Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs - The MGM Singles (1965-73 us, awesome garage roots 'n' roll, 2011 digi pack release)

These days, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs are best remembered for such infectious ’60s hits as “Wooly Bully” and “Lil’ Red Riding Hood,” and for the sartorial splendor of turbaned frontman/organist Sam the Sham (née Domingo Samudio) and his bandmates. But the one-of-a-kind Memphis-by-way-of-Texas quintet produced a large and highly original body of R&B/blues/Tex-Mex/garage tunes that established them as one of the greatest singles bands of the 1960s. While the band’s wacky humor and flamboyant visual image may have threatened to brand them as a novelty act, their raw exuberance, rootsy grit and playfully subversive streak made it clear that Sam and his Pharaohs were the genuine article.

Throughout the second half of the ’60s, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs turned out a lengthy string of killer seven-inchers. Many of those singles boasted non-album B-sides that were as memorable as their better-known A-sides. Now, for the first time ever, Sundazed Music has gathered both sides of every one of the band’s original MGM Records singles on these lovingly packaged compact disc collection. The sizzling set includes such immortal Pharaohs classics as “Wooly Bully,” “Lil’ Red Riding Hood,” “Ju Ju Hand,” “Ring Dang Doo,” “Red Hot,” “The Hair on My Chinny Chin Chin,” “How Do You Catch a Girl” and “(I’m in With) The Out Crowd,” along with an amazing assortment of rare non-album B-sides, solo efforts and side projects. These long-out-of-print gems have been sourced from the original MGM masters and sound better than ever!!! 

Sundazed  

Formed in Dallas and led by a dynamic turban-wearing lead singer and organist named Domingo Samudio, Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs were a garage bar band gone huge (it has been long rumored that they could play six hours straight without repeating a tune), and by mixing blues, R&B, and Tex-Mex together with a loopy sense of humor and sly lyrics, they stomped into pop history with the iconic party anthem “Wooly Bully,” which hit the number two spot on the pop charts right in the middle of the British Invasion in 1965. 

Aside from that record, though, and “Li’l Red Riding Hood” a year later in 1966, the group wouldn’t have that kind of chart success again, and Samudio and his band went down into most people’s annals as a one-hit wonder. This irresistible set, which collects all of the Pharaohs’ singles and B-sides for MGM Records between 1965 and 1968, plus Samudio's 1973 comeback single for the label (he had left MGM for Atlantic in 1970, only to return for that one release), proves there was a lot more to the story. 

Tracks like “Ju Ju Hand” (from 1965), “(I’m in With) The Out Crowd” (also 1966), “Banned in Boston” (1967), and “Old MacDonald Had a Boogaloo Farm” (1968) all display a delightfully subversive joy in being wryly silly, and they don’t get in the way of dancing, either. Oh, and then there's the wonderful kiss-off single "I Couldn't Spell !!*@!" from 1968 -- no, Sam the Sham was far from being a one-hit wonder and the romping, stomping proof of that is collected here. 

by Steve Leggett

Tracks
1. Wooly Bully (Domingo Samudio) - 2:22
2. Ain’t Gonna Move (Davidson, Kesler) - 2:05
3. Jujuhand (Domingo Samudio) - 2:06
4. Big City Lights (Davidson, Kesler) - 2:39
5. Ring Dang Doo (Tubert, Byers) - 2:22
6. Don't Try It (Domingo Samudio) - 2:21
7. Red Hot (William Emerson) - 2:16
8. A Long Long Way (Paul Gibson) - 1:58
9. Li'l Red Riding Hood (Ronald Blackwell) - 2:41
10.Love Me Like Before (Domingo Samudio) - 2:44
11.The Hair On My Chinny Chin Chin (Ronald Blackwell) - 2:35
12.(I'm In With) The Out Crowd (Domingo Samudio) - 2:15
13.How Do You Catch A Girl (Ronald Blackwell) - 2:19
14.The Love You Left Behind (Domingo Samudio) - 2:30
15.Oh That's Good, No That's Bad (Dewayne Blackwell) - 2:18
16.Take What You Can Get (Domingo Samudio) - 2:16
17.Black Sheep (Bob McDill) - 2:48
18.My Day's Gonna Come (Davidson, Kesler) - 1:59
19.Banned In Boston (John Morier) - 2:56
20.Money's My Problem (Carabetta, Gerace) - 2:23
21.Yakety Yak (Lieber, Stoller) - 2.02
22.Let Our Love Light Shine (Malone-Scott) - 2:36
23.Old Macdonald Had A Boogaloo Farm (Dallas Frazier) - 2:44
24.I Never Had No One (Domingo Samudio) - 2:42
25.I Couldn't Spell !!*@* (Wayne Thompson) - 2:22
26.The Down Home Strut (Carabetta, Samudio) - 2:14
27.Fate (Domingo Samudio) - 3:34
28.Oh Lo (Domingo Samudio) - 2:57

Musicians
Tracks 1-8
*Samuel Domingo - Vocals, Keyboard
*Ray Stinnet - Guitar
*Dave Martin - Bass
*Butch Gibson - Saxophone
*Jerry Patterson - Drums
Tracks 9-26
*Samuel Domingo - Vocals, Keyboard
*Tony "Butch" Gerace - Bass, Vocals
*Billy Bennett - Drums, Percussion
*Andy Kuha - Guitar, Vocals
Tracks 27,28
*Lorraine Gennaro
*Jane Anderson
*Fran Curcio

Related Act
1971  Domingo "Sam" Samudio - Hard And Heavy

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Fleetwood Mac - Show Biz Blues (1968-1970 uk, astonishing classic rock blues, 2002 double disc digi pack with unissued material)

'Show-Biz Blues' is a compilation which consists entirely of previously unissued works from Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. Included here are new songs as well as alternate versions of previously released tracks, and detailed in this booklet is the background to every track on this second 2-CD collection of early Fleetwood Mac blues. Also to be found in this booklet is new info and interviews for devotees of the original Peter Green line-up of the band, and for anyone interested in the 1960s British music scene - the time during which blues progressed into rock. 

The great thing about doing retrospectives which revisit that blues-rock period is that although the 1960s are well dead and gone, back in this dot.com present fresh info is there daily and important new stuff comes to light from time to time which allows you then to dig a bit deeper. So there can be no such thing as the 'definitive' story of the original Fleetwood Mac - it is an ever-unfolding saga. 

Since The Vaudeville Years collection came out, three things have been made available which add new slants to the Fleetwood Mac Story and to the Peter Green Story. First, an interview with hitherto low-profile Jeremy Spencer on Marty and Lisa Adelson's Fleetwood Mac website /penguin/qa. 

Second, an evocative and often poetic autobiography has been written by Dinky Dawson, the original Fleetwood Mac's sound engineer 'Life On The Road' (Billboard Books - ISBN 0-8230-8344-6). It is essential reading for Mac fans. 

The third chunk of info is not directly to do with early Fleetwood Mac but even so speaks volumes about the climate of those times and about how the pressures of fame and stardom could weigh heavy on a sensitive artist and cutting-edge guitarist. And so, watching Christopher Olgiati's television documentary about Jimi Hendrix - The Man They Made God - broadcast on BBC2's Hendrix Night in 1999, it was impossible not to see some parallels with Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac. In amongst much new archive footage from that time there is Eric Burdon's chilling assertion that "the business killed Jimi". What's more, Band of Gypsies' conga player Juma Sultan recounts bad memories of how Hendrix's creative direction towards the end - or rather a lack of it - was far more 'influenced' by management carrying shooters under their slick suits than by his own musical genius. 

Ironically, Hendrix's show-biz blues towards the end came to him from his fan base many of whom only wanted to hear what they knew. He was booed at the Isle of Wight Festival for musically wanting to move on. Being aware of this, management wanted Hendrix to be a keep-playing-the-old-hits cash cow rather than an inventive musician pushing back barriers. And so, in Juma Sultan's words. "they milked the cow to death". Burdon's and Sultan's comments are stark reminders that if there was something in the air in the late-1960s and 1970 in the music business then it was not the notion of artistic freedom - something Peter Green was also discovering around that time. In 1968 Hendrix told a journalist: 

"We've been playing Purple Haze, The Wind Cries Mary, Hey Joe and Foxy Lady.....we've been playing all these songs - which I really think are groovy songs - but we've been doing all these songs for two years. So quite naturally we start to improvise here and there and there's other things we want to turn on to the people, you know." 

And just two years later Green - by then, with three hits under his belt - commented: 

"Sometimes I think I've played this song 25,000 times - I've got to do something different with it. It's almost like being dictated to." 

So, a couple of years after Jimi Hendrix, the original Fleetwood Mac - led by a blues visionary - were also poised to conquer the world with a futuristic take on the blues. To get an idea of Green's musical vision listen now to his improvisational skills on a promotional recording of Green Manalishi - Disc 2 - track 7 - extended live version. Playing at his very best, none the less he soon had to quit the business for his freedom - to escape being dictated to by his fans, and also by his band who felt safer playing accessible blues-rock as opposed to the free-form direction of Underway - Disc 2 - track 3. There lies a crucial difference between Green and Hendrix: Green got out just in time, Hendrix got trapped. 

Peter Green's sudden exit came as a big shock to the band he left behind and to the business. But wasn't it a wise move in retrospect. At least he got away with his life. This was his and Fleetwood Mac's Show-Biz Blues, as he recently explained to Harry Shapiro in the Vol. 2 Issue 35 of the indispensable British Blues Connection magazine Blueprint (www.blueprint.blues.co.uk) 

"You can't really say what it was all about - it's just Show-Biz Blues (a track on 'Then Play On'). That's the song that says it all. The rest of them looked like clowns and I'm part of the circus. Whatever Fleetwood Mac had become I just didn't want to play whatever it was." 

The sad irony of Peter's comment is focused when listening to this collection with its many gems, and then imagining what might still have been to come. 

Everybody's got the show-biz blues. 

fom CD Liner-notes

Tracks

Disc one

1.  Soul Dressing (Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Al Jackson, Lewie Steinberg) – 3:47

2.  If You Want to Be Happy  (Frank Guida, Carmela Guida, Joseph Royster) – 2:28

3.  Outrage  (William Allen Jr., Cropper, Jackson, Steinberg) – 2:47

4.  The Sun is Shining  (Elmore James) – 3:02

5.  Don't Be Cruel  (Otis Blackwell, Elvis Presley) – 1:40

6.  I'm So Lonely and Blue (Jeremy Spencer) – 3:53

7.  How Blue Can You Get?  (Leonard Feather) – 3:36

8.  My Baby's Sweeter  (Sonny Boy Williamson) – 3:38

9.  Long Grey Mare  (Peter Green) – 1:58

10. Buzz Me Baby  (Fleecy Moore, Dave Dexter, Jr.) – 3:33

11. Mind of My Own  (Danny Kirwan) – 2:59

12. I Have to Laugh (Otis Rush, Dave Clark) – 3:27

13. You're the One  (Buddy Holly, Slim Corbin, Waylon Jennings) – 2:05

14. Do You Give a Damn for Me (Green) – 3:58 

15. Him and Me  (Green) – 4:02 

16. Showbiz Blues  (Green) – 4:06

17. Fast Talking Woman Blues  (Green) – 3:22 

18. World in Harmony  (Kirwan, Green) – 3:24

19. Leaving Town Blues  (Green) – 3:49

Tracks 1-3 are performed by The Peter B's, an early band featuring Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood with Peter Bardens and David Ambrose.

Disc two
1.  Black Magic Woman  (Green) – 7:39
2.  Jumpin' at Shadows  (Duster Bennett) – 5:24
3.  Rattlesnake Shake / Underway  (Green) – 14:06
4.  Stranger Blues  (Elmore James, Morris Levy, Clarence Lewis) – 4:15
5.  World in Harmony  (Kirwan, Green) – 3:32
6.  Tiger  (Ollie Jones) – 3:22
7.  The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Prong Crown)  (Green) – 15:15
8.  Coming Your Way  (Kirwan) – 7:32
9.  Great Balls of Fire  (Blackwell, Jack Hammer) – 2:32
10. Twist and Shout  (Phil Medley, Bert Russell) – 7:45

Fleetwood Mac
* Peter Green – Guitar, Vocals
* Jeremy Spencer – Guitar, Vocals
* Danny Kirwan – Guitar, Vocals
* John McVie – Bass
* Mick Fleetwood – Percussion, Drums

1967-71  Live At The BBC
1968-71  The Best Of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac
1969  Shrine '69

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String Cheese - Strings Cheese (1971 us, wonderful psych folk rock with west coast aroma)

On first listen, String Cheese bares an incredible resemblence to the cultish San-Fran psych-folk outfit, “It’s a Beautiful Day”. Both bands have hopeful lyrics carried by angelic voices soaring over lush arrangements and spacious rhythms. In a word: magical.

As the album progressed, I began to hear resemblences to Jefferson Airplane and their quirky forbear, The Great Society.

I can hear both Marty Balin and Grace Slick in the vocals of Sally Smaller, and I am guessing she was only beginning to develop her repertoire. Unlike her female counterparts Pattie Santos and Linda LaFlamme of It’s a Beautiful Day, Sally’s voice hints at much darker qualities. This together with the more electric approach of String Cheese means that had they survived, they may have ventured off into harder-edged musical territory.

Considering the optimism of their lyrics, and the similarities to label mates like Jefferson Airplane, it’s surprising that String Cheese didn’t move from their home base of Chicago to join the Haight-Ashbury scene in San Francisco.

The tight-knit musical community there must have appealed to Greg Bloch, and so he left String Cheese to replace David LaFlamme in It’s a Beautiful Day in 1973. Unfortunately, this move was poisoned by the fact that LaFlamme was forced out of the band he founded due to royalty issues. Other Haight bands like the Grateful Dead were experiencing similar financial problems at the time, and with the Summer of Love fading into the distance, the idealism of the 1960s was losing its momentum – even in San Francisco.

I’d be quite reluctant to say that another “Summer of Love” is just around the corner, but there definitely seems to be hope that musicians are beginning to understand the importance of community again. Here in Toronto, multi-instrumental collaborations are on the rise, and musicians often play in several bands simultaneously – partially for experimentation, but also to pay the bills.

Albums like String Cheese offer up a taste of the magic that is possible for those who are committed to their craft.

The open rhythm of Louis Constantino on bass guitar and John Maggi on drums lays a basic foundation for the lush melodies of Bloch, Smaller, Larry Wendelken (vocals, 12-string guitar), and the sea of instruments played by William Dalton: organ, piano, celeste, electric guitar, harpsichord, keyboards, sitar (acoustic and electric), classical guitar, and orator.

What happened to the rest of String Cheese remains a mystery. Bloch went on to play with Mark-Almond (John Mayall’s former rhythm section), but the rest of the band appears to have just drifted into total obscurity. If you have any details, please feel free to post them as comments. 

By Rugrat from The Basement Rug

Tracks
1. For Now (Wendelken) - 3:46
2. Crystal (Wendelken) - 5:16
3. We Share (Wendelken, Scott) - 2:59
4. Here Am I / Empty Streets (Wendelken, Scott) - 6:27
5. Forage (Wendelken) - 3:00
6. Soul Of Man (Wendelken) - 5:04
7. Certain Kind Of Day (Wendelken, Scott) - 3:59
8. Woke Up This Morning (Wendelken) - 4:30
9. Coming (Dalton) - 1:42

String Cheese
*Lawrence W. Wendelken – 12-String Guitar, Vocals
*Sally Smaller – Vocals
*Gregory Bloch – Electric Violin
*William Dalton – Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar, Electric Sitar, Celeste, Piano, Organ, Harpsichord
*Louis Constantino – Bass
*John Maggi – Drums

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49th Parallel – 49th Parallel (1967-70 canada, outstanding garage beat psych, 2006 bonus tracks edition)

Calgary's torch bearers in the great sixties garage punk sweepstakes were the 49th Parallel, whose 1969 chart success 'Twilight Woman' garnered them a few deserved rays of limelight. Unfortunately, plagued by personnel changes since their inception in 1966 (as the Shades of Blond), the lads were unable to capitalize on their minor hit, and by 1970, not long after the release of this self-titled LP, had decided to pack it in.

Starting off as a six-piece, the Shades of Blond landed a record deal with Ontario-based RCA subsidiary Gaiety Records, re-christened themselves the 49th Parallel and released a couple of mildly successful forty-fives, the spry 'Labourer' (RCA 3428) and the sunshine pop of 'She Says' (RCA 3447). A switch to the Venture label in 1968 saw more success with the curious 'Blue Bonnie Blue' b/w 'Missouri' (the former penned by a then unknown Delaney Bramlett about his equally obscure muse, Bonnie). 

At this point keyboardist Dave Petch left to be replaced first by Alf Cook and then by Dennis Mundy, with bassist Mick Woodhouse yielding to Dave Downy. By the time of their second Venture seven-incher, the radio-friendly pop-rocker 'Twilight Woman', the band's fortunes seemed to be lifting with some chart activity south of the border. With MGM affiliate Maverick agreeing to handle US distribution, the band recorded their sole full-lengther The 49th Parallel, an oddly schizophrenic mix of sunshine pop, Anglo lysergia and the gruffer acid-rock sounds of the era.

The gentlest and ultimately most successful tracks on The 49th Parallel were written by a mysterious D. Hockett, like the blithe and sugary opener 'Now That I'm a Man', with shades of Curt Boetcher at work in the summery orchestration, or the blurry Tomorrow-esque psych of 'Lazerabder Filchy'. The lysergic 'Missouri' showcases a breezy farfisa that sallies along behind a more caustic - and at times intrusive - guitar solo. Add to these the soulful AM fare of 'Twilight Woman'. Unfortunately, these tracks lie buried somewhat amidst some rather hefty acid-rock riffs. The record heats up on these tougher tracks when driven by Danny Lowe's caustic guitar or, especially, Mundy's abrasive Hammond B-3 licks (as on 'People') but often founders when the machismo is left unchecked.

The disparate The 49th Parallel often comes off more like a cobbled-together collection of singles than a unified album - hardly a surprise given the cachet of LPs back in the days of free-form radio. 

by Michael Panontin

Tracks
1. Now That I'm A Man (Hockett) - 2:22
2. Get Away (Stallings) - 2:26
3. Eye To Eye (Abbott) - 2:45
4. Missouri (Abbott, Carlson) - 3:17
5. Lazerander Filchy (Hockett) - 2:52
6. (Come On Little Child) Talk To Me (Lowe) - 3:00
7. (The) Magician (Hockett) - 3:33
8. Twilight Woman (Abbott) - 2:23
9. Close The Barn Door (Cook, Lowe, Abbott, Carlson, Bare) - 3:11
10.The People (Lowe, Velker, Bare) - 2:45
11.All Your Love (As The Shades Of Blond) (Lowe, Abbott) - 2:10
12.Laborer (Carlson, Lowe, Petch, Abbott, Woodhouse, Bare) - 2:25
13.You Do Things (Carlson, Lowe, Petch, Abbott, Woodhouse, Bare) - 2:23
14.She Says (Carlson, Lowe, Petch, Abbott, Woodhouse, Bare) - 1:57
15.Citizen Freak (Carlson, Lowe, Petch, Abbott, Woodhouse, Bare) - 1:36
16.Blue Bonnie Blue (Alternate Mix) (Bramlett, Davis) - 2:30
17.Up To No Good (Bramlett, Davis) - 2:19
18.I Need You (Lowe, Downey , Beatie, Velker, Bare) - 4:21
19.Goodtime Baby (Lowe, Downey, Beatie, Velker, Bare) - 2:46
20.Missouri (Single Mix) (Abbott, Carlson) - 2:20
21.Blue Bonnie Blue (Single Mix) (Bramlett, Davis) - 2:24

Band
*Dennis Abbott - Vocals
*Dan Lowe - Guitar
*Bob Carlson - Guitar
*Dave Petch - Organ
*Mick Woodhouse - Bass
*Terry Bare - Drums
*Dave Downey - Bass
*Alf Cook - Bass
*Dennis Mundy - Organ
*Jack Velker - Organ
*Dorn - Doran Beattie - Vocals

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The Rippers - Honesty (1968 germany, fine beat psych, Vinyl edition)

The  Rippers line featured four college aged Germans (keyboardist Hans Enderle, singer/lead guitarist Joachim (Jim) Gottescalk, drummer Peter Kempf, rhythm guitarist Lutz Wolf) and one Spaniard (bassist Fernando Rosell).   

They apparently made some noise playing clubs and battle of the bands contests, and attracted the attention of the small German Opp label (who had signed The Blackbirds and Hairy Chapter).  How they went from Opp to releasing an album on the budget British Saga label is a total mystery to me, though someone out there must know.

1968's "Honesty" featured a collection of original material sung in English  With Gottescalk credited with writing most of the ten tracks, the band was heavily influenced by a wide array of American and English acts.  That made for a fun spot-the-influences collection with included everything from Ray Manzarek-styled organ flourishes ('Honesty'), to Stax flavored instrumentals ('Big Ben').  The band was also blessed with two strong singers in Gottescalk and Wolf.  Rosell also sang, but wasn't nearly as good.

All three men sang with distinctive accents, but you quickly got acclimated to them and the accents only occasionally stood out as an issue (the hideous ballad 'Georgia').  By the way, courtesy of the liner notes, we know that Gottescalk's voice 'has rather a black timbre.'  I'm guessing something got lost in the German-to-English translation. 

Bad-cat

Tracks
1. Honesty - 3:30
2. My Woman   (Lutz Wolf) - 3:28
3. My Plight   (Hans Enderle, Joachim (Jim) Gottescalk) - 3:23
4. The Night At the Lagoone - 2:36
5. Big Ben (Instrumental) - 3:33
6. Georgia   (Joachim (Jim) Gottescalk, Fernando Rosell) - 3:50
7. All the Jumping People - 2:01
8. The Girl Whom I Adore - 3:53
9. Blues for Kasperek (Instrumental)  (Hans Enderle) - 3:34
10.My Soul Is Wrong - 3:05
All songs by Joachim (Jim) Gottescalk except where noted

The Rippers
*Hans Enderle - Keyboards
*Joachim Gottescalk - Vocals, Lead Guitar
*Peter Kempf - Drums, Percussion
*Fernando Rosell - Bass, Vocals
*Lutz Wolf - Vocals, Rhythm Guitar

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Aphrodite's Child - It's Five O' Clock (1969 greece, 2nd album, remarkable psychedelic rock, japan remaster limited edition)

Aphrodite's Child's second LP was in some ways both a continuation of and departure from their debut album, End of the World. There were some grandiose keyboard-based sub-British psychedelic tracks that could have fit in well on the previous record. 

The title song's celestial organ, for instance, is much like that on heard on U.K. psychedelic records of the period such as Rupert's People's "Reflections of Charlie Brown," though it's more sentimentally romantic than virtually anything a British band would have released, especially in its vocal delivery. Yet on other cuts, the group took on a markedly different character, whether it was mildly rousing social consciousness ("Wake Up"), pretty fair stomping power pop-psych ("Let Me Love, Let Me Live"), and, least successfully, good-time country-rock ("Take Your Time") and gravelly vaudevillian soul ("Good Time So Fine"). 

"Funky Mary," on the other hand, is a really cool departure into almost experimental soul-rock, its phased vocals backed by an almost musique concrete wash of bashing drums, Latin-African-flavored bongos, and jazzy vibraphone. If it's guiltier pleasures you're looking for, the unreservedly heart-tuggingly sad "Marie Jolie" is their best (if most saccharine) pop ballad with Mediterranean gondola balladeer overtones complete with accordion solo, though it's End of the World's "Rain and Tears" that the group's most remembered for in that department.

 "Such a Funny Night," which follows right after that, steers the boat back to pop-psychedelia in the twee British mold. Like their first album, then, it's a very uneven record, but one whose best half or so is pretty enjoyable psych-turning-into-prog with Greek accents to both the vocals and melodies, even if it's never going to be classified as especially hip. 

by Richie Unterberger

Tracks
1. It's Five O'Clock (R. Francis, Vangelis) - 3:31
2. Wake Up (R. Francis, E. Papathanassiou) - 4:04
3. Take Your Time (R. Francis, E. Papathanassiou) - 2:39
4. Annabella (R. Adams, Demis Roussos) - 3:45
5. Let Me Love, Let Me Live (R. Francis, Lucas Sideras) - 4:43
6. Funky Mary (Papathanassiou, Sideras) - 4:11
7. Good Time So Fine (V. Johnson, E. Papathanassiou) - 2:45
8. Marie Jolie (R. Francis, Papathanassiou) - 4:41
9. Such a Funny Night (R. Adams, Papathanassiou) - 4:34

Aphrodite's Child
*Demis Roussos - Bass, Guitars, Vocals
*Vangelis Papathanassiou - Bass, Keyboards
*Lucas Sideras - Drums, Percussion

1968  End of the World (1st album, 2010 esoteric remaster)

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Ruthann Friedman - Windy - A Ruthann Friedman Songbook (1966-73 us, outstanding folk rock, 2013 remaster)

A look at the intense visage of Ruthann Friedman on the cover "Windy: A Ruthann Friedman Songbook" reveals those “stormy eyes that flash at the sound of lies,” but a listen to the sounds within shows the artist spreading her “wings to fly above the clouds.”  For here is an entire disc’s worth of never-before-heard pop nuggets, crafted with a delicacy and beauty to match that photo.  Windy, of course, is so named, of course, for The Association’s 1967 No. 1 hit penned by Friedman, which was recognized as one of BMI’s Top 100 Songs of the 20th Century.  Its eighteen tracks were recorded between 1966 and 1973, truly a period during which anything was possible.  They find Friedman supported by such luminaries as Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman, Curt Boettcher, Ron Elliott and members of the Los Angeles Wrecking Crew, and reveal a gifted songwriter who was very much more than a “one-hit wonder.”

Chances are, if you know the music of Ruthann Friedman beyond “Windy,” it’s due to her 1969 Reprise album Constant Companion, a fragile psych-folk gem that many have compared to the best of Vashti Bunyan or Judee Sill.  Or perhaps you know Water Records’ 2006 volume of “lost” songs, Hurried Life.  But Now Sounds’ new excavation unearths a wealth of inventive pop.  Though Friedman’s own, stripped-down recording of the seminal “Windy” is reprised (in alternate form) from A Hurried Life, it’s surrounded with seventeen other melodic gems ranging from the sunny to the sad.  These have been drawn from demos and publishing recordings, as well as songs intended for her first, unfinished A&M solo album.

Compilation producer/designer Steve Stanley’s vivid essay explains that a potpourri of influences affected young Ruthann, including the Broadway musicals of Irving Berlin, Frank Loesser and Richard Rodgers, the folk songs of Woody Guthrie and the rock-and-roll of Bill Haley and His Comets.  Indeed, the music on Songbook is stylistically varied.  Friedman possessed a husky, expressive and piercing voice that, at times, recalls Grace Slick; it’s no surprise, then, that she was briefly considered to front Jefferson Airplane following Signe Anderson’s departure.  She modestly reminisces in the liner notes, “They didn’t take me, which was smart.  I mean, Grace Slick, how can you turn that down?”

Four beguiling tracks have been rescued from sessions helmed by Curt Boettcher and Steve Clark in summer/fall 1966.  Boettcher and Clark backed Friedman with many of the musicians also heard on their production of And Then…Along Comes the Association including bassist Jerry Scheff (best known for his work with Elvis Presley) and the Wrecking Crew guitarist Mike Deasy.  A slinky, James Bond-esque intro announces “Don’t Say No” in which Friedman poses the pained question, “Can’t you see how dark my life is without you?”  Boettcher believed in the song and later re-recorded it with The Oracle on the Verve label.  

Friedman brings attitude to the spare “Please, Please, Please” (“You better start to change your ways if you want this love to last!”) and the garage-rock-with-horns of “Burning House.”  The spirited “There’s a Place in the Sky” beckons listeners to the locale where “there’s only love,” imploring “Come on, everybody, be yourself.”  This song wonderfully features the same poetic blend of the earthbound and the celestial that Friedman created in “Windy.”  It’s quite the mystery why The Association didn’t return to the Friedman well following the success of “Windy.”

Tommy LiPuma helmed sessions in 1967 and 1968 for Friedman’s unfinished A&M debut.  It’s crushing to read Friedman’s recollection of Jerry Moss informing her, “You’re the first person I signed to this label who didn’t make it” and summarily dropping her from the label.  Based on the songs premiering here, Moss clearly didn’t make the right decision!  These tracks hold their own alongside those recorded by LiPuma for his other top-notch A&M charges including Chris Montez and Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends.  It didn’t hurt that Friedman’s engaging and melodic songs were being brought to life by the likes of Parks, Newman, Elliott, Russ Titelman, and Wrecking Crew stalwarts Hal Blaine, Lyle Ritz, Joe Osborn, Mike Deasy, Michael Botts and Jim Gordon.

For “High Coin” and “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today,” Friedman called on the songs’ composers to accompany her – respectively, Van Dyke Parks and Randy Newman.  Parks’ tack piano is unmistakable on Friedman’s shimmering rendition of “High Coin.”  The song had previously been recorded by artists including Bobby Vee and The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band; it also earned a spot on Harpers Bizarre’s 1967 Anything Goes album, and Jackie DeShannon would release a version in 1968.  An individualist herself, Ruthann found the clarity and resonance in Parks’ dazzling wordplay, and was similarly sympathetic to Newman’s stark, and even more oft-covered, “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today.”

From these sessions, “Halfway There” is tightly-arranged folk rock with a confident, brazen lead vocal from Friedman.  “Raining Down on My House” is the most atypical track, Eastern-influenced and sitar-flecked.  The evocative “The Sky is Moving South,” co-written with Friedman’s onetime companion Peter Kaukonen, even has a jazz influence.  (An alternate version of this song can be heard on Hurried Life.)  Best of all is “When You’re Near.”  This ode to a lover boasts a pretty, gently loping melody accented by wistful brass fanfares, a lovely guitar spotlight, and tight, dynamic drums.  It’s a companion of a sort to “I’ll Make You Happy,” another gorgeous but rhythmic affirmation of love.  Both craft and genuine emotion pour forth from these songs, and it’s hard to believe they’ve remained on a shelf for over 45 years.

Despite the collapse of the A&M deal, Van Dyke Parks took Lyle Ritz, Bread’s Michael Botts and Peter Kaukonen into the studio for Ruthann’s “Cary” in early 1969.  It’s a pretty and reflective character portrait that compares favorably with Joni Mitchell’s work of the time.  1973’s “Living with My Best Friend” serves as coda to the main portion of the program, with a very different feel than the preceding tracks.  Its breezy verses yield to an almost funky chorus (“Don’t bother raising your eyebrows/Unless you’ve got some new kind of guarantee!”), and nice work on guitars, percussion and horns surround Friedman’s impish lead vocal.  

Two bonus demos not sung by Friedman conclude the CD.  The piano boogie “Pinball Man” is sung by an unknown female vocalist and “Candy Apple Cotton Candy” is sung by Art Podell and Nick Woods, of the New Christy Minstrels.  The latter was recorded on Warner Bros. by Pat Shannon, with a Dick Glasser arrangement.  It’s a far less introspective composition than the others on this disc, but it’s sweetly charming, nonetheless.

Friedman’s comments on the music she made over 40 years ago are eye-opening.  Though she felt that “I’m writing this pop stuff and, I don’t know, it sounds forced…,” the delicious music of Windy: A Ruthann Friedman Songbook is anything but forced.  The disc is also a feast for the eyes, thanks to Steve Stanley’s spot-on graphic design which replicates the feel of an actual LP from that era (right down to the A&M-evoking art on the CD itself). 

by Joe Marchese 

Tracks
1. Halfway There - 2:27
2. Birdie’s Blues - 2:20
3. When You’re Near - 3:07
4. High Coin (Parks) - 2:37
5. I’ll Make You Happy - 2:13
6. Windy (Demo) - 2:26
7. I Think It’s Going To Rain Today (Newman) - 2:33
8. Don’t Say No - 2:27
9. Please Please Please - 2:03
10.Burning House - 1:52
11.There’s A Place In The Sky - 2:17
12.Country Song - 2:03
13.Raining Down On My House - 2:40
14.The Sky Is Moving South (Kaukonen, Friedman) - 4:04
15.Cary - 3:09
16.Pinball Man (Bonus Track) - 2:31
17.Candy Apple Cotton Candy (Bonus Track) - 2:37
18.Candy Apple Cotton - 2:05
All songs by Ruthann Friedman except where noted.

Musicians
*Ruthann Friedman - Vocals, Guitar
*Michael Botts, Jim Gordon, Hal Blaine, Jim Troxel - Drums, Percussions
*Lyle Ritz, Joe Osbonrne, Jerry Scheff - Bass
*Peter Kaukonen, Ron Elliot, Russ Titelman, Mike Deasy, Ben Benay, Lee Mallory - Guitars
*Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman, Butch Parker, Mike Henderson - Piano, Keyboards
*Toxey French - Drums, Vibes
*Jim Bell - Oboe

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