Today's post is a slight continunce of yesterday's post concerning the 1967 song "The Dark End of The Street" as we discuss another song entitled "Nothing Takes The Place of You." For a couple of years in the mid-sixties, it was common for reggae music to sound more like R&B than modern reggae. Geographically, there was a steady flow of musicians from Chicago to New Orleans and from New Orleans to Jamaica. Here is an interesting example of how the different styles influenced the music they played.
Toussaint McCall had his only hit in 1967 when his version of "Nothing Takes The Place of You" hit #1 on the R&B charts. It is easy to assume that McCall had a great influence on The Righteous Brothers after listening to his arrangment. Little is known of McCall after the song was published. He would record one more album in 1976 and then fade away.
Experiencing slightly more longevity than Toussaint McCall was the next artist to record our featured song, Prince Buster. While McCall epitomized Chicago style R&B (even though he hailed from New Orleans), Prince added an early reggae element to the song which makes it easier to allow the sad lyrics to go unnoticed. Prince even added and changed the last verse of the song, completely changing the significance of the relationship the two lovers have.
Here are the original lyrics...
NOTHING TAKES THE PLACE OF YOU (McCall / Robinson) Toussaint McCall - 1967
I moved your picture From my walls And I replaced them Both large and small And each new day Finds me so blue Nothing Takes the place of you
I read your letters one by one And I still love you When it's all said and done And oh, my darling, I'm so blue Because nothing Oh nothing Takes the place of you
I, I write this letter It's raining on my window pane I, I feel the need of you Because without you Nothing seems the same
So I'll wait Until you're home Again I love you But I'm all alone And oh my darling I'm so blue Because nothing Oh, but nothing takes the place of you.
Listen to Prince Buster's version and note the line he adds...
So I wait until we meet at the dark end of the street and oh my darling I'm so blue Because nothing takes the place of you
Yesterday we discovered that this line had become synonomous with an affair and not a normal romance. One wonders is Prince changed the lyric in order to take on a more autobiographical meaning or if he was simply giving omage to James Carr.
Several weeks ago we took a look at "I Need Your Love So Bad" and the bad luck that followed everyone who covered the song. This week we will look at similar circumstances that surround a song entitled "The Dark End Of The Street." The song was written in 1966 at a DJ convention in Memphis by Dan Penn and Chips Moman.
From Say it One Time for the Broken Hearted (1998) by Barney Hoskyns...
"The song was written in about thirty minutes. Penn and Moman were cheating while playing cards with Florida DJ Don Schroeder. They wrote the song while on a break. “We were always wanting to come up with the best cheatin’ song. Ever,” Penn said. The duo went to the hotel room of Quinton Claunch, another Muscle Shoals alumnus, and founder of Hi Records, to write. Claunch told them, "boys, you can use my room on one condition, which is that you give me that song for James Carr. They said I had a deal, and they kept their word.”
After thirty minutes, an account of an adulterous couple was born in these lyrics...
At the dark end of the street that is where we always meet hiding in shadows where we don't belong living in darkness, to hide alone
You and me, at the dark end of the street You and me
I know a time has gonna take it's toll we have to pay for the love we stole It's a sin and we know it's wrong Oh, our love keeps going on strong
Steal away to the dark end of the street You and me
They gonna find us, they gonna find us They gonna find us love someday
You and me, at the dark end of the street You and me
When the daylight all goes around And by chance we're both down the town Please meet, just walk, walk on by Oh, darling, please don't you cry
You and me, at the dark end of the street You and me
Within a year, "The Dark End Of The Street" became a #10 for James Carr. A student of Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, Carr started out his career singing gospel music. Like Cooke, Carr eventually made his way to record secular music. The content of "The Dark End of the Street" was a far cry from his early music. Carr developed a bipolar disorder that crippled his work, temporarily ending his performing career when he "froze in front of an audience following an overdose of antidepressants." Alcohol and drugs forced him to be placed in a mental health facility. Carr died at the age of 58 of lung cancer. Ironically, his only other hit was titled "You Got My Mind Messed Up" which reached #25 in 1967.
With regards to Carr's version itself, every aspect is soulful and poignant. The airy instrumentation allows the listener to focus on the bittersweet lyrics. A female backup singer doubles his chorus to give the impression that they are in agreement about having to keep their love secret and in the past.
"The Dark End Of The Street" by James Carr
Two years after Carr had made "The Dark End Of The Street" famous, The Flying Burrito Brothers recorded a country version of the song for their album "The Gilded Palace Of Sin." Gram Parsons headed up the FBB after leaving The Byrds. As with Carr, many argue that "The Dark End Of The Street" was the climax of Parson's career.
In 1973, Gram Parsons began setting out on expeditions in the Joshua Tree National Forest in California. These trips were always accompanied by friends, drugs, and alcohol. During one of these trips, Parsons overdosed on a mixture of morphine and hard liquor in a hotel. Apparently fufilling a promise made while Parsons was still alive, his friend and manager Phil Kaufman stole the corpse from the airport while in transport to his family. Kaufman and Parsons had promised to cremate the body of whomever had died first and spread the ashes in Joshua Tree. Parson's manager had managed to steal the body but were chased off by cops before they could successfully cremate the corpse. The police returned the body to Parson's family who claim that Kaufman's "cremation attempt was little more than a drunken hatchet job, which succeeded only in mutilating roughly 60 percent of the corpse. Parsons' friends and family were upset to find out that Kaufman left 35 pounds of his charred body in the desert."
Parson's version of TDEOTS features a lap steel guitar that replaces in many ways the female chorus in the Carr version. The conversation seems like it is taking place between Gram and the guitar.
"The Dark End Of The Street" by The Flying Burrito Brothers
By the time I was born, both of my grandfathers had passed away and I had only grandmas left. One grandmother lived within three hours and I saw her several times a year. She would come and visit and stay in my room and I was displaced to the living room couch. During her stays I often struggled with how to connect to a loved one that I felt shared no commonalities with myself. She made amazing sugar cookies and loved a challenging crossword puzzle.
During one visit several years ago, I found out that she loved Roy Orbison. This became our bond. She said that in the early sixties in Southern Idaho, there were only two types of people: those that liked Elvis and those that liked Roy. Rarely did somebody like both. As she talked about Roy's music I began to envision my grandma fifty years younger, perhaps my age, and listening to "Blue Bayou" on the kitchen radio as she made dinner for my mother. I could see her listening to "In Dreams" as she clean the house or did the wash. Roy's beautiful tenor voice and sad songs moved her for the same reasons it still moves me.
In 1966, Orbison's wife died in a motorcycle accident, leaving him to father his three sons as a widower. Two years later, while touring in Europe, Roy was notified that his house in Tennessee had burned down, killing two of his three sons. The gravity of his personal life was often heard in his haunting lyrics and ever quivering voice.
Here are three songs from his Black and White concert. His band consisted of Bruce Springsteen, KD Lang, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and others...
In Dreams
A candy-colored clown they call the sandman Tiptoes to my room every night Just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper Go to sleep. everything is all right.
I close my eyes, then I drift away Into the magic night. I softly say A silent prayerlike dreamers do. Then I fall asleep to dream my dreams of you.
In dreams I walk with you. in dreams I talk to you. In dreams youre mine. all of the time were together In dreams, in dreams.
But just before the dawn, I awake and find you gone. I cant help it, I cant help it, if I cry. I remember that you said goodbye.
Its too bad that all these things, can only happen in my dreams Only in dreams in beautiful dreams.
One of the strangest hypocrisies within human nature is the delight that we get from a depressing tenor voice singing "Oh Danny Boy." Nothing can make me feel better like a good old sad song on a sad day. Maybe hearing the song helps us realize that while we think that our experiences are unique, they aren't.
Here, for no particular rhyme or reason, are three sad songs that have nothing to do with each other but are finding a lot of playtime with me lately.
John Lennon - "Mother"
Children, don't do what I have done I couldn't walk and I tried to run So I got to tell you Goodbye goodbye Mama don't go Daddy come home
Townes Van Zant - "Waiting Around To Die"
Sometimes I don't know where this dirty road is taking me Sometimes I can't even see the reason why I guess I keep on gamblin', lots of booze and lots of ramblin' It's easier than just a-waitin' 'round to die
Spiritualized - "Broken Heart"
And I'm wasted all the time I've gotta drink you right off of my mind I've been told that this will heal given time Lord I have a broken heart
And I'm crying all the time I have to keep it covered up with a smile And I'll keep on moving on for a while Lord I have a broken heart
Today's entry concerns a song called "I Need Your Love So Bad" first written and recorded in 1956 by Little Willie John. The song has become a hit twice in music history while both musicians recording it suffered horrible fates.
Little Willie is an interesting story. He was extremely successful in the 1950's, if not completely forgotten today. While standing only 5'2", Little Willie had a amazing rhythm and voice with a knack of writing catchy tunes that would later be recorded by The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac and Madonna. John had been an alcoholic years and was pushed to the limits one night after a show in Seattle and stabbed a man to death. He was found guilty of manslaughter in 1964 escaping death row, only to die in prison after four years of a heart attack. He was 29.
"I Need Your Love So Bad" has a classic ring to it that defined R&B sound for the next ten years. Listening closely will reveal nearly getting the lyrics wrong twice as phrases start, but saving himself before the word ends. I can only guess they are mistakes that made it onto the recordings because of the cost to stop and recut the song. After sixty years, they are more endearing than damaging.
Little Willie John's version...
Before Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac started out as a blues trio with only Mick Fleetwood as the only founding member that would later stay with the band. In a sense, it is a completely different band with the only constant being the drummer. Peter Green formed the early Fleetwood Mac after leaving John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. He had been the second guitarist for the Bluesbreakers, replacing Eric Clapton. By 1970, many argue Fleetwood Mac had become Europe's biggest band, with "I Need Your Love So Bad" as a major hit for the band.
As had happened with Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd, Peter Green quickly dove into a case of schizophrenia after experimenting with LSD. The band ousted Green after he decided to give the profits of the band to charity. His last concert with Fleetwood Mac was in May 1970, only two years after Little Wille John died in prison.
The year was 1982 and synth music was just starting to get big. The seventies saw the rise of the polychromatic organ (can play multiple notes at the same time, thus chords) while the eighties would be a decade of fat, thick monochromatic keyboards (one note at a time). Used together, they created a genre called "new wave" or "synth pop" where the guitar was often completely abandoned. I personally believe much credit has to be given to the musical score to the movie Blade Runner, which entered the box office the same weekend as E.T. Vangelis (Chariots of Fire) tackled the soundtrack to the movie about a bounty hunter (Harrison Ford) who has to track down a group of rebel androids masking as humans in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles in the year 2019. Vangelis matched the dreary, dark mood created by film director Ridley Scott with his ever present and full score.
An initial failure at the theater, Blade Runner quickly became a cult classic at the beginning of the eighties in part because of its unique music and visual effects. Vangelis has since been credited as a favorite of countless artists including Jim James (My Morning Jacket) and Jeff Tweedy (Wilco).
The entire Blade Runner Soundtrack has been remastered and put in a listenable album form by Vangelis himself in the early nineties. I can't recommend it enough even if you haven't seen the movie.
First, here is an example using the opening credits song from Blade Runner demonstrating the two different types of keyboard available in 1982. Note the amazingly thick texture and tone of the larger keyboard on bottom, allowing it to cut straight through the smaller one...
And here is a phenomenal example from Blade Runner that demonstrates why Vangelis was is such a game changer in the early eighties...
Each member of The Band who ever approached the microphone sang with such emotion and ethos that it makes the listener engage immediately and search for a back story that would produce such strain. The voice of Rick Danko makes you feel like he is an authority on simplicity and heartbreak. Richard Manual is an expert on lonliness and Levon Helm understands financial strain and hard work.
The Band was amazingly unique in that they would have they didn't have a "lead singer." The person to sing was determined by who would add the most to the song. Their discography tells the story of the middle-class steel communities, coal mining towns, and farms they grew up in. After years of commercial success, Levon Helm left the music world to work on an oil rig.
Rick Danko (Bass)- It Makes No Difference
Richard Manuel (Piano) - I Shall Be Released
Levon Helm (Drums) - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
There are few songs written that could be called "perfect." The majority of Sam Cooke's were perfect. His voice always had perfect tone, pitch and timbre. His chords always supported his melody in the most natural way. There has not been a singer on earth that has not envied every aspect of Sam's talent upon hearing his voice.
In 1963, Sam wrote "A Change Is Gonna Come" as a anthem for the civil rights movement. It's lack of malice, resentment, and hate is part of it's beauty. The lyrics reflect the day to day experiences of Black America in the 1960's and leaves the listener with hope that one day life will be void of the hardships in the song.
He sings...
I was born by the river in a little tent Oh and just like the river I've been running ever since It's been a long, a long time coming But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky It's been a long, a long time coming But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
I go to the movie and I go downtown somebody keep telling me don't hang around It's been a long, a long time coming But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
Then I go to my brother And I say brother help me please But he winds up knockin' me Back down on my knees
Ohhhhhhhhh.....
There been times that I thought I couldn't last for long But now I think I'm able to carry on It's been a long, a long time coming But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
Today is the first day of Warm Tubes and Tweed, the newest music blog to hit the airwaves. It will be updated regularly with songs, artists, stories, vintage album reviews, and recommendations from yours truly.
There is something magical about going to a concert and watching the roadies walk on stage and dismantle the opening bands rig as they setup the headliners gear. With each guitar that is tuned up, each amp that is plugged in, and each keyboard that is checked comes the thought, "Will that instrument teach me something tonight?" I have been to countless concerts where I have become completely lost in the experience, the melodies, the textures, and the rhythms laid out. On this blog, I have no predetermined guidlines about what will appear other than I hope each visit by a guest will simulate in a small way the experience of going to a concert and hearing something new and falling in love with another artist, another song, or another sound.
On occassion I might have trusted friends fill in for me if they have something that they would like to submit and it meets my tastes and standards.
Please subscribe and check back often. Tickets will be collected at the door.
