Gloria Loring – Song To a Seagull

Gloria Loring

Listen/Download – Gloria Loring – Song To a Seagull

Greetings all.

Today’s selection is a testament to putting your preconceptions to the side and approaching strange (looking) things with an open mind.

I only ever knew Gloria Loring as a kind of mainstream pop singer from 80s variety and talk shows and the voice (and pen) behind TV themes for the shows ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ and ‘The Facts of Life’ (which she created with her then-husband, Alan “Parade of the Snakes” Thicke).

A few years back, someone (I wish I could remember who) tipped me off to her early albums, recorded between 1969 and 1972.

During that period, Loring, who had sung with a commercial folk group, was working on well-produced/played versions of interesting singer/songwriter material by folks like Fred Neil, Leonard Cohen, Jim Webb, the Youngbloods, and, as you’ll hear today, Joni Mitchell.

The two albums she did for the Evolution* label, ‘And Now We Come To Distances’ (1969) and ‘Sing a Song For the Mountain’ (1972), both featuring New York session guys like Paul Griffin, and produced and arranged by Al Gorgoni, are both excellent.

I’m always interested in artists trying to take cool material into the mainstream, especially when they do it without straying into kitsch, and Loring succeeds on both counts.

Of the songs on the albums, my favorite is her version of Mitchell’s ‘Song To a Seagull’, in which she takes the spare, acoustic original and turns it into a shimmering, almost psychedelic experience.

Loring had a clear, high soprano voice (not quite as high as Joni, but that’s cool) and the arrangement, featuring what sounds like a clavinet or electric harpsichord, is just beautiful.

The Evolution albums aren’t too expensive when you can find them, and are highly recommended.

I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

 

*Oddly enough, the recording arm of a watch company!

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

The Big 3 – The Banjo Song

The Big 3
Tim Rose, Cass Elliot, Jim Hendricks

Listen/Download – The Big 3 – The Banjo Song

Greetings all.

Today, I come prepared to blow your minds (most of them, anyway).

Some of you may be already be aware of the existence of the Big 3.

The folk group, together for a brief period in the early 60s is best known as one of the earliest groups to include the mighty voice of Cass ‘Mama Cass’ Elliot.

Though that’s a big deal in and of itself, the group also included none other than Tim Rose, and Jim Hendricks (who was married to Elliot, and went on to form the Lamp of Childhood).

The Big 3 were fairly successful, appearing on national television and touring with Bill Cosby.

They recorded two albums (one live in the studio) and a few 45s before breaking up , with Rose going on to solo success and Hendricks and Elliot forming the Mugwumps with John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky (a group that would record a bunch but have nothing released until they were broken up and all gone on to be rock stars).

All cool, but none of it is mindblowing (well, maybe just a tiny bit).

The crazy thing, is the song I bring you today, ‘The Banjo Song’.

Pulled from their self-titled 1963 LP, ‘The Banjo Song’ is basically a reworking of Stephen Foster’s ‘Oh Susannah’.

Tim Rose takes writing credit, but the arrangement is so radically different that I suspect most people wouldn’t recognize the song right away.

But that’s not anything earthshaking in and of itself.

So take a minute and listen to the song.

I’ll wait.

Crazy, huh?

What you’re hearing, is the blueprint for Shocking Blue’s 1969 mega-hit ‘Venus’.
And not just the riff, the WHOLE FUCKING THING (lyrics aside).

The first time I heard ‘The Banjo Song’ I was convinced someone was yanking my chain. I mean, it couldn’t be more spot on, so much so that – considering the people involved – I couldn’t believe it wasn’t better known.

Shocking Blue singer Mariska Veres even lifts the wordless vocal section by Mama Cass in the middle of the song.

Like I said. Crazy.

The rest of the album is pretty nice stuff by folk revival standards. Rose and Elliot are both very interesting singers and the selection of songs, including versions of ‘I Know My Rider’ (done here as ‘Rider’) and ‘Dink’s Song’ (listed here as ‘Nora’s Dove (Dink’s Song)’) which are very nice.

The album isn’t terribly hard to find, and if you dig this era’s stuff, worth having.

That said, download the MP3 and impress your friends.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

 

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #65

Why hello there!

Playlist

ILRS#65 – Clark Burroughs Special

The Hi Los – My Sugar Is So Refined (Live on the Nat King Cole Show)
Marilyn Burroughs – For Your Sweet Love (World Pacific)
The Association – Windy (Valiant)
The Joyride – The Crystal Ship (World Pacific)
The Joyride – Coming Soon (World Pacific)
The Joyride – The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine (World Pacific)
The Joyride – The Land of Rypap Papyr (World Pacific)
The Joyride – His Blues (World Pacific)

The Gordian Knot – It’s Gonna Take a Lot (Verve)
The Gordian Knot – We Must Be Doing Something Right (Verve)
The Gordian Knot – The World Keeps Spinnin’ (Verve)
The Gordian Knot – Year of the Sun (Verve)
The Gordian Knot – If Only I Could Fly (Verve)
The Gordian Knot – Broken Down Ole Merry Go Round (Verve)

Clark and Marilyn – Chain of Love (Cream)
Clark and Marilyn – Rain On Me (Cream)
Gypsy – Around You (Metromedia)
Gypsy – Here In the Garden Pts 1&2 (Metromedia)
Cass Elliot – Disney Girls (RCA)
Cass Elliot – Cherries Jubilee (RCA)

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #65 – 168MB/256kbps

__________________________________________________________

Greetings all.

Welcome to this month’s episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

Got a cool one for you this time out, dedicated to the sounds associated with the great singer, producer, arranger, and songwriter Clark Burroughs (and his then wife, Marilyn), who’s career took him from work as a child actor, to being the lead voice in the Hi-Los, to working on some of the finest Sunshine Pop of the 60s and more.

It’s an interesting journey and filled with music I think you’re going to dig.

So get your download on and learn about one of the most interesting musical figures you may not have heard of.

I hope you dig it and I’ll see you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

The Bill Shepherd Singers Soften Up the Bee Gees

Bill Shepherd (l) and the Bee Gees (r)

Listen/Download – The Bill Shepherd Singers – Turn of the Century

Listen/Download – Bill Shepherd Singers – Red Chair Fadeaway

Greetings all.

Well, here’s a wild one.

A while back, I saw the album you see before you today posted a few different times, and even absent a sound clip, I was suitably intrigued, and went out in search of a copy.

It didn’t take too much time (or money) to track one down, and when I did, I was utterly baffled.

I have gone off into “easy” territory in this space many a time, but usually the records involved were adult types (i.e. no rockers of a certain age) attempting to glom onto the youth sound and market.

‘The Bill Shepherd Singers Sing the Bee Gees Hits’ is a straight up easy listening (like Montovani/Ray Conniff level) joint, with the only hip connection being that all of the songs were previously done by the Bee Gees.

Or so I thought…

As it turns out, Bill Shepherd is a very interesting cat, who I should have known of before I went out looking for this record.

Shepherd was a UK-based songwriter/arranger who – interestingly enough – is the co-writer of ‘Zou Bissou’, which became something of a sensation when it appeared in an episode of ‘Mad Men’ with Jessica Pare miming to the 1961 Gillian Hills recording of the song.

He was also, and this is the most important factoid, the man who did the arranging on all of the early Bee Gees popsike-era albums!

Having been listening to these albums for decades (I even own the boxed set with all the alternate versions etc), how I missed his name is a testament to the solidity of blind spots.

That said, the album is weird, not because of the juxtaposition of material and presentation, since the Bee Gee’s songs lend themselves quite nicely to an ‘easy’ vibe.

What’s weird is that things never cross over into any of the usual electric sitar, phasing/echo, heavy drums-au-go-go that you tend to find on albums like this. The whole thing is played straight, start to finish, in a way that would have passed muster on WPAT (THE big easy listening station in the New York area when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s) back in the day.

I picked ‘Turn of the Century’, mainly because it lends itself so easily to the style, and ‘Red Chair Fadeaway’ because it is one of the more psychedelic offerings on the ‘Bee Gee’s 1st’ LP and just strikes me as novel in this delivery.

It is certainly a wonderfully calm (perhaps bland?) album, and recommended highly to collectors and aficionados of stuff like this.

I shall be digging into it further as time allows.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

 

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

The Association – Don’t Blame It On Me

Curt Boettcher (l) and The Association (r)

Listen/Download – The Association – Don’t Blame It On Me

Greetings all.

I just happened to be doing a little bit of inter-crate digging (in which I go through the massive pile of records in the Funky16Corners Record Vault and Blogcasting Nerve Center to see what I overlooked) and what should I pull out of a box but the Association’s 1966 ‘Cherish’ 45.

Now ‘Cherish’ is a lovely song, but I don’t need to record it/place it on the iPod to know what it sounds like. Fifty years of repeated listens have worn it into my brain.

That said, I flipped it over and realized that I didn’t recognize the B-side, ‘Don’t Blame It On Me’, so I gave it a spin.

As soon as I did, I knew it was a keeper and that I needed to post it, for you see, it is a shining example of the kind of sonic fingerprints Curt Boettcher was likely to leave behind when he was working on a record.

The ‘production’ for which he is credited is just fine, but – the devil being in the details – it is in the backing vocals where Boettcher pops up, like the smartest kid in class, yearning to be called on, his hand in the air, going ‘Ooh! Ooh!’.

If you listen closely enough to the records that he worked on in his prime, whether his own projects, like the Millennium, or any of the countless production/arranging jobs he did, especially stuff like Tommy Roe’s ‘It’s Now Winter’s Day’, the vocals, styled by Boettcher are one of the first thing you notice.

‘Don’t Blame It On Me’, written by the Addrisi brothers, who would also pen ‘That’s When Happiness Began’ (recorded by the Montanas and the Grains of Sand) and ‘Never My Love’ (a huge hit for the Association the following year), is a pleasant pop tune, and the lead vocals are fine, but when the backing vocals pop in, it is instantly elevated to another level entirely.

Those clear, high, immaculate Boettcher harmonies jump out of the mix like an exotic and spicy artisanal mustard applied to a run of the mill hot dog.

So, what you get is a nice Association 45, with a spectacular garnish.

Not bad for a nickel (or probably less).

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

 

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs – Nashville Cats

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs

Listen/Download – Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs – Nashville Cats

Greetings all.

The names of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs should be immediately familiar to anyone with even a little bit of knowledge about American roots music, but they might also ring a bell for reg’lar folk, too.

Flatt (guitar) and Scruggs (banjo) had been playing together in the Foggy Mountain Boys since the late 40s, started recording for Mecury, and switched to Columbia (their longest association) in 1953, where they stayed until they broke up in 1969.

The duo had pop success (something that could rarely be said about bluegrass bands) when they hit the charts with ‘The Ballad of Jed Clampett’ (the theme from the Beverly Hillbillies) in 1962, and then again in 1967 when the version of ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’ that was included in the movie ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ made it onto the radio.

If you take a look at their 1960s Columbia discography, they were recording a lot of interesting, contemporary material, covering songs by Bob Dylan, Donovan, Gordon Lightfoot, the Monkees, and – as you’ll hear today – the Lovin’ Spoonful.

Apparently Earl Scruggs had himself a progressive set of ears, aimed at the pop charts and contemporary relevance, which would explain the list above, but apparently also displeased Lester Flatt, and was responsible for the duo going their separate ways at the end of the 60s.

The cool thing is (and it is unfortunate that Flatt wasn’t more flexible in this regard) they weren’t trying to glom onto pop trends carelessly.

Their selection of modern material was always made with an eye toward affinity with their sound, and the songs were presented in a straight up hillbilly style, even ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ (though it is kind of funny hearing the lyrics delivered in a country twang against a background of banjos and dobros).

Today’s selection is a 1967 cover of the Lovin’ Spoonful hit from the previous year.

It certainly helps that the Spoonful had a vein of old-timey, jug band sounds running through their catalog, and the subject matter of the song was custom made for the country market.

Flatt and Scruggs deliver ‘Nashville Cats’ in a familiar manner, only breaking out near the very end for a fast-moving, banjo-picking breakdown.

Their version actually charted in a couple of markets in the Spring of 1967.

It’s a groovy little curiosity and I hope you dig it.

See you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

 

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #64

Why hello there!

Playlist

ILRS#64 – Van Dyke Parks Special

The Byrds – 5D (Columbia)
Rick Jarrard – High Coin (Chattahoochee)
Van Dyke Parks – Come To the Sunshine (MGM)
Van Dyke Parks – Farther Along (MGM)
Van Dyke Parks – Number Nine (MGM)
Van Dyke Parks – Do What You Wanna (MGM)
Beach Boys – Heroes and Villains (Brother)

Van Dyke Parks – Vine Street/Palm Desert (WB)
Van Dyke Parks – Donovan’s Clours (WB)
Biff Rose – Ain’t No Great Day (Tetragrammaton)
Randy Newman – I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today (Reprise)
Randy Newman – Living Without You (Reprise)
Sal Valentino – Friends and Lovers (WB)
Roberta Lee – Come To the Sunshine (Montclare)
Ruthann – Carry On (Glittering Dancer) (Reprise)
Van Dyke Parks – Music For Ice Capades Pts 1.2 &3 (WB)
Van Dyke Parks – Datsun Commercial (WB)

Van Dyke Parks – Occapella (Reprise)
Arlo Guthrie – Coming Into Los Angeles (WB)
Phil Ochs – One Way Ticket Home (A&M)
Beach Boys – Surf’s Up (Brother)
Trinindad Tripoli Steel Band – Cecilia (WB)
Little Feat = Spanish Moon (WB)
Brian Wilson – Heroes and Villains (2004 Smile reconstruction)
(Mercury)

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #64 – 159MB/256kbps

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Greetings all.

Welcome to this month’s episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

I have a really special one for this month, that has been percolating in the back alleys of the windmills of the hallways of my mind for a while.

If you follow the blog or the podcast you will already know that I dig the work of the mighty Van Dyke Parks a great deal, and it occurred to me that I ought to assemble the various bits and bobs of his 60s and 70s career into one, semi-cohesive picture, which is what this episode is all about.

We take a look at VDP’s work as a songwriter, performer, producer, arranger and even in one instance ‘catalyst’.

He is one of the most interesting and talented musical figures of the second half of the 20th century, and I think you’ll dig what I’ve put together.

So settle in, oil up your ears and dig the sounds.

See you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners