Old Melodies ...
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Larry Williams - The Larry Williams Show with Johnny Guitar Watson (1965)
Posted: 10 Apr 2015 12:15 PM PDT
http://allmusic-wingsofdream.blogspot.com/2015/04/larry-williams-larry-williams-show-with.html
A rough, rowdy rock & roll singer, Larry Williams had several hits in the late '50s, several of which -- "Bony Maroney,""Dizzy, Miss Lizzy,""Short Fat Fannie,""Bad Boy,""She Said Yeah" -- became genuine rock & roll classics and were recorded by British Invasion groups; John Lennon, in particular, was a fan of Williams, recording several of his songs over the course of his career.
As a child in New Orleans, Williams learned how to play piano. When he was a teenager, he and his family moved to Oakland, CA, where he joined a local R&B group called the Lemon Drops. In 1954, when he was 19 years old, Williams went back to New Orleans for a visit. During his trip, he met Lloyd Price, who was recording for Specialty Records. Price hired the teenager as his valet and introduced him to Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, the label's house producer. Soon, the label's owner, Art Rupe, signed Williams to a solo recording contract.
Just after Specialty signed Larry Williams, Specialty lost Little Richard, who had been their biggest star and guaranteed hitmaker. Little Richard decided to abandon rock & roll for the ministry shortly after Williams cut his first single, a cover of Price's "Just Because," with Richard's backing band; "Just Because" peaked at number 11 on the R&B charts in the spring of 1957. After Richard left the label, the label put all of its energy into making Williams a star, giving him an image makeover and a set of material -- ranging from hard R&B and rock & roll to ballads -- that was quite similar to Richard's hits.
Williams' first post-Little Richard single was the raucous "Short Fat Fannie," which shot to number one on the R&B charts and number five on the pop charts in the summer of 1957. It was followed in the fall by "Bony Maronie," which hit number four on the R&B charts and number 14 on the pop charts. Williams wasn't able to maintain that momentum, however. "You Bug Me, Baby" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," his next two singles, missed the R&B charts but became minor pop hits in late 1957 and early 1958. Despite the relative failure of these singles, Williams' records became popular import items in Britain; the Beatles would cover both sides of the "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" single (the B-side was "Slow Down") in the mid-'60s. However, Williams' commercial fortunes in America continued to decline, despite Specialty's release of a constant stream of singles and one full-length album.
In 1959, Williams was arrested for selling narcotics, which caused Specialty to drop him from the record label. During the '60s, he drifted through a number of labels in the early '60s, recording songs for Chess, Mercury, Island, and Decca. By the mid-'60s, he had hooked up Johnny "Guitar" Watson and the duo cut several sides for OKeh Records in the mid- and late '60s, including the Top 40 R&B hits "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" (spring 1967) and "Nobody," which was recorded with Kaleidoscope (early 1968). Williams also became a house producer for OKeh Records in 1966, although very few of his productions became hits.
Between 1968 and and 1978, Williams was inactive, recording nothing and performing very little. In 1978, he released a funk album, That's Larry Williams, for Fantasy Records that sold poorly and received bad reviews. In 1980, Williams was found dead in his Los Angeles home; he died of a gunshot wound to his head. The medical examiners called the death a suicide, but rumors persisted for years after his death that he was murdered because of his involvement in drugs, crime and -- allegedly -- prostitution.
Bad Boy [CD] A compilation of Williams' biggest hits and best-known songs entitled Bad Boy was released on Specialty Records in 1989.
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Jon & Robin - Elastic Event (1967)
Posted: 10 Apr 2015 12:11 PM PDT
http://allmusic-wingsofdream.blogspot.com/2015/04/jon-robin-elastic-event-1967.html
The male-female duo Jon & Robin are thought of as a one-hit wonder for their playful 1967 Top 20 hit "Do It Again a Little Bit Slower." Actually, however, they recorded quite a bit in the mid-to-late '60s, with an engaging if somewhat lightweight style craftily mixing AM radio mid-'60s pop/rock with a little psychedelia and Southern soul. "Do It Again a Little Bit Slower" was certainly the best of their discs, with its likable male-female vocal tradeoffs, a "Cool Jerk"-like soul piano riff at strategic points, and an effective fadeout that languorously stretched out the suggestive title phrase. But their two LPs and a bunch of 1965-1969 singles included some enjoyable material as well, devised with help from some fine songwriters and some of the best production and backup musician talent in their Dallas base.
The male half of the duo, Jon Abdnor, had recorded some solo singles for his millionaire father's Abnak label before hooking up with teenage singer Javonne Braga, who was billed as "Robin" on the records the pair made together. Their one national hit, "Do It Again a Little Bit Slower" came from the pen of Wayne Carson Thompson, most famous for writing the Boxtops'"The Letter." The duo also recorded several other Thompson compositions, including the fairly gritty soul-popper "Dr. Jon (The Medicine Man)," which was a big hit in Texas, although it didn't break nationally. Jon & Robin themselves wrote little original material, although they did benefit from production by ex-rockabilly star Dale Hawkins and Mike Rabon of the Five Americans, a fellow Abnak act. Indeed, several of the Five Americans played on some Jon & Robin sessions, and another Abnak artist, soul singer Bobby Patterson, also helped out with some of their recordings. By the end of the 1960s, however, Jon & Robin had split, though Jon Abdnor did put out a 1969 solo LP, Intro to Change, billed to John Howard Abdnor & the Involvement.
Given their somewhat limited potential, it's surprising to see that Jon & Robin cut two LPs in 1967. On the other hand, given that Jon's father owned the label they recorded on, it's also not surprising that they were permitted this indulgence. For their second go-round of 1967, they pumped up the wattage a bit and aimed for a harder, trippier sound, less steeped in soul than an odd mix of country/folk and pop-psychedelia influences -- though how they execute this is a little odd, the trippy fuzz-laden "I Want Some More" working a quote from "Twelfth Street Rag" into its break; and then there's the Southern-tinged single "Dr. Jon (The Medicine Man)," which charted at number 87; and "Honey Bee" works what sounds like a recorder flute somewhere into a countrified ballad. It's different from the preceding album, and has fewer obviously predictable moments; and there's even an unexpected folk-rock excursion in "Like I Know You Do," with a guitar sound that (very) distantly recalls moments of mid-'60s Bob Dylan. The Monkees of the same period mixed these sounds together more successfully as good, solid pop/rock, but this was still an improvement over Jon & Robin's first album. As with that album, some of the best moments here have been included on Sundazed's Best of Jon & Robin, but this time out the rest is kind of worth hearing in context.***
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Arthur Alexander - Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter
Posted: 10 Apr 2015 11:57 AM PDT
http://allmusic-wingsofdream.blogspot.com/2015/04/arthur-alexander-lonely-just-like-me.html
Arthur Alexander - Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter 2007
Arthur Alexander had been forgotten by nearly everyone short of hardcore fans of Southern soul when he was lured away from his day job as a school bus driver in Cleveland to cut a new album as part of Elektra Records' American Explorer series, and 1993's Lonely Just Like Me was a potent reminder of Alexander's estimable gifts as a vocalist and a songwriter. However, Alexander died of a heart attack at the age of 51 just weeks after the album was released, and while the story of his short-lived comeback brought him back to the attention of music fans (and prompted long-overdue reissues of his classic sides of the '60s and '70s), the album that brought him back to the spotlight didn't fare so well. With no artist to promote the album, Lonely Just Like Me promptly disappeared, and Alexander's valedictory effort seemed doomed to obscurity. However, the collectors at Hacktone Records have given his final recordings a second chance in the marketplace, and Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter is a splendid expansion of what was already a wonderful album. This disc includes the dozen songs from the album in remastered and resequenced form (the new running order is meant to conform more closely to the original intentions of Alexander and producer Ben Vaughn), as well as an appearance by Alexander on NPR's Fresh Air, four songs recorded in a Cleveland hotel room while Alexander and Vaughn were working out material for the recording sessions, and Alexander singing his 1962 hit "Anna" at New York City's Bottom Line in 1991 (this was the performance that prompted Elektra Records to give him a new record deal). While it might sound as if Hacktone has cluttered this disc with odds and ends, what's startling is how committed and compelling Alexander sounds regardless of the circumstances, whether he's singing an old Neil Diamond tune into a cassette machine or recording superb new compositions for his major-label comeback. There's a heartbreaking emotional honesty in his best songs, and he sang them with a voice that melded churchy grace with gritty home truths, and even though he'd been away from professional music making for close to a decade and a half when he cut this music, it's as moving and timeless as anything he ever recorded. Songs as good as "In the Middle of It All,""If It's Really Got to Be This Way" and "All the Time" only come around once in a lifetime, and thankfully, Alexander was given one last chance to share them with Lonely Just Like Me; this new edition only improves an overlooked classic anyone with an ear for vintage R&B will cherish.
***
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Larry Williams - The Larry Williams Show with Johnny Guitar Watson (1965)
Posted: 10 Apr 2015 12:15 PM PDT
http://allmusic-wingsofdream.blogspot.com/2015/04/larry-williams-larry-williams-show-with.html
A rough, rowdy rock & roll singer, Larry Williams had several hits in the late '50s, several of which -- "Bony Maroney,""Dizzy, Miss Lizzy,""Short Fat Fannie,""Bad Boy,""She Said Yeah" -- became genuine rock & roll classics and were recorded by British Invasion groups; John Lennon, in particular, was a fan of Williams, recording several of his songs over the course of his career.
As a child in New Orleans, Williams learned how to play piano. When he was a teenager, he and his family moved to Oakland, CA, where he joined a local R&B group called the Lemon Drops. In 1954, when he was 19 years old, Williams went back to New Orleans for a visit. During his trip, he met Lloyd Price, who was recording for Specialty Records. Price hired the teenager as his valet and introduced him to Robert "Bumps" Blackwell, the label's house producer. Soon, the label's owner, Art Rupe, signed Williams to a solo recording contract.
Just after Specialty signed Larry Williams, Specialty lost Little Richard, who had been their biggest star and guaranteed hitmaker. Little Richard decided to abandon rock & roll for the ministry shortly after Williams cut his first single, a cover of Price's "Just Because," with Richard's backing band; "Just Because" peaked at number 11 on the R&B charts in the spring of 1957. After Richard left the label, the label put all of its energy into making Williams a star, giving him an image makeover and a set of material -- ranging from hard R&B and rock & roll to ballads -- that was quite similar to Richard's hits.
Williams' first post-Little Richard single was the raucous "Short Fat Fannie," which shot to number one on the R&B charts and number five on the pop charts in the summer of 1957. It was followed in the fall by "Bony Maronie," which hit number four on the R&B charts and number 14 on the pop charts. Williams wasn't able to maintain that momentum, however. "You Bug Me, Baby" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," his next two singles, missed the R&B charts but became minor pop hits in late 1957 and early 1958. Despite the relative failure of these singles, Williams' records became popular import items in Britain; the Beatles would cover both sides of the "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" single (the B-side was "Slow Down") in the mid-'60s. However, Williams' commercial fortunes in America continued to decline, despite Specialty's release of a constant stream of singles and one full-length album.
In 1959, Williams was arrested for selling narcotics, which caused Specialty to drop him from the record label. During the '60s, he drifted through a number of labels in the early '60s, recording songs for Chess, Mercury, Island, and Decca. By the mid-'60s, he had hooked up Johnny "Guitar" Watson and the duo cut several sides for OKeh Records in the mid- and late '60s, including the Top 40 R&B hits "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" (spring 1967) and "Nobody," which was recorded with Kaleidoscope (early 1968). Williams also became a house producer for OKeh Records in 1966, although very few of his productions became hits.
Between 1968 and and 1978, Williams was inactive, recording nothing and performing very little. In 1978, he released a funk album, That's Larry Williams, for Fantasy Records that sold poorly and received bad reviews. In 1980, Williams was found dead in his Los Angeles home; he died of a gunshot wound to his head. The medical examiners called the death a suicide, but rumors persisted for years after his death that he was murdered because of his involvement in drugs, crime and -- allegedly -- prostitution.
Bad Boy [CD] A compilation of Williams' biggest hits and best-known songs entitled Bad Boy was released on Specialty Records in 1989.
***
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Jon & Robin - Elastic Event (1967)
Posted: 10 Apr 2015 12:11 PM PDT
http://allmusic-wingsofdream.blogspot.com/2015/04/jon-robin-elastic-event-1967.html
The male-female duo Jon & Robin are thought of as a one-hit wonder for their playful 1967 Top 20 hit "Do It Again a Little Bit Slower." Actually, however, they recorded quite a bit in the mid-to-late '60s, with an engaging if somewhat lightweight style craftily mixing AM radio mid-'60s pop/rock with a little psychedelia and Southern soul. "Do It Again a Little Bit Slower" was certainly the best of their discs, with its likable male-female vocal tradeoffs, a "Cool Jerk"-like soul piano riff at strategic points, and an effective fadeout that languorously stretched out the suggestive title phrase. But their two LPs and a bunch of 1965-1969 singles included some enjoyable material as well, devised with help from some fine songwriters and some of the best production and backup musician talent in their Dallas base.
The male half of the duo, Jon Abdnor, had recorded some solo singles for his millionaire father's Abnak label before hooking up with teenage singer Javonne Braga, who was billed as "Robin" on the records the pair made together. Their one national hit, "Do It Again a Little Bit Slower" came from the pen of Wayne Carson Thompson, most famous for writing the Boxtops'"The Letter." The duo also recorded several other Thompson compositions, including the fairly gritty soul-popper "Dr. Jon (The Medicine Man)," which was a big hit in Texas, although it didn't break nationally. Jon & Robin themselves wrote little original material, although they did benefit from production by ex-rockabilly star Dale Hawkins and Mike Rabon of the Five Americans, a fellow Abnak act. Indeed, several of the Five Americans played on some Jon & Robin sessions, and another Abnak artist, soul singer Bobby Patterson, also helped out with some of their recordings. By the end of the 1960s, however, Jon & Robin had split, though Jon Abdnor did put out a 1969 solo LP, Intro to Change, billed to John Howard Abdnor & the Involvement.
Given their somewhat limited potential, it's surprising to see that Jon & Robin cut two LPs in 1967. On the other hand, given that Jon's father owned the label they recorded on, it's also not surprising that they were permitted this indulgence. For their second go-round of 1967, they pumped up the wattage a bit and aimed for a harder, trippier sound, less steeped in soul than an odd mix of country/folk and pop-psychedelia influences -- though how they execute this is a little odd, the trippy fuzz-laden "I Want Some More" working a quote from "Twelfth Street Rag" into its break; and then there's the Southern-tinged single "Dr. Jon (The Medicine Man)," which charted at number 87; and "Honey Bee" works what sounds like a recorder flute somewhere into a countrified ballad. It's different from the preceding album, and has fewer obviously predictable moments; and there's even an unexpected folk-rock excursion in "Like I Know You Do," with a guitar sound that (very) distantly recalls moments of mid-'60s Bob Dylan. The Monkees of the same period mixed these sounds together more successfully as good, solid pop/rock, but this was still an improvement over Jon & Robin's first album. As with that album, some of the best moments here have been included on Sundazed's Best of Jon & Robin, but this time out the rest is kind of worth hearing in context.***
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Arthur Alexander - Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter
Posted: 10 Apr 2015 11:57 AM PDT
http://allmusic-wingsofdream.blogspot.com/2015/04/arthur-alexander-lonely-just-like-me.html
Arthur Alexander - Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter 2007
Arthur Alexander had been forgotten by nearly everyone short of hardcore fans of Southern soul when he was lured away from his day job as a school bus driver in Cleveland to cut a new album as part of Elektra Records' American Explorer series, and 1993's Lonely Just Like Me was a potent reminder of Alexander's estimable gifts as a vocalist and a songwriter. However, Alexander died of a heart attack at the age of 51 just weeks after the album was released, and while the story of his short-lived comeback brought him back to the attention of music fans (and prompted long-overdue reissues of his classic sides of the '60s and '70s), the album that brought him back to the spotlight didn't fare so well. With no artist to promote the album, Lonely Just Like Me promptly disappeared, and Alexander's valedictory effort seemed doomed to obscurity. However, the collectors at Hacktone Records have given his final recordings a second chance in the marketplace, and Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter is a splendid expansion of what was already a wonderful album. This disc includes the dozen songs from the album in remastered and resequenced form (the new running order is meant to conform more closely to the original intentions of Alexander and producer Ben Vaughn), as well as an appearance by Alexander on NPR's Fresh Air, four songs recorded in a Cleveland hotel room while Alexander and Vaughn were working out material for the recording sessions, and Alexander singing his 1962 hit "Anna" at New York City's Bottom Line in 1991 (this was the performance that prompted Elektra Records to give him a new record deal). While it might sound as if Hacktone has cluttered this disc with odds and ends, what's startling is how committed and compelling Alexander sounds regardless of the circumstances, whether he's singing an old Neil Diamond tune into a cassette machine or recording superb new compositions for his major-label comeback. There's a heartbreaking emotional honesty in his best songs, and he sang them with a voice that melded churchy grace with gritty home truths, and even though he'd been away from professional music making for close to a decade and a half when he cut this music, it's as moving and timeless as anything he ever recorded. Songs as good as "In the Middle of It All,""If It's Really Got to Be This Way" and "All the Time" only come around once in a lifetime, and thankfully, Alexander was given one last chance to share them with Lonely Just Like Me; this new edition only improves an overlooked classic anyone with an ear for vintage R&B will cherish.
***