Ethridge (b, p); Sneaky Pete Kleinow (sg); Jon Corneal (d); Eddie Hoh (d); Sam Goldstein (d); Popeye Phillips (d); Henry Lewy (e)
Track listing: Christine’s Tune; Sin City; Do Right Woman; Dark End Of The Street; My Uncle; Wheels; Juanita; Hot Burrito #1; Hot Burrito #2; Do You Know How It Feels; Hippie Boy
Running time: 37.33
Current CD: Polydor 5407042 adds: Burrito Deluxe album
Further listening: Burrito Deluxe (1970); Gram Parsons – GP (1973) and Grievous Angel (1974)
Further reading: The Byrds: Timeless Flight Revisited (Johnny Rogan, 1997)
Download: iTunes; HMV Digital
When the Byrds teetered on the brink of collapse at the end of 1968, founding member Chris Hillman decided to join erstwhile member Gram Parsons in a new venture – The Flying Burrito Brothers. ‘Country rock’ was still a neologism at the time they pushed forward with this groundbreaking record. Holed up in a house together, Parsons and Hillman wrote some of the best songs of their lives.
‘When I was living with Parsons I woke up one day and said, This old town’s filled with sin, it’ll swallow you in,’ Hillman remembers. ‘Gram then finished the second part. As far as lyrics and melody went, we shared it all the way.’
Parsons spoke of his vision of ‘Cosmic American Music’ fusing soul, R&B and traditional country alongside a distinctive rock beat. Image was also a part of the equation. Inspired by the Stones, Parsons took to wearing make-up and on the cover of the album the group were dressed in garish, floral suits adorned with cannabis leaves, the creation of the famous Nashville tailor Nudie.
The music was both inspired and confrontational, brazenly mixing steel guitars and mandolins with advanced studio effects, phasing and synthesized brass. It was a potent concoction. The compositions were righteous assaults on LA life, with riveting tales of groupies (Christine’s Tune), drug abuse (Juanita), draft evasion (My Uncle) and lost innocence (Hippie Boy). Parsons’ vocals displayed a remarkable range of emotion, sometimes forthright, occasionally vulnerable and, most famously, cracking with emotion on the heartrending Hot Burrito #1, which Elvis Costello later revived using the less impressive title I’m Your Toy. Parsons’ finest work was featured on this album but only the cognoscenti were listening. Lost in the gap between the country and rock markets, the Burritos never received the acclaim they deserved. It was left to successors like the Eagles to reap the benefits of their pioneering work.
Tommy James And The Shondells
Cellophane Symphony
Bubblegum pin-up becomes psychedelic pop composer.
Record label: Roulette
Produced: Tommy James
Recorded: New York; summer 1968–January 1969
Released: April 1969
Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)
Personnel: Tommy James (v, g); Eddie Gray (g); Ronnie Rossman (k); Mike Vale (b); Pete Lucia (d)
Track listing: Cellophane Symphony; Makin’ Good Time; Evergreen; Sweet Cherry Wine (S); Papa Rolled His Own; Changes; Loved One; I Know Who I Am; The Love Of A Woman; On Behalf Of The Entire Staff And Management
Running time: 41.55
Current CD: Sequel NEMCD647 adds: Crimson And Clover album
Further listening: Crimson And Clover (1968)
Further reading: www.tommyjames.com
Download: www.tommyjames.com
A child prodigy at 13, Tommy James spent the early ’60s fusing garage rock with bubblegum pop. A second incarnation of his group The Shondells charted with I Think We’re Alone Now in 1967 and Mony, Mony in 1968 before the psychedelic bug bit and the album and single Crimson And Clover introduced a new phase for the group. Still with songwriting partner Richie Cordell, James moved into new, less formulated territory. Influenced by Sgt. Pepper, the group changed garb and paid lip service to musical fashion while retaining their pert pop sound. However, by the end of 1968 James had seized full control of proceedings and Cellophane Symphony became his most ambitious project yet.
The opening title track was a nine-minute-plus instrumental, some way from the three-minute slices of pop he was renowned for, sounding more like an atmospheric Pink Floyd outtake complete with Farfisa organ. The mood generally is one of irreverence: plenty of tongue-in-cheek wordplay and even, at one point, a John Wayne impersonation, before side one closes with the vaudevillian Papa Rolled His Own. In the spirit of Zappa’s We’re Only In It For The Money, Cellophane Symphony climaxes with James’s very own attack on the establishment, On Behalf Of The Entire Staff And Management, a spoof party singalong where James is presented with a gold watch for services rendered. The mood takes an even more bizarre twist when James starts squealing ‘It doesn’t work, it doesn’t work/the watch doesn’t even work/I hate you.’ Perhaps it was a refutation of the futility of playing the pop game. Whatever, James is seen seated in an empty auditorium on the reverse of the original UK version of the album with an expression that seems to be asking ‘What the hell was all that about?’
Dusty Springfield
Dusty In Memphis
Landmark white-soul session that almost didn’t happen.
Record label: Phillips (UK) Atlantic (US)
Produced: Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin
Recorded: American Studios, Memphis; September 1968; vocals overdubbed at Atlantic Studios, New York City
Released: January 13, 1969.
Chart peaks: None (UK) 99 (US)
Personnel: Bobby Wood (p); Bobby Emmons (o); Reggie Young (g); Gene Chrisman (d); Tommy Cogbill (b); The Sweet Inspirations (bv); Ed Kollis (e)
Track listing: Just A Little Lovin’; So Much Love; Son Of A Preacher Man (S); I Don’t Want To Hear It Anymore; Don’t Forget About Me; Breakfast In Bed; Just One Smile; The Windmills Of Your Mind; In The Land Of Make Believe; No Easy Way Down; I Can’t Make It Alone
Running time: 33.36
Current CD: Mercury 0632972 adds mono versions and original mixes of: Son Of A Preacher Man; Just A Little Lovin’; Don’t Forget About Me; Breakfast In Bed; I Don’t Want To Hear About It Anymore; The Windmills Of Your Mind; In The Land Of Make Believe; So Much Love
Further listening: A Girl Called Dusty (1964); Everything’s Coming Up Dusty (1965)
Further reading: Dusty Springfield: Dusty In Memphis 33 1/3 (Warren Zanes, 2003); Dusty: The Definitive Biography (Lucy O’Brien, 1997); www.dustyspringfield.co.uk
Download: iTunes; HMV Digital
They may have sent Dusty south, but the South had to meet her halfway. When this beautiful album first appeared, the general feeling among record buyers was that barge-poles just weren’t long enough. But they were in good company: Dusty loathed it too. She confessed that it took over a year before she could bear to play the record at all.
Atlantic’s idea had been a great one. Send Dusty down South with Jerry Wexler, just as they’d done with Aretha Franklin. After all, despite the West Hampstead background, the blonde bouffant and the history of pneumatic Euro-pop melodrama, here