Archive for the ‘Philips’ Category

NINA SIMONE

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

Listen:  Four Women / Nina Simone

Listen: Four Women / Nina Simone Nina4Women.mp3

Michael Alago signed Nina Simone to Elektra in ’92, and I’m pretty sure she made her last studio album as a result. Michael, at that point, was very friendly with her, having been an ardent fan for several years. Nina was living in LA at the time, and during October of that year, she and Michael were together doing pre-production in some studio off Hollywood Blvd.

I was in town for The Cramps as they were preparing FLAMEJOB for my label, Medicine, and had timed the trip around a three day run The Ramones were doing at The Palladium (10/14 – 16, to be exact). It was a fun one.

Both Micheal and I, as well as Johnny Ramone, Arturo Vega (The Ramones’ career long light & design guy) and Monte Melnick (their tour manager), all shared birthdays within days of each other in that exact time frame, so Alago decided to have a pre show dinner party at The Hollywood Athletic Club to celebrate all five, as well as his Nina/Elektra signing.

By then he was having a slightly difficult time getting her to record the songs he wanted. On that particular night, it didn’t help that I was enamored with her Philips period stuff. She and I sat across from each other at this long table. With Nina right next to Joey, she just got into deep details about her time with that label as soon as we asked. It was fascinating info, I was even interested in what she could recall about the actual Philips offices, which surprisingly was a lot. Plus the details of the studios, her engineers and the small, small recording budgets of the day.

‘Four Women’ was a much played single then as now, and after a LOT of champagne on her part, I suggested she re-record it for the new album. Michael at that moment was sort of standing behind her in his constant buzzing around, good host style, and just whipped his head toward me, eyes bugging and frantically hand motioned behind her head to STOP. Panicked and pissed all at once, he kept up this silent communication, but too late, she was now on a ‘Four Women’ roll. Her assistant, like Nina with back to Michael, opinioned that it was timely, and might be a good idea.

So fuck it, I threw in, “and you should make a video”.

Nina announces loudly “Michael, I want to make a video for ‘Four Women’ “.

Listen:  Four Women / Nina Simone Juke Box Tab

This was about to go very wrong when he seamlessly circles round behind me and says, “Before you forget, you should get Nina to do your jukebox tab now, and you know Nina, if we redo ‘Four Women’, Philips will just try to reposition their version and not pay you like they still don’t”.

Good move Alago, as that’s all she needed to be reminded of. End of idea, end of dinner and onward to The Ramones show (with signed jukebox tab in wallet), sans Nina.

Casey Jones & The Governors

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

CaseyJones, Casey Jones & The Govenors, Huey Piano Smith, Philips, Eric Clapton, Tom McGuiness

Listen: Don’t Ha Ha / Casey Jones & The Governors CaseyJonesHaHa.mp3

Casey (real name Duncan) Jones left Liverpool for London stumbling around with rotating-door lineups that included Eric Clapton and Tom McGuinness in his band The Engineers. Like a few before them, off to Germany they went. Why I’m not sure. I always thought England was the happening place in the 60′s. It was in Hamburg that Casey Jones & The Governors formed and had some success as a live band, basically reinventing RnR standards of the day with a Beat Goup twist.

I picked this up in one of those 39¢ bins of flop 45′s at a Two Guys Department Store near the Thruway in Syracuse back in ’74. It was a treasure trove, predominantly loads of Philips/Smash/Mercury/Fontana titles, for some reason.

Listen once and you’ll hear that it’s Huey Piano Smith’s ‘Don’t You Just Know It’. Smith is credited as writer and the title switch fooled me into thinking it was an original for years.

The Drifters / The Walker Brothers

Monday, August 17th, 2009

drifterstheregoesuka, The Drifters, Ben E. King, The Walker Brothers, Scott Walker, Ivor Raymonde, Philips, John Franz, London American

Listen: There Goes My Baby / The Drifters DriftersThere.mp3

Listen: There Goes My Baby / The Walker Brothers WalkerBrothersThereGoes.mp3

Speaking of The Drifters, as I did in my previous post, one of their Ben E. King written hits, ‘There Goes My Baby’, not only stands up on it’s own, but shows that a great song interpreted well can sometimes even get better. Hate to be politically incorrect, but my opinion is just that when it comes to The Walker Brothers version of ‘There Goes My Baby’.

Don’t misunderstand, I like both, maybe it’s just The Walker Brothers’ haircuts, my official diagnosis of having terminal Scott Walker disease or probably my admitted lack of Doo Wop appreciation. Why theirs wasn’t released as a 7″ in the UK remains a mystery to me. Those Ivor Raymonde ‘Night Of Fear’ leaning orchestral riffs just take the cake. John Franz, what were you thinking?

Dark Shadows

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

robertcobertillbewith-you1, Dark Shadows, Barnabas Collins

Listen: Dark Shadows Theme / The Robert Cobert Orchestra DarkShadowsTheme.mp3

darkshadows, Dark Shadows, The Robert Cobert Orchestra, Philips,

Listen: Shadows Of The Night (Quentin’s Theme) / The Robert Cobert Orchestra DarkShadowsQuentinsTheme.mp3

charlesrandolphqentinusa, dark shadows, The Charles Randolph Grean Sounde

Listen: Quentin’s Theme / The Charles Randolph Grean Sounde CharlesRandolphQentin.mp3

If I had my real dream come true, it would be to move into Collinwood, the daunting, cavernous mansion where the supernatural presided, on the rocky, stormy coast of Collinsport, Maine. It was home to DARK SHADOWS’ Barnabas Collins, Dr. Julia Hoffman and the Collins family. Fill that vast mahogany library with records, set up an AM Radio station, and just play suspenseful music for the rest of my life – enrapturing all the late, very late, night drivers lost on the dark back roads of rural Maine. Those roads can scare the lifeout of you – they have me. Sometimes when driving there in the early hours, I’ll just turn the headlights off for several seconds. Seems like an eternity, it’s terrifying. Mortifies Corinne and the kids to no end. But seriously, I watched DARK SHADOWS religiously after school every single day. Even in the summer, I’d draw the blinds and wish the howling wind and rain were really outside. So yes, to have a stormy night, every night and every day too, ocean crashing on the rocks and me beaming obscure records into the pitch black atmosphere would be heaven on earth.

The Pink People

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

Indian Hate Call / The Pink People

Listen: Indian Hate Call / The Pink People PinkPeople.mp3

Little is known about this single. Likewise the band. I’d love to meet the A&R person who decided to sign them. I do know it’s the second of their two releases and I’m still waiting to see a photo of this bunch.

I’d say the single’s appeal falls somewhere between The Novas ‘Crusher’ and The New York Dolls version of ‘Stranded In The Jungle’.

Dusty Springfield

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Spooky / Dusty Springfield

Listen: Spooky / Dusty Springfield DustySpooky.mp3

This is an easy one. Everyone agrees Dusty’s immortal and timeless. We all know her many classics. It’s these two very overlooked, almost forgotten B sides that are worth visiting.

‘Spooky’ from 1970 has been compiled occasionally. A hit for The Classics IV, it was a superb cover choice as was it’s A side, The Rascals ‘How Can I Be Sure’.

I Am Your Child / Dusty Springfield

Listen: I Am Your Child / Dusty Springfield DustyIAm.mp3

‘I Am Your Child’, a beautiful Barry Manilow co-write, from exactly ten years later, is a much harder one to grab. The A side, ‘Your Love Still Brings Me To My Knees’ was not a hit and it would be another seven years before Dusty returned to the charts. Both are exquisite showcases for that shimmering, delicate craftmanship of a voice.

Scott Walker

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Lights Of Cincinnati / Scott Walker

Lights Of Cincinnati / Scott Walker

Listen: Lights Of Cincinnati / Scott Walker ScottWalkerCincinnati.mp3

Nothing needs to be said.

Blue Cheer

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

Feathers / Blue Cheer

Feathers / Blue Cheer

Listen: Feathers From Your Tree / Blue Cheer
Feathers From Your Tree / Blue Cheer

OUTSIDEINSIDE, Blue Cheer’s second album, was their pinnacle. They recorded some of it on a pier in NJ, and had mikes on the NY side of the water as ambient devices. You can really get the resulting effect on tracks like ‘Come & Get It’. This was the most inviting scam yet – at the time. I listened to Side 1 over and over and over. It was a favorite for ages. They had just come off a massive Top 10 single with ‘Summertime Blues’ and album VINCEBUS ERUPTUM. Now let me clue you in: you need both the mono and stereo versions of VINCEBUS ERUPTUM. It is massive in mono and in stereo, well it’s the only album I know of that has complete left/right separation with drums all in the left channel, guitars all right. It sounds fantastic, why others have never followed is a surprise, although probably some have and I’m forgetting.

So OUTSIDEINSIDE was the terrific followup, and everything was all set for world domination. Then clunk. Promotors started blackballing them, beginning with Bill Graham’s Fillmores, because of volume. He seemed to have a mean streak that fellow, he did the same thing to Family. Then radio didn’t play either single from this second album and it all just went cold. Guitarist Leigh Stephens decides to leave. Boom. End of story. ‘Feathers From Your Tree’ was the second single, even came with a picture sleeve – and in headphones (like all the tracks on the album) it was a drug takers dream come true. Right up there with The Pretty Things’ SF SORROW and The Pink Floyd’s THE PIPER AT THE GATES albums. Sounds swirling and switching speakers at record pace. Dickie Peterson is one of the world’s greatest vocalists too, that’s just fact.