More Muscle from the Shoals II - Margie Joseph and Barry Goldberg

I keep my eye out for things from Muscle Shoals.  Everything recorded there is worth a listen. It has a groove that appeals to me.  As I prepared to go there last year I started doing a bit of research on what was actually recorded there or involved personnel from the Swampers.   I started to take mental notes of what was out there, what I thought sounded interesting and what I might buy. Albums titles and artists names have embedded themselves in my memory so as I sift through sale bins I seem to know when to stop and read the liner notes.  I would also add album titles it to my wantlist on the Discogs website.    Obsessive but maybe not so compulsive.

Anyway over the last six months or so I have grown my collection of Muscle Shoals Music quite a lot - some I have paid a bit for and some have been bargain basement stuff - with the emphasis on bargain!

One of my favourite recent additions has been Margie Joseph's Makes a New Impression on the Volt label.  Some of this was recorded at Stax with the BarKeys and some down the road at Muscle Shoals.

It opens with a monologue about trust and fidelity and then launches into a funky version of Stop! In the Name of Love that really let's you know what the song is all about.  Other highlights include the similarly themed  Temptation's About to Take Your Love and How Beautiful the Rain.

Very tasty all round.




A little bit more interesting is Barry Goldberg's Blast From My Past.  I knew nothing about Mr Goldberg at the time but the album has Eddie Hinton, Duanne Allman, Danny Whitten and Harvey Mandell on guitars - wow what a collection of pedigree.  I do not think that   Goldberg is a keyboard organ player that, as happens frequently for music fanatacists once I hear about an artist I start seeing his name everywhere.  So I now know that Barry started out in a high school band with Steve Miller and also played in early blues band with Michael Bloomfield.  Today even there was a connection when I saw that Barry wrote one of  the songs on a Gladys Knight album I was playing

I could not find a link to any songs off the album but here are Goldberg and Mike Bloomfield playing two of the tracks from the album Jimi the Fox and Blues for Barry and Michael .

Junk and Sale Bin Shop Finds : John Hammond Jr So Many Roads

Over the years I have collected a few John Hammond Jr records but this was a great find!!! 

Hammond is the son of yet another and more famous John Hammond Jr - one of a number of non musicians whose impact on popular music is almost immeasurable. 

The Senior Junior (so to speak) was instrumental as a talent spotter for Columbia Records, in the development of the careers of, among others Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman and his guitarist Charlie Christian, and Leonard Cohen, . However he first got recognition for the promotion of the blues to white audiences.  This love must have rubbed off on his son as Junior Junior has had a strong career as a blues player.

I first heard of So Many Roads when I read about the history and development of The Band.  When they were still The Hawks and backing Ronnie Hawkins, Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm and Garth Hudson were flown to New York to help with the recording of this album.  This is therefore one of the earliest recordings you can hear of them. 

So when I saw this for $6 in a junk bin there was no doubt I would buy it.  An added bonus is that it a pretty solid blues album with the title track, So Many Roads, So Many Trains, Who do You Love, Down in the Bottom and Baby Please Don't Go.  

Song of the Day 52 : 4th of July Asbury Park (Sandy)

The first version of this I heard was by the Hollies and it was awful.  

A couple of years later I heard Springsteen's version and I was hooked, magical, bawdy and cinematic. 

Sandy, the fireworks are hailin' over Little Eden tonight
Forcin' a light into all those stony faces left stranded on this warm July
Down in the town, the Circuit's full of switchblade lovers, so fast, so shiny, so sharp
As the wizards play down on Pinball Way on the boardwalk way past dark
And the boys from the casino dance with their shirts open like Latin lovers on the shore
Chasin' all them silly New York virgins by the score

And Sandy, the aurora is rising behind us
This pier lights our carnival life forever
Oh, love me tonight, for I may never see you again
Hey, Sandy girl
My, my, baby

Now, the greasers, ah, they tramp the streets or get busted for sleeping on the beach all night
Them boys in their high heels, ah, Sandy, their skins are so white
And me, I just got tired of hangin' in them dusty arcades, bangin' them pleasure machines
Chasin' the factory girls underneath the boardwalk where they all promise to unsnap their jeans
And you know that tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach drag
I got on it last night and my shirt got caught
And they kept me spinning, babe, didn't think I'd ever get off

Oh, Sandy, the aurora is rising behind us
This pier lights our carnival life on the water
Runnin', laughin' 'neath the boardwalk, ah, with the boss's daughter
I remember, Sandy, girl
Na, na, na, na, na, baby

Sandy, that waitress I was seeing lost her desire for me
I spoke with her last night, she said she won't set herself on fire for me anymore
She worked that joint under the boardwalk, she was always the girl you saw boppin' down the beach with the radio
The kids say last night she was dressed like a star in one of them cheap little seaside bars, and I saw her parked with lover boy out on the Kokomo
Did you hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do
For me this boardwalk life is through, babe
You ought to quit this scene too

Sandy, the aurora is rising behind us
This pier lights our carnival life forever
Oh, love me tonight and I promise I'll love you forever
Oh, I mean it, Sandy, girl
My, my, my, my, my baby
Yeah, I promise, Sandy, girl
Sha, la, la, la, la, baby

Journey Through The Past : Pentangle - Basket of Light

I could have put Basket of Light in the Bargain Bin series but I think it deserves a bit more status than that.

I had been looking for this both online and in shops at a reasonable price for a while.  Then I saw a  copy with a battered cover (history there I guess) for $4 in Real Groovy - as I slipped the record out of the cover I expected to see a big scratch at worst and perhaps just a lot of dirt and marks.  However I was pleasantly surprised when the record appeared in perfect condition.

Score!!

People my age in NZ will remember the opening track Light Flight as it was opening credits for a TV show.  Google tells me it was a BBC show called Take Three Girls but I think NZBC used it for some news show.

Pentangle was one of a raft of folk rock bands (Steeleye Span, Lindisfarne) that followed in the wake of Fairport Convention.  However Pentangle was blessed with some of Britain's best acoustic musicians in Bert Jansch, John Renbourn,and Danny Thompson.  Jansch heavily influencing Jimmy Page's more acoustic side.  In addition to Light Flight songs like Hunting Song  House Carpenter and Sally Go Round the Roses show the bands chops off.

Song of the Day 51 : Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp - Led Zeppelin

I have already written how Led Zep III is my favourite Zeppelin album.  Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp is one of the reasons it is.  A clever little song that for the uninitiated sounds like a love song to someone with whom he expects to spend the rest of his days, walking down country lanes.  However it is song about his dog, strider, a blue eyed merle.  But he does promise to stay faithful claiming "there aint now old shep gonna happen again"

Named after the old Welsh Country Homestead it was recorded in - a place Robert Plant used often to escape the rock and roll lifestyle.  Was very pleased when he reworked it into a more swaggering song at his Wellington Concert two years ago.

Ah caught you smiling at me, That's the way it should be,
Like a leaf is to a tree, so fine.

Ah all the good times we had, I sang love songs so glad
Always smiling, never sad, so fine.

[Chorus]
As we walk down the country lanes, I'll be singing a song,
Hear me calling your name.
Hear the wind within the trees, Telling Mother Nature 'bout you and me.

Well if the sun shines so bright, Or on our way it's darkest night
The road we choose is always right, so fine.

Ah can your love be so strong When so many loves go wrong
Will our love go on and on...

[Chorus]

My, my la de la come on now it ain't too far,
Tell your friends all around the world,
Ain't no companion like a blue eyed merle.
Come on now well let me tell you,
What you're missing, missing, 'round them brick walls.

So of one thing I am sure, It's a friendship so pure,
Angels singing all around my door, so fine.
Yeah, ain't but one thing to do Spend my natural life with you,
You're the finest dog I knew, so fine.

When you're old and your eyes are dim, There ain't no old Shep gonna happen again,
We'll still go walking down country lanes, I'll sing the same old songs,
Hear me call your name.

  

Journey Through The Past : Tower of Power

I first heard Tower of Power when Casey Kasem played So Very Hard to Go off their self titled third album way back in 1973.   Did not know too much about them but over the next few years ago the Tower of Power horn section started cropping up everywhere - from Elton John and Cat Stevens through  to becoming integral to Little Feat's live sound when they recorded the mighty Waiting for Columbus live set.

Like Sly and the Family Stone they were an integrated funk band but to me always seemed a little less strident.

However I always loved So Very Hard to Go and eventually got a copy of it when I bought one of those 5 original albums for $20.

Because this  album has So Very Hard to Go - I quickly found this was the one I kept returning to - highlights include the opener What is Hip and the falsetto of Get Yo Feet back on the Ground and the funk injection of Soul Vaccination.

Recently I managed to pick up an LP of this album for just $5 - bargain!

Favourites : Rosanne Cash ; 12 Songs

My appreciation for Rosanne Cash has grown steadily over the years.  Originally she probably did trade a bit on her father's name but she had carved her own unique path and is a leading light in today's Country Music world.  I have already written about last year's stunning The River and The Thread.

The List was her previous record to that and was the second recorded in memory of her father. The first was the excellent personal record Black Cadillac with some gutsy personal songs.   This was prompted by a list Johnny gave her of his favourite songs.  Here she picks a dozen of them and gives them her own treatment (sometimes helped by the likes of Springsteen and Costello).

Johnny sure had good taste.

The list include Merle Haggard's Silver Wings, I'm Moving On, Dylan's Girl from North Country, Hedy West's 500 Miles (not the Proclaimers) and Hank Cochrane's She's Got You.

I hope that she picks another dozen soon.