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A Song A Day: Chad and Jeremy, "I'll Be Back"

JULY 3, 2017

“I’LL BE BACK” (WRITERS: JOHN LENNON–PAUL McCARTNEY)

ARTIST: CHAD AND JEREMY

RELEASED 2013 ON RIEN NE VA PLUS CD

Most acts from the 1960s British Invasion splintered, withered, or exploded decades ago. One that didn’t is Chad and Jeremy.

There were two popular duos featuring British guys, with one wearing glasses, during the 1960s. While Peter and Gordon had the biggest hit, and a memorable Beatles connection, Chad and Jeremy did the more sublime work.

Peter Asher and Gordon Waller sang a Lennon/McCartney song, “A World Without Love,” to the top of the charts in 1964. They got the song because Paul McCartney, dating Peter’s sister Jane, was living with the Asher family in London. P&G also released some other tailor-made Beatles compositions.

Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde were a bit more intellectual, a bit more reserved, a bit deeper than Peter and Gordon. From the start, their records had a folk/ballad edge that skirted adult contemporary pop. Their biggest hits—“Yesterday’s Gone,” “A Summer Song,” and “Distant Shores”—are rich songs solidly presented with class and restraint.

They did fine uptempo numbers like “Teenage Failure,” “Rest in Peace,” and “The Emancipation of Mr. X,” but midtempo pop was always their specialty. They weaved folk elements, psychedelic passages, easy-listening arrangements, strange lyrics, and wordy titles into their originals and cover choices. Their voices blended spectacularly, whether in unison or when Chad Stuart (he with the glasses) harmonized above Jeremy Clyde’s melody line.

The duo drifted apart in the early 70s, Chad continuing in music and, later, teaching, while Jeremy embraced acting. But they always remained friends, and several reunions over the ensuing years attracted attention; the two could still produce solid material and undertake satisfying live appearances.

In 2013, Chad and Jeremy released Rien Ne Va Plus, intended as their final studio creation. (They played their final tour in 2016 and a live CD commemorates that.) Chad produced most of the CD in his Electric Paintbox studio in Idaho, where he has long resided with his second wife. Jeremy most often lives in London.

"Rien Ne Va Plus" is a French term meaning, alternately, “no more bets” (as at a gaming table), “the die is cast” (one’s fate is sealed) or, more colloquially, “nothing works any longer,” a pretty cynical thing for a couple of guys in their 70s to say. But then Chad and Jeremy always had a sense of humor.

The Rien Ne Va Plus CD combines cover material and originals, live and studio recordings. I’ve chosen to feature their version of the Beatles’ “I’ll Be Back.” Sung by young men, it seems to be a song of will, of perseverance; when sung by men in their 70s, it almost feels like a dysfunctional obsession, a sort of co-dependence, and is equally determined and sad. Their harmonies glisten as always, and the setting is lovely.

Assuming Chad and Jeremy are done, I am so glad they made so much quality music and was glad to hear them live. Thanks, guys. All the best.

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