The Music-Breathing Dragon

I need not recuse myself.

Sure, MAD Dragon Records is Drexel University’s innovative student-run, faculty-supervised record label. And I like most of what MAD Dragon puts out.....and I went to Drexel. But I am not unfairly biased towards MAD Dragon because it’s associated with my alma mater. If that line of reasoning were true, I’d own every book written by my former professors (I haven’t even read most of those books) and I’d attend every remotely interesting event on Drexel’s campus (I’ve attended only two events on campus in the past year—both MAD Dragon concert showcases). MAD Dragon just so happens to have a knack for spotting and nurturing talent. The label’s initial release, the first in the Unleashed compilation series, came out a few months before I graduated. Though I was a history major who had taken a grand total of two music courses at Drexel, I was nevertheless intrigued enough to buy the CD, a respectable compilation of Drexel artists. I watched as the label expanded beyond Drexel acts, snagged a national distribution deal with Ryko, and garnered all sorts of positive attention in the press. Before long, I found myself writing about the label’s artists. Having met some of the devoted faculty and many of the impressively driven students who make the MAD Dragon breathe its musical fire, I know that this label has the potential for greatness. Maybe it’s already reaching that potential; the MAD Dragon Concert Showcase which took place at Drexel’s Mandell Theater on February 8th was one of the best shows I’ve ever attended. So good, in fact, that I feel compelled to write about it. Now, anyone who knows my work knows that I don’t write concert reviews. But this is not a concert review; this is a document of a cutting-edge label whose latest live showcase proved how much it has on the ball.

While concertgoers waited in the lobby for the doors to open, unannounced guests Hoots and Hellmouth offered some acoustic entertainment. Their American roots style is grounded in folk and bluegrass with rock elements sprinkled in. I’d been familiar with this band for quite some time and I’d never denied their talent, but I’d never felt that their music fit my tastes, either. That said, I was impressed as these guys jammed before the show and again between acts during the show. They handled their instruments effortlessly and raised their voices in harmonious glee, filling large rooms without any apparent amplification. Besides, it’s no longer common to see someone rockin’ out on an upright bass, and it’s never been common to see someone rockin’ out on a mandolin!

The show got underway in earnest with “special guests”—i.e., not MAD Dragon artists—The Takeover UK. The Pittsburgh pop-punk band played a brief, lively set and had an amiable stage presence, making for a decent, albeit unexceptional, opening act. But let’s not dwell on a band that’s not even on the label.

Kicking the show into high gear was guitar-slinging singer/songwriter Andrew Lipke, a One Note Ahead favorite over the past year. Andrew appeared with his under-acknowledged band, “Bandrew,” featuring Dave Perrin on drums, Joe Divita on bass, Joe Vasile on guitar, and Krista Nielsen (my hopeless rockstar crush) on cello. Andrew had promised me a mix of older songs and newer songs and he sure delivered. Hearing classics—you know, songs released a whole year ago—like “Untitled Song #1” and “Green Street” was a powerful experience. Andrew’s music has such a cathartic quality to it that you can heal many wounds by letting yourself get lost in his songs. I got to chat with him after the show about two newer songs I particularly enjoyed: the arrangement on “Get It Over With” had blossomed beautifully over the course of several performances, while the mood-shifting “Mind Games” contained an eerie, “Stairway To Heaven”-ish passage which still haunts me as I write this. In person, Andrew’s voice is so otherworldly that one must ask, “What IS that sound and where is it coming from???” My one minor complaint is that ever since Andrew and Bandrew played at a Sgt. Pepper tribute concert last June, they’ve been fond of performing a supercharged “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!” as a live novelty. They do an excellent job on it, but as a rare Revolver man in a world of Sgt. Pepper-ists, I wonder who else is up for an Andrew Lipke cover of “I’m Only Sleeping”....ahh, I can hear Krista’s cello now.... Anyway, Andrew’s currently working on a new album, and his MAD Dragon debut The Way Home… is readily available.

Andrew Lipke and Bandrew in the official video for "Untitled Song #1" (2007):




The Swimmers graced the stage with their distinctly 21st century take on new wave and power pop. This was my second time seeing The Swimmers, and their energy on stage was incredible both times. Having heard a few recordings of theirs, I can say that the recordings don’t do the band justice. To be fair, the same can be said about a lot of artists, including several that I’ve previously written about. Capturing that live energy in the studio is next to impossible without that give-and-take between the band and the audience, and of course a performer might be less inclined towards free-spiritedness when the performance is being fixed in perpetuity as an auditory representation of their work! That said, the best of the Swimmers tracks I've had the opportunity to listen to are smile-inducing ear candy, and I suspect that their forthcoming MAD Dragon album Fighting Trees will be a favorite among indie pop collectors. What I know for sure, however, is that The Swimmers are a wonderful live act with a great ability to make people feel good. They still have some growing to do, but they also have a lot of potential and I think they are better equipped to live up to it than much of the competition. Additionally, it was a joy to meet the band’s frontman Steve Yutzy-Burkey and learn that one of their best-known songs, “St. Cecilia,” is at least in part about pipe organs.

[March 4, 2008 update: Watch me eat my words about The Swimmers here.]

The Swimmers performing "St. Cecilia" at The Khyber in Philadelphia, 2006. Slightly glitched, but it will do until a better, more recent clip of this song is made available:

Next up was one of the very first artists featured on One Note Ahead, singer/songwriter Matt Duke. It was good to see that Matt is still working with bassist Dane Klein and drummer Nate Barnett—together, the three of them have a sound. Matt was his usual self, which is to say that I had no idea what he was going to do, say, or play next. He had his mellow moments, his silly moments, his frighteningly intense moments (those are always the most rewarding), and those seemingly inevitable Murphy’s Law moments which he handled with a typically ridiculous sense of humor. But the most intriguing aspect of the night’s set was the actual music. Instead of playing it safe, Matt laid down a bunch of newer, less familiar tunes. That meant no “Oysters,” no “Weeping Winds,” no “Tidal Waves,” no “Yellow Lights,” nothing from the XYX compilation or the Winter Child album. It would have been too much to ask him to play “Don’t Ask (For Too Much).” What he gave us was a host of fantastic-sounding songs whose lyrics I’ll need several more listens to totally absorb and whose titles I either don’t know or can’t remember yet—typical Matt Duke fare!—plus the strangely atmospheric “Love Buried” (featured last year on the label’s worthy Unleashed 3), which afforded Matt the opportunity for a Hendrix-style guitar freakout. He announced that his next album will be out in June. I’m already tired of waiting.

Closing out the night were The Redwalls, the only non-Philly act among the actual MAD Dragon artists who performed in this showcase. The Chicago band’s story is well-publicized, but the long and short of it is that Capitol Records had put out one album by the guys, who recorded a follow-up album only to get dropped by the withering major before the damn thing was released. Unusually, Capitol let The Redwalls keep the follow-up, which found a sympathetic home at MAD Dragon. Released last October, The Redwalls is a strong effort, building on the band’s Beatles and Kinks influences with doses of neo-psychedelia, orchestral rock, power pop, and American roots music. But in person, the four-man outfit in the tight-fitting clothes played an exciting fusion style combining the aggressiveness of rock with the feel-good energy of roll. Or, as I told the band’s product manager and their street team leader after the show, “The Redwalls are amazing!!!!” All the complex arrangements on the records were reduced to two guitars (one a Rickenbacker, no less), bass, drums, and three voices. This lean, mean sound called for each Redwall to play his part to the hilt, and all of the guys rose to the challenge. The harmonies were impeccable and the energy they gave to the audience was infectious. I was particularly impressed by the dreamlike “Each And Every Night,” which was surprisingly effective without the mock Phil Spector production of the album version, and the stripped-down treatment of “Build A Bridge,” a Capitol-era song recently featured on an AT&T/Cingular commercial. Of course, not everyone shared my positive sentiments. On my way out, I ran into someone I’d been chatting with before The Redwalls’ set. I said, “Hey, man! What’d you think of The Redwalls?” He smirked and replied, “They played how many different songs tonight? Two, right?” I simply paused to mull that over and groaned, “I didn’t find THAT funny. I’ll see ya ‘round.” And I walked away.

MAD Dragon gets inside The Redwalls' heads at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, 2007:

For more information: http://www.maddragonrecords.com/ http://www.myspace.com/maddragonrecords

Matt Duke on One Note Ahead: http://onenoteahead.blogspot.com/2006/10/winter-child-for-all-seasons.html

Andrew Lipke on One Note Ahead: http://onenoteahead.blogspot.com/2007/02/album-review-lipke-goes-home.html


Original text copyright © 2008 S.J. Dibai. All rights reserved.

Play That Folky Music

“Above this snowy grid, the land turns cracked and broken, so much like my resolve to keep you far from me/Like each river and each creek that snakes a path beneath, you are water in a rock determined to break free…”

So goes “Mind’s Eye,” an impressively haunting, poetic masterpiece by the guitar-and-mandolin-wielding duo Folk By Association—Karen and Jill to those of us who know them. These ladies have carved an underground niche for themselves in the Mid-Atlantic United States and beyond, doing it all through their own hard work and persistence, and with no record label or outside management. No image consultants, either: Karen and Jill are all about the music. With a basis in folk and an openness to elements of other genres, their sound truly is “Folk By Association,” and one listen to their current album As We Travel will prove that in spades. True, the deliberately-strummed mandolin and airy flutes of “Seconds Soaring” could have been borrowed from Ye Olde Renaissance Faire. But the playful “Letter To Myself” evokes images of a casual jam session at a jazz club, while “Mind’s Eye” keeps one foot dipped in indie folk-rock and the other in pure pop sensibility. “I’m Not Sorry” is prime Lilith Fair material—albeit nearly ten years too late!—tinged with alt-rock motifs and set apart by its sharp-tounged lyrics: “Now you’re on the phone/And suddenly I remember why I want to be alone […] I won’t say I’m sorry, I’m not sorry that you’re gone!” As is the case with their live performances, the duo’s harmonies on As We Travel are impeccable, two soaring voices sounding as if they were plucked from the highest mountain range. Though there is still room for growth and development, the best offerings on the album have an effect that is powerful yet understated, low-key and at the same time compelling. If Karen and Jill continue to build on their strengths and embrace a diverse array of influences, they will just get better and better as time marches on.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing the ladies about their music and career. Upon careful consideration of their responses, I found them to be two intelligent, determined individuals whose story holds much insight and many lessons for everyone in (or interested in) the music industry. The highlights are published below:

SJ: Explain the name "Folk By Association."

Karen: We had been looking for a name for a little while, and I was discussing this problem with a friend of mine. I was thinking out loud about how I thought it was surprising that the style that seemed to manifest between Jill and me was much different than my solo work’s style. The phrase “folk by association” slipped out, and initially reflected the nature of our partnership. However, since our sound was definitely not strictly folk, we both felt that an added second bonus of the name was that it was a good catch-all. We are influenced by many different genres, but accept that most would likely refer to us as folk artists.

Jill: "Folk By Association" was supposed to be rather self-explanatory. It also has the added benefit that if someone searches "folk" on say, MySpace, our name comes up pretty close to the top of the list. Unplanned, but useful.


SJ: The songs are mostly written by Karen, while the vocal arrangements are mostly by Jill. Is this a deliberate division of labor or did it just come about naturally?

Karen: Well, Jill typically does the harmony-arrangement, meaning that I often will have a song basically finished and will bring it to the table to see what she can “hear” as her part. Every now and then I’ll have some concept or vague outline of what I might like her to do, but by and large she’ll listen to what I’ve composed and find the harmony that’s to her liking. This does seem to be the natural way of our collaboration, though we do write together on occasion.

Jill: Karen is a very prolific songwriter so from day one she brought a lot of material to the table, although I also write separately and we will sometimes write together. I ended up doing a lot of the vocal arrangements because it's really easy for me to hear harmonies. We don't really have set jobs. That's just how things usually go down.


SJ: How did the songs evolve from the acoustic duo arrangements to the full-band arrangements on As We Travel? Have you ever played live with a full band?

Karen: The arrangements were challenging. While some songs had a clearer picture of where they needed to go, others were really more like fumbling down a dark hallway. We put in a lot a time with our two percussionists before going into the studio to record, just trying things out and seeing what felt right.

We did two CD release parties with the line-up from the CD, but due to financial and logistical restrictions, we’re really only able to perform as a duo right now.

Jill: We had been playing most of the songs on As We Travel out for some time before they found their way into the studio, so it was logistically and artistically challenging to alter them while keeping their basic feel intact. “Mind's Eye” REALLY did not want to be put to a steady beat of any kind. We played it to a click and it didn't even sound like the same song. The bass tracks had to be recorded at a different studio and then brought back and tacked on to the existing songs. The sax track on “Letter to Myself” is actually a combination of four different tracks pieced together because we only had Jon [Thompson] in the studio for one day. He played over the song four times and we took what we liked best.

For me the best part of the recording process was finally getting to add third and fourth harmonies to the songs. […] I had a great time taking the two main vocals home on a disc and adding all sorts of additional parts.


SJ: Talk a bit about your home base and primary markets. Where did you start out and how did you branch out into other territories?

Karen: It’s been a slow, painful process! We’ve put in over seven years now, and feel like, if nothing else, we’ve certainly paid our dues. We started around the Jersey Shore, and gradually shifted west as we both separately relocated multiple times. We always intended to be more than a local act. We occasionally traveled out of the area for gigs from early on, but we both had day jobs and were still finding our footing as performers. At about the five-year point, I “hit the wall,” quit my other jobs, decided that I would seriously manage us, and dove into researching and contacting places for gigs. I was tired of having the same conversation over and over with Jill that “wouldn’t it be great if someone would…” and “we need someone to…” It’s not like there’s any easy path to sustainability. We just play a lot—some shows are great, but others can be demoralizing. It’s really hard, but we need to do this and the progress is there.

It’s funny how other artists often ask us how to book shows and what the “trick” is. The “trick” is spending a ridiculous amount of time and energy and still only getting about 10% of what you go after. After a while you start to know your targets a bit better, so you can avoid some dead ends. Nowadays we are fortunate that venues and people that want to hire us sometimes approach us, but it’s mostly about being proactive.

Oh, and go on tour to places where you have friends and family to crash with!

Jill: We are lucky in that we seem to have fans across a broad range of ages, genders and walks of life, but marketing ourselves has always been a bit of a conundrum for that very reason. We don't have a demographic, or even an easily defined genre. We're folky but we don't play traditional folk songs. We use bluegrass instruments, but we aren't bluegrass. We are singer/songwriters but most singer/songwriters are solo performers. We aren't, but we aren't a full band either. That is one of the reasons that self-management is a good fit for us. I don't know that even a well-intentioned outsider [would] be able to anticipate our needs artistically or on the business end better than we do ourselves because we don't fit neatly into any of the existing categories. We're always metaphorically checking the "other" box, and the way things are progressing I think we'll be getting more "other" in the future rather than less.


SJ: Your MySpace contains the following statement: “We strongly admire independent musicians, especially women, who creatively and boldly redefine success in this industry as not necessarily having anything to do with major labels, mass-media, and the lowest common denominator.” I wonder if you could elaborate on the sentiments behind that statement.

Karen: It’s not that we set out to be guerilla musicians! Mostly it just was the available path—do it yourself or nothing gets done. But there’s a great freedom in that, too, and after a while you see a lot of the upsides. But Jill and I did have in common from the beginning that we didn’t like the ideas of Image and Brand, and also had a great deal of stage fright and camera-shyness. The thought of mass media terrified us. We agreed from day one that we just wanted to make a living doing what we loved. These days there are more possibilities outside the mainstream than ever.

Jill: I know a fair number of musicians who have relationships with labels, production companies, and outside booking and management. There are a lot of horror stories. In order for us to trust our "baby" as it were to anyone else, they would have to be pretty spectacular, and we aren't going to sit around waiting for them to ride up on a white horse. I also know that neither one of us could tolerate being told what to write or what to wear or that we have to fix our teeth or something. That isn't acceptable.


SJ: You obviously feel strongly about being independent artists and operating outside of the established infrastructure of the music industry. But do [you] ever wonder whether this is truly the right approach? For example, do you ever think, "If we sold our music through iTunes or if we had outside management, we might be doing better?"

Karen: Honestly, we just haven’t gotten around to iTunes! Sad, right? And if someone else can get us more and better gigs, they can go right ahead. But they better not try and tell us what to do.

Jill: There's always a lot more to do, and we are open to getting help, but only if we can maintain control of our own destiny.

Many thanks to Karen and Jill for the interview and for jumping over the logistical hurdles with me!

For streaming audio, shows, and purchasing information: http://www.myspace.com/folkbyassociation

Copyright © 2007 S.J. Dibai. All rights reserved.

One Note Ahead Live!

One Note Ahead's readership spans the globe. Most of the artists I write about have recordings that are available worldwide, so I usually don't need to worry that my readers won't be able to hear the music I want them to check out. But what about seeing these artists? Many of them are local favorites here in the Philadelphia area and haven't played much (or at all) elsewhere; others play in regions or countries that are foreign to me and therefore I've never seen them in person, which in turn means that many of my readers are in the same boat. So that we may all have a fuller appreciation of these artists, I've scoured YouTube and other sites and posted my favorite live performance clips of some of the artists I've written about. (Sadly, I couldn't find any live videos of Andrew James, Andrew Lipke, or Mindy Rhodes.) The artists' names are hyperlinked to their respective One Note Ahead features. Enjoy.

Downtown Harvest, "Four Hundo" at The Trocadero in Philadelphia:



Laura Cheadle, "Midst Of Your Mystery" at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia (I was there!):



Half of SuperJimenez, "Faye" on Balcony TV:



Lovers Electric, "Is It Over?" on This Month In Music TV:



Ed Rambeau, "You'll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine)" on a Carnival Cruise Ship:



Matt Duke, "Weeping Winds" at The Knitting Factory in New York City:



Stay tuned.....

For more information, see One Note Ahead's Quick Takes and One Note Ahead: One Year Later.

CD Review: "Rhodes" Scholarship

The scene was set for culture shock: there I was, the proverbial “tortured writer” character with a rock ‘n’ roll spirit and a penchant for dancing wildly to loud, funky music. And there she was, the elegant, sophisticated, classically-trained easy listening singer and pianist associated with The Dilworthtown Inn in West Chester, Pennsylvania—a highly-rated restaurant that I’m nevertheless disinclined to visit for the simple reason that it has a dress code. But this unlikely encounter was no accident. As I sat there in the cozy Kreutz Creek Winery in Media, Pennsylvania, enjoying the sweet sounds of Mindy Rhodes as much as I was enjoying the sweet taste of the Proprietor’s Red, I was doing exactly what I wanted to be doing. Having previously caught a few minutes of Ms. Rhodes—I’ve hardly earned the right to call her “Mindy” in this context—I had made sure to see her again next chance I got. Wanting a souvenir of her beautiful, lucid voice and her sometimes idiosyncratic pronunciation and vocal acrobatics, I sought to obtain a copy of her CD, Blush. Of course, I had to tell her that I’m a music journalist of some stature, so after some discussion she entreated me to review the CD…but only if I like it.

I like it.

On six of the twelve tracks, Rhodes is accompanied by a bassist and a drummer; otherwise, she flies solo. Half of the album is occupied by interpretations of well-known material, and as is the case with her live sets, she covers a variety of genres while always maintaining her own style. Her affecting solo performance of the notorious Charlene hit “I’ve Never Been To Me” achieves the impressive feat of extracting some profundity from the rather bizarre lyrics. “On My Own” is a selection from Les Miserables and Rhodes delivers it subtly without compromising her operatic tendencies or the song’s emotional intensity. Her laid-back, jazzy take on Mary Chapin Carpenter’s ubiquitous “Passionate Kisses” is strikingly beautiful in its simplicity and quietude (yes, “quietude” as opposed to “quietness”). “Someone To Watch Over Me” is without question one of the great American standards, and Rhodes’ powerful reading does not disappoint, with a few vocal and instrumental twists to keep the song fresh. However, there are a couple of curious choices on Blush. On John Denver’s “Annie’s Song,” Rhodes sounds a tad too methodical, and while there is nothing wrong with her piano solo on Debussy’s “Claire De Lune,” it is simply not fitting to end an album of easy listening vocals with a classical instrumental.

Rhodes’ original compositions on Blush are all concerned with the ups and downs (but mostly the downs) of romance. Sometimes her melodic inspirations are obvious: “Don’t Come So Close” contains elements of “Here Comes The Sun” and “Forbidden Fruit” bears more than a passing resemblance to “Autumn Leaves.” But they are both enjoyable all the same, especially “Forbidden Fruit,” a sexy, Latin-tinged jazz romp with particularly vivid lyrical imagery. The starkly confessional “I Want To Let You In” is highlighted by pleasingly transparent euphemisms and metaphors such as, “The iron walls are sturdy where green ivy grows/And within lies a softness few will come to know,” and “There are fields of freshness and intricate lace/Crystal drops of water in my special place.” In “That’s All You Have To Say,” statements are more like questions: “If you ever told me that you’d stay until you died/I would always wonder why.” “Whisper Wind” is a haunting pop song whose arrangement is accentuated by a bowed bass, played to sound as much like a cello as possible. Only “You Move Me” falls flat; well-intentioned though it may be, it tries too hard by relying on name-dropping and the awkward placement of inside references.

Ms. Rhodes—Mindy, if you will—told me that Blush is available at her shows and at the aforementioned Dilworthtown Inn. Maybe this review will drum up enough demand to warrant more widespread distribution. In the meantime, if you’re in the Philadelphia area, please do check out one of her live performances. And be sure to tell her that S.J. sent you.

For more information and venues where Mindy Rhodes performs frequently:

http://www.whisperwindstudios.com/ - Mindy Rhodes’ website

http://www.dilworthtown.com/ - The Dilworthtown Inn

http://www.kreutzcreekvineyards.com/media.html - Kreutz Creek Vineyards’ Media, PA Tasting Room - check the music schedule

http://www.kreutzcreekvineyards.com/westchester.html - Kreutz Creek Vineyards’ West Chester, PA Tasting Room - check the music schedule

Copyright © 2007 S.J. Dibai. All rights reserved.

Obscure Originals, Vol. 1

This is the first installment in a series. Here, we’ll take a look at songs that are best known by artists who didn’t record them originally. You might be surprised to learn how many songs fall into that category, so let’s start with just a few examples. But first, a fair warning: the stories presented herein are not meant to be exhaustive or unbiased!

Song: “Louie, Louie”
Best known by: The Kingsmen
Originally recorded by: Richard Berry & the Pharaohs
The story: The short version is as follows. Richard Berry appropriated the riff from a Latin dance tune called “El Loco Cha Cha” and turned it into “Louie, Louie.” Berry’s 1957 recording, done in an R&B doo-wop style with some calypso influences, made some local noise in his stomping ground of Southern California. The song made its way to the Northwest via R&B hitmaker Ron Holden, who wowed audiences with his live rendition. Tacoma-based singer Rockin’ Robin Roberts teamed up with pioneering Northwest rockers The Wailers to record a proto-garage rock version which became a huge regional hit in 1961. The song was now a Northwest standard, and in 1963, Portland’s Kingsmen made a poor attempt to copy The Wailers’ version. Despite being in direct competition with a more accomplished take by another Portland-based band (Paul Revere & the Raiders!), The Kingsmen’s version became THE “Louie, Louie.” The full story is best told in the music and liner notes of the fantastic CD Love That Louie: The Louie Louie Files (Ace Records). Incidentally, “Louie, Louie” is an innocent love song about a lonely Jamaican sailor; the allegations of pornographic lyrical content stemmed from the raunchy sound of The Kingsmen’s version, in which Jack Ely’s indiscernible babbling raised a few too many eyebrows.

Song: “You’re No Good”
Best known by: Linda Ronstadt
Originally recorded by: Dee Dee Warwick
The story: Another one with a complex history. Written by prolific songwriter Clint Ballard, Jr., the original version by a nose belonged to Dionne Warwick’s younger sister Dee Dee. Her 1963 recording was done in a bombastic heavy soul style, and there was another soul version on the market that same year. Betty Everett’s sleek, sophisticated reading of the song charted towards the end of 1963, eventually reaching the middle of Billboard’s Hot 100; Billboard had temporarily discontinued its R&B chart at the time, but some sources show Everett’s version making the Top 10 on R&B charts published by other organizations. At any rate, it peaked on the charts in early ’64, during the start of the British Invasion, and indeed the British beat boom brought yet another version. The Swinging Blue Jeans’ moody Merseybeat take on this tune made the UK Top 3 but just barely charted in the US in 1964. Linda Ronstadt's flamboyant 1974 reimagination (produced by Peter Asher of British Invasion duo Peter & Gordon) became a #1 pop hit the following year, establishing her as one of the hottest singers of the 1970s.

[Note: If you’re looking for The Swinging Blue Jeans’ version on iTunes or Napster, forget about it; you’ll only find re-recordings. You’ll have to seek out the old vinyl or locate the 1964 recording on CD—if you’re fortunate enough to get your hands on EMI’s fascinating UK release Beat at Abbey Road 1963 to 1965, so much the better.]

Song: “Respect”
Best known by: Aretha Franklin
Originally recorded by: Otis Redding
The story: Otis Redding wrote this song. His pounding, insistent 1965 recording was pure Memphis soul, and the lyrics portrayed a man who was willing to take a lot of abuse from his woman (“Do me wrong, honey, if you wanna/You can do me wrong, honey, while I’m gone”) but he had his limits: “All I’m asking is for a little respect when I come home.” It was a Top 5 R&B hit and it also made the pop Top 40. Interestingly, the song began attracting covers from white garage rock bands. The Rationals, based in Ann Arbor, had a regional hit with their minimalistic reading in 1966, while New York City’s Vagrants almost made the charts with the tune in 1967—until Aretha’s version shut them down. As she usually did with covers, Aretha altered the song almost beyond recognition: instead of “You can do me wrong, honey, while I’m gone,” she sang, “I ain’t gonna do you wrong while you’re gone.” Instead of “What you want, honey you got it,” she sang, “What you want, baby I got it.” Instead of “You’re sweeter than honey/And I’m about to give you all of my money,” she sang, “Your kiss is sweeter than honey/And guess what? So is my money!” Here, she managed to refashion “Respect” into a feminist anthem, and the addition of the “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” bit at the end was so ingenious that Otis Redding began to sing it himself when he did the song live.

Song: “Got My Mind Set On You”
Best known by: George Harrison
Originally recorded by: James Ray (as “I’ve Got My Mind Set On You”)
The story: James Ray was homeless when a record mogul discovered him. He went on to have a couple of hits and then he died shortly afterwards of a drug overdose. Now, that’s a rock ‘n’ roll story if ever there was one! But James Ray was actually a soulful R&B singer who had the questionable luck of getting paired with the eccentric arranger Hutch Davie. On Ray’s biggest hit “If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody,” Davie’s bizarre arrangement made the record that much more enjoyable. On “I’ve Got My Mind Set On You”...not so much. Both songs were written by Rudy Clark, and though a brief edit of “Mind” was issued as a single in 1962, George Harrison heard the gloriously awful two-part mix included on James Ray’s self-titled LP. Oh, Ray sang the song just fine, but that arrangement! The drumming veered from Latin to jazz to rock ‘n’ roll and back to Latin again. Misplaced big-band horns and a Vaudeville banjo drove the track. Part 2 had Ray doing vocal battle with a screechy, histrionic chorus. To be fair, Clark must take some of the blame, as the song originally included a deviant passage with the lyrics, “Everywhere I go, you know, bad luck follows me/Every time I fall in love, you know I’m left in misery”—kind of a downer considering the upbeat nature of the rest of the piece. Thankfully, George’s 1987 revival was based on how The Quiet Beatle heard the song in his head. While James Ray’s version was a bona fide flop, George’s version was a #1 hit. Speaking of The Beatles...

Song: “Twist and Shout”
Best known by: The Beatles
Originally recorded by: The Top Notes
The story: New York music biz hustler Bert Berns co-wrote this song, originally cut by an obscure R&B group called The Top Notes in 1961. Producer Phil Spector and arranger Teddy Randazzo were two of the geniuses of American popular music, but somehow they didn’t get this one right. The Top Notes’ version wasn’t bad, but it didn’t sound anything like, well, “Twist and Shout.” Upon hearing it, Bert Berns is believed to have said to Spector, “Phil, you fucked up my song!” The secret to this song’s success seems to be simple: cut it in a hurry at the tail end of a session. The Isley Brothers did just that (with none other than Berns producing), and their endearingly sloppy treatment hit the pop Top 20 and nearly topped Billboard’s R&B chart in 1962. But The Beatles’ rendition—cut at the end of a day-long recording marathon for their first album in 1963—eclipsed the Isley’s version upon its release as a US single amidst the Beatlemania of 1964.

Song: “Mandy”
Best known by: Barry Manilow
Originally recorded by: Scott English (as “Brandy”)
The story: Scott English was a successful and prolific American songwriter who had also enjoyed a regional hit as a singer in 1964 with the haunting, doo-wop flavored “High On A Hill.” He was based in England when he co-wrote and recorded a dopey-but-irresistible love song called “Brandy” in 1971. The light and airy arrangement was pleasant enough, but English’s vocal sounded like a drunken Randy Newman attempting to impersonate Gene Pitney while choking on his own vomit. In the United States, the record crawled into the bottom of the charts and quickly departed; however, British audiences welcomed it into their Top 20. Its hit status in the UK is probably what prompted Clive Davis to suggest that the then-hitless Manilow cover it in 1974. Manilow wasn’t terribly keen, but after some trial and error he adapted it to suit his style, slowing it down, cranking up the melodrama, and cutting out the rather silly coupling “Riding on a country bus/No one even noticed us.” Since Looking Glass had recently scored with a totally different song called “Brandy,” Manilow changed the title to “Mandy.” His sweet, wistful voice certainly fit the sad lyrics, and his recording became a #1 hit in the US, making Barry Manilow a household name once and for all. But wait—there’s more! In between English’s original and Manilow’s remake, there was an engaging cover by New Zealander Bunny Walters (a male singer, by the way). Walters’ version was based on English’s and was also titled “Brandy,” and it reigned supreme on the New Zealand hit lists in 1972. Since most New Zealanders were unaware of English’s original, they assumed that Walters wrote the song and that Manilow stole it from Walters!

[Note: Barry Manilow’s box set The Complete Collection…And Then Some includes a monaural excerpt of Scott English’s “Brandy”—the most you’ll find on iTunes, but Napster has the full Scott English track in stereo. Bunny Walters’ version can be streamed at this website; just click on Walters’ picture. Also worth noting is that this song is NOT about a dog, as rumored. See this webpage for more details.]

Song: “Can’t Get Enough Of You, Baby”
Best known by: Smash Mouth
Originally recorded by: The Toys
The story: Record producer, songwriter, arranger, recording artist, mogul—Bob Crewe did it all. Two writers in his cadre, Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer, came up with a catchy little pop ditty with Motown influences and called it “Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby.” Girl group The Toys (of “A Lover’s Concerto” fame) cut the tune in 1965 in a New York-meets-Detroit pop/soul style, and The 4 Seasons recorded a similar version later that year. However, punk pioneers ? & the Mysterians gave the song a fresh coat of paint in 1967. The hypnotic alternating organ chords and riffs of their breakthrough hit “96 Tears” still loomed large, and they tried to recapture some of the magic by doing “Can’t Get Enough Of You Baby” with a “96 Tears” feel. This entailed changing the chord sequence, altering the melody, and removing a number of the lyrics just to make the new arrangement work! But it hit the charts, peaking at #56 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Smash Mouth recreated The Mysterians’ arrangement with a ‘90s flair; their version hit #27 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Airplay chart in 1998.

[Note: If you’re looking for ? & the Mysterians’ version, be sure to get the one on ABKCO’s Cameo Parkway 1957-1967, as other versions floating around are either incomplete or latter-day re-recordings.]

More coming soon…meanwhile, check out The Originals Project. Not perfect, but getting better all the time: http://www.originalsproject.us/

Copyright © 2007 S.J. Dibai. All rights reserved.