#chips moman

[hooked-on-elvis]

I always say From Elvis in Memphis is my favorite Elvis album but I never actually shared the FULL ALBUM here — even tho it's easy to find it available online, here it goes:

This album is turning 55 years old this year, on June. This is a MASTERPIERCE. No kidding.⚡

[gottahavesoul]

James Carr - The Dark End of the Street (1967)

[mitjalovse]

Wang Chung covering Blur got me to think about that. You know, I pondered the cover version of many tunes and what they can tell us about the musicians who made the originals. Of course, we also ask ourselves about those who remade them. For instance, how did Otis Redding feel, when Aretha Franklin made one of his songs her own? I mean, their versions differ from one another mostly in their intentions, because Otis' tune seems to contain a more pleading tone, whereas Aretha Franklin transforms the latter into an anthem of self-worth. Therefore, what we have here should be considered a great case study of how two great vocalists can remodel the same piece with their two different approaches into two completely varied readings.

[vinylspinning]

Waylon Jennings: Ol’ Waylon (1977)

What better way to celebrate the Outlaw Country ethos (and keep the cash registers humming) than with a song extolling life’s simpler, unsophisticated pleasures?

“The only two things in life that make it worth livin’; Is guitars that tune good and firm feelin' women; I don't need my name in the marquee lights; I got my song and I got you with me tonight; Maybe it's time we got back to the basics of love”

Waylon Jennings did just that with “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love),” which shot straight to No. 1 on the Country Chart in May of 1977 and No. 15 on the Pop Chart by preaching the purity of poverty:

“So baby, let's sell your diamond ring, Buy some boots and faded jeans and go away; This coat and tie is choking me; In your high society you cry all day; We've been so busy keepin' up with the Jones; Four car garage and we're still building on; Maybe it's time we got back to the basics of love ...”

Written by Stax and Nashville veteran Chips Moman (who also produced the LP) with session ace Bobby Emmons, the song was actually not to Waylon’s liking (and none of those involved had ever even been to Luckenbach!), but he knew it was bound to be a hit, plus, it did have his name in it ... 

“Let's go to Luckenbach, Texas with Waylon and Willie and the boys; This successful life we're livin’ got us feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys; Between Hank Williams' pain songs and Newberry's train songs and Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain; Out in Luckenbach, Texas ain't nobody feelin' no pain.”

But, with all due respect, by comparison, everything else on this LP is postscript -- even high caliber renditions of Jimmy Webb’s “If You See Me Getting Smaller” (where Jennings ribs his old pal Willie Nelson for becoming the more popular of the two), the admittedly callous “Brand New Goodbye Song” and Waylon’s own “Belle of the Ball.”

Jennings’ take on Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” also doesn’t do it for me, and while I like his interesting, two-tempo stab at “Lucille,” I do prefer Kenny Rogers’ version (heresy!), and the “Medley of Elvis Hits” proved unfortunately prescient, when the King passed away just a few months later.

So come on down to witness Waylon, the reticent superstar, at the peak of his commercial fame, because “Luckenbach, Texas” alone is brilliant enough to more than justify the cover charge. 

More Waylon Jennings: Are You Ready for the Country, Waylon & Willie.

[tearyeye-private-i]

L-R: Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and producer Chips Moman.

Singing ‘Rock and Roll (Fais-Do-Do),’ while recording for the Class of ‘55, American Recording Studio, Memphis, TN, Sept 20, 1985. / Dave Darnell, The Commercial Appeal.

[gregorygalloway]

The 11th studio album by Aretha Franklin was released on 10 March 1967.

In her label debut for Atlantic records, the 24-year-old Franklin delivered a blend of "rocking soul, dreamy pop and reflective testifying” (Robert Christgau wrote in the Village Voice at the time) that went to #2 on the Billboard charts but received mostly bland critical reviews. Rolling Stone was critical of the production and playing of seasoned studio musicians, including guitarists Chips Moman and Jimmy Johnson, keyboardist Spooner Oldham, and bassist Tommy Cogbill. In 2002, Rolling Stone placed the album at #1 on their "Women in Rock: 50 Essential Albums" list.

I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You was the 2nd of 4 albums released by Franklin in 1967.

[hooked-on-elvis]

I cry myself to sleep each night Wishing I could hold you tight Life seems so empty since you went away And the pillow where you lay your head Now holds my empty dreams instead And it keeps right on a-hurtin' Since you're gone It keeps right on a'hurtin every minute of the day Every hour you're away I feel so lonely And I can't help it, I don't think I can go on And it keeps right on a-hurtin' since you're gone They say a man ain't supposed to cry But when I see you passing by My heart breaks down and cries a million tears The pillow where you lay your head Now holds my empty dreams instead And it keeps right on a-hurtin' since you're gone It keeps right on a-hurtin every minute of the day Every hour you're away I feel so lonely And I can't help it, I don't think I can go on And it keeps right on a-hurtin' since you're gone Yes, it keeps right on a-hurtin' since you're gone

"It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'" by Elvis Presley | Album: "From Elvis in Memphis" (1969)

[vinylspinning]

Townes Van Zandt: Flyin’ Shoes (1978)

Six long years separate 1978’s Flyin’ Shoes from ‘72’s fatefully named The Late Great Townes Van Zandt. (*)

Years in which the troubled troubadour’s once promising career had floundered, leaving him without a record deal and almost penniless, living literally on the fringes of the country music establishment, in a cabin (see above) twenty miles south of Nashville, in the town of Franklin, Tennessee.

Which happens to be where I’m writing these words today ...

But Flyin’ Shoes encouragingly saw Townes reunited with former manager Kevin Eggers, signed to the same’s Tomato Records, and paired up with legendary producer Chips Moman (**) for a comeback bid.

One thing was certain: Van Zandt’s grim outlook hadn’t improved none during his exile, as evidenced by the sullen title track (“Days full of rain; Sky’s comin’ down again”), the chilling “Snake Song” (“Future, he don't try to find me; Skin I been through dies behind me; Solid hollow, wrapped in hatred; Not a drop of venom wasted”), and the absolutely brutal “Dollar Bill Blues” (“Mother was a golden girl; slit her throat just to get her pearls”).

Thankfully, not every tune (***) was this extreme, but you’d be a fool to expect anything resembling optimism -- more like a bittersweet love song or two, in “Loretta” and “When She Don’t Need Me,” and one of the great “glass half-empty” songs ever written in “Rex’s Blues”:

“If I had a nickel I'd find a game; If I won a dollar I'd make it rain; If it rained an ocean I'd drink it dry, and lay me down dissatisfied.”

And maybe Van Zandt (who name-checked his friends Guy and Susanna Clark on “Pueblo Waltz”) knew better than everyone else, because, for all of the genuinely tortured genius captured here, Flyin’ Shoes was another commercial disappointment.

Luckily, the early ‘80s brought some small consolation and an unexpected windfall in songwriting royalties, when Emmylou Harris and Don Williams took Townes’ “If I Needed You” to No. 3, while Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard hit No. 1 with “Pancho and Lefty.”

The only downside to this was that Van Zandt himself wouldn’t release new music until 1987, and that nothing could ultimately deviate him from the path to self-destruction until his death a decade later.

* With only the seminal Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas, recorded in ‘73 but released in ‘77, breaking up the hiatus.

** The multi-talented Moman had previously produced or written for with Elvis Presley, Bobby Womack, Waylon Jennings and Aretha Franklin, until his painful death in 1997. 

*** Some of which dated back several years to an abandoned album called 7 Come 11.

More Townes Van Zandt: Our Mother the Mountain, Townes Van Zandt, Delta Momma Blues, Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas.