Frank -- Amy Winehouse

There are few albums in my lifetime that will be considered timeless, genius, or even classic.  The way music is going these days, the Millennials will have absolutely NO albums that will be considered as such, save for, to be frank (see what I did there) the album I have chosen here.  Yes, it has been more than a minute since my last Gem-Of-A-Jam wax-poetic, but I feel with the debut album from the gone-too-soon genius Amy Winehouse, I have bridged the gap.

First things first: I came to Amy Winehouse with the release of "Rehab" to radio, a gadget I NEVER listen to unless it's a classic station or NPR.  That is to say, I came to Amy Winehouse as she was breaking here in the States commercially--so I didn't exactly stumble on her.  However, I will own the fact that I purchased "Back To Black" pre-album cover switcheroo. (The cover conspiracy I speak of is this: Initially, "B To B" was released with a scrawny Amy sitting in dress and high-heels on a stool in front of a freshly erased blackboard, sans beehive.  As the album became more popular, the cover seemed to suddenly become swapped out with a beehive bedecked broad just peeking over the album edge).  I digress.  With the initial spin of "Black" I fell hive over heels instantly, especially on the track "Me And Mr. Jones," a song that harkened back to my childhood and the oldies my parents blared, a la "The Stroll" by The Diamonds, a favorite of my father's.  Anyone that knows me  and music knows that when I fall for an artist, I fall hard, and need to know their entire history.  Such was the case with Amy, which led me to discover that she had an album prior to what we received in America.  That album was "Frank."

Second things second: I was in San Francisco, in the Haight Ashbury and I made the obligatory stop at Amoeba Records.  On one of the shelves I noticed Amy's first album, complete with the sticker "Import" on the cover.  I must admit, Amy also looked much healthier.  When an album in the states is marked "Import," that means that it was not necessarily intended for release in America, but that it has been imported to be made available--always at a higher cost.  I promptly grabbed my copy, not knowing what to expect musically with this record.

When I arrived back in Los Angeles, (working at the time on a reality TV show), I happened to be uploading "Frank" to my iPod at my desk and my co-worker (and now close musical confidante) Aireka walked by me.   She proceeded to tell me that she preferred "Frank" to "Back To Black."  A very bold statement, I thought, as "Back To Black" was not only receiving resounding U.S. critical acclaim, but it was also a loveletter of sorts to the  early American girl-group music of the '60s, The Shangri-Las and Lesley Gore--but on acid and with edgy lyrics like " What kind of fuckery is this?"  

Though I adore both records, I have to admit, Aireka was right.  While "Back To Black" was a mammoth American success, sweeping 5 Grammy awards and selling 3 million copies in the U.S. (20 million worldwide), "Frank" is the more original of the two records, and in a good way, the less accessible one.  Yes, the original release of "Frank," that is to say before it was released officially as a non-import in the States (more on this "fuckery" later) is start to finish a masterpiece record that defies age, space, and time.  

If "Frank" were a house its building would look something like this: the foundation is Jazz, the brick and mortar R&B, the insulation Hip-Hop and the windows, Soul.  It is a new kind of Hip-Hop Torch record, sung by a Torch singer reincarnated with inflections of Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan, and taking up residence in the vocal chords of an unconventionally beautiful British Jewish girl named Amy Winehouse.  

 From the moment you hear an 18-year-old Amy humming a Jazz riff on the intro, to the break-beat of "Stronger Than Me" you know you're not going to get some surface slick production piece with songs written by 50 different songwriters aimed at a Billboard hit.  In fact, what you're listening to is the vocal and musical transcription of an artist writing her philosophy of ethics, critical thought, self-awareness, and overall modus operandi.  To be 18 with this much of a sense of emotional clarity almost implies a life destined to be shorter than most.  Her level of what-makes-me-tic-ness is so evident even from the album's title: you are getting the no-holds-barred artistic expression of someone who lives their life as frankly as ever.

To break "Frank" down for you track by track would be doing you a disservice as a new or returning listener to this album; I would be hindering your personal relationship and interpretation of this record.  A masterpiece is exactly that because it transcends the conventionality and cliche of whatever art is available wholesale.  In terms of mass adoration, "Frank" pales in comparison to "Back To Black."  But I implore you on a bevy of levels to sit with this record and listen to it start to finish.  It is not an album for single-surfing; that is to say, to skip through for the "hits."  If this is what you're aim is, then go "Back To Black."

I have one extreme cautionary note about the U.S. iTunes edition/Audio CD of the release of "Frank."  An ABSOLUTE CARDINAL SIN was committed when Universal Records officially released this album in the States.  They omitted one of the most integral tracks on the record for some reason or another.  The song is PARAMOUNT to the meaning of this album; and its omission is like ripping a chapter out of The Great Gatsby.  You just don't do it or the story is incomplete.  The infamous song is "Help Yourself" an eerily prophetic tune with these lyrics:  "I can't help you, if won't help yourself/ You can only get so much from someone else."  On the album, it is sequenced just after "What Is It About Men" and just before "Amy, Amy, Amy."  It can be found in the video above at 37:47.  If purchasing this album, I beg you, plead with you: You MUST get your hands on a copy of the original British Import release, not the U.S. iTunes/CD version as, if it wasn't clear a paragraph ago, this album without it is like the Mona Lisa without a smile.  I'm THAT serious.

Recently I had the extreme emotional thrill of viewing the newly released documentary "Amy," which is an at times, raw emotional sojourn into the soul of a troubled genius.  Thankfully, director Asif Kapadia does a brilliant job of starting at the very beginning, chronicling Amy's writing and recording of "Frank," and utilizing in abundance the songs she composed for this album to tell her story.  I have always said that "Frank" is Amy Winehouse's "Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill."  I make this statement only to give a very clear idea to the music seeker as to how potent "Frank" is as a body of work in defining musical landmarks, not to compare the two artists.  Give this Gem-Of-A-Jam a listen; celebrate its 12 years in our musical consciousness as the flip-side to "Back to Black;" as a totem of the unapologetic brilliance, genius, and musicianship of Amy Winehouse.

Moon Shadow -- LaBelle

I'd like to open up 2015 with one of the most underrated girl groups in the history of popular music.  There really isn't any group out there, before or since, quite like the ladies of LaBelle.  I am strictly speaking of the incarnation of Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash, and Ms. Patti here, not their earlier incarnation of Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles.  This earlier formation included Cindy Birdsong, who left the group to replace Florence Ballard in The Supremes.  Nona, Sarah, and Patti dropped the "something blue" and created the completely original trio that came to be known as, well you guessed it, LaBelle.  Something to note right off the bat about these three ladies:  Each of them has a distinctly different vocal sound, each of them sang verses, but each combined blends into something brilliantly funky.  These girls could possibly be the first girl group to share lead vocal responsibilities (no, Beyonce, the DC-3 were not innovators here.  Even divas like Patti knew the meaning of "group").  P.S. I love Beyonce, just stating the facts.

1971 would see the ladies releasing their first self-titled album on Warner Bros. records, under the management and tutelage of Vicki Wickham (a close friend and manager of the legendary Dusty Springfield).  Their second release, "Moon Shadow" (1972) spotlighted here, was their last for the Warner Bros. label.  Neither album fared well on the charts.  However, the music and life they are giving us on these recordings is some of the best, most rocking-est material ever put forth by women, especially black women.  Though Tina Turner was one of the few women in rock, the ladies of LaBelle were giving us their own brand of rock infused soul--most of it composed by group member Nona Hendryx, in addition to compositions from Sarah Dash and Patti.  LaBelle did mostly their own material at a time when girl groups were 1) dead, and 2) sang songs usually written by men, about love, and boys, and other pubescent fluff.  These ladies were giving us material that had a message about what was going on in the day.  The early 70s was the rise of feminism and LaBelle, believe it or not, were really the first girl-group in music to throw the entire musical formula for what was expected of a woman singer out the window.  Don't believe me?  Take a listen to any of their albums beginning with the self-titled through to "Chameleon" and you'll see what I'm talking about.  But here, I give you a few of my favorite tracks from "Moon Shadow."

How's this for starters: these ladies chose a song from "The Who" to open their second album, "Won't Get Fooled Again."  Written by Pete Townsend as a pseudo anti-revolution song.  With lyrics like: 

     "The change, we knew would come, we knew it all along, we were liberated, oh from the fold.  The world looks just the same, and history ain't to blame, banners were all flown in the last war."

When did The Supremes sing anything like that?  (No hate to The Supremes, a girl group with many strengths in their own right; I am a fan).
 

"Sunday's News" is a lament to opening the paper on Sunday and reading about the destruction in the world.  

     "Oh I know it's not that bad, so glad, so, so sad, we'll try and bring 'em home to you.  But what they've left behind, cries out to me, and makes it mine, what does it do to you, Sunday's news, always seems to make me blue, tell me what does it do to you?"

Potent stuff, written by Nona Hendryx.

Good things come to an end.  How do we deal?  I deal with music, and clearly so does LaBelle.  "Ain't It Sad It's Over" is a soul-groove to introspection on retrospection--a relationship, situation--something--that ended.

     "Ain't it sad it's all over, we could've sung such a sweet song, Ain't it said it's all over, it's a lonely feeling, such a lonely feeling, when you're singing all alone...You're feeling sad, it's sure to make you move, you better let your spirit grow, or be the one to lose.  I'm singing this song, lord knows I ain't singing it for myself, this song belongs to everyone who's been hurt by somebody else."

Did you catch that last line?  Once more "This song belongs to everyone, who's been hurt by somebody else."  Preach LaBelle, preach on another Nona Hendryx composition.

The ladies do a stellar cover of Cat Steven's "Moon Shadow" here.  It's nine minutes and twenty-four seconds long.  Why you ask?  Because this was recorded in a time where musical jam sessions could be considered part of what makes the record.  We don't get this today because no one has the attention span to let a groove wash over them, (turns a side eye to the children of this current generation).  This song could be your Sunday sermon for the day; as usual the ladies kept their cover completely original.

Closing the album is a track that would kickoff what would become the official LaBelle sound heard on their next 4 albums.  "People Say They're Changing," another Hendryx composition, is a song that calls all those un-self-aware people out:  

     "People say they're changing, I know they're still the same, they're just rearranging, making the rules to fit their game."

A perfect closing to the opening thesis statement of this album: I "won't be fooled again."  And neither will you with an album that is nothing but real music.

Happenstance -- Rachael Yamagata

The mark of a timeless album is this: no matter when it was produced and released, it can be played and retain its potency years later.  Decades even.  It has been exactly a decade since this album was released to the masses and exactly a decade that I have worshipped at the altar of the heartbreak deity that is Rachael Yamagata.  If you've never heard of her, you're about to.  And subsequently you will purchase everything she's ever put out.  This Gem Of A Jam has once again become incredibly timely in my life.  It must be Happenstance, although on the cd itself this album title is prefaced with "There Never Can Be..."

Where to begin with Ms. Yamagata?  The voice--with its smoke and whiskey rasp but pure upper register, or the piano and strings that wrap you up and never let you go.  I had the pleasure of seeing Rachael at the Troubadour last Monday, October 27, 2014, almost exactly a decade since I saw her at Slim's in San Francisco when she was promoting the release of "Happenstance."  I'll never forget my discovery of this record.  I was celebrating my 21st birthday in Las Vegas with my friend Amy and we were at the Virgin Megastore in Caesar's Palace Forum Shops.  Remember Virgin Megastores?  May they rest in peace.  Scanning the listening stations, I happened upon Rachael Y., put the headphones on and pressed the play button.  Two drum cues and then in came that smokey alto: "If I could take you away..." the opening track of "Be Be Your Love" penetrated my ears and into my soul.  I didn't listen to any more than that.  I took off the headphones and snatched a copy of the album from the display and purchased it.  Since then, my life has never been the same.  I LIVE for musical moments like this.  For the next year, give or take, this album never left my cd player.  I listened to it so much, that eventually my siblings began singing along and purchased their own copies--Rachael needed the sales!  The album was a critical darling if not a commercial success.

Back to my 10-year anniversary of seeing Rachael Yamagata celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Happenstance.  All these years later I remain(ed) as enraptured as ever at the level of emotional literacy this woman is capable of conveying through her music. Watching her in that intimate Troubadour setting all these years later it dawned on me: There is scarcely another artist, another singer/songwriter, who speaks the truth the minute they step to the mic.  I don't know how her music pours fourth from her hands and heart when she sits down at a piano, but every word is a gospel truth about the struggles of love and life. 

Now's the time to take notes lady and gent.  Rachael Yamagata is the best sad song writer ever.  EVER.  Yeah, I said it.  And where would we be without those songs that express all the pain and heartbreak we experience as human beings?

First things first:  Go out and buy a copy of "Happenstance."  Listen from start to finish.  Listen again.  Repeat.  Top to bottom, start to finish, this album is a masterpiece.  This word is thrown around too much about albums that really aren't (or it's alluded to, please see the erroneous four-star review of Taylor Swift's "1989."  I think the album should've been called "1989: The Birth Of A Monstrosity").  I digress.

I've taken the liberty, as I usually do, to highlight some tracks from "Happenstance."  Songs like the pleading of "Be Be Your Love" are what make this album a must-own.  I dare you to listen to this and think about that one person you've always wished you could be in love with, without shedding a tear. 

"I'll Find A Way" is a broken-hearted valentine to saying goodbye.  There are hints of hopefulness but subconsciously you can feel that she hardly believes what she's saying.

"Under My Skin" is a glorious slice of self-awareness, even when being self-aware we tend back to the old operating system.  Every word of this song, including the gorgeous melody gets under my skin.  Listen for the background cello, which plays the variation of the track "Moments With Oliver." 

"The Reason Why" is a burner of a song and possibly the most astringent on the album.  For any of us who've ever come to terms with a relationship that was destined to fail--with someone who had one-sided, exclusive rights to dictate how the two of you were going to be with each other, this one's for you.  Another justification for the toxic-shock-syndrome-of-a-person I had relations with. 

"So I will head out alone, hope for the best, we can hang our heads down as we skip the goodbyes, and you can tell the world what you want them to hear, I've got nothing left to lose my dear, so I'm up for the little white lies; but you and I know the reason why I'm gone and you're still there." 

Eat shit.  

"Quiet" might very well be one of the best songs ever written about a relationship.  The reason being: it's a song written about a relationship in which it was as if you were never even there--as if you were never a blip on that person's radar to begin with.

"And it'll be just as quiet when I leave, as it was when I first got here; I don't expect anything, I don't expect anything to change when I leave." 

I'm tellin' you, Rachael knows how to write 'em.  If you love music and want to know the feeling of being graced by one of the most prolific songwriters ever, I suggest you get this album ASAP.  And consider this entry as more than just Happenstance that I've introduced you to Rachael Yamagata.  

Bare -- Annie Lennox

Here's the thing: Legal documents, bankruptcies, booster shots, etc. are measured "good" for 10 years.  After ten years, it's time to update.  I've adopted this ten-year rule for Gem Of A Jam.  What I mean is, an album that is 10 years or older is eligible to be discussed on this blog.  (There's something so thrilling about making my own rules--what a rebel rouser!)  While I've been on an early '80s R&B kick, thanks in part to Teena Marie and Aretha's Arista Records albums from "Aretha" to "Who's Zoomin' Who?" I felt compelled this entry to write about an album that I purchased some time ago but never gave more thought to than recently.  Actually, I am so entrenched in this record that it's quickly become a favorite of mine.  Albums that do this usually track-for-track embody my personal emotional zeitgeist--and this album hits all the right places.  It's also a plus that A. Lennox is so strikingly beautiful and I adore her androgyny.

Released in June of 2003, Annie Lennox's "Bare" is an album that took her eight years to release after her album "Medusa," a collection of uniquely original cover songs.  When asked in an interview for this album about her writing process and why she writes "sad" or "melancholy" songs, Annie Lennox responded that she only writes about what she's experienced or experiencing.  She experienced a lot in those eight years.  She raised two daughters, and was married and divorced twice.  She was also struggling with her depression, a struggle I know all too well.  Not that these past few months have been a totally bleak experience for me, but every year, towards the year's end I am uncontrollably immersed in an emotional state of introspection, followed by states of pensiveness, existential ambiguity, and lack of accomplishment.  Some people who experience feelings such as these can grab their proverbial "boot straps" pull them up, and rise above.  For me, they can feel like a cinderblock chained to my ankle as I'm thrown off a pier into the ocean.  It's Virginia Woolf time for me, as I refer to it.  Thankfully, as my saving grace, I have music to get me through.  This album is doing just that now.  Even if I was slated to write about The S.O.S. Band, I found myself being called to cover this record in lieu.  Stumbling back upon or revisiting an album that I've had for years, but initially didn't have as much as an impact on me when I purchased it is what makes me fall in love with music all over again. It's also a major reason why I started this blog. 

"Bare" captures the feelings of frustration, hurt, anger, and self-doubt in such a striking musical way--it's difficult for me to single out a track because they all work together in such a way--they are perfectly simpatico.  Musically Annie Lennox has such a knack for going through the 5 stages of grief in a song (please listen to "Why" from her debut solo album "Diva").  However, there are passages from songs here that I feel should be shared to gain a sense of emotional intensity about this record.  Nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Album and being certified gold, "Bare" is an album I've bumped up on my personal list of favorite albums ever.  

There are melodies on "Bare" such as "Pavement Cracks," a song that begins with liltingly minor verses but erupt into choruses of fury.  

"Wonderful" is a brilliantly arranged song of hurt and anger: 

     "Idiot me, stupid fool, how could you be so uncool?  To fall in love with someone who, doesn't really care for you, it's so obscure...  But I feel Wonderful..." Annie painfully coos and then suddenly she flies into a rage: "God It makes me feels so blue, every time I think about you, all of the heat of my desire, smokin' like some crazy fire, come on here look at me, where I stand, can't you see my heart burnin' in my hands?  Do you want me?  Do you not?  Does it feel cold baby?  Does it feel hot?"  Don't let the song title fool you.

"The Hurting Time" is a gorgeous ballad of truth: 

     "A million little deaths you've died, the times that you've been crucified, the more you've loved and lost and tried and still could not be satisfied; when will you be satisfied?  Not till the hurtin' time begins."

"Honestly" lives up to its name:

     "Was I Mad?  Foolish me, to succumb so easily...  Fools like me get so easily taken and fools like me can be so mistaken...  Honestly."

"Bitter Pill" has no subtext to it--Annie just lays it all out there:

     "Bitter pill to swallow, how it makes me choke, how the hell am I gonna find happiness and peace of mind when I'm losin' all the time?  Yea bitter."

The song "Loneliness" is word for word an experience I continue to struggle with.

     "And I've got a longin' that's hard to find, won't give me no peace of mind, something that I've lived with all along.  Days and weeks and months and years, fillin' in the time my dear, tryin' to find the place where I belong...  Loneliness is a place that I know well."

Annie Lennox has always been one of those artists that have such emotional intensity when she performs, not to mention as a songwriter.  I LIVE for artists such as Annie--artists that surrender themselves to the music.  Annie does so exquisitely on this Gem Of A Jam, "Bare."  Thankfully, she has a new album coming out in a few weeks.  "Nostalgia" is an album of cover song interpreted by Annie. However, they are songs that are nearly eighty-plus years old.  This new album should be interesting, and thoroughly Annie Lennox.

Lady T -- Teena Marie

Since hipping you to the last Gem Of A Jam, I have been on a real 80s R&B kick these days--but more specifically, R&B music made between 1980 and 1982.  I have to single out that small amount of time because by 1983, music had become more synth and "keytar" laden than ever and the R&B music made in those initial three years of the '80s still had residual Disco in them.  I LIVE for Disco.  But that's another G.O.A.J. entry.  Without further ado, "Entre vous Lady T."  Teena Marie, the brilliant multi-instrumentalist with a voice spanning 4 octaves, was a musical force to be reckoned with.  This, of course, is an understatement.  I'm not sure there are enough adjectives one could use to describe this truly unique artist--an artist in every sense of the word.  In today's musical world, where country kitties and pop prepubescents think playing an instrument means pushing a button on a drum machine, Teena Marie played everything, produced her albums, and made music from her gut, her passion and her emotion.  She wasn't concerned with hits or whatever was "hot."  She did her own thing, on her own terms... and went thoroughly unrecognized for it.

Mary Christine Brockert rechristened herself "Teena Marie" (she went by the nickname "Tina" as a child) and released her first song and album in 1979.  "Wild And Peaceful" had Teena teaming up with her mentor Rick James (who called her "Lady T") on the lead single "I'm A Sucker For Your Love."  Teena had substantial radio play and success with that single but "Lady T" is the album that would introduce her to the masses and surprise many.  The cover of T. Marie's first album didn't have her face on it, so most who heard her material assumed she was black.  "Lady T" changed the perception of the color of Funk and R&B.  Teena always referred to herself as "a black artist with white skin."  Regardless of racial applique, Teena Marie created some of the finest grooves in history.

February 14, 1980 got a little sexier when "Lady T" was released.  The album was produced by Richard Rudolph, the husband of Minnie Riperton (who died in 1979 at age 31)--an inspiration of Marie's and the singer to which Teena dedicated this record.  Together, Richard and Teena would create some explosive tracks that, if you ask me, will have you two-stepping in no time.  Thankfully most of Teena's work has been remastered and re-released via iTunes and CD.  I'm grateful that this album in addition to "Irons In The Fire" and "It Must Be Magic," have been remastered and expanded.  These three albums I call her Trilogy of Jams--they are my absolute favorite records of her career, and will definitely be outlined in future Gem Of A Jam entries.

"Behind The Groove" is one of my favorite songs ever.  With a bass line and backbeat that actually beg you to get behind it, this song is one of the best dance tracks ever written.  Who doesn't love an ode to a groove?  Teena Marie was the Queen of the groove.

One of the best examples of Teena's ability to show her softer side is "Now That I Have You," a serene-stringed ballad written by Richard Rudolph and sung to perfection by Tee.

Another favorite of mine off this record is "Aladdin's Lamp," a jam so luscious I melt each time I hear it.  Teena's voice is in full effect here; passion intact, she goes from lows to highs and holds notes for lengths of time that'll have you gasping for air.

"Why Did I Fall In Love With You" is a mid-tempo jam with a vocal arrangement that is a singer's dream.  It's a delicious blend of Soul and Jazz, with a touch of a 60s girl-group as evident in the layered harmonies.

If you want to hear a 7-year-old Maya Rudolph, daughter of Richard Rudolph and Minnie Riperton, "Too Many Colors (Tee's Interlude)" has Maya asking "Teena what would the world be like if everyone saw with their hearts, instead of their eyes?"  Maya was somewhat instrumental in the making of this album--she helped her father transcribe lyrics to the song "Behind The Groove" while on a car ride to Teena's Laurel Canyon house.

Never one to let error go uncorrected, I have to make the case for the voice of Teena Marie.  Never is she credited as one of the greatest singers to have ever recorded--not even on a Rolling Stone List of Singers!  She had such a powerhouse voice that was so malleable and capable of anything: a sultry chanteuse, a badass rock chick, an operatic diva, or a bombastic belter.  It's a shame that she's not wider known these days to the younger generations--Ariana Grande is the perfect example of a disciple of Lady T, although Ariana may be unfamiliar with her--leaving her with "one more problem."  See what I did there?

As Lady T said "So get on up and shake your body, open up and take the music in...Get behind the groove!"  Oh, and get this Gem Of A Jam "Lady T."

This Girl's In Love With You -- Aretha Franklin

"Ain't no preacher like Aretha when I'm feelin' real blue" is a sentiment I share deeply with one of my favorite current artists Emily King.  It's a lyric from her song "Radio" off her brilliant "Seven EP."  Not to mention, it's a brilliant lyric and scripture as far as I'm concerned.  Being that I've been feeling "real blue" lately from lack of closure in certain areas of my life, I felt it appropriate to give you this Gem Of A Jam, and my personal favorite "Re-Re" Record "This Girl's In Love With You."

This may be my favorite Aretha album on a subconscious level because it's likely her most personal.  At this time she was coming out of a 7-year marriage with an abusive husband who was outed in a controversial Time Magazine as such.  Even though there is only one sole writing contribution from Aretha here, the material covered has a poignant, soul-stirring, melancholy undertone--even though there are plenty of up-tempos here.  In that Time article, Miss Re was quoted as saying something that is so relevant to me emotionally at this very moment:

"Trying to grow up is hurting, you know.  You make mistakes.  You try to learn from them, and when you don't, it hurts even more.  And I've been hurt --hurt bad.  I might be just 26, but I'm an old woman in disguise--26 goin' on 65."

As I said before "Ain't no preacher like Aretha when I'm feelin' real blue."  This album is yet another testament in my personal bible from my god: MUSIC.

Opening with "Son Of A Preacher Man," a song originally offered to Aretha but turned down by her due to it's religious nature, it became an iconic hit for another brilliant soulstress Dusty Springfield on her historic "Dusty In Memphis" album.  According to Dusty's biography "Dancing With Demons," Aretha heard Dusty's recording of the song and in passing said to Dusty "Girl, you can sang!"  This sent Dusty to the stratosphere as Aretha was a huge influence on her.  In later interviews Dusty would always say she prefers Aretha's version to her own.  They are markedly different, one is more a come-hither, dripping with sinful sex and Aretha's is more a blues/country story version--not to mention in a different time signature.

"Share Your Love With Me" is a slow scorcher of a tune that says everything about the mistake one has made on passing up Aretha: "And there's no one blinder, than you won't see, it's a shame if you don't share some of your love with me.  I can't help it, oh no, he is gone; I must try to forget because I've got to live on."  Hashtag truth.  

"Dark End Of The Street" is, quite honestly, the best version of this song.  Written by Chips Moman and Dan Penn, (responsible for the "Memphis Sound" that made Elvis' later work and Dusty Springfield's masterpiece what it is) it's a song lamenting an affair of forbidden lovers. Aretha's vocal goes straight for the jugular and delivers.  You'll collapse in tears when she sings: "And when the daylight rolls around, if by chance you shall go downtown, If we should meet, baby just walk on by, please, please, please, please darlin' don't you cry; 'cause tonight we'll meet, we will meet at the dark end of the street."  It'll bring you to your knees, I promise.

Rumor has it that "Let It Be" was written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon specifically for Miss Franklin.  Initially she allegedly didn't take to the song but recorded it and managed to release her version before The Beatles released theirs.  I mean, the song is practically tailor-made for her.  When she belts out "Leave it alone!  Let it be!" at the bridge of the song I'm sent.  Aretha does another Beatles cover here with "Eleanor Rigby" putting her own spin on it, so much so that it sounds like a totally different song!

"This Girl's In Love With You" is a Burt Bacharach/Hal David song that was recorded a couple times before Aretha's; one of the previous recordings was by Dionne Warwick.  But nobody's compares to this version, which will simultaneously break your heart and make you fall in love at the same time!

"People all around me, but I don't even have a friend, lord knows I've been trying, and he knows I just can't win.  Everything I do, yeah, seems to turn out wrong, sometimes I wish now, that I'd never been born...It just ain't fair." Aretha puts a hurtin' on us with this jam "It Ain't Fair."

Aretha's cover of "The Weight" made famous a few years earlier by The Band, is a bluesy, countrified version of the song that, although not as great as the original, holds up nevertheless.

One of my all-time favorite Aretha tracks is "Call Me."  It's a gorgeous ballad between two people so in love they need reassurance that each has made it safely to their destination.  Aretha's inspiration for the song came from seeing a couple parting on Park Avenue in New York, the man crossed the street and shouted, "I love you!" to the woman who replied  "And I love you too."  To which the guy responded, "Call me the moment that you get there!"  She said "I will!" and the song went down in history as a gorgeous hit for Miss Re.

Closing the set is a song that I think is appropriate for those moments where we just need to "Sit Down And Cry."  "No one, no one could have warned me, that you would scar me, yeah, and hurt me so bad, and that I'd sit down and cry, baby, over you."  When Aretha screams on the word "scar" you know someone did her wrong and hurt her real bad.  I know how you feel Aretha; I know how you feel.  I'm gonna sit down and cry with you.

Released in January of 1970, Aretha would release another album later in that year, the lovely "Spirit In The Dark" which may get a GOAJ entry of its own at some point.  Until then, let Aretha be your preacher, especially if you're feelin' real blue.

Young, Gifted And Black -- Aretha Franklin

If I had to choose a favorite Aretha Franklin album--had being the operative word--I simply couldn't do it.  It can't be done.  Sure, there are albums that are stronger song-for-song than others but I adore the Queen of Soul too much to play favorites.  Aside from "This Girl's In Love With You," "Young, Gifted And Black" is an Aretha Franklin album that I always come back to most frequently.  It is the album I have purchased as gifts for friends, and one that holds a special place for me in my ever-growing, already-crowded pantheon of must-have music.  Overcrowding of music is impossible, unless it's garbage, which unfortunately is subjective.  Taste may be relative, but genius is exclusive.  

When it was released in 1972, "Young, Gifted And Black" was as poignant then as it is now.  I feel that this album is especially important in this moment of civil unrest--putting it mildly!  When Aretha was preparing for this album, she was at a time of rebirth--creatively and emotionally.  She had ended her marriage to an abusive husband, given birth to her fourth son and was emerging from a chrysalis of introspection.  She was in a creative rapture, writing four songs of her own for this record, only her second record to include as many personal compositions behind 1970's "Spirit In The Dark."  Most of all, she flourished with a new sense of self-acceptance and self-confidence and she was ready to shout it from the rooftops: "You are young, gifted and you're black, we must begin to tell our young.  There's a world waiting for you!  Yours is the quest that's just begun."

The album title and song come from another genius woman, Nina Simone, with lyrics by Weldon Irvine.  Written for Simone's friend Lorraine Hansberry author of "Raisin In the Sun," the song appeared on Nina Simone's 1970 album "Black Gold" and was subsequently recorded by Mr. Donny Hathaway for his 1970 debut "Everything Is Everything" (an album that will make a Gem Of A Jam appearance).  With Nina having a more underground audience and Donny Hathaway on the cusp of breaking through, Aretha was well established as a mainstream artist to get this message out to her masses. As quoted in the 1993 Atlantic Master's cd liner notes, via 1973 Essence Magazine, Aretha stated:

     "Being black means being beautiful.  It also means struggles, and it also means pain.  And every black woman knows of that struggle, that pain and she feels it whenever she looks at her man and her sons.  Being black also means searching for oneself and one's place among others.  There is so much we need to find.  Like more purpose in life, and more self-love.  That must come first.  It certainly had to come first for me."

Understanding that this was the theme of what "YGAB" was created on 42 years ago, it's remarkable and prophetic that its sentiment would still be felt today; which is what makes this album virtually timeless.  Because of this depth, Aretha casts herself in the role of singer/songwriter in the same realm as Joni Mitchell and Carole King--writing more autobiographically than ever before.  This is an album where Aretha not only had something to sing; she had something to say.

It is because of young, gifted and black artists that I have a rich love of music.  It is also thanks to gifted and black artists that the United States has it's very own rich musical history and musical form--Jazz.  We must "begin to tell our young" no matter what their race, the contributions that gifted and black people have given our culture and society.  I believe the breakthrough to peace is through music.  Especially ARETHA!

Glancing at the track listings, there is a wonderful mixture of self-love headiness and reflective honesty in these songs.  Opening the album with "Oh Me Oh My (I'm A Fool For You Baby)," a song that was first popularized by the Scottish songstress Lulu but is, in my opinion, perfected here, Aretha is in full love hangover.  Everything about this arrangement and vocal is perfection.  I only wished they elongated the end as she had in this 1973 Soul Train performance, one of my all-time favorite Aretha performances:

It doesn't get any better than "Day Dreaming," a self-penned ode to a famous R&B crooner that Aretha had a crush on (allegedly Dennis Edwards of The Temptations).  Donny Hathaway is playing electric piano on this track.  To quote Mariah Carey, this song is "heady and sublime!"

How can anyone resist "Rock Steady," a groove so slick it gets me in a dancing mood every time.  My lovely and talented big sister Kel, who considers this jam part of her karaoke repertoire, first introduced me to this song.  Another Aretha-written song, everything about this record is firing on all cylinders.  From its cowbell clack to it's call and response background singers "what it is!" this was and is an instant classic.  Excuse me while I "step and move my hips with a feeling from side to side."

"All The King's Horses," a personal song about a relationship falling apart, is one of the most personal songs Aretha has composed. The arrangement is quite elaborate; at once a slow jam, erupting into a fiery gospel spiritual and back again!

One of Aretha's favorite songs ever is "A Brand New Me."  Written by Thom Bell, Jerry Butler, and Kenneth Gamble of the Gamble & Huff "Philly Soul," the song was popularized first by Dusty Springfield in a gorgeous, sweeping version.  Aretha related strongly to the song with her new sense of self that she had wished she recorded it first.  Nevertheless, she does a reading of it here that is equally as melodic, with a fiery wail!

One of my favorite songs on this record and perhaps the most personal song Aretha has written at this point in her career is "First Snow In Kokomo."  Reminiscing on the family home of her then current beaux and father of her newly born fourth son, this song is perhaps what set Aretha on a whole new level as a singer/songwriter.  Not many know that Aretha has been a proficient pianist since the days in her father's church and has written songs sporadically throughout her 50-plus year career!

The album closes with cover songs, a church-going reading of The Beatle's "The Long And Winding Road" followed by a sometimes maligned but personal favorite "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)."  I'm a sucker for Aretha's gospel wail and here it is in full effect.  In addition, 'Retha's version is a different attitudinal take on The Delfonics' version.  Whereas their version is very heartbroken and lovelorn, Ms. Franklin's is a kiss-off that leaves her lover hanging out to dry.  "Didn't I put it on ya?" she breaks it down on the bridge.  This has to be one of my favorite Aretha covers EVER.  I usually stand alone on this one.  The closing "Border Song (Holy Moses)" written by Elton John has Lady Soul doing what she does best: anointing us in a song-sermon as we make our way out of the church that is the Gem Of A Jam "Young, Gifted And Black."

A note on the producers of this record: Jerry Wexler, Atlantic Records' most prolific producer coined the term "rhythm and blues."  He worked with Aretha at the very beginning of her Atlantic career.  He is the driving force behind bringing out the best in Aretha and he managed to do it for 9 or so albums!  Tom Dowd was also as prolific as recording engineer on Aretha's sessions.  Lest I forget Mr. Arif Mardin, arranger and conductor here.  You may recognize his name from previous GOAJ blog posts (see Bette Midler).  

More Than A New Discovery -- Laura Nyro

*Album can be listened to at the end of the blog

If it were not for this album, 2011 may have been my last year on earth.  Dramatic as it sounds, that's precisely how life changing this album is for me.  Not since my childhood has an artist had such an impact on me as the legendary Laura Nyro.  I've been familiar with Laura's work for quite a while: as a pre-teen I had a greatest hits compilation of The 5th Dimension, my Mom had exposed me to Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and a favorite Barbra Streisand song of hers has always been "Stoney End."  So I had been exposed to Laura Nyro the songwriter; her songs were hits for all the aforementioned artists. But Laura Nyro the artist didn't permeate my heart until my 20s.  It wasn't until my existential meltdown at 28 (am I even in the clear yet?) that Laura Nyro took hold of my soul--and I am better because of her.

I happened to be living in New York at the time--Laura's native city.  Perhaps she was haunting me.  Perhaps she was there to guide me.  Who can say?  I am not certain of such apparitions but I am certain that the melodies, lyrics and ultimately, that voice--that distinctly unique voice--were what saved me from myself.  That was 3 years ago.

Recorded in 1965 by Laura at just 19 years old and released in 1967, this album was ahead of its time.  This is the precursor to Joni Mitchell's debut "Song To A Seagull," and Carole King's breakthrough, "Tapestry."  This is the album that would give birth to the pop-with-pathos song structure that became the trademark of many singer/songwriters in the early 1970s all the way through to the present.  Combining Pop, Jazz, Broadway, R&B, Soul, Folk, Gospel and Rock, "More Than A New Discovery" was the album that would allow popular songwriters to write anything and everything.  You read about any pop musician's songwriting and you will find Laura Nyro amongst their influences.  In a time where music is incredibly homogenized, Laura Nyro still remains an enigmatic entity of her very own. 

Laura didn't just write her own songs; she rewrote the rules on songwriting.  Not only did she mix every genre imaginable, she changed tempos, time signatures and keys drastically--a song that began as a ballad would erupt into an up-tempo; a gospel-like spiritual turned into a Broadway chorus line.  Not too shabby for a Bronx-born girl who was self-taught on the piano.  Shy and introverted, Laura would hear symphonies in her head and spend her career attempting to convey them in her music.  Often described as being difficult, it simply was a matter of translation--Laura spoke a different musical language than the producers assigned to produce and arrange her albums.  She would even describe her music in terms of colors rather than instrumentation.  It was enough to drive practically everyone she worked with nuts.  Not even this album was to her standards--she was too much of a genius, not so much a perfectionist.  

Ever the observer, Laura wrote about the world around her.  The themes on this album are much deeper than most of what was on the radio at the time.  So deep were the themes in fact, that this album was a flop and produced no hit singles for Laura; save for a minor hit with "Wedding Bell Blues," a song most know as a hit for The 5th Dimension.  For my generation, it's the song Vada Sultenfuss sings in the heart-wrenching movie "My Girl."  With themes ranging from depression to death, atheism to drug addiction to plain old love, 'New Discovery' stands as quite possibly the first contemporary pop album in the history of American music.  In these songs you can hear echoes of Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Sara Bareilles, Vanessa Carlton and Lady Gaga; not to mention Elton John, hugely inspired by Laura's album "New York Tendaberry," and Joni Mitchell herself.  

Though Laura didn't have hits with her versions of her songs, other groups' entire careers practically depended upon her songs for their success.  The 5th Dimension covered most of her material: "Wedding Bell Blues, Blowin' Away, Stoned-Soul Picnic, Sweet Blindness, Time And Love, Save The Country, Blackpatch, He's A Runner."  Blood, Sweat, and Tears had a massive hit self-titled album which included, "And When I Die" and "He's A Runner."  Barbra Streisand had a hit with "Stoney End."  Thankfully in 1999, "More Than A New Discovery" was awarded a Grammy Hall of Fame award.  Laura was never nominated throughout her entire career.

Only a few years ago was Laura awarded her rightful place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Bette Midler did the honors!  Take a look at a video below of Sara Bareilles performing "Stoney End" in tribute:

As with June Christy's "Something Cool" (blog post here) Laura Nyro's debut album is a full listening experience and I truly believe each song is integral to the piece as a whole--every track hinges on the revolutionary sound of this record.  Unfortunately it is unavailable in iTunes, but can be purchased on compact disc or vinyl at most online retailers.  The album was re-released as "The First Songs" in the 1970s but to the detriment of the masterwork, it is not the original song sequence as intended on first release so please find the original album if you can.  I hope this Gem Of A Jam changes your life as much as it continues mine; as the title suggests, you're about to make 'more than a new discovery' with the completely original Laura Nyro.

Call My Name -- Etta James

It's extremely difficult for me to pick an album other than "At Last!" by the incomparable Etta James to jump-start what will most definitely be a series of Gems Of Jams to follow.  In choosing, I decided to go with one of my personal favorites of hers, an obscure record, but the album that launched a dirtier and grittier sound from Etta.  The extraordinary beauty of Etta's early '60s work is that she was a piranha cast into a sea of orchestral arrangements.  The music was pretty, but her voice (even at 22) brought a razor-like growl to each track that nearly spliced the strings off the symphony backing her.  She was also surrounded by white background singers to appeal to white record-buyers and would sing so loud; she'd bust a microphone every now and then.  Released in 1967, "Call My Name" is a 12-song groove that will have you subconsciously "stank-facing" at any given moment.  You might even find yourself doing the "Stroll" (see video below) to all 12 of these Gems and Jams.  (A shout-out to my Dad who taught my siblings and me this dance.   He was 15 years old when this dance craze swept through the soda shops and high school gymnasiums).

Jamesetta Hawkins was born January 25, 1938 in Los Angeles and grew up for a time in San Francisco.  Her mother was "The Mystery Lady" as she refers to her in her superb, highly, highly recommended autobiography "Rage To Survive: The Etta James Story" --and I do mean the best musician autobiography I've ever read.  Her mother earned that sobriquet because she was a prostitute and Etta's father one of her many Johns.  Changing her name to "Etta James" she scored her first hit with girl-group "The Peaches" called "The Wallflower" (a.k.a.) "Roll With Me, Henry."  She was 16 when she recorded it.  

Signed to Chess Records and seven albums in, Etta gave us "Call My Name," the first album of hers to be more or less recorded in a series of complete sessions.  Previous albums were made up of songs recorded individually over spans of time and strung together; this was because Etta was living a rough personal life of drugs, booze, bounced checks, and bad boys.  Whereas the first six albums would have Etta giving us soul-stirring symphonic blues gems, 'Name' would ditch the strings and give us raw everything: blues guitars, heavy high-hats, pounding pianos, horns, kick drums, black background singers and a huskier, 28-year-old Etta who knew more than a thing or two by this time, about pain.  On that background singer tip: a young Barbara Acklin, of "Love Makes A Woman, Am I The Same Girl" fame and author of "Have You Seen Her" by the Chi-Lites, is singing backup on this record!

Of course listening to Etta James, it's no surprise that her biggest fan was Janis Joplin who sounds so much like her, you can barely tell the difference.  There's a great story in Etta's autobiography about Janis--so READ the book!  We lost Etta only two years ago, but have artists such as Christina Aguilera, Jojo, and of course Adele to carry on her legacy.  Check out Christina's incredible version of "Something's Got A Hold On Me" or Adele's rendition of "Fool That I Am."  Leela James did a tribute album to Etta.  Or perhaps you've heard Beyonce's Grammy winning rendition of "At Last."

"Call My Name" opens with one of my supreme favorite Etta records "Happiness," a mid-tempo heartbreak with a gorgeous melody and a vocal drenched in despair.  The part that sends chills down my spine every time is the key change when Etta lets out her signature growl on the lyrics "Oh, the way I feel baby, I wonder if it's really real, I'm so happy, everything is a dream to me; and If someone wakes me, I'll be so unhappy, if it's a dream that I dream, come on now, let me dream!"  It doesn't get any betta than Etta!

"That's All I Want From You" is one of those "stroll" jams I was talking about earlier.  Etta makes her plea--a plea that I can relate to this moment, when she tells her suitor that all she wants is "a new love that slowly grows and grows, not one that comes and goes, that's all I want from you."  Now one could assume innuendo here as many R&B recordings prior to the liberated late 60s were laced with sexual subtext.  Why the very term "Rock n' Roll" implies rocking and rolling in the sheets.  (Please see Little Richard's original "Tutti Frutti" lyrics or The Dominoes "Sixty Minute Man" for further explanation).

"842-3089 (Call My Name)" is a hip-shaker that's all about the hook-up.  "All you got to do is call me baby, call me honey and I'll come.  In the midnight hour all you got to do is moan; in the early morning all you got to do is let me hear you groan and I'll be there at your beck-and-call...842-3089."  Etta is giving us full sex screams on this song!

"Don't Pick Me For Your Fool" is years ahead of Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know."  With its very frank lyrics, "you say you want me baby, but how can I believe, it's not a single day passed baby that you're not out cheating on me; baby don't pick me for your fool."  This song is as relatable today as it was 47 years ago!

Etta does a rendition of The Impressions' "It's All Right" that I think sets fire to the original.  She speeds up the tempo and turns up the bass and horns.  But of course, where would the song be without that trademark growl vocal and those screams!  

I have to take a minute to recognize another boutique company that has thankfully re-released all of Etta's obscure albums beginning with 1965's "Queen Of Soul," continuing with "Call My Name," "Losers Weepers" (1971) and 1976's "Etta Is Betta Than Evvah!"  Each album includes an abundance of bonus tracks that were singles or other recordings from the period of time the album was released.  These albums are known as the Kent Soul years and are released by Ace Records under license form Universal Music Group that owns the masters.  Unfortunately this album and the other releases mentioned just above are not available to digitally download, but are available as Import compact discs.  Ace Records is a British label.  You can visit the incredible catalog of releases below by clicking the button.  The Etta albums of the late 60s are Gems Of Jams supreme, and are more than worthy of dusting off for the Millennial music lover out there!

Something Cool -- June Christy

Is it hot or is it just me?  Sitting near the breeze my window air conditioning unit whispers out on the high setting, I can't help but think about iced tea... or lemonade... or a Moscow Mule.  Or June Christy's landmark Jazz album "Something Cool."  Where in the Boz Scaggs blog I was kicking off your summer with a top-down-on-the-whip album, I'm bidding adieu, albeit early, with this stunning--STUNNING record.  

June Christy is one of my favorite singers ever.  I am immensely influenced by her technique--the way she can swing a note from a crescendo to a whisper.  She never over-sings (I may on occasion).  Her voice sounds as if she drank just enough Manhattans and smoked just enough Pall Malls and then called it quits with them.  The voice you hear in the samples above is the voice of a woman who is probably at the top of my "most underrated singers of all time list"--a list that gets longer by the second.

Shirley Luster was from Illinois, born 1925, and went through a few name changes before she landed on June Christy and began singing as the vocalist for The Stan Kenton Orchestra.  In the late 1940s she wanted to branch out and teamed up with bandleader Pete Rugolo who hailed from the San Francisco Bay Area (hey-now-hey!) and would go on to arrange and produce 9 or so albums for June, all of them masterpieces in my biased mind.  But none was such a landmark as "Something Cool" an album that would inspire the recording and producing process of other albums that were far more gargantuan hits, namely Carole King's "Tapestry" produced by Merry Clayton alum and label CEO Lou Adler.  'Cool' is considered the album that ushered in the "Cool Jazz" movement post WWII.  This is Jazz that is inspired by classical music and is more formal and orchestral than other types of Jazz, i.e. Bebop.  

Issued as a 10" LP with seven songs in mono in 1954, a fuller version was released in 1955 with the seven songs plus four more, totaling eleven and then the album was re-recorded altogether in 1960 to accommodate for Stereo.  Yes my music loves, for those who do not know the difference, in early recording there was monaural and then later stereo.  Monaural basically means that what you hear was recorded all at once and fed into one channel into the soundboard.  Stereo was developed to mimic human hearing since we have two ears on either side of our head.  What is fantastic about the iTunes version of "Something Cool" above and the CD version is that it includes both 11 original mono tracks and the re-recorded 11 stereo tracks.  (Please make sure it is the 2001 pressing; all pressings of CD before this are out of original song sequence).  The vocals are different on each (there was a 5 year gap between recordings) but I encourage you to listen to the MONO version.  When you hear this, picture Miss Christy standing at a microphone with a whole orchestra behind her.  That is how this record was recorded to vinyl.  It's like you're right there with June, watching her croon with the orchestra.  The bass that walks, the brass that shouts, the strings that weep, the flutes and woodwinds that swirl like a cool breeze--it's a magnificent listening experience and I encourage you to sit somewhere: a beach, a bench, a bed--and listen to this flawless musical experience.  I've got chills just writing about it.

Usually I single out favorite tracks, or tracks of note on an album, even though I truly believe albums are full start to finish experiences.  You wouldn't look at 2 or 3 of the pictures in a family photo album would you? That logic applies here.  From the intro flutes and June's restless croon on the title track "Something cool, I'd like to order something cool, it's so warm here in town and the heat gets me down yes, I'd like something cool."

Miss Christy's phrasing is quite unique.  The way she pronounces her 'O' vowels are rather spread making the word "moon" sound less like "moooon" and more like "Mewn."  Even her "oohs" are more "ews."  I've included some video below of her performing live.  Have a look at this singing genius:

For me, June Christy is a mystery--well, for most actually.  Not much is known about her personal life.  She struggled with alcoholism and was agnostic, though according to Wikipedia she was well versed in philosophies and theologies.  Have a look at more of her in the brief gallery below.  What I and we music lovers know for sure is that it is our duty to keep her legacy alive.  If I had the financial wherewithal, I would distribute a copy of "Something Cool" to anyone and everyone.  It's that good of an album.  It may not sound like it at first listen, but set it on repeat and you'll be a believer.

Songs For The New Depression -- Bette Midler

Ok, I know I border on the obsessed with The Divine Miss M, but there are three reasons I chose this as my Gem Of A Jam entry.  First, I am still in my "I miss New York" headspace and this album was on loop the last time I was there.  Second, there is a six-degrees-of-separation from Phoebe Snow (previous entry), and third, 2 weeks ago this album was quietly re-released in a limited remastered edition by boutique music label Friday Music.  But overall, it's a fucking great album.  Period.

After two humongous albums and three tours: The Divine Miss M Tour (1972), the Bette Midler Tour (1973), and her Tony-winning, record breaking (and holding) Clams On The Half Shell Revue (1974) Bette took a much needed break (click for a brief pictorial below).  Back in the recording studio Bette began piecing together the album she'd release in 1976 "Songs For The New Depression" (this makes 4 ridiculously great albums released that year, please see the Boz Scaggs, ELO, and Billy Joel G.O.A.J. posts).

Another classic Bette amalgamation of genre jumping, 'New Depression' would be the last non-live album for quite some time that included songs from Bette's Bathhouse days.  This album served as two firsts for Bette: she debuted her skills as a songwriter and she sang a duet with poet laureate Bob Dylan of whose "I Shall Be Released" she covered on her second album.  This album would also see her switching up her initial producing team of Barry Manilow and Arif Mardin.  Barry was busy making a name for himself as a solo artist and Arif was busy redefining The Bee Gees' sound to discofied success, although he would still contribute co-production and arranging.  Enter Moogy Klingman as Executive Producer and a small barrage of genius musicians--Todd Rundgren ("Hello It's Me" singer/songwriter) on guitar and vocals and a then unknown Luther Vandross.

Opening this record is a take on the Frank Sinatra standard "Strangers In The Night" that only Bette could pull off; a disco version that will make you wanna step in the name of love.  Disco was just beginning to saturate the airwaves and Bette threw her hat in the ring.  Peaking at #7 on the U.S. Dance Charts, it still holds up as a hell-of-a unique version and Bette does some of her best singing here.  If you listen closely, you'll hear a young Luther Vandross on backing vocals!

That six degrees between Phoebe Snow and Bette I mentioned at the top: Bette does a cover of Phoebe's "I Don't Want The Night To End" to dreamy perfection here.  Written by Phoebe Snow and included on Snow's debut album (see previous post), Bette and Phoebe's version are actually quite different, almost to the point of sounding like two different songs.  Even some of the lyrics are different.  I've singled out this track because this song is one that really conjures up a feeling and imagery of New York in the 70s for me.  It's so dreamy, and Bette's panting reverb vocal is so evocative of a muggy 70s New York summer.  I swoon.

"Mr. Rockefeller" is Bette's contribution as a writer to the album.  A character song, the tune has Bette acting out a phone call.  This is a great song to watch Bette perform live, as she did in her "Depression Tour" for this album.  I've included a video of her performing it.  This song actually might sound familiar to you Kanye West fans out there because he ingeniously (by Bette association) sampled it on his song "Last Call" on his debut album "The College Dropout."

"Old Cape Cod" is a gorgeous standard that echoes Bette's "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" sentiment.  Actually, this song was recorded for "The Divine Miss M" album but never used and was remixed, along with "Marahuana" (album spelling) by Arif Mardin for 'Depression.'  'Cape Cod' has Bette again doing all the vocal parts, in the vain of The Andrews Sister.  It's such a lovely version, and will make you want "lobster stew."

"Buckets Of Rain" has Miss M. in duet with Bob Dylan.  What other artist aside from Bette do you know that can do disco and a country-blues thigh slapper in one album?!  Bob Dylan has always served as a dream artist for Bette to collaborate with and here she got to work with him in the flesh.  Their banter at the end of this track is especially humorous.  

In another instance of mashing up, Bette does a stunning existential reading of Tom Waits "Shiver Me Timbers" a song that has become more a synonymous staple with Bette's catalog than Mr. Waits'.  This song hits close to home for me because at its depth, it's a song about trying to get away--to some place of peace.  We can all use that, and Bette breaks your heart sending the listener there.

The final installment of my "three reasons why I chose this album" is to plug a company I think is doing a fantastic service to these albums and artists from days gone by.  Friday Music is boutique label that takes obscure albums and remasters and re-releases them on CD, Digital and even Vinyl mediums!  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that "Songs For The New Depression" was re-released on July 29, 2014 in remastered form--this album hasn't seen a remaster since it was put out on compact disc 20 years ago--and technology has changed for sure.  Do yourself a favor and check out their website and catalog of fantastic albums that they've re-gifted us music lovers!  Oh, and pick up this Bette Midler Gem Of A Jam "Songs For The New Depression."

Phoebe Snow -- Phoebe Snow

Here's what you need to know about the incomparable, notoriously underrated Phoebe Snow: She had a powerhouse voice capable of a schoolgirl hum or a red-hot blues mama growl.  Her voice was an octave shy of Mariah Carey's.  All of that was packed into what some have called an ethnically ambiguous woman.  What is known about Phoebe Ann Laub, aside from the surname "Snow" that came from the name of a 1900s advertisement of a woman on the side of a train, is that she was born a little Jewish girl in New York in 1950 and raised in New Jersey.  Growing up on a healthy musical diet of everything from Folk, Broadway, and Blues, this is perhaps the reason her vocals are out-of-this-world and possess many colors, textures and timbres.  

Armed with her guitar, she strummed and sang through many Greenwich Village clubs eventually being signed to Shelter Records, co-founded by Leon Russell, the genius songwriter behind "A Song For You."  In 1974 Phoebe released "Phoebe Snow," her self-titled debut.  This album is a collection of 9 songs (10 on CD/iTunes, with a bonus track "Easy Street") that captures this wonderful bluesy, folksy, jazzy feeling of the summer of '74.  How I wish I were alive then to experience it.  For me, this album goes along with the previous entry for albums reminiscent of New York.  While other female singer songwriters were singing songs of whimsical stories set to soft guitars or pianos, Phoebe Snow was giving you bluesy introspection--a music and lyrical combo that was deeper than the straight-to-the-point lyrics of the Blues.  In addition, this album finds her using a lot of Delta Blues Resonator Guitar for that twang sound.  Though this album of her brief but rich catalog doesn't showcase her entire vocal range like her other albums do, what "Phoebe Snow" does is introduce us to Ms. Snow as a songwriter that can cleverly lace subtext into a witty line and be delivered with a coo one moment or a roar the next.  Jill Scott is great at doing this with her vocals, and many of her phrasings harken back to that of Phoebe's.  Other current-day artists such as Alana Davis, Diane Birch, and Lianne La Havas inflect their guitar and piano laden songs with a similar yodel-like melismatic quality.  Get those thank you cards in the mail to the spirit of Phoebe snow, ladies!

"Good Times," written by Sam Cooke, opens the album but Phoebe's arrangement is a soulful stroll that nixes the ebullient bounce of Sam's and incorporates a wailing blues mama!

"Harpo's Blues," the second track, is Phoebe giving you a jazz club vibe, with a walking, plucking upright bass and wistful piano/guitar that gives you the feeling you should be rowing a boat on the lake in Central Park.  "I wish I was a willow, and I could sway to the music in the wind."  When the saxophone comes in, the listener is transported to the smokey basement of a jazz cabaret.

Phoebe's most memorable song, her signature and one that I feel really captures the zeitgeist of a New York summer is "Poetry Man."  This song has Phoebe enamored with a man as she pleads, "Talk to me some more, you don't have to go, you're the poetry man, you make things all rhyme."  Another song that has a walking bass, Phoebe's layered, harmonizing vocals bounce over the music like a daydream, with a harp setting you into full "Calgon take me away" mode!  This song really captures a summer fling unlike any other.

One of my personal favorites on the record is "Either Or Both."  With a bit of a country twang, Phoebe is ruminating on how she sees herself.  We all have those days where we're content with ourselves and then other days where we want to be someone else.   "Sometimes this face looks so funny that I hide it behind a book; But sometimes this face has so much class that I have to sneak a second look.  What I want to know from you, when you hear my plea: Do you like or love, either or both of me."

Another of my favorite tracks is "It Must Be Sunday" because I liken it to having those moments of total awareness: "I watched the world surround me from inside a phone booth, and it began to astound me, I tried to keep my couth.  I said it must be Sunday 'cause ev'rybody's tellin' the truth; Then again it might be Monday 'cause ev'rybody's drinkin' vermouth." My favorite verse is the following because it's soooo true! "December thirty-first is the very worst time of the year; You got to think of people that you like enough to share your beer.  Just when you're having fun, it's January one and you wait for explanations to appear..."

Phoebe recorded most of her work between 1973 and 1981; she took a great deal of time in between to care for her special needs daughter Valerie--she refused to institutionalize her.  If her voice sounds familiar to you in a different way, it's because she did two famous commercial jingles: "Stouffer's, nothing comes closer to home" and "The touch, the teel of Cotton, the fabric of our lives."  Ring a bell?  By the late 1980s Phoebe was back at it, recording and touring.  In 2008 she gave us her first and only live album before she passed away from a coma and congestive heart failure in 2011.  To me she is gone but not forgotten, and her supreme vocal styling, horrendously omitted from "greatest singers lists" all too often, continues to influence me.  May you and your daughter rest, Phoebe Snow!  

Turnstiles -- Billy Joel

Anyone that knows me knows that I have a never-ending love affair with New York City.  Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island--I love 'em all, the Five Boroughs, even if I've been to two of them less than a handful of times.  As the summer sets in Los Angeles and I reflect on the first year out of the last 7 that I have not been back to my past-life native New York, I suddenly find myself in a head and heart swell of emotion about the Big Apple.  The best thing I can do to remedy the situation, at least right now, is wrap myself in music that for me, is evocative of a time in New York that people either love or hate: the 1970s.  This Gem Of A Jam entry I give you Billy Joel's "Turnstiles."  

In 1976 New York was in a dire state--a depression of sorts, if you will.  Actually, the country was, in a way--you would be too if you were turning 200 years old, ringing in your bicentennial.  Times Square was filled with sex shops, porn theaters, hustlers, hookers, and hobos.  Heroin addicts hung around the infamous Needle Park.  "A Chorus Line" was the new hit on Broadway, "The Wiz" still "easin' on down the road" and "Chicago" was "rouging its knees" with two Broadway legends, Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon.  What I'm trying to say is amidst the slum, some of the best art was still being created in this Metropolis.  

Born in The Bronx in 1949 to a classical pianist father, Billy decided to pursue a career in music after seeing The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.  He had been reluctantly taking piano lessons since he was a child.  After a few band stints, he signed with Columbia Records in 1972 and had success with his first 3 albums, most notably with "Piano Man."  But it wasn't until he returned to NYC after being away for 3 years in Los Angeles that his musical renaissance truly began.  "Turnstiles" would begin a series of albums from 1976 forward that would be milestones in the American Pop Music lexicon for years to come.  Billy Joel has served as the pop with pathos piano man along with Sir Elton John, for many current artists including Sara Bareilles, Jamie Cullum, John Mayer (melodically/lyrically speaking) and Ben Folds.

The album cover has a bit of a story behind it.  Photographed in what Joel says was an abandoned subway station but what music historians have stated as the Astor Place stop on the Lexington Avenue Line, each person on the cover represents a song on the album.  Try and guess which person goes with which song!

Opening with the aptly thematic "Say Goodbye To Hollywood," this throwback to The Ronettes has Billy kissing off what he would later consider 3 wasted years in L.A. "Movin' on is a chance you have to take anytime you try to stay together; Say a word out of line and you find that friends you had are gone forever."  True songwriting never sounded so good.  Bette Midler would later cover this song in a similar version on her 1977 album "Broken Blossoms."

My personal favorite, and one of the greatest songs ever to capture a feeling is "New York State Of Mind."    It has since become a standard, being covered by the likes of Shirley Bassey, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett.  As I stated in the intro, I've caught the I-Miss-New-York-Blues and this song is salve to my sorrow.  "Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood; Hop a flight to Miami Beach or to Hollywood.  But I'm taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line; I'm in a New York State of mind."  Please pass the tissues...and a bag of money because I can't afford to live there.

"I've Loved These Days" has Billy getting real with the state of New York City.  A theatrical lament to the excess that sent New York into a downward slide, Mr. Joel gets it just right: "We drown our doubts in dry champagne and soothe our souls with fine cocaine; I don't know why I even care, we'll get so high and get nowhere; We'll have to change our jaded ways, but I've loved these days."  The excess wouldn't end until Giuliani came in to overhaul the urban decay to a degree so extreme, New York is now a corporate playground.

Closing the album is "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)" a rather prophetic song about the state that New York was headed in.  And wouldn't you know it, in many ways this song is the Orwellian 1984 of New York in sonic form.  "You know those lights were bright on Broadway; That was so many years ago, before we all lived here in Florida, before the Mafia took over Mexico.  There are not many who remember; They say a handful still survive to tell the world about the way the lights went out, and keep the memory alive."  #Truth.

Though this 8-song set seems brief, start to finish it is a wonderful love letter to my favorite American city and one of the most resilient cities in the world--New York City.  I <3 NY.  This album was released just before what is considered Joel's breakthrough album "The Stranger," but that album is for another day and another entry.  For now, enjoy this Gem Of A Jam, "Turnstiles."  If I can't get to New York this year, at least I can live in  "New York State Of Mind."

Betty Wright Live -- Betty Wright

This album right here?  One of the all-time best--BEST--live albums ever.  I'm not sure other popular music aficionados or scholars share the same sentiment with me but that's what sets this blog apart from most.  I feel it is my duty to introduce you, dear reader/music lover, to albums that may be all but lost in the great American epoch of popular song.

A little bit about Ms. B: at age 15 she had her first hit with "Girls Can't Do What Guys Do," a song another Miss B. or rather Queen Bey would sample on her second album "B'Day" in the song "Upgrade U."  At 17, Ms. Betty broke out with the classic "Clean Up Woman" a Gem Of A Jam so rockin' no one can "clean up" quite like the one B. Wright!  Betty released 7 albums from 1972 through 1979, had hits on the charts, and even picked up a Grammy for Best R&B Song for "Where Is The Love" (included as the last song on this set).  Today, she is an active producer behind the music scenes, mentoring none other than Joss Stone and producing her first 2 albums, "The Soul Sessions" and "Mind Body & Soul."  She also mentored another of my favorite contemporary artists, Diane Birch, singing backing vocals on her album "Bible Belt."  Additionally Ms. Wright sings the hook on the Lil' Wayne song "Playing With Fire" and Angie Stone's "Baby."  Though I will eventually blog about other Gem Of A Jam albums of Betty W., I must single out "Betty Wright Live" as my personal favorite.

Recorded and released in 1978 (another great year for music, I'll argue!) 'Live' is 44 minutes start to finish of unabashed 70s soul and funk that will have your hips swaying, your hands clapping and your passions feeling like makin' love!  Available on iTunes and out of print on CD, you'd be lucky to stumble on an original vinyl pressing of this Gem.

Get up off your ass because kicking off the album is Betty's version of the Brainstorm hit "Lovin' Is Really My Game."  I adore Brainstorm, but Betty Wright absolutely slays this song--so much so that I initially thought she was the originator.  Opening with an almost tribal kick drum and punctuated horns, then slamming down into a snared/disco high-hat frenzy, Betty comes in screaming "I can't catch no man, hangin' out at a discotheque, but I believe in the boogie, but the boogie don't believe in me..."  Whew!  This song is the anthem to get the butts out of the seats and onto the dance floor!  

The most famous track from this album is one played consistently on R&B radio stations today, although it is truncated from its 8:19 running time to somewhere around 5 minutes.  This track is "Tonight Is The Night" which has Ms. Wright telling us about "making love for the very first time."  One of my absolute favorites on the album, I find myself reciting the entire monologue in the exact same phrasing and cadence as Betty herself.  Discussing how she came up with the idea for the song, Betty talks about playing it for her mother who says to Betty "I like the music, you know baby, the melody, it's really nice, BUT I KNOW YOU'RE NOT GONNA SING THAT SONG!" to which Betty says "But we eased it right on by her, yes we did..."  The bass line to this groove is so memorable, not only will it be stuck in your head, just try and keep your hips from swaying to and fro.  So memorable is the bass line in fact, you may have heard it on a more recent(ish) song called "I Wanna Sex You Up" by the early 90s group Color Me Badd (street cred notched up with that extra 'd').  Firstly the 'Sex You' is a hodgepodge of about four different existing songs rolled into one.  But the most obvious basis of the song is the bass riff from--you guessed it--Ms. B. Wright's "Tonight Is The Night."  And Ms. B said "I know you're not gonna sing [my] song" to the group and slapped them with a lawsuit... and won.  Betty was awarded 35% of the royalties for the song.  That's what happens when you don't ask permission to sample someone else's composition!

A contemporary standard in its own right, "Betty Wright Live" is yet another '70s album to cover Leon Russell's "A Song For You" mentioned previously in the post about Merry Clayton.  This is one of my favorite versions of this classic.  I just love the breakdown in the middle of this jam; it's really kind of unlike any other version of this song.  Betty's gospel growl into a crystalline high note sends chills down my spine!  I also find it fascinating that on the line "I've acted out my life in stages..." she changed the "in" to "on."

I have saved my absolute favorite track on this album for last.  Clocking in at 11:55, the live version here of her mega-hit "Clean Up Woman" is the best of the best of the best!  In this version, Betty created one of the greatest mashups ever of popular songs and artists of the day.  She's even a helluva mimic, and slips into the voices of each of the artists she references.  Her Al Green is spot on!  The album is worth this song alone!  The song is credited as follows on the back album cover:

"Clean Up Woman Medley"

• "Clean Up Woman"
• "Pillow Talk" by Sylvia
• "You Got The Love" by Rufus Feat. Chaka Khan
• "Mr. Melody" by Natalie Cole
• "Midnight At The Oasis" by Maria Muldaur
• "Me And Mrs. Jones" by Billy Paul
• "You Are My Sunshine" by The O'Jays
• "Let's Get Married Today" by Al Green

I can't say enough supreme things about this Gem Of A Jam album.  Sometimes I feel like there are so many heralded live albums by much more popular artists, but this one should be placed on the mantle next to the others.  It may not be incredibly ground breaking, but one thing is for sure, it sounds like Betty gives you her heart, soul, vocal, and music right there in your living room.  Below is the concert video of Betty at age 59 killing it at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2012.  She is a better live performer than most of the tone-deaf children out there today... (Rihanna, anyone?  Britney Spears?  All READ).  Just give Betty a band and a microphone and she'll take care of the rest.  She is after all, the "Clean Up Woman."

Bette Midler -- Bette Midler

Alright, I know what you're thinking.  Or maybe I think I know what it is that you're thinking, and you're thinking, "Nicholas, if you love Bette so much, why don't you just do a site about her, not classic music."  Or maybe you're totally excited I chose this record as the next in line after 'Divine."  (I'm a sucker for a rhyme, ain't it sublime?)

Here's the thing: I love symmetry.  I love bookends.  I love books, but that's another blog.  What better way to bookend "The Divine Miss M" than with the singular Bette album I'd take with me on a desert island if I could only choose one record... And let me tell you, this is a "Sophie's Choice" for me.

I give to you "Bette Midler" the eponymous sophomore album from the D. Miss M.  The thing about Bette Midler's work, especially her albums from the 1970s, is that they were somewhat ahead of their time.  Sure, they have covers and standards from an earlier era, but there was and still hardly are few albums you can find where one voice can cover so much musical ground, and do so successfully in 32 minutes and 32 seconds.  Bette is not for the musically narrow-minded; she certainly isn't for those stuck on radio or in the Top 40.  No, you need a broad palate for a Bette record, no matter how crassy or classy.  Bette engenders every genre--a torch-esque chanteuse and powerhouse who will not be boxed in musically or otherwise.

This time 'round, the entire album was arranged by Barry Manilow and co-produced by Arif Mardin, legendary producer of such giants as of course Bette, but also Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Phil Collins, The Bee Gees and Norah Jones.  This collection of songs is a continuation of the material Bette performed at the Baths.   The album kicks off with a gorgeous rendition of the standard "Skylark" a Hoagy Carmichael / Johnny Mercer composition that has been covered by you-name-an-artist.  Bette's reading is stunning, charging the song with a quiet longing that erupts into a clarion call of a vocal at the end.  Not to go south so soon, but I want this song played at my funeral.  Yes, I will die, and yes, I will die with Bette playing me on.

"Drinking Again," another Johnny Mercer co-penned song with Doris Tauber is Bette's favorite song on the album.  Relying again on her acting instincts as she does on much of 'Miss M,' Bette slips into the role of a barfly who's been stood up, let down, and down and out.  "I've got nothin' but a bottle of beer and just my memories" she croons a tune that is blue.  "Breaking Up Somebody's Home" is one of my personal favorites on the album because Bette goes right on in.  An R&B rocker, not many people are aware that Bette has the capability to wail as she does on this song.  She may warble about "wind beneath (her) wings" but here she knocks this song the fuck out.  I'm talking a sonic T.K.O.!  "I got nowhere to run and I'm so goddamn tired of being alone! I feel like breaking up somebody's home!" BOOM.

"I Shall Be Released" is a Bob Dylan song Bette has sung since the beginning of her career.  Captured here in a visceral vocal, this song is another of my personal favorites on the album.  In my History of Rock N' Roll class freshman year of college, while most students were writing their final essays on The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix, I wrote mine on this song and the Divine Miss M.  I was one of a handful who got an A.  Hold your applause.  For those of you who never thought of Bette being capable of a gospel song, this is it and she practically rips her heart out and throws it at you!  Have a look at her Baths performance:

One of the best vocalizations of "In The Mood" a WWII era Glenn Miller jam in the vain of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," is found here on "Bette Midler."  With it's second-verse breakdown, not only did Bette do all the layered vocals on this track but like an auctioneer, she rattles off the lines with divine finesse, building into a growl of a finale!  One of the song themes that would continue on later Bette albums is her medleys of songs.  In a way, these are some of the first mash-ups ever put to wax.  "Uptown/Don't Say Nothin' Bad (About My Baby)/Da Doo Run Run" is Bette's ode to girl groups of the 50s and 60s.  Heavily influenced by Darlene Love, it was only a few years ago that Bette inducted Darlene into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame.  This medley begins with a purr and ends with a roar, in true Bette fashion and will have you jumping to your feet!

"Twisted" has Bette slipping back into actress mode, playing a few characters (against herself, as she provides all the voices) about being psychoanalyzed.  Another standard, Bette be-bops this tune nearly without taking a breath.  "I heard little children were supposed to sleep tight, that's why I drank a fifth of vodka one night..." classic.  Closing the album is a cover of Jackie Wilson's "Higher & Higher (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me)."  Where Jackie Wilson's has a gospel-elegance to it, Bette's starts at a low simmer and overflows into a gargantuan orchestral revival with Bette shouting to the heavens "Keeps on liftin' me, keeps on liftin' me!"  Her vocals are realness rawness!  I need a minute, I'm bummed the album is over by this point!

It's safe to say that this Gem Of A Jam is one of my all-time favorite albums EVER.  Right down to the cover art which perfectly captures everything about who Bette Midler is.  On the album artwork: A relatively new artist at the time named Richard Amsel, was responsible for the art of Bette's first 3 albums.  Sadly, he passed away from complications due to AIDS but his work is iconic.  He is the artist for the movie posters of "The Sting" and "Raiders Of The Lost Ark."  I have two original lithographs of his work, both of course pertaining to Bette and her "Harlettes" the backing trio of girls she toured with.  Please take a little "me" time and get this album and get ready to be anointed by The Divine Miss M once again.

The Divine Miss M -- Bette Midler

I bring to you this post, divine inspiration from my Divine Inspiration the one, the only, the original Bette Midler and her tidal wave of a debut album "The Divine Miss M."

You all know how hard I have to try and reel myself in for this album.  For this woman.  For this deity.  I'll do my best.  I'm like an Evangelical writing about Jesus!

The Divine Miss M is the persona that Bette Midler created as an up-and-coming legend in the Continental Baths in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel on New York's Upper West Side.  This persona was a way for her to say and sing outlandish, outrageous social improprieties and to be crass and controversial.  Yes, this is BEFORE the artist we know today as Madonna.  Facts people, I'm stating the facts.  You can watch some rare archival Bette at the Baths footage here:

After 3 years as a cast member of the hugely successful Broadway musical "Fiddler On The Roof," Bette began singing around New York clubs and dives.  In 1970, the owner/manager of The Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse on the Upper West Side of NY was looking for an act.  He hired Bette via word-of-mouth.  At first show, with a knock on her dressing room door from the stage manager asking how to introduce her, she allegedly said, "Tell them I'm Divine!"  What emerged albeit braless and heavily made-up, was the dame who became The Divine Miss M.  Backing her up on piano was another legend in the making, Barry Manilow.  Soon the place was overflowing with homos and heteros clamoring for an anointing.  Of those heteros, one was Johnny Carson who promptly booked her on his show and introduced her to the national audience.  From the Baths, Bette moved to Downstairs At The Upstairs, a now fabled NYC cabaret where she was beheld and signed by Ahmet Ertegun, Co-Founder/CEO of Atlantic Records!

Initially, Bette recorded a number of songs, torch-like in nature, with Joel Dorn producing; the man responsible for Roberta Flack's quiet storm success.  Unimpressed with low-key song selection, Barry Manilow stepped in to assist bringing the Divine to Di-Vinyl!  With a booking at Carnegie Hall, Bette performed a number of shows--all recorded by Barry Manilow who brought the tapes back into Atlantic Records--they demanded an album similar to the tapes.  What transpired is what we hear today on the genre-jumping, eclectic lusciousness of "The Divine Miss M."  You can listen here to a leaked recording from the Carnegie evening.  Her vocals will blow you away.  AWAY!

The Divine Miss M was released in November of 1972.  Of the eleven tracks six were produced by Barry Manilow--these six tracks are essentially live studio performances of Bette singing with the band and background singers (including Cissy Houston and Melissa Manchester).  What Manilow captured here was the essence of seeing Miss M live and what we're left with is a sonic boom so supreme you'll feel like you've got a front-row-seat at the Bathhouse.  Rounding out the set are five tracks produced by Joel Dorn--a collection of mid-tempo and torch songs that ooze emotion.  This album is a display of the sheer velocity Bette possesses to change and channel emotion on the head of a pin.

"Do You Want To Dance?" is the album opener and a much more adult approach to the original song by Bobby Freeman in the 50s.  Where his version was an ode to a soda shop and a sock hop, Bette's is an all-but-subtle invitation to hit the sheets.  Many music historians claim Donna Summer's "Love To Love You Baby" as the first with an orgasmic come-on, but I beg to differ.  The bridge of this song, with Bette moaning "Ahh, that's right" as the strings escalate into ecstasy is so orgasmic you'll need a cold shower afterward!

"Superstar" a song made most popular by The Carpenters and Luther Vandross has never sounded more authentic or appropriately interpreted than it has here by Midler.  The song is about a groupie and was initially popularized by Rita Coolidge on Joe Cocker's "Mad Dogs And Englishmen" live record.  But Bette Midler embodies the song as the groupie singing the lines "Don't you remember you told me you loved me baby?"  Where The Carpenters, a wonderful duo, sanitized the song by changing the lyric "...and I can hardly wait just to sleep with you again" to "...be with you again," Bette sang it as written, and with a longing sad enough to make you teary-eyed.  She kills this song--KILLS IT on this Manilow-produced track.

"Daytime Hustler" is badass Bette.  Produced as well by Manilow, this song has Bette telling off a man before Beyonce was telling her man to take "everything (he) own(ed) in the box to the left."  This song is also a great display of the singing power Bette possesses--most know her for her inspirational ballads, but Bette can really rock!

"Am I Blue" is pure channeling of Billie Holiday.  Bette lays it out here with a cigarette-whiskey smoked plea of a woman scorned.  Again, like all her material, she doesn't just sing a song--she embodies a song and can make you believe she's lived a life of despair.

"Friends" serves as both a mid-album intermission and an album closer--the first produced by Joel Dorn, the latter produced by Manilow.  Written by Mark "Moogy" Klingman (who would later produce an album for Bette), this song became Midler's Bathhouse and concert signature.  Never has this song been more poignant than during the AIDS crisis of the 80s, and significant in my life because I adhere to the gospel of every word of it!

Tissues are required for "Hello In There" a song about an elderly woman dealing with the loneliness of growing old.  Just listen to the story and how she once again steps into the skin of the old woman who recounts the loss of her son "Davy in the Korean War..."

Though I could do a play-by-play on all the tracks of the album, I'll leave you with one final note about Bette's rendition of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy."  Made popular in the 40s by the Andrews Sisters during WWII, Midler's version here is--I'm gonna say it--Divine!  What makes her version unique is that she dubbed all the vocals.  Which means she is singing the bottom, middle and top lines of the entire song--sung individually by 3 Andrews Sisters on the original.  For 1972, this was a tough feat because Bette was layering vocals onto tape and having to listen to herself in playback and overdub in the same breath and diction to match each vocal line perfectly.  She went on to be nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female (losing to Roberta Flack for "Killing Me Softly With His Song).  

Bette did pick up a Grammy that year for the coveted Best New Artist, beating out the likes of Barry White and Marie Osmond.  She was the most original in that category!  The following year, in true Bette fashion, she presented the Album Of The Year Award but first had a little something to say about winning the Best New Artist the year before.  Have a look at 1:21:

There you have it music lovers--a classic album in all its holiness, The Divine Miss M from Bette Midler.  If you love eclecticism, if you love all sorts of music, look no further than this singular Gem-Of-A-Jam album which gives you Pop, Soul, Jazz, Blues, and Rock--All of the music that makes this artist--Bette Midler, the most divine in my book, my favorite artist ever!  All things are possible through my Lord and Savior Bette Midler.  All hail. Amen!

A New World Record -- Electric Light Orchestra

About 1976 being a supreme year in music: E.LO.'s "A New World Record" was released in the fall of that year and went on to become a worldwide smash.  That makes 1976 a year for 3 monumental albums (so far): Boz Scaggs' "Silk Degrees," Stevie Wonder's "Songs In The Key Of Life" and "A New World Record."

Written and recorded in just "weeks," according to lead singer and instrumentalist mastermind Jeff Lynne, "A New World Record" is a 9-song masterpiece.  This engine is firing on all cylinders; the melodies, strings, guitars, drums, and vocals are all perfectly blended to create an album that should be more praised than it is.  I'm here to praise it!  It's a breathtaking blend of classical music and pop-rock, a theatrical sound uniquely E.L.O.  There are plenty of acts out there today that owe a small debt to this band, whether or not E.L.O wants to collect on it.  Brandon Flowers of The Killers could easily be mistaken for Jeff Lynne, as well as their melodic and stadium-like sound.  Keane anyone?  Or how about Coldplay or the indie Young The Giant? 

Let us begin with the musical genius behind the "Orchestra," Jeff Lynne.  "New World" is chock-full of ear candy--nothing that requires the use of a q-tip, more a pair of headphones.  Hailing from the UK, this man knows how to write and arrange a melody and a song better than most (check out Regina Spektor's "Far" album for his recent production work).  I'd put him right up there with The Beatles.  Lynne wrote all 9 songs on this album on an old upright piano.  The finished product is a gargantuan production that is best experienced at top volume.  

"Tightrope" opens the album with a musical blast of dramatic orchestration and space-aged synths.  Anthemic in every way, this song is perfect to get you going when you wake up in the morning.  "Telephone Line" one of my absolute favorites, is an upbeat yet melancholy lament to someone far away.  Wait until it gets to the chorus, "Oh, telephone line, give me some time, I'm living in twilight " you'll recognize the song from commercials.  But the longing of Lynne's voice when "no one's answering" is a gut-punch.  A classic example of the classical-meets-orchestral-meets-rock-meets-opera is the killer "Rockaria!" with its legit opera singer warbling away in German on the hook of the song.  This is a genuine stadium rocker track that is worthy of any and all air-guitars!

The most familiar song in this lineup is, to the "Boogie Nights" /P.T. Anderson enthusiasts "Livin' Thing," a pulsing foot stomper complete with riffing violin and mariachi trumpet.  Keep an ear open for the rolling orchestral strings in the background, a clever use of classical motifs in a pop song.  Call me a sucker for the lovelorn ballads, but "Shangri-La" is beautifully melodic.  "I'm getting out of love...my Shangri-La has gone away, faded like The Beatles on 'Hey Jude'." 

In addition to this and 12 other albums, I have to give a shout-out to one of the best movie soundtracks of all time--ALL TIME (even if the movie is considered one of the worst of all time).  "Xanadu" is another melodic symphonic Gem of a Jam that is just as winning as this G.O.A.J. "A New World Record."  A misstep in the history of American popular music, E.L.O. has never been nominated or won a Grammy nor have they been inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.  ERRONEOUS to say the least!  

E.L.O.'s entire catalog is available on iTunes or in boxed set form (which of course, I own).  Also available is a CD with bonus tracks with detailed liner notes and the song "Surrender" a rare B-side.  Electric Light Orchestra is one of my favorite bands ever.  Give them a listen and they'll be yours too.  

Silk Degrees -- Boz Scaggs

Before Robin Thicke or Justin Timberlake there was and is Boz Scaggs.  He is not a dancer and he was never in a boy-band but he was one of the first white male singers to have a colossal R&B Album in "Silk Degrees."  After parting from The Steve Miller Band for solo career-dom, Boz Scaggs released 4 previous albums before he hit big with 'Silk.'  And I mean big--115 weeks on the Billboard Chart, a 5 Million seller, Grammy nominee for Album of the Year (losing to Stevie Wonder's "Songs In The Key Of Life"--stiff competition!) and winning for "Lowdown" Best R&B Song, Boz finally got into his groove.  In addition to being a renowned guitar player, he's got one sexy voice!  Thanks to the "SD" sessions, we have the formation of the kick-ass band Toto who were the backing musicians before group status.  Recorded in North Hollywood and Los Angeles in 1975 and released on Columbia Records in 1976 (an underrated yet excellent year for music, I will argue to the death!) "Silk Degrees" is the record Robin Thicke is still trying to make.  No shade, all READ.  

'Degrees' from start to finish is an unbelievable album.  "Lowdown" is most iconic and familiar.  With its cooing "ooh-ooh, oh I wonder, wonder, wonder who" and it's porn-ish bass, it's a wonder it hasn't been incorporated as a hip-hop sample.  By the way, a flute has never sounded more legit or sexy than on this song.  The opener, "What Can I Say" will snatch your hips left to right and get you swaying in no-time flat with a feel similar to "Step In The Name Of Love."  This could very well be where R. Kelly got the inspiration.  It even has a hell-of-a sax musical break.  Remember musical breaks?!  "Georgia," a personal favorite of mine, begins with a pulsing beat and makes you swoon into a kick-drum infused symphony of melody.  The rhythmic meter changes of this jam will make you want to move and shake then take a break!  This is definitely a song for cruising down the open road.  

"What Do You Want The Girl To Do?" was composed by Alan Toussaint, the musical juggernaut responsible for producing the legendary "Lady Marmalade" by Labelle.  This song reminds me of my mom who would play it at full tilt on our home stereo.  It's a song that has a swinging verse section with a call-and-response backing vocal group and a swelling buildup of pulsing strings; the chorus erupts into an almost reggae dip with gospel verve.  The track "It's Over" is a contemporary take on the Motown rhythm and strings of the 60s, with the kick-drum turned up to capacity.  This song will have you doing a step-touch dance break!  

One last track that has sentimental value to me is the "Lido Shuffle," a swinging blues rocker with a sweeping chorus that is anthemic.  The best part is the bridge, with it's building synthesizer/keyboard riff that erupts into a blast of saxophones, double-tracked vocals and heavy drum smacks.  It's a song that sparks memories of family road trips to and fro to Lake Tahoe as a kid--with my mom's homemade mix-tapes popped into the cassette deck (remember those) --ahead of her time, but she was a BOSS with her mix-tapes, a BOSS I tell you!

Boz Scaggs can be found on iTunes and of course at your music retailers.  If you want more stories behind the making of this record, I suggest you purchase the 2007 Legacy Recordings edition with liner notes song-by-song by Scaggs truly.   "Silk Degrees" is the Gem-Of-A-Jam that will have you partying like it's 1976, no "dirty lowdown" in that!

Merry Clayton -- Merry Clayton

"They call her Merry Clayton because she was born on a Merry Christmas Day."  So boldly states the liner notes of my favorite album from one of the greatest singers--once more, THE GREATEST SINGERS--ever.  Unfortunately, Ms. Merry is also one of the most underrated.  Born in New Orleans, and growing up gospel, Merry Clayton is no stranger to church--she takes us there on every recording she's ever done!

I was sitting in Mesa Grill in Las Vegas some-odd years ago over burgers with my sisters and brother-in-law.  In between bites we chatted regularly, but then my attention turned to the background music for a moment.  I was enraptured by a voice that was quietly aching from the restaurant speakers.  "Southern Man you better use your head, don't forget what your good book said..." Those words hit me like a ton of bricks--or maybe it was the margarita--either way I was floored.  Without "Shazam" capabilities, I promptly tucked away in my head the song title "Southern Man" and categorized the voice as belonging to a female soul singer from days gone by.  

I had to know the name of that voice.  When I did my research and stumbled on Merry Clayton, I realized I was familiar with her calling card as the vocalist on "Gimme Shelter," but was unaware of her solo material.  I quickly got my hands on a copy of her third eponymous album for the Ode Record label and became a baptized fan.  Most internet outlets and musicians reference her work with the Rolling Stones on 'Shelter' but for me, her strongest, most soul stirring contribution to the American Soul catalog is "Merry Clayton" the album containing the song that moved me from my Mesa Grill banquette "Southern Man" written by white Neil Young, but especially poignant in 1971 wailing from the vocal chords of an African American woman.  

Produced by Lou Adler for the aforementioned Ode label, 'Clayton' contains 11 songs of sheer vocal prowess and emotional velocity.  With Carole King as a label mate and released the same year as the gargantuan "Tapestry," it's only fitting that there are 3 compositions penned by King on Merry's record--in addition to King's keyboard work:  "Walk On In, After All This Time," and my personal favorite "Same Old Story," a track with a vocal roar and strings that will get you in the gut.  In addition, one of the best recorded versions of Leon Russell's "A Song For You" is included here.  Never included on her "Best Of" compilations is a song that I think is one of the strongest of the record "Love Me Or Let Me Be Lonely" covered here by Clayton and originally a 1970 hit for "The Friends Of Distinction."  Her version obliterates theirs.  This song never fails to get me on the good foot.

Whether or not they're aware of it, there are a popular artists today who might think about dropping Merry C. a note, thanking her for influencing their vocals and musical style.  Merry can be heard in the music of Joss Stone (check out the underrated, critically misinterpreted Soul Sessions Vol. 2 in addition to the much lauded Vol. 1).  M. Clayton lives on in the pipes of Brittany Howard of "Alabama Shakes" and according to her Wikipedia page, Merry sang background on the classic Tori Amos track "Cornflake Girl."  That's what I call eclectic!

Today, Merry Clayton is probably most recognizable from her part in the the Oscar-winning documentary "Twenty Feet From Stardom."  She broke my heart when she looked to the camera and said "I felt like if I just gave my heart to what I was doing, I would automatically be a star."  The unfortunate reality is that she was greatly overshadowed by Aretha Franklin, no fault of hers, but apparently there was room for only one set of earth-shattering pipes.  Though Aretha is one of my all-time-favorite singers ever--EVAH--I must--WE music lovers must, acknowledge that Merry Clayton's voice is worthy of the same realm as sister Aretha.  Do yourself a favor and head over to iTunes and download this Gem-Of-A-Jam "Merry Clayton" (also available as an Import hard copy on amazon) put on your headphones, and get ready to get "Steamroller(ed)" another rhythm and blues buster by no doubt, one of the greatest American vocalists of our time.

UPDATE: On June 16, Merry Clayton was in a horrendous car crash which has left her in critical condition.  Sending her sweet music on high, now more than ever, and continuing to listen to her instrument  and allowing it to transform my life, one note at a time.