The young Neil Diamond graduates from songwriter to performer
Before Neil Diamond became a singing superstar he was a songwriter, but even as a songwriter he wasn’t an instant success. He spent his teen years tramping from one publishing house to another, occasionally selling a song against royalties for hits that never came. It wasn’t until an unsuccessful year on the staff of Leiber & Stoller’s Trio Music and, ironically, a transition to recording, that Diamond found his voice as a songwriter. He first charted with Jay and the Americans’ “Sunday and Me,†and hit his commercial stride with the Monkees chart-toppers “I’m a Believer†and “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You.†Other songs in his catalog found favor among British Invasion acts that included Cliff Richard and Lulu.
Diamond’s earlier attempts at a performing career (with Dual in 1959 and Columbia in 1963) had gone nowhere, but his signing to Bang in 1966 unlocked his songwriting talent and paired him with producers Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. It was during this initial run at Bang that Diamond proved himself a talented songwriter, unique vocalist and commanding hit maker. His first seven singles reached the chart, six making the top 20; for good measure he extended the chart run with “Red, Red Wine†and a soul-power cover of Gary U.S. Bonds’ “New Orleans.†Several of his B-sides, including “The Boat That I Row†and “Do It†were as good as the A’s, and cover versions of “Red Rubber Ball,†“Monday, Monday†and “La Bamba†were blessed by the Diamond touch.
Brilliant video additions to Simon & Garfunkel’s studio swan song
Simon and Garfunkel’s fifth and final studio album marked their commercial peak. Though many fans find the previous album, Bookends, to be the apex of the duo’s artistic creativity, it’s hard to think of another pop act that exited with a success comparable to this album and its title track. Despite Garfunkel’s initial reservation, “Bridge Over Troubled Water†made good on Simon’s feeling that it was the best song he’d ever written, topping the Hot 100 for six weeks and winning Grammy awards for song and record of the year. Though the recording is deeply tied to Garfunkel’s brilliant vocal performance, the composition spawned dozens of successful covers, including Aretha Franklin’s Grammy-winning R&B chart-topper and Buck Owens’ Top 10 single. In the 1970s it became a staple in Elvis Presley’s stage show, and cover versions continue to be recorded to this day, with a live version from the 2010 Grammys having charted, and the television show Glee having featured the song the same year.
But the title song is far from the album’s only jewel. With Garfunkel away for the better part of 1969 filming Catch 22, Simon was left to work alone, and apparently consider a post-Garfunkel career. “The Only Living Boy in New York City†and “Why Don’t You Write Me†are easily heard to be contemplations of Simon’s isolation, while “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright†includes the telling lyric “so long Frank Lloyd Wright, all of the nights we harmonized ‘til dawn,†an allusion seemingly tied to Garfunkel’s study of architecture at Columbia. The seeds of Simon’s multicultural solo career can be heard in the Peruvian flute of “El Condor Pasa (If I Could),†broad rhythm instrumentation of “Cecilia,†and reggae styling of “Why Don’t You Write Me.†The album topped the chart, won Grammys for engineering, arranging and Album of Year, and spun off four hit singles.
This CD/DVD set marks the 40th anniversary of the album’s January 1970 release, and combines the original eleven tracks with two hours of video material. The DVD includes the duo’s rare 1969 CBS television special, Songs of America, and a new documentary, The Harmony Game: The Making of Bridge Over Troubled Water. The special, aired only once on November 30, 1969, has been bootlegged many times, but never before officially reissued. At the time of its airing its social and political viewpoints – particularly its explicit anti-Vietnam war messages – caused sponsor Bell Atlantic to pull out. But with backing from CBS (the same network that had fired the Smothers Brothers earlier in the year), the program found a new sponsor (Alberto Culver, the makers of Alberto VO5) and was aired uncut.
Both video features are extraordinary documents. The 1969 special, originally shot on film and pieced together from two different sources, is a post-Woodstock look at America in which Simon and Garfunkel seem to be trying to explain the younger generation to adult viewers. They surface the questions and doubts on the minds of many young people in 1969, starting with the incalculable loss of the decade’s heroes – JFK, MLK and RFK – and reflections on the brutality of poverty and the activism of the farm workers, UAW and Poor People’s March. First-time director (and future famous actor) Charles Grodin skillfully mixed compelling newsreel imagery with voiceovers and interviews, and interwove performance footage and behind-the-scenes shots of the duo at work. Simon and Garfunkel are spied working out arrangements of new songs, rehearsing their stage band and recording in the studio.
The making-of documentary repeats some moments from the ’69 special, but adds context with discussions of the program’s creation and controversies. There’s additional concert footage and contemporary interviews with Simon, Garfunkel, their manager, Mort Lewis, their engineer/producer, Roy Halee, and two of the studio players (drummer Hal Blaine and bassist Joe Osborn) featured on the album.. The conversation with Halee is particularly illuminating, as he describes how the duo’s studio sound was produced, and provides specifics of the album’s tracks. The song-by-song discussion reveals numerous details on personnel (Fred Carter Jr., for example, played guitar on “The Boxer,†Joe Osborn played an 8-string bass on “Only Living Boy in New York City,†and Larry Knechtel developed the gospel piano on “Bridge Over Troubled Waterâ€), recording locations, production techniques, and brightly highlights the creativity everyone concerned poured into the album.
‘50s and ‘60s rarities, demos and radio performances
Five years ago the archive of recordings left behind at the House of Cash was cracked open for the two-disc Personal File, which itself has been reissued as Bootleg Volume 1: Personal File in parallel with this second two-disc helping. Where the previous volume focused on Cash’s mid-70s home recordings, volume two reaches back further to explore Cash’s 1950s beginnings in Memphis and his transition to country superstardom in the 1960s. Along the way the set collects live performances, continuity and commercial pitches (for his employer Home Equipment Company) from Cash’s first radio appearance, on KWEM in 1955, mid-50s Sun demos and rarities, and a deep cache of 1960s studio recordings. Eleven of these tracks have never been officially released in the U.S., and fifteen, including eleven Sun-era demos, have never been officially released anywhere.
As on the earlier volume, Cash lays down his demos without the fire of master takes, but even when just feeling out his songs or recording them as a record of copyright, his authority and magnetism as a performer shines through. The mid-50s demos are sung to an acoustic guitar, lending them the intimate and unguarded feel of Cash singing more for himself than an imagined audience. Alongside early demos of Cash classics (“I Walk the Line,†“Get Rhythm,†“Belshazzarâ€) are the rare, proto-rockabilly “You’re My Baby†and the wonderfully primitive “Rock and Roll Ruby.†Seven Sun outtakes capture Cash’s classic tic-tac rhythm, as well as false starts and a rough guitar solo that finds the group seeking the groove of “Big River.†Cash’s commanding baritone is magnified by the terrific atmosphere of Sun’s production sound.
The 1960s recordings are more polished, waxed in Nashville for Columbia, with a band, backing chorus and at times in stereo. The tracks include non-album singles, B-sides and demos, including several proposed theme songs for television and film. Cash’s “Johnny Yuma Theme†fits with his many other Western-themed songs, but went unused for ABC’s The Rebel, as did a title theme for Cash’s 1961 film Five Minutes to Live, and most surprising of all (that is, for its existence, rather than it’s lack of use), a Western-tinged title song Cash proposed for the James Bond film Thunderball. Additional treats include a vibraphone led rendition of the nineteenth century “There’s a Mother Always Waiting,†a duet with Bonanza’s Lorne Greene on “Shifting, Whispering Sands,†and a solo cover of Dylan’s “One Too Many Mornings,†all previously unreleased in the U.S.
The intertwined creativity of Waylon, Willie, Cash and Kristofferson
Though Waylon, Willie, Cash and Kristofferson recorded three full albums as The Highwaymen, the foursome had much richer musical relationships than the purpose-built quartet dates. Legacy’s 2-disc Essential set documents both their official collaborations under the Highwayman moniker, and the duets and covers that found these artists returning to one another over the course of their careers. In addition to seven songs from the Highwaymen’s three albums, this thirty track collection includes solos and duets drawn from the artists’ original albums, television and stage performances (including tracks from the Johnny Cash Show and VH1’s Storytellers), and soundtracks. Among the riches are several covers of Kristofferson’s songs, including Nelson’s 2008 rendering of “Moment of Forever.â€
Live tracks from 1974-1981 with one previously unreleased
The Legacy division of Sony continues to explore new ways to keep the CD relevant. Their Playlist series was the first out of the gate with eco-friendly packaging that used 100% recycled cardboard, no plastic, and on-disc PDFs in place of paper booklets. Their new Setlist series follows the same path of a single disc that provides an aficionado’s snapshot of an artist’s catalog. In this case the anthologies turn from the studio to the stage, pulling together tracks from an artist’s live repertoire, generally all previously released, but in a few cases adding previously unreleased items. As with the Playlist collections, the Setlist discs aren’t greatest hits packages; instead, they forgo some obvious catalog highlights to give listeners a chance to hear great, lesser-known songs from the artist’s stage act.
Inexplicably, Blue Oyster Cult’s entry in the series doesn’t include the booklet on disc. Instead, the cardboard slipcase provides a URL from which the booklet (as a PDF) can be viewed and downloaded. Once retrieved it provides liner notes from Lenny Kaye and detailed credits of the tracks’ origins. Many are pulled from the group’s previous live albums, On Your Feet Or On Your Knees, Some Enchanted Evening, Extraterrestrial Live, but the set also includes a promo-only version of “Godzilla†recorded in 1977, a 1981 take of “Flaming Telepaths†that was available on a British 12-inch single, and a previously unreleased 1979 version of “The Vigil†recorded in Berkeley, California. Taken together they provide a good view of the band’s live sound from their key years of 1974 through 1981.
Nice overview of Johnny Cash as a performer and entertainer
The Legacy division of Sony continues to explore new ways to keep the CD relevant. Their Playlist series was the first out of the gate with eco-friendly packaging that used 100% recycled cardboard, no plastic, and on-disc PDFs in place of paper booklets. Their new Setlist series follows the same path of a single disc that provides an aficionado’s snapshot of an artist’s catalog. In this case the anthologies turn from the studio to the stage, pulling together tracks from an artist’s live repertoire, generally all previously released, but in a few cases adding previously unreleased items. As with the Playlist collections, the Setlist discs aren’t greatest hits packages; instead, they forgo some obvious catalog highlights to give listeners a chance to hear great, lesser-known songs from the artist’s stage act.
Johnny Cash’s volume of Setlist features fourteen tracks drawn from only five years of performing, 1968-72, yet the range of venues and audiences shows off the breadth of Cash as a performer and entertainer. In addition to his two iconic live albums recorded at Folsom and San Quentin Prison, Cash also performed for down home audiences at the Ryman Auditorium and uptown city slickers at Madison Square Garden. He sang for Swedish prisoners and American presidents, and hosted a national television show that bridged hippies and squares. Everything here has been issued before, but unlike the full-concert albums and videos, this collection gives a sense of Cash’s universality, rather than the depth with which he connected to each specific audience.
The Folsom and San Quentin tracks (“Folsom Prison Blues,†“I Got a Woman,†“Wreck of the Old 97,†“I Walk the Line†and “Big Riverâ€) are the most familiar – and if they’re not, you’re recommended to the full albums and videos [12]. Less famous is Cash’s performance of his original “What is Truth†at the White House in 1970. He shook off Nixon’s request for “Okie From Muskogee†and “Welfare Cadillac,†and challenged the sitting president with songs of the underclass. Cash seems nearly exhausted by the cultural conflicts of the times as he asks for understanding of the young people who would soon inherit the country. Cash’s humor and his chemistry with wife June are shown in a warm 1969 medley of “Darlin’ Companion,†“If I Were a Carpenter,†and “Jackson†recorded at the home of the Grand Ol’ Opry for his television show.
Short overview of game-changing country trio’s career
Whether or not Natalie Maines’ opinions give you heartburn, there’s no denying her arrival in the Dixie Chicks launched the group to unparalleled commercial and artistic success. With her lead vocals and her bandmates’ harmonies and instrumental chops, the group cut a new template for commercial country radio, finding favor with both the mainstream and traditionalist crowds. All was peaches and cream until Maines’ outspoken criticism of the Bush administration placed them at odds with the Nashville establishment and many of the band’s fans. But in the face of a country radio backlash, the group stuck to their guns, found favor with the pop buying public, and netted their fourth consecutive country album Grammy – and their first Album of the Year – with the unapologetic Taking the Long Way.
This twelve song collection includes tracks from the four studio albums recorded with Maines’ as lead vocalist, and skips over the group’s three earlier releases. It follows the form of earlier Playlist releases by combining a selection of hits with album tracks that the artist has selected as representative of their career. That means most of the Dixie Chicks’ sixteen Top 10 hits are omitted in favor of album tracks (all twelve tracks have been previously issued and are readily available on the group’s regular releases), including the concert favorite “Sin Wagon†and a poignant cover of Patty Griffin’s “Let Him Fly.†The chronological set plays quite well, giving listeners a good helping of the Chicks’ vocal and instrumental talents, and shows how they straddled the line between rootsy twang and polished radio country with their cannily selected cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide.†The Dixie Chicks deftly bridged their country home base with their pop influences, magnifying, rather than losing, the potency of each.
Terrific 3-CD anthology of underappreciated powerhouse
Pacific Northwest powerhouse Paul Revere & the Raiders seem to have been lost in shadow of Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets and the hundreds of garage-rock compilations that followed in its wake. They aren’t exactly a secret, having recorded for Columbia, scoring fifteen Top 40 singles, garnering a feature spot on Where the Action Is and hosting their own shows, Happening ’68 and It’s Happening. But neither are they afforded the recognition their hits, B-sides, album cuts and live performances really earned. Perhaps it was the genesis of their stardom in Southern California or their major label association that kept them from garage band legend. Maybe it was the themed costumes – particularly the three-corner hats – or that vocalist Mark Lindsay had a soulful finesse which went beyond the typical garage-punk snot. Or maybe it’s that their run into the mid-70s outlasted their roots. Whatever it was, it’s left the Raiders rich catalog remembered only by a few high-charting hits.
The Raiders’ garage and frat-rock credentials were minted on a string of indie singles, and a recording of rock ‘n’ roll’s national anthem, “Louie, Louie,†that was laid down only a few weeks after the Kingsmen’s. The Raiders version bubbled under the Top 100, and along with the Wailers’ earlier version helped root the song in the Pacific Northwest. Picked up by Columbia the single had a good helping of regional success before Columbia A&R honcho Mitch Miller scuttled it. The group’s original follow-up “Louie-Go Home†sounds more like a grungy take on Otis Blackwell’s “Daddy Rolling Stone,†than a riff on Richard Berry’s original, and once again only managed to grazed the bottom of the Billboard chart. These early single, fueled by Lindsay’s fat saxophone tone and covers of R&B tunes “Night Train†and “Have Love, Will Travel,†weren’t as raw as the Sonics, but were still a lot meatier than most of their L.A., Chicago or Northeast counterparts.
“Louie, Louie,†originally released on the Sande label, turned out to be the Raiders ticket to the big time: a deal with Columbia Records. The group continued to crank out R&B covers for the next year, including a fuzz-heavy cover of Gene Thomas’ country-tinged “Sometimes†and a solid take on the Aaron Neville hit “Over You.†The group’s original were initially limited to B-sides, such as the instrumental “Swim,†but in 1965 the Lindsay/Revere composition “Steppin’ Out†began the group’s assault on the charts. Revere’s organ riffs and a confrontational lyric gave this single a tougher garage sound that took them just shy of the Top 40. A short-lived detour into Jan & Dean-styled car songs (“SS396†b/w “Corvair Babyâ€) was followed by a trifecta of the group’s best remembered hits.
First up was “Just Like Me,†with a wickedly insinuating organ riff, a brilliant double guitar solo, and a vocal that rises from barely contained verses to emotionally explosive choruses. Next was Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil’s anti-drug “Kicks,†turned down by the Animals and taken to #4 by the Raiders. Lindsay really sells the song, singing the lyric as both a lecture and a plea, forceful on the verses and understanding in the choruses. The group cracked the Top 10 again with another Mann & Weil tune, “Hungry,†propelled by its hypnotically powerful bass line. The group (with Terry Melcher) subsequently began writing many of their own hits and B-sides, including “Good Thing,†“Him or Me,†and “Ups and Downs,†and Melcher began adding studio musicians to the mix.
As 1967 turned into 1968 the band stretched from their Northwest rock roots into sunshine pop, bubblegum, folk rock, soul and light-psych. Fine sides from this period include the Beatle-esque “Too Much Talk,†the groovy theme songs “Happening ‘68†and “It’s Happening,†and the chewy “Cinderella Sunshine†and “Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon.†The latter two are among the sides Lindsey produced for the band after their separation from Terry Melcher and the arrival of three replacement Raiders with Southern roots. By the end of the 1960s the group’s singles were charting lower, often outside the Top 40, but their quality never dipped, and the advent of stereo releases (with 1969’s “We Gotta All Get Togetherâ€) finally detached their sound from the monophonic thrash of their Northwest roots.
Their success was renewed in 1971 with a cover of John D. Loudermilk’s “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian),†a song that had been recorded a decade earlier by Marvin Rainwater and with some commercial success by Don Fardon. The Raiders’ version topped the singles charts – their only #1 – and sold a million copies. The renewed success was brief however: a follow-up cover of Joe South’s “Birds of a Feather†just missed the Top 20, and their next four singles charted lower and lower, ending their run with 1973’s barely charting pre-disco “Love Music.†The group’s contract with Columbia ended in 1975, lead singer Mark Lindsay left for a solo career, and though the group soldiered on with sporadic new releases they became more of a fixture on the oldies circuit.
Collectors’ Choice’s 3-CD set offers sixty-six tracks that cover all of the group’s Columbia singles. The B-sides offer some real treats, including the autobiographical “The Legend of Paul Revere,†the Las Vegas grind-styled instrumental “B.F.D.R.F. Blues,†the flower-power “Do Unto Others,†the trippy “Observations from Flight 285 (in 3/4 Time),†the muscular jam “Without You,†the Band-styled country-rock “I Don’t Know,†the Peter & Gordon-ish “Frankford Side Street,†and the organ instrumental “Terry’s Tune.†There are four rarities: the withdrawn “Rain, Sleet, Snow†and its flip “Brotherly Love,†and promo songs for the GTO (“Judge GTO Breakawayâ€) and a Mattel doll (“Song for Swingyâ€). The collection closes with the post-Mark Lindsay “Your Love (is the Only Love),†featuring Bob Wooley on lead vocal. Missing are the group’s pre-Columbia singles, including their boogie-woogie instrumentals “Beatnik Sticks†and “Like, Long Hair,†and their last single “Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong.â€
Early on, the world of pop music developed a division of labor that typically separated writing from performing. With the advent of the folk revival, the arrival of self-contained groups like the Beatles and the emergence of the singer-songwriter movement, many talented singers were afforded the opportunity to step out from behind their songwriting desks. DeShannon fits into this history as a writer whose songs became hits for others (“When You Walk in the Room,†“Come and Stay With Me,†“Break-a-Way,†and others), and whose hits as a singer (“What the World Needs Now is Love†and “Put a Little Love in Your Heartâ€) only raised her performing profile in short bursts of stardom.
DeShannon wrote and recorded throughout the 1960s and 70s, scoring her last major songwriting hit with Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes.†Her original version of that song, in a strutting, swing-styled arrangement is included on this 1975 album, her last for a major label. Produced by Michael Stewart, who’d worked with John Stewart, Billy Joel and Kenny Rankin, the music sets sail for the middle of the road, with studio pros like Waddy Wacthel and Larry Knechtel laying on the slick mid-70s sounds. Brian Wilson and then-wife Marilyn join the backing chorus on the lazy dream “Boat to Sail,†a song that caught Richard Carpenter’s ear for a cover on the Carpenters 1976 LP A Kind of Hush.
Blues and soul influences are heard in the flute and vibes of “Sweet Baby Gene,†gospel tinge of “I Wanted it All,†and horn chart of “Over My Head Again,†and steel guitar legend Buddy Emmons adds some real Nashville twang to “Bette Davis Eyes†and “Queen of the Rodeo.†The latter suggests a fruitful road DeShannon might have travelled (and one Kim Carnes’ later traveled herself) to Music City. Aside from the pair of country tunes, the most effective track is the closing cover of William Smith’s ballad “Dreamin’ as One.†Intimately produced with a quiet guitar and choir-like backing vocals, the track has aged better than its album-mates.
Brown neither interviewed Rubin, nor actually watched him work, nor – other than Drakoulias – appears to have spoken with anyone who worked with Rubin. The quotes are all presented at face value, with no dissenting or contrasting opinions, and by sampling from other people’s interviews, Brown robs himself of the opportunity to interact with the sources and ask specific follow-up questions. He cleverly synthesizes conversational back-and-forth between principals (e.g., Rubin and Johnny Cash) by weaving together quotes from multiple sources, but in the end it’s a simulation rather than real-life interplay, and though a nice writing trick, it’s not satisfying.
The existing materials that Brown could find, or his own personal interests, color the depth and breadth of the book’s coverage. Individual chapters on Public Enemy, Mick Jagger and the Dixie Chicks are short and shallow, while multiple chapters on the Red Hot Chili Peppers wander away from Rubin into fetishistic, over-long explorations of guitarist John Frusciante’s equipment. There are a few obvious typos, such as the use of “peak†in place of “pique,†and at least one ill-chosen presumption: the Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster is mentioned without explaining why it would have made Rubin nervous – those who’ve never seen the film are left in the dark.
Readers are left to synthesize the larger themes from Brown’s reporting. Rubin emerges from the quotes as a transformative figure that brought rap to the mainstream, revitalized rock production, resuscitated moribund and damaged musical careers, and pried mature artists from their ruts. The diligence of his pre-production, particularly his focus on selecting and preparing material, is shown to free musicians to be emotional performers in the studio rather than technical craftsmen. Rubin himself is only rarely glimpsed in the studio, a by-product of both his working method and Brown’s method as a writer, but he’s pictured as listening intently and nudging (or jolting) artists with his ideas.
The young Neil Diamond graduates from songwriter to performer
