Roger Green: a librarian's life, deconstructed.
“Elenore was a parody of ‘Happy Together.’ It was never intended to be a straight-forward song.”
The Turtles is an American rock band that out of California. The group had some success, notably “It Ain’t Me Babe”, a Bob Dylan cover, in the Billboard Top Ten in the summer of 1965, and “You Baby”, that went Top 20 early in 1966.
Of course the big hit was Happy Together [LISTEN], #1 for three weeks in 1967 in the US Continue reading “Musical Flashback Saturday: Elenore”
Mockingbird also charted in Canada , New Zealand, the UK.
Long before I knew the name Carly Simon, I was listening to the folk music of the Simon Sisters, especially Winkin’, Blinkin’, And Nod, which managed to get to #73 on the pop charts back in 1964. Here’s Winkin’, live, from 1968, with middle sister Lucy; Carly was the youngest girl. Listen to The Simon Sisters sing for Children.
The three Simon sisters, including opera singer Joanna, the oldest, are all accomplished singers, influenced heavily by their parents. Their father was the co-founder of the book publishing house Simon & Schuster. Watch this piece about the sisters from the early 1980s.
From Wikipedia: “For her 1988 hit ‘Let the River Run’, from the film Working Girl, Simon became the first artist in history to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for a song both written and performed entirely by a single artist. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994, inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for ‘You’re So Vain’ in 2004, and awarded the ASCAP Founders Award in 2012.”
The folks at the Grammys named her best new artist of 1972, a choice that has proved sage over time. She beat out Bill Withers; Chase; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; and Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds.
10. Better Not Tell Her. My favorite Carly Simon album is Have You Seen Me Lately?, which only got to #60 on the Billboard charts in 1990. This song, despite the video, did not chart at all.
9. Nobody Does It Better (#2 for three weeks in 1977). One of the two or three best James Bond songs, this from The Spy Who Loved Me. It was kept out of the top slot by You Light Up My Life, which was #1 for TEN weeks.
8. Legend in Your Own Time (#50 in 1972). Reportedly about Cat Stevens, who she dated for a time, I always it took as a sarcastic dig of a “legend in your own mind.” Yet it seems sweetly delivered.
7. Mockingbird (#5 in 1974). A duet with then-husband James Taylor, I like how they switch off harmony and lead vocals. From here: “It also charted in Canada (#3), New Zealand (#6), the UK (#34)… In recent years Taylor has performed ‘Mockingbird’ live with his daughter (by Simon) Sally Taylor and Simon has performed the song live with her and Taylor’s son Ben Taylor.” I could find only this live version.
6. You’re So Vain (#1 for three weeks in 1973). I actually never much cared WHO the song was about. It evidently is NOT about Mick Jagger (who sings on the song), Warren Beatty, James Taylor, Kris Kristofferson, Cat Stevens, or David Geffen, though she once said it was about Geffen. Here’s a strange 2011 video.
5. Haven’t Got Time for the Pain (#14 in 1974). At the end of this song is one of my favorite uses of strings.
4. Fisherman’s Song. This shows up on a recording for children and with Judy Collins and Lucy Simon on her 1990 album. Here’s Carly Simon talking with Joan Lunden, before singing it.
3. It’s Not Like Him. ALSO from Better Not Tell Her. Song of marital betrayal.
2. Anticipation (#13 in 1972). Almost ruined by its association with a Heinz catsup commercial, it still ends with the most hopeful line, “These are the good old days.”
1. That’s The Way I Always Heard It Should Be (#10 in 1971). I find this song unrelentingly sad, with ***
Carly Simon’s feet.
I believe Estelle Axton ought to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Jim Stewart was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Here’s part of his bio:
Jim Stewart and sister Estelle Axton were the co-founders of Memphis-based Stax Records. Stax and Motown were the two most important record labels in America in terms of bringing black music into the mainstream during the Sixties and Seventies.
Stax recorded some of the greatest acts in the history of soul music – Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Johnnie Taylor, Booker T. & the MG’s, Carla Thomas, and Eddie Floyd, among them.
If Motown was “the Sound of Young America,” then Stax/Volt was “Soulsville, U.S.A.” Between 1959 and 1975, Stax and its affiliated labels released 300 albums and 800 singles. Among the latter, 167 were bonafide hit singles.
Now here’s part of Estelle Axton’s 2004 obituary:
In late 1958, her younger brother, Jim, appealed for financial help to develop Satellite Records, which he had set up to issue recordings of local Memphis country and rockabilly artists.
Estelle convinced her husband [Everett Axton] that they should remortgage their house and, in February 1959, she joined Satellite as an equal partner, contributing $2,500 – at a time when Everett was earning just $18 a week. She kept her bank job, but took a keen interest in Satellite’s fortunes, enjoying pop music and working with young people.
By 1960, Jim and Estelle had found the Capitol Theatre, in a black Memphis neighbourhood, that they turned into a recording studio. To help defray the rent, she opened a record shop in the foyer, and left the bank to work there. She and Everett remortgaged for another $4,000 to refurbish the cinema…
The studio’s location meant a wealth of aspiring local black talent began dropping in, Estelle’s record shop encouraging them to hang out and play popular songs. “The shop was a workshop for Stax Records,” she explained. “When a record would hit on another label, we would discuss what made it sell.”
Also in 1960, Estelle’s son, saxophonist Charles “Packy” Axton, provided Satellite with its first million-seller when his group, the Mar-Keys, put out their debut single, Last Night. According to Estelle, her brother had not been interested in releasing the record until she pleaded, cried, and swore at him. Then he bet $100 that it would never be a hit. [It was.]
Satellite was forced to change its name after it was discovered that a Los Angeles label already owned the title. Taking the first two letters from Jim and Estelle’s surnames, Stax Records was born…
Over the years, many of Stax’s musicians recalled that it was Estelle who encouraged them, then forced her brother to sign them up. “You didn’t feel any back-off from her, no differentiation that you were black and she was white,” noted Isaac Hayes. “Being in a town where that attitude was plentiful, she just made you feel secure. She was like a mother to us all.”
From Jim and Estelle’s Memphis Music Hall of Fame induction page:
At Stax, Estelle ran the front of the house – the record store – and Jim ran the back – the studio. Many of the label’s stars first came in as her customers – Booker T. Jones, William Bell, and Albert King among many (in the early years, she also employed Steve Cropper). Her store would serve as both a respite from the studio, and perhaps more importantly, as a library and research facility for the songwriters and musicians.
From Wikipedia:
Estelle was the founder of the Memphis Songwriters Association in 1973. The Memphis Songwriters Association was formed in order to foster the education and advancement of local area songwriters. There was a focus on the development of the songwriting craft with the intentions of producing commercially viable songs and improving performance skills.
After her split from Stax, Axton went on to found the Fretone label, which launched Rick Dees’ 1977 novelty smash “Disco Duck.”
Clearly, Estelle Axton was the ears and heart, and soul of STAX in the 1960s, helping move the label from its rockabilly roots to become a soul powerhouse. In spite of Disco Duck, I believe Estelle Axton ought to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Back in the day, I might buy a whole album just for one song. I know I did this for the title track of the 1972 album Why Can’t We Live Together by Timmy Thomas.
The song went to #3 on the US pop charts, #1 on the US soul charts, and #1 on the UK charts. The rest of the album was fine, but there was just something magical about this tune.
The introduction of the 2014 Evangel Pacific Radio interview reads:
“In 1972, Timmy Thomas was watching the evening news hosted by Walter Cronkite. Mr. Cronkite was reporting on the Vietnam war and the thousands of American and Viet Cong soldiers that had died in battle. Timmy thought ‘Why Can’t We Live Together’. This thought became a song that was embraced by millions.”
But it’s not just the message, it’s the instrumentation.
The song is notable for its sparse, stripped-down production, which featured only a Hammond organ, percussion from an early rhythm machine and Thomas’s passionate, soulful vocal. Thomas first sang it as an improvised number on his own nightclub… Timmy recorded a demo…
TK Records staff producer Steve Alaimo listened to the demo of the song and was going to re-cut it with a full band, but then decided the song was already finished the way it was.
The song has been covered by many artists, including… Sade (1984)…, Joan Osborne, Steve Winwood (2003) and Maria Muldaur (2009).
Here’s a bit of music history I did not know:
Mike Anthony, an American DJ/producer based in Belgium at the time, recorded his discofied version of the song in early 1982 but while it had reached the Belgian and Dutch charts, he was sued by the owners of the original Timmy Thomas recording for using elements from the original recording.
A judge ordered a re-recording of the song with all the original parts removed. This ruling marked one of the first court cases in which the use of original samples in new recordings played a role, as a precursor to the many court cases in the 1990s and 2000s.
Still, it has been sampled frequently.
Some info about Timmy Thomas (b. 13 November 1944) from Soulwalking.
Timmy Thomas had a massively UNsuccessful attempt with a Kickstarter campaign, “We Can Live Together” Help Us Save Our Children! in 2014.
For this post, you can blame Chuck Miller, who wrote about Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass in late May 2015. It reminded me of my history collecting TJB.
I owned at least 7 of the first eight albums by the band, starting with Lonely Bull, which was the very first album released on A&M Records, LP-101. This is not surprising since Alpert was the A in A&M. I suspect I got them through the Capitol Record Club.
Unfortunately, almost all my albums, alphabetically A, B, much of S and all of T-Z were stolen from my grandmother’s house in the Great LP Theft of 1972.
Subsequently, I bought, again, the album Whipped Cream & Other Delights from a used record store. As it turned out, the LP inside was actually the TJB album Going Places. Oddly, I did not mind.
The album cover was legendary. It featured model Dolores Erickson, who was three months pregnant when they photographed her. She was actually covered mostly in shaving cream because whipped cream melts under the hot photography lights.
Listen to Whipped Cream & Other Delights, an album that spent 185 weeks on the US Billboard album charts starting in 1965, including eight weeks at #1.
Right before I started blogging back in 2005, my friend/blogging guru Fred Hembeck wrote a blog post on March 31. It celebrated both Herb Alpert, who had turned 70 that day, so he’s now 80; and that album cover, which is now 50 years old, with the model now 78.
A few days later, Fred shared a fascinating find of mine: Album covers spoofing album covers. Back then, the album was pictured #14, with #15-18 as goofs on the theme. A decade later, the page is still going. Now, the original cover of Whipped Cream & Other Delights is at #79, as of this writing, with the parodies, such as the one here, following.