robahull's blog

As Al Green sings repeatedly, on the great Call Me album,

"Jesus Is Waiting."

George Coleman's nickname was Bongo Joe, but no one seems to know why, least of all George.  In Houston during the late '40s, he was turned down for a job as a drummer in a local band because he did not own a set of drums. George got real mad, found a discarded oil drum (Houston has plenty!), dented it with an axe, and hit the streets.

A self-made beatnik, George played for tourists in Galveston and found work in a coffeehouse in Houston.  But no one really appreciated his art so George moved to San Antonio, where he played for small change in front of the Alamo and where, on December 7, 1968, on portable equipment, this bizarre album was recorded.

Coleman's instrument is a 55-gallon oil drum which he pounds with the handles of oil cans filled with pebbles and BB-shot. His voice is that of a '50s R&B shouter.  At odd moments, he will mumble to himslef, and when he cannot think of anything to say, he whistles or makes bird noises.  He is given to mad outbursts of panting and laughter. Although seemingly composed on the spot, his lyrics are hip, filled with bawdy humor and structured as fables. George slings the bullshit real good.

Bunky, an attractive black woman from Brooklyn, and Jake, an aspiring white male Bohemian, met between brushstrokes at New York's School of Visual Arts in 1962. In high school, they both had sung on street corners with a cappella groups--Bunky with the Mello-Larks, Jake with Claude and the Emeralds. Eventually they began to be influenced by the folk music coming from the coffeehouses of Greenwich Village. Bunky and Jake, who had first met to rap about the old vocal groups they adored, put an act together and played the folk clubs, singing of being hip in New York City.

Like a good-natured jam, the duo's second album, L.A.M.F., is an eclectic blend of music influences, a record that's funkier and more rooted in traditional rock than the average folk record of the period. Their first album for Mercury, Bunky and Jake, though pleasant enough, was too pop, marred by corny string arrangements.

In contrast, L.A.M.F. sounds like music made on a sunny rooftop among neighborhood friends.  Bunky and Jake are backed by a competent bassist and drummer, and their sound is filled out by various instruments:  organ, vibes, clarinet, piano, conga, and sighs.  The overall feel is of being amiably zonked.
"Songs of lament," Al Jacobs (Jake), in an interview, once labeled the tunes on L.A.M.F., and most of the songs do refer to other times, other places, other artists. 

Frederick Knight's only album for Stax is one of the loneliest albums ever made.  It speaks of failure, the sense of loss, and solitude.  Of these things, Knight knew a great deal.

He was born in Bessemer, Alabama, in 1944, and spent years visiting record companies. Joe Tex's manager, Buddy Killen, helped Knight obtain an advance from Mercury for "Throw the Switch," but it was never released. Capitol issued "Have a Little Mercy," but it went nowhere. Knight looked for a career in New York, but had no luck. Eventually he returned to Alabama to work as an engineer at the Sound of Birmingham Studio.  Knight's first hit, "I've Been Lonely For So Long," was written by Posie Knight, his wife, and Jerry Weaver (although they had someone else in mind when they wrote the song).

Released in April, 1972, the single was a unique, almost bizarre, example of Southern soul, its sound gentle and resigned, not over-the-top or too deep. Knight's falsetto suggests Al Green's, but it's more whining, less serene. Unlike most soul songs, the passionate tirade of a preacher is not at the heart of the performance. Instead, Knight's voice knows the value of keeping the peace.  No drums were used on the recording session; the rhythms were made by tambourine and a stool hit with slats of wood. There is a silence imbedded even in the percussion work.

STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER

1. Penny Lane (3:01)        Magical Mystery Tour [2009 Stereo Remaster]    
2. Baby You're A Rich Man (3:01)  Magical Mystery Tour [2009 Stereo Remaster]  
3. Only A Northern Song [Mono]    Yellow Submarine [2009 Stereo Remaster]    
4. Magical Mystery Tour (2:50)    Magical Mystery Tour [2009 Stereo Remaster]    5. The Fool On The Hill [Take 4] (3:45)      Anthology 2 [Disc 2]    
6. Your Mother Should Know  2:28  Magical Mystery Tour[2009 Stereo Remaster]  
7. Flying (2:16)                 Magical Mystery Tour [2009 Stereo Remaster]    
8. Blue Jay Way (3:55)       Magical Mystery Tour [2009 Stereo Remaster]    
9. I Am The Walrus (4:36)  Magical Mystery Tour [2009 Stereo Remaster]    
10. All You Need Is Love (3:50)  Magical Mystery Tour [2009 Stereo Remaster]    
11. Hello Goodbye (3:29)        Magical Mystery Tour [2009 Stereo Remaster]    
12. Strawberry Fields Forever (4:01) Magical Mystery Tour [2009 Stereo Re]
 

“Regular Lovers” (2005, Philippe Garrel)

Or, Nixon in China: The events of 1968, depicted by one of its cinematic heroes as an intimate epic—and, with a self-deprecating fury, as a lovely but unsustainable burst of youthful lyricism.--

RICHARD BRODY, New Yorker, Best Films of the Last Decade

This is #5.