Holiday Music,The Rock and England at a glance

Holiday Music,The Rock and England at a glance

Juke Box Guy

GREG SHAW

BY

Dec. 16, 1971

I�ve decided to start dating these columns, to give you a better idea of how they relate to reality, which has usually changed quite a bit between their writing and the time you see them. This decision came to me as I sat here planning my review of this year�s batch of Christmas records and suddenly realized that most people wouldn�t see this column until at least February ...

Christmas records have always been with us, starting in a big way with Bing Crosby�s �White Christmas� (Decca 23778) which seems to have been routinely reissued just about every November since 1941 or so. It also made the charts in most of those years, up to .1962 when it made a mysterious disappearance. It still gets played on some stations as an oldie. �Little Drummer Boy� by the Harry Simeone Chorale (20th Century Fox 121) also vanished in 1963 after five straight years of yuletide popularity. �63 also spelled doom for the Drifters� version of �White Christmas� (Atlantic 1048), which had previously undergone yearly revival since 1955. Brenda Lee�s �Rockin� Around the Christmas Tree� (Decca 30776) bombed out in 1963 too after three consecutive years of success. So what gave the axe to all these standbys? One thing that comes to mind is the fact that the greatest Christmas record of all time came out in 1963, Phil Spector�s A Christmas Gift For You (LP) (Philles 4005) from which tracks are still being played today. Yet oddly, the only single released from it, Darlene Love�s incredible �Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)� (Philles 125) neve,r made the charts.

Right after that the Beatles arrived and inspired a whole new field of novelty records (I know of about fifty devoted to the group), many of which had to do with Christmas. �Ringo Bells� by the Three Blind Mice (Atco 6324), �I Want the Beatles For Christmas� by Jackie and Jill (USA 791) and �Christmas With the Beatles� by Judy & the Duets (Ware 6000), all 1964, typify the genre. There hadn�t been anything like this since 1956, when Elvis burst upon the scene.

Since then Christmas records have been pretty dull, hitting mostly the easy listening markets, and not very hard at that. Part of the problem was that the real creative energy went out of pop and into �progressive� rock, and unless you can imagine the Grateful Dead singing Christmas carols you�ll understand what I mean. �Hey Jude� was big around Christmas of �68 and had some of the expansive spirit of that season, but it took 1971 and the beginning of rock�s return to its rightful place on the throne of pop music to bring us a really worthwhile Christmas single. I speak of course of John & Yoko�s �Happy Xmas (War is Over)� (Apple 1836) which to my ears is more a Phil Spector record than a John & Yoko. What I mean by that is that the sentimental theme of the song (despite the tacked-on relevance) allowed Spector to let himself go in the direction he travels best (toward the heavy fudge syrup) and only the Holiday occasion keeps it from being mawkish. As a Christmas record it�s perfect, and belongs on the reissued Philles album(s) Spector�s been promising for so long. Note also that it wasn�t issued in England because of legal complications arising from Yoko�s being credited for a share of the royalties.

Other seasonal records include �Jingle Bells� by the Singing Dogs (RCA 48-1020), a hit from 1955 that was reissued after a N.Y. disc jockey played the old record and got a huge response. It features dog barks edited into a recognizable melody, and is reportedly breaking big in all markets. The Carpenters, Johnny Mathis, Elvis, Shawn Phillips, Rod McKuen, Donny Hathaway, Bobby Sherman, the Brady Bunch, Tiny Tim, the Chambers Brothers (!) and the Anita Kerr Singers also have Christmas singles out. All are the predictable mush. Little Jimmy Osmond makes his solo debut with �If Santa Were My Daddy� (MGM 14328), both Stevie Wonder and Burt Bacharach have released �What Christmas Means to Me�, Freddy King�s �Christmas Tears� (Federal 12439) and Charles Brown�s �Please Come Home For Christmas� (King 5405), both fine blues records, have been re-released, and Brown has another on his present label, �Merry Christmas Baby� (Jewel 815). Also of note: �Lonesome Christmas� by Lowell Fulson, another veteran bluesman (Jewel 813). Of course there�s Cheech & Chong�s pallid �Santa Claus and His Old Lady� (Ode 66201), and �Rudolph� by the Next Generation (UA SP67), a bunch of kids assembled by Biff Rose to stumble through the song. They can be heard bolting for the door ^s the last note dies. A nice record. And for the soul brothers we have �Soul Santa� by Brook Benton (Cotillion 44141) and �I�m Dreaming of a Black Christmas� by Little Alfred & the Linden Black Youth Choir (Wizdom 1983). �

Okay, enough of this; let�s sink our teeth into some timeless sounds. There�s a good batch of hard rock singles out, highlighted by �You Snooze, You Lose� by Hoopy Ferguson & the Wild Dogs (Renegade 5603 — distr. by London). It�s got that old Rolling Stones raveup style, and I can�t decide if the singer sounds more like Jerry Lee Lewis or Randy Newman. Stylistically it�s the former, but something about his voice seems out of place. Anyway, it�s a boss record. The Rattles, who are big in my book for their 1970 record �The Witch� have a good rocker in �Devil�s On the Loose� (London 1037), though it is again marred by unnecessary and distracting orchestration. They�re getting fuzzier and funkier though, and may just break through into the heavy metal league. �Park Preserve� by Climax (Carousel 30,055) is recommended to those who liked early Bloodrock. And �Baby Won�t You Let Me Rock and Roll You� by Ten Years After (Columbia 4-45530) is one of the finest things they�ve done. Interesting that they rhyme �rock & roll� with �stroll�, just like Led Zeppelin do in �Rock and Roll�. Been years since anybody did that. I wonder how many of the kids Who buy TYA and LZ records have any idea what the Stroll was? The two songs have a lot in common thematically, but this one is better because there are no solos. I also dig the device of dialing pa$t the various radio stations at the start. It brings you right into the context of rock & roll, driving in a car and flipping across the dial with your right hand, looking for something to help you eat up the road. This is just the record to do it, though they blew the bit by having the song start from the beginning rather than about 20 seconds in, the way you catch them on the radio in �real life.�

Scott English has been around awhile, making the charts in 1964 with �High On a Hill� (Spokane 4003) but despite his name and the fact that he�s currently high in the charts and the hearts of the British, he�s an American. Actually the record, �Brandy�, is slipping down over there, but for awhile he was featured in all the pop papers and now finally the record is out here (Janus 171). It�s not bad in an Elton John sort of way, but it�s interesting because the former record was a classic doo-wop chant. Also making a comeback this month is Donnie Elbert with a marvelous recording of �Where Did Our Love Go� (All-Platinum 2330). Donnie hit the charts once before in 1957 with �What Can I Do� (DeLuxe 6125) but he�s better remembered by me for the great �Hey Baby� (Vee-Jay 336). Anyway it�s good to have him back. And speaking of Scott English, he once co-authored the American Breed�s �Bend Me, Shape Me� (Acta 811) and now the song is back, done by Henry Shed (Cream 1011) but considerably changed and soulified. Also back but not changed a whit is �The Lion Sleeps Tonight� (Atlantic 2846) by Robert John. Personally, I had enough of this off-key falsetto warbling -in 1961. Another name from the past is Trade Martin, whose �That Stranger Used to Be My Girl� (Coed 570) was a passable record for 1962. The new one is �I Can�t Do it for You� (Buddah 266), a big production pop song written by Chip Taylor that just doesn�t do it for me.

It�s not too late to comment on a few records that were out last month and are still big. �Your Move� by Yes (Atlantic 2819) sounds like a mixture of Beach Boys and Jefferson Airplane, which means it�s a fine record, possibly the first single by one of those organ-heavy English groups that I�ve really liked. The lyrics are a bit daft, but if you do like me and tune out all the �don�t surround yourself with yourself, move, on back to squares� foolishness, filling in your own lyrics mentally (I find �do you wanna dance� works nicely ...) it can be a lot of fun. �Day After Day� by Badfinger (Apple 1841) is a beautiful pop song of the type this group is supremely skilled at making, and I hope it graces the airwaves for a long time. Not so their disappointing new album, however. �American Pie� made a fast jump into the top 20 as the shock wore off in the industry and they noticed people were clamoring for it in droves. A1 Green�s �Let�s Stay Together� (Hi 2202) is not nearly as good as �Tired of Being Alone� but Joe L has a fine blues record on the same label, �As the Years Go Passing By� (Hi 2195) that sounds like a rough B.B. King. �Bang a Gong (Get it On)� by T. Rex (WB 1032) has been reserviced and it�s still as tremendous a single as it was the first time. Get on it, you fools! Also reserviced is Dylan�s �George Jackson� due to an error on the original label crediting BMI instead of ASCAP. Collectors, take note. And it looks like the record ain�t gonna make top 10, sad to say. �Revival Day� is out as a single from Savage Rose (Gregar 288) and it�s such a naturally great record you can count on this country�s myopic "radio programmers to ignore it completely.

Carroll O�Connor and Jean Stapleton of �All in the Family� went in the studio to sing �Those Were the Days� and the resultant single (Atlantic 2847) is a lotta fun. Not only can you understand all the words, but there�s more of them, and the trad jazz band adds a good-timey flavor. Jerry Lee Lewis has a good version of �Me & Bobby McGee� (Mercury 73248) that�s getting country airplay but deserves to go pop. Mungo Jerry adds a little pop to his skiffle sound with �You Don�t Have to Be in the Army to Fight in the War� (Pye 65,003) and in case you hadn�t noticed, Pye (a major British company, with the Kinks among others) now has an American branch. And this month�s �most promising title/most disappointing record� award goes to Captain Freak and the Lunacycle Band for �What Ever Happened to Superman� (Jamie 1397).

ENGLAND AT A GLANCE: It�s always interesting to note the differences between the British and American charts. As you might expect, there are U.S. singles on the chart that we consider old, English records we haven�t heard yet, and there�s always a certain number of hits on either side that don�t reach the other. The English kids are far more concerned about this than us, forming clubs to import singles (usually soul) and often bootlegging them to force the record companies to issue the records. The problem is that the companies tend to issue what�s popular around London, which isn�t always what�s wanted in the provinces. But anyway, there�s much less concern on this side about what we might be missing.

Though now sliding down, Slade has lately been #1, beating out even Rod Stewart, with �Coz I Love You� (available here on Cotillion 44139). This former skinhead band was reviewed in this column with great enthusiasm when �Get Down and Get With It� came out, but in a recent interview they call the record an �experiment� and promise to do no more hard rock, so you probably won�t be seeing their name here again. The current #1 record is �Ernie� by Benny Hill (Columbia) but I know absolutely nothing about it. �Tokoloshe Man� by John Kongos, which I found disappointing, is #3 and looks like a huge smash. And this may seem incredible, but the Newbeats are back on the jcharts and rising fast with �Run Baby Run�, an old hit from 1965 that Ed Ward maintains CSN&Y oughta add to their repertoire. You remember the Newbeats, 3 punks from Shreveport, Louisiana who sounded like Dick and Dee Dee and made it big with �Bread and Butter� (Hickory 1269). This sort of thing goes on all the time in Britain; earlier this yera �Heartbreak Hotel� was reissued and made the top 10. It happens here too, but very rarely with the exception of Christmas songs. The last time I recall is 1965 when �Harlem Nocturne� by the Viscounts (Amy 940) made a surprise return 5 years after the original hit, going even higher on the charts the second time. I may�ve missed one or two, but the point is that Americans seem to prefer a new version of an old song, as with Freddy Scott�s �Hey Girl� which is now a hit again by Donny Osmond (MGM 14322). Meanwhile Bruce Channel�s �Hey Baby� was reissued and promptly did a nosedive.

Back in England, a big hit and the subject of much controversy is �Keep On Dancing� by the Bay City Rollers. Their detractors call it bubblegum, they call it simple dance music, and I haven�t heard it but I bet it�s great. There�s also a minor furor over a group called Middle of the Road, who�ve had 3 straight smashes this year with �Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep�, �Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum� and now �Soley Soley�. Bubblegum and reggae are very strong forces in England and the critics seem to approve of �good� bubblegum, usually citing �Sugar Sugar�. T. Rex, of all groups, are coming to be regarded as a bubblegum act. Their audience seems to be composed mostly of 13-16 year old girls more interested in Marc�s dreamy eyes than his music, and I must admit their rhythms do sometimes get reminiscent of �Yummy Yummy Yummy� but it�s all pretty funny anyway. With Bolan as Enlgand�s latest and biggest six symbol, it�s no surprise their new single �Jeepster� is rising with a bullet (or would be if Melody Maker had bullets) even though it�s on the album. Also entering the charts is �Riders on the Storm� by the Doors, and what took so long? The Who have stabilized around #15 with �Let�s See Action�, which hasn�t been released here yet because of the unexpected success of �Behind Blue Eyes�. It�s sort of an answer record to ��Won�t Get Fooled Again�, and quite good from the one hearing I�ve had. The Move�s latest single �Chinatown� is making a good showing too, and was just released, here on MGM 14332. So far it�s getting about as much airplay as their last single, �Tonight� (Capitol 3126), another fine song that was also big in England. How people in this country can complain about the decline of rock and at the same time ignore all the good records is quite beyond me.

CLOSING GREASE: The latest issue of Who Put the Bomp tells in 88 pages more than you ever wanted to know about the roots of English rock, and includes Lester Bangs� 25,000 words on the Troggs as well. Don�t miss it, it�s yours for 50c from me at 64 Taylor, Fairfax, CA. 94930.