This is
certainly one of the great rock anthems, but what most people don’t know is
that the album from which it was taken (Jailbreak)
is quite a good one overall. Many years ago I was in a used CD store in
Rockville and was impressed by the music they were playing, which turned out to
be the Jailbreak album. Unfortunately the clerk was playing his own copy, which
was not for sale, but I kept it in the back of my mind and later picked up the
CD elsewhere.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
#76 Trust In Me -- Etta James (1961)
Yes, there
is that other Etta James song, but Barack and Michelle seem to own that
one. ;-)
Seriously,
“Trust in Me” (which was released as a single a couple months after “At Last”)
is also a great song, and is well worth a listen. Along with Whitney Houston’s “I
Have Nothing” and Taylor Dayne’s “Love Will Lead You Back”, it’s a fine example
of what I think of as a “diva song”: mostly slow and smoldering, but with a big
climax near the end.
Quite a
few years back (apparently 1991), I was fortunate enough to catch LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, and
Etta James in a triple-header at Wolf Trap. Unfortunately none of these R&B
pioneers are around anymore, but they certainly combined to make a lot of fine
music.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
#77 I Loved And I Lost -- The Impressions (1968)
I’ve
always felt that Chicago soul music never got the credit it deserves. In terms
of soul music, you hear much more about Detroit for Motown, Philly for the
Gamble and Huff days, Muscle Shoals, and Memphis. Even when it comes to
Chicago, people think much more about Chicago blues than about soul. Yet
Chicago produced some of the greatest R&B music of the 1960s and 1970s. In
addition to the Impressions, you had former Impression Jerry Butler, Gene
Chandler, Major Lance, Alvin Cash, Billy Butler, the Dells, the Chi-Lites, the
Marvelows, and I’m sure some folks that I’m forgetting.
Curtis Mayfield,
of course, was the driving force behind much of this success. In addition to
writing nearly all of the Impressions’ material, he wrote hits for fellow
Chicagoans Jerry Butler, Gene Chandler, and Major Lance, as well as for Aretha
Franklin and the Staple Singers. He also was a producer, started his own
successful record label (Curtom), and had a notable solo career in the 1970s.
Picking
just one song by the Impressions was even harder than picking just one Steely
Dan tune. Most of the album cuts that Mayfield wrote for the Impressions are
just as strong as the tracks that got released as singles, in sharp contrast to
the filler that mars so many 1960 albums. If you like this one, be sure to
check out their other stuff – you’ll be glad you did.
#78 A Dream Goes On Forever -- Todd Rundgren (1974)
Todd
Rundgren may have been one of the most ambitious and eclectic musical figures
of his generation (note-for-note recreation of “Good Vibrations,” anyone?), but
he was never better than when he was crafting great classic pop songs. “A Dream
Goes On Forever” was never a big hit, perhaps because it was not nearly as
catchy as “I Saw the Light” or “We Gotta Get You a Woman”, but it’s one of his
most affecting efforts. A close second would be “Love Is the Answer,” whose
incredibly soulful cover version by England Dan and John Ford Coley (of all
people) deservedly hit the top 10 in 1979.
All in
all, I guess I can forgive him for producing Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell album. ;-)
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