Monthly Archives: December 2017

The Searchers: Another Night – The Sire Recordings 1979-1981

An unexpectedly rich and joyous revival

Sixteen years after they climbed to the top of the British chart with a 1963 remake of the Drifters “Sweets for My Sweet,” and more than a decade after they’d last cracked the Top 40 with a remake of the Rolling Stones’ “Take It or Leave It,” the second (or third, depending on how you feel about Gerry and the Pacemakers) most popular band out of Liverpool was back. Having continued to tour as an oldies act and cover band throughout the 1970s, it was a remarkably well-timed return to recording. The band’s two albums on Sire, 1979’s The Searchers and 1980’s Love’s Melodies, cannily conjured fresh music from the band’s classic harmonies and guitars, and the then-courant power-pop that had grown from ‘60s pop roots.

Pat Moran’s production of the first album, recorded at the same Rockfield Studios that served Dave Edmunds and the Flamin’ Groovies, has the clean sound of the era’s pop hits. The band’s two originals (“This Kind of Love Affair” and “Don’t Hang On”) are complemented by songs written by upcoming and established songwriters. The memorable “Hearts in Her Eyes” was written for the band by the Records’ Will Birch and John Wicks, and Mickey Jupp’s “Switchboard Susan” is given a low-key arrangement that suggests skiffle roots. Covers of Tom Petty’s Mudcrutch-era “Lost in Your Eyes” and Bob Dylan’s obscure “Coming From the Heart” highlight the band’s ears for good songs that had been abandoned by major writers.

In addition to the album’s original ten tracks, this collection includes an alternate mix of “It’s Too Late,” and early mixes of two tracks from the second album. The second album, like the first, combines a couple of band originals (“Little Bit of Heaven” and “Another Night”) with material drawn from up-and coming and veteran songwriters. Among the former are Moon Martin (“She Made a Fool Of You”) and a pair co-written by Will Burch; among the latter are John Fogerty’s “Almost Saturday Night,” Andy McMaster’s “Love’s Melody” and Alex Chilton’s “September Gurls.” The latter was an especially prescient selection, given that it would be six more years until the Bangles brought the song into the mainstream with A Different Light.

The second album is even richer in vocal harmonies and 12-string jangle, with well-selected songs from British writers that include Dave Paul’s “Silver,” Randy Bishop’s “Infatuation,” John David’s inspirational “You Are the New Day” and the Kursaal Flyers’ now-nostalgic “Radio Romance.” The album’s original dozen tracks are supplemented by four bonuses, including the original B-side “Changing,” two John Hiatt tunes and a hard-rocking cover of Chris Kenner’s New Orleans’ R&B chestnut “Sick and Tired.” Most of this material was previously released on Raven’s Sire Sessions: Rockfield Recordings 1979-80, but with that set out of print, and the additional tracks and new interviews added in this edition’s liner notes, this is the set to get. [©2017 Hyperbolium]

The Searchers’ Home Page

Chuck Berry: Rockit

Berry’s 1979 rocker for Atco was the final release of his lifetime

The last album released during Chuck Berry’s lifetime, Rockit also marked a rare deviation from his tenure at Chess. Released in 1979, it would be Berry’s last release until the posthumous Chuck earlier this year. Berry’s voice, guitar and lyrical ability were intact, as was Johnnie Johnson’s inimitable piano playing, and the rhythm section – Berry’s longtime bassist, Jim Marsala, Nashville studio drummer Kenny Buttrey, and Muscle Shoals bassist Bob Wray – is tight. The production hasn’t the grit of Berry’s Chess years, but his roots shine through the too-tidy studio sound. “Move It” and “If I Were” show off Berry’s guitar licks and his lyrical dexterity. He borrows from his own “Back in the USA” for the joyous “Oh What a Thrill,” but unsuccessfully rearranges “Havana Moon” with an odd meter and distracting backing vocal. Much better is the biting rewrite of “It Wasn’t Me” as “Wuden’t Me,” the love letter “California” and the atmospheric blues “Pass Away.” The latter is particularly interesting for its spoken storytelling and a looser vibe that evades the rest of the album. This may not measure up to Berry’s landmark Chess records, but it’s vital, clever and satisfying. [©2017 Hyperbolium]

Chuck Berry’s Home Page

BANG! The Bert Berns Story

The fascinating story of white soul brother #1

You probably heard a Bert Berns song today. If you heard “Tell Him,” “Twist and Shout,” “Cry to Me,” “Here Comes the Night,” “Hang on Sloopy” or “Piece of My Heart,” you heard a song he wrote. If you heard “Baby, I’m Yours,” “Under the Boardwalk” or “Brown Eyed Girl,” you heard a record he produced. Berns’ enormous catalog of deeply-felt songs and deftly-produced records puts him in a league with the best of the Brill Building’s songwriters and New York’s golden age pop producers. When Phil Spector lost the Latin soul of Berns’ “Twist and Shout” with a frantic rendition by the Top Notes, Berns picked it back up the next year and minted a classic with the Isley Brothers. And when Berns felt he’d accomplished everything he could as a writer and producer, he founded Bang records, stormed the charts in 1965 with the Strangeloves’ “I Want Candy,” and signed Neil Diamond and Van Morrison.

Born in 1929, Berns was thirty-one when he finally found his way into the music industry as a $50-a-week songwriter for Robert Merlin’s publishing company. His first hit came the following year with the Jarmel’s “A Little Bit of Soap,” and over the next seven years he minted more than fifty pop chart singles. Berns’ early love of Afro-Cuban music permeated his songs, as did the deep, personal feelings he poured into his lyrics. Labeled by his African American artists as “the white soul brother,” he pushed them “to sing it like he meant it.” Session dialog of Berns coaching Betty Harris, as well as Van Morrison during the recording of Blowin’ Your Mind!, give the viewer a feel for his artist rapport. Testimony from family, artists, production and business colleagues testify to the exalted status in which he was held. The interviews are highlighted by his savvy and tough widow, Ilene Berns, and the tough but artistically sensitive Carmine “Wassel” DeNoia.

Berns broke into production with Atlantic, helping the label through the fallow period that followed the departure of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. He wrote for and produced Solomon Burke, the Drifters, Solomon Burke, Ben E. King, Wilson Pickett and others. By 1964 his songs were doing double-duty as fuel for the British Invasion, with the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Animals all covering Bert Berns tunes, and Berns himself producing Them’s version of his own “Here Comes the Night.” He would eventually sign Van Morrison to Bang, produce a hit and fall out, as he also did with Neil Diamond. His relationships with his publisher and his Atlantic partners also soured as the piles of money became tall enough to fight over, but the interviews conducted for this film demonstrate how deeply respected and loved he remains by his former colleagues. His songs and his records provide the lasting epitaph, but this 90 minute documentary connects the dots and names the legacy. [©2017 Hyperbolium]

Bert Berns’ Home Page
BANG! The Bert Berns Story’s Home Page

Flat Duo Jets: Wild Wild Love

Reissue of untamed debut EP and LP

Many years before guitar-and-drums duos became a template, Chapel Hill’s Flat Duo Jets cut a fresh figure on the college radio scene. Formed in the mid-80s by guitarist/vocalist Dexter Romweber and drummer Chris “Crow” Smith, they added bassist Tony Mayer for their full-length, self-titled debut. Paired here with the earlier cassette-only release (In Stereo) and a second disc of session outtakes, the package revels in the basics of live-to-tape, rockabilly-inflected rock ‘n’ roll. But even that is shorthand; Flat Duo Jets was hardly a rockabilly band, as their influences included classic rock instrumental combos like the Shadows and Ventures, surf bands, contemporaries like the Cramps, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet and Los Straightjackets, and in their cover of “Sing, Sing, Sing,” big bands. And all of this was channeled through the rebelliousness and spontaneity of first-generation rock ‘n’ rollers like Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent.

The band got national exposure with a 1980 television performance of Benny Joy’s “Wild Wild Lover,” with Romweber’s fervor rendering David Letterman’s band mostly superfluous. Their cover of the theme from “Man with the Golden Arm” turns the original’s tense ‘50s jazz into a powerful rock ‘n’ roll grind. The group slows down for the ballad “Baby” and a cover of Elvis’ “Love Me,” but even here Romweber’s rhythm guitar is fiery and Smith’s sticks are heavy. They show off their range with piano and a New Orleans bounce on “Strut My Stuff,” and close the EP with a pair of Buddy Holly covers. The session tracks mix rehearsals and alternate takes, and include guitar-and-drum rave-ups, mid-tempo piano blues and covers of “Penetration,” “Rock Me Baby,” “Harlem Nocturne” and even the Andrews Sisters’ “Apple Blossom Time.” The original album is a terrific invocation of rock ‘n’ roll’s untamed youth, and the bonus material makes the reissue even more dangerous. [©2017 Hyperbolium]

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