Showing posts with label Linda Hoyle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Linda Hoyle. Show all posts

Friday, December 1, 2023

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Laura Nyro's 'Eli And The Thirteenth Confession' (2017)

Soon after the release of Laura Nyro's debut album 'More Than A New Discovery', David Geffen approached Mogull about taking over as her agent. She successfully sued to void her management and recording contracts on the grounds that she had entered into them while still a minor, and Geffen became her manager. The two of them established a publishing company, Tuna Fish Music, under which the proceeds from her future compositions would be divided equally between them. Geffen also arranged Nyro's new recording contract with Clive Davis at Columbia Records, and purchased the publishing rights to her early compositions. Around this time, she considered becoming lead singer for Blood, Sweat & Tears after the departure of founder Al Kooper, but was dissuaded by Geffen, and so she concentrated on recording her second album.  Her new contract allowed her more artistic freedom and control, and so her 1968 record 'Eli And The Thirteenth Confession', received high critical praise for the depth and sophistication of its performance and arrangements, which merged pop structure with inspired imagery, rich vocals, and avant-garde jazz. It was her first chart entry, reaching No. 181 on the Billboard 200, and many musicians, including Elton John and Todd Rundgren, were directly influenced by the album. It is second only to its predecessor in producing hit songs for other artists, with Three Dog Night taking 'Eli's Comin'' to the US top 10, while The 5th Dimension went to No. 3 with 'Stoned Soul Picnic' and No. 13 with 'Sweet Blindness'. Once again, it wasn't long before nearly all of the other songs from the record had been taken up and covered,  and such was their quality that they were still being recorded in the 2000's. Here is a nice collection of some of the very best versions of Nyro's songs from her rightly-regarded classic album 'Eli And The Thirteenth Confession'. 



Track listing

01 Luckie (Judy Kuhn 2007)
02 Lu (Peggy Lipton 1969)
03 Sweet Blindness (The 5th Dimension 1968)
04 Poverty Train (The Ark 1967)
05 Lonely Women (Linda Hoyle 1971) 
06 Eli's Comin' (Three Dog Night 1969)
07 Stoned Soul Picnic (The Supremes And The Four Tops 1970)
08 Emmie (Frankie Valli 1970)
09 Woman's Blues (Green Lyte Sunday 1970)
10 Once It Was Alright Now (Farmer Joe) (Rastus 2016)
11 December's Boudoir (Denise Mangiardi 2017)
12 The Confession (Billy Childs featuring Becca Stevens 2014)

Friday, February 19, 2021

Chris Spedding - ...and on guitar (1972)

Christopher John Spedding was born Peter Robinson on 17 June 1944 in Staveley, Derbyshire, and was adopted by Muriel and Jack Spedding after his father was killed in the war, and they renamed him Christopher John Spedding. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he is best known for his studio session work, although he has also had a fairly successful solo career, releasing a number of well-received albums. He started listening to rock'n'roll in the 50's, starting with Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Elvis, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, and as he'd been learning the violin since the age of 9, he started strumming it like a guitar, until he got his first real instrument when he was 13. At this time Spedding went back to Sheffield and attended Abbeydale Grammar School, where he formed a band called the Vulcans, and in 1961 he left school and moved to London, where he got a job in a music shop. At the same time he was also gigging in a C&W band around the American Air Force bases, which is where he met Frank Ricotti, with whom he started a weekly jazz club in an Islington pub. Spedding mostly played in jazz bands in the early to mid 60's, and when the British blues boom emerged in the late 60's, he disliked playing in that style so much that he only played bass until he found a guitar sound that he felt comfortable with. 
In 1967 he joined Pete Brown And His Battered Ornaments, and wrote 'Sunshades' for their 1969 'Mantle-Piece' album, as well as co-authoring a couple of other songs, and at the same time he also joined the Frank Ricotti Quartet, co-writing 'Late Into The Night' with Pete Brown for their sole 1969 album. Around this time he was much in demand as a session guitarist, with quite a few of his gigs being with jazz or jazz-based musicians, like Jack Bruce, Michael Gibbs, and Bob Downes, and in 1970 he joined Nucleus, who recorded their first album early that year, with 'Elastic Rock' including three Spedding co-writes. His renown as a jazz guitarist was such that he was voted second in the Best Jazz Guitarist category in the Melody Maker poll of 1970, and to capitalise on that he recorded his first solo album, a jazz record titled 'Songs Without Words' later that year, although it was only released in Japan at the time, and was not made more widely available until an edited version sanctioned by Spedding was released in 2015. While a member of Nuclues he continued with his session work, contributing to tracks by Julie Driscoll and Linda Hoyle, as well as jazz saxophonist extraordinaire Dick Heckstall-Smith. However, although jazz was his first love, Spedding could turn his hand to almost any style of guitar-playing, and so early 70's sessions also found him appearing on recordings by Mike d'Abo, Lesley Duncan, Harry Nilsson, Roger Cook, Elton John, and Sixto Rodriguez, who was later the subject of the 2012 documentary 'Searching For Sugar Man'. 
To show just how versatile he was, I've split this double disc set into one of his jazz recordings and one of his pop/rock recordings, and although this post finishes at 1972, his career still had much further to go, forming Sharks that year with ex-Free bassist Andy Fraser and recording two albums with them, before touring and recording with John Cale, and playing with Roy Harper's occasional backing band Trigger, notably on 1975's 'HQ' album. Between 1972 and 1976 he played in Mike Batt's novelty band The Wombles, and confirmed on the Marc Riley show on BBC Radio 6 Music that he once performed on television in a Womble suit, and in 1975 he had his first Top 20 solo hit in the UK with 'Motor Bikin'', which he promoted with television appearances on Top Of The Pops and Supersonic, dressed in leather motorcycling gear, and with greased hair. On his 1976 single 'Pogo Dancing' he was backed by UK punk band The Vibrators, but when further hits failed to materialise, he concentrated on his career as a session guitarist, appearing and recording with Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, Elton John, Brian Eno, Jack Bruce, Nick Mason, Art Garfunkel, Typically Tropical, Katie Melua, and Ginger Baker, amongst many, many others. In 1976 he even produced three demo tracks by The Sex Pistols, and there are persistent rumours that he played guitar and bass on their debut album 'Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols', although guitarist Steve Jones emphatically denies this. Spedding's career has continued right up to the present day, releasing a live album just last year, but this is where it all started for him, adding his skill and versatility to dozens of recordings in the early 70's. 

Disc One
01 Sunshades (from 'Mantle-Piece' by The Battered Ornaments 1969)
02 Late Into The Night (from 'Our Point Of View' by Frank Ricotti Quartet 1969)
03 Tickets To Waterfalls (from 'Songs For A Tailor' by Jack Bruce 1969)
04 Got No Home (from 'Deep Down Heavy' by Bob Downes 1970)
05 Persephone's Jive (from 'Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises' by Neil Ardley 1970)
06 Throb (from 'Michael Gibbs' by Michael Gibbs 1970)
07 A New Awakening (from '1969' by Julie Driscoll 1971)
08 Twisted Track (from 'Elastic Rock' by Nucleus 1970)
09 The Pirate's Dream (from 'A Story Ended' by Dick Heckstall-Smith 1972)
10 Pieces Of Me (from 'Pieces Of Me' by Linda Hoyle 1971)
11 Technology (from 'Solid Gold Cadillac' by Solid Gold Cadillac 1972)

Disc Two
01 Woman In My Life (from 'd'Abo' by Mike d'Abo 1970)
02 Philwit's Fantasies (from 'Philwit & Pegasus' by Philwit & Pegasus 1970)
03 Daffodils (from 'Loudwater House' by Tony Hazzard 1971)
04 Mr. Rubin (from 'Sing Children Sing' by Lesley Duncan 1971)
05 Hampstead Way (from 'Say No More...' by Linda Lewis 1971)
06 Climb Up On My Music (from 'Coming From Reality' by Rodriguez 1971)
07 Down (from 'Nilsson Schmilsson' by Nilsson 1971)
08 Madman Across The Water (from 'Madman Across The Water' by Elton John 1971)
09 Avalon (from 'Matthew Ellis' by Matthew Ellis 1972)
10 Penthouse Pauper (from 'Panhandle' by Panhandle 1972)
11 Virginia (from 'Queues' by Vigrass & Osborne 1972)
12 One More Time Around (from 'Vaughan Thomas' by Vaughan Thomas 1972)
13 Oh Babe (from 'Meanwhile... Back At The World' by Roger Cook 1972)
14 Bonus Track 

For a full history of the life of Chris Spedding, and a complete list of all his session work, then check out http://chrisspedding.com/session/ssn.htm