Fortuitously #9

 

Richie Havens’ recording of ‘I Can’t Make It Anymore’ is, I believe, one of the wonders of this mad old world. It is possible some know the song as a rare single or some from Richie’s 1966 LP Mixed Bag. Some may have heard it on Paul Weller’s recent Ace compilation That Sweet Sweet Music which, to me, makes perfect sense as the song has got a similar feel to ‘My Ever Changing Moods’. I have to confess that while I admire Richie’s frantic strumming and the rhythmic intensity of some of his most famous recordings, it’s the ballads I really rate, like 'I Can't Make It', like ‘San Francisco Bay Blues’ on that debut LP and ‘Sandy’ too which perfectly complements the later Wolfhounds song of the same name.

The gorgeous ‘I Can’t Make It Anymore’ is a Gordon Lightfoot song, and as far as I know he never released it himself. There’s a demo version floating around, but that’s about it which is odd as it is such a beautiful song. It would fit perfectly alongside ‘Early Mornin’ Rain’ on his debut LP Lighfoot! Now there’s another beautiful song: ‘Early Mornin’ Rain’. A song performers really seem to connect with judging by the number of cover versions there have been, starting with Ian & Sylvia and Peter, Paul & Mary.

I have a particular fondness for the Bob Dylan recording of it on Self Portrait. I think it is one of Bob’s great vocal performances. Very recently I stumbled across a fantastic clip of Ronnie Hawkins performing this song on a 1968 Canadian TV special which seems extraordinarily beautiful. This led me to the spectral studio version Ronnie recorded which is even better and made me wonder if these could have influenced Bob’s one. Who knows? And is Elvis’ the best of all? Maybe. Some days.

More recently Paul Weller has performed a lovely version. Well, I say recently, but you know what I mean. More genuinely recently, anyone who has seen Aki Kaurismäki’s 2023 magical film Fallen Leaves will have heard a haunting Finnish adaptation of it, Rauli Badding Somerjoki singing ‘Aamuöiseen sateeseen’ which somehow perfectly captures the melancholy mood of the film. It must be wonderful to be a songwriter and witness your creations spreading right around the world.

Ironically, as far as I know, Gordon Lightfoot has never been one to record other people’s songs. There are exceptions and indeed his first US single was a cover of Bob’s ‘Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues’ and his first LP contained covers of Ewan MacColl’s ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ and a particularly beautiful recording of Phil Ochs’ ‘Changes’. Gordon and Phil seem to have had a genuine friendship and mutual appreciation thing going on. I recently came across (on the website of Lightfoot’s biographer Nicholas Jennings) a scan of a lovely piece Phil wrote about Gordon for Broadside in July 1965 which is both funny and smart.

In it Phil mentions that Ian Tyson of Ian & Sylvia shared his enthusiasm for Gordon’s work with one of his managers, John Court who was a partner of Albert Grossman, and convinced him to fly up to Toronto to see Lightfoot perform. Court was won over and so the ball was set rolling. Court went on to produce Gordon’s first LP, featuring support from Bruce Langhorne, the arranger of ‘I Can’t Make It Anymore’, which I guess is also a connection to Richie Havens who became another of Court and Grossman’s acts, with John also producing Richie’s debut LP, Mixed Bag.

Talking of Phil, there is the eternal mystery of Clydie King and ‘When In Rome’ which on the essential Imperial & Minit years compilation is credited to Phil Ochs. It’s not a cover of Phil’s ‘When In Rome’. That would be too good to be true. But it does have a very Phil Ochs feel. And if it is not one of Phil’s songs, who wrote it? What’s the story behind it? And why was it buried for 30 years? Somebody must know. I’ll keep on about it until I find out.

It actually feels rather like it could have come from the sessions for the LP Phil’s ‘When In Rome’ appears on, Tape From California. Indeed, the title track is surely perfect for enlightened dancefloors. And the single version of ‘The Harder They Fall’ is gloriously and unexpectedly funky. Incidentally, did Richie Havens ever perform any of Phil’s songs? I know they appeared on the same bill various times, but I am not aware Richie recorded anything of Phil’s. I could be wrong.

Anyway, in certain circles a more famous version of ‘I Can’t Make It Anymore’ is the accelerated 1967 Spyder Turner one which became popular on the Northern Soul scene. It’s such a great name isn’t it? Spyder Turner! Sounds like someone in a band supporting The Tickets down at the Bridge House in Canning Town in late 1978. I suspect the Spyder Turner version is a favourite of the DJ Richard Searling as he’s included it on at least two compilations: Northern Soul Connoisseurs Vol 2 on Spectrum in 2005 and Wigan Casino 40: Northern Soul from 2013. In the liner notes for the former Richard gives a neat mention to the Havens version. Spyder also recorded a very nice cover of The Fugs’ ‘Morning Morning’, another number Richie performs on Mixed Bag.

It’s an unusual sequence of events isn’t it? A singer from a folk background writes a song that becomes a favourite on Northern Soul dancefloors. I can’t think of too many other examples. You may be able to. The one that occurs to me immediately is the Paul Simon song, ‘You Don’t Know Where Your Interest Lies’, which was recorded in 1967 by Dana Valery before Simon & Garfunkel released their version. Dana’s single was arranged and produced by Charlie Calello which as Laura Nyro fans will agree is always a good sign.

The flipside of Dana’s single possibly also qualifies. Her ‘Having You Around’ was written by the team of Frank Catana with Barbara Cooper. Barbara had been a member of the folk ensemble The Womenfolk. In her own name Barbara released a couple of mid -1960s singles featuring compositions she and Frank had written. These have a lovely Petula Clark feel to them, and in particular Barbara’s wonderful recording of ‘The Playground’ has its devotees on the Northern Soul scene. Another classic of hers is the haunting ballad ‘Patterns’ which would also be recorded by Kiki Dee and Sandy Posey.

I guess there’s Pete Seeger’s ‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone’, but that rapidly became a new standard and had been widely recorded by among others Marlene Deitrich, the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary and over here Tommy Steele.  On the Northern Soul scene Walter Jackson’s version was popular and has achieved immortality as the last song played at Wolverhampton’s Catacombs. There’s another excellent uptempo recording by the great Freddie Scott with an arrangement by Garry Sherman and production by Gerry Goffin which is an unbeatable combination.

On the theme of folk-related singer/songwriters, Freddie’s 1970 take on Bob Dylan’s ‘I Shall Be Released’ is quite something. For me, it is one of the great performances. And it is one of my favourite songs by Bob. Just imagine someone sitting on their bunk in a prison cell, an unharmful gentle soul misplaced inside a jail, nearing the end of their sentence, silently singing those lines: “So I remember ev’ry face / Of ev’ry man who put me here / I see my light come shining / From the west unto the east / Any day now, any day now / I shall be released.”

There is plenty of overlap between Bob Dylan and the soul milieu. And it is very hard to resist mentioning The Brothers & Sisters’ Dylan’s Gospel project, overseen by Lou Adler in 1971 with arrangements by Gene Page and an all-star cast including great soul singers such as Merry Clayton, Patrice Holloway, Gloria Jones, Clydie King, Sherlie Matthews and Edna Wright.

There is also the excellent How Many Roads: Black America Sings Dylan CD which came out on Ace in 2010. This was put together and annotated by Tony Rounce, a name I seem to recall first seeing in the mod fanzine Maximum Speed back in 1979 when he’d written in trying to interest the new generation in 6Ts Soul events happening in the Capital. I have no idea why that sticks in my mind. It may even be a false memory. Who knows? Someone will.

Anyway, the Ace collection contains a fantastic selection of Dylan interpretations, including Freddie Scott’s ‘I Shall Be Released’ and The Persuasions’ wonderful acapella recording of ‘The Man In Me’ from 1972.

The great Eddie & Ernie recorded a superb uptempo version of ‘Lay Lady Lay’ in 1972 apparently at the suggestion of Dave Godin, a fact that always makes me want to punch the air with joy, in private. It is a track tailor-made for frantic dancefloors but would never have been part of the soundtrack for the original Northern Soul scene as it ‘lay’ unreleased for 30 years until it appeared on the essential Kent collection of Eddie & Ernie recordings, Lost Friends. I wonder if it ever gets played at events nowadays?

Look up Bob Dylan and Northern Soul covers and the chances are you will get caught up in discussions about photography. This is all to do with the Ian Berry photo used on the cover of Bob’s 2020 set Rough and Rowdy Ways. The shot was apparently taken back in 1964 at a club night in London’s East End, featuring what are now no doubt ghosts of Cable Street, and it is easy to see the appeal for Dylan’s people. Before that, though, there was a Chess Northern Soul CD put together by MOJO’s Lois Wilson. The cover of this great 2005 collection just happens to also be that Ian Berry shot, coincidentally or not.

Lois’ compilation features ‘Look At Me Now’ and ‘Ordinary Joe’ by Terry Callier, for me two of the greatest recordings ever. But before Terry paired up with Charles Stepney in Chicago for Cadet he was in Greenwich Village and sang and played as part of the folk scene there. His debut LP which captures the spirit of that time, the magical New Folk Sound, features ‘Promenade in Green’ or as it is better known ‘Green Rocky Road’. It’s a song that has been often recorded and its evolution is fascinating with credits for adapting what was a kid’s rhyme being given to the Beat poet Bob Kaufman and the folk singer Len Chandler.

I strongly suspect I first came across Len’s name in Sis Cuningham’s liner notes for Phil Ochs’ All The News That ‘s Fit To Sing where she wrote: “Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, Len Chandler, Tom Paxton, Peter La Farge, Mark Spoelstra – these are America’s ‘angry young men of song’ (as the N.Y. News calls them) – whose creative ability is largely responsible for an exciting new development in U.S. music.” It would be many, many years before I heard any Len Chandler tracks, which is odd. He didn’t record a lot, essentially two LPs overseen by John Hammond at Columbia in the mid-1960s, which again is odd. Dylan speaks highly of him in Chronicles and Len is one of the secret heroes of Richard Barone’s essential Greenwich Village book, Music + Revolution.

In 1964 Len’s song ‘Beans In My Ears’ became a Top 30 hit in the States for the Serendipity Singers. It is one of those annoyingly catchy, subversive songs for kids one knows without knowing why. And one can speculate why Len recorded very little compared to some of his contemporaries. It’s easy to imagine one reason. Nevertheless his first LP, To Be A Man, came out in 1966. This was billed as “a recording debut” but actually Len had appeared on a 1960 Beat Generation compilation of “jazz poetry and folk lyrics”.

On Len’s Columbia debut there’s a track called ‘Keep On Keepin’ On’. Fans of Nolan Porter, Curtis Mayfield and also the earlier ‘We Got To Keep On’ by the Casanova Two might leap to the conclusion that here is another example of a folk singer coming up with something for soulful dancefloors, but actually it is a straight acoustic number. But not just a straight acoustic number. What is significant is that it is often reported that one of Martin Luther King’s team noticed the song in the November 1963 edition of Broadside and that is how the great man would later come to use the phrase in his speeches. Others may point to a speech he made during the Montgomery Bus Boycott back in 1956 where he said: “Doesn’t mean that when the bus problem is solved all problems are solved. (No)There will be others. But we must keep on moving and keep on keeping on.” Both stories can be true, I guess, in their own way.

There is no question that Len Chandler was a committed activist, literally on the frontline of the Civil Rights movement. He was there performing, alongside Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary, and others, singing for the crowds at the March On Washington For Jobs And Freedom, in August 1963, the day Dr King delivered his immortal ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. Len’s there in newsreel footage, at the end of the folk community’s contribution, leading Bob, Joan & co in a rendition of ‘Eyes on the Prize’. Len died 60 years later to the very day. There is some mad symbolism there.

Remember what Bob wrote? “One thing about Chandler was that he was fearless. He didn’t suffer fools, and no one could get in his way. He was powerfully built, like a linebacker, could kick your silly ass from here to Chinatown, could probably break anybody’s nose. He had studied economics and science, and had it down. Len was brilliant and full of goodwill, one of those guys who believed that all of society could be affected by one solitary life.” If you’ve read Chronicles you’ll know Bob’s priceless anecdote about riding pillion on Len’s Vespa across Brooklyn Bridge in high winds.

“And I just can't keep from thinking there's trouble everywhere so I guess I've gotta keep on keepin' on.” It’s such a powerful song. If not necessarily one for the dancefloors. For fans of the folk and soul interaction, however, there was a Len Chandler single, also in 1966 on Columbia, called ‘Song of the Mind’ and made with the dream team of Teddy Vann and Horace Ott. Admittedly, as it progresses, the song veers off at strange tangents but, goodness me, there are moments when it really has that beatin’ rhythm and that drivin’ beat the soul folk thrive on. The thunderous drums are quite something when they come in, though I have no idea who played on this recording.

Mind you, Pretty Purdie played on The Lovin’ People, the LP Len recorded for Columbia in 1967 and which I have been rather obsessed with in recent times. It’s one of those records that, when you discover it, you think: “Why the hell did nobody tell me about this?” It is far more reflective of the time in which it was made and is positively baroque compared to Len’s debut for Columbia. And while or because they are small in number it is important with Len’s recordings that the activism doesn’t overshadow the artistry.

His arrangements for this record are exceptional: those drums, the organ, the poetry and wordplay, the richness of Len’s singing, those horns at times which sound like they’re informed by the New Thing in Jazz, the delicate filigree of guitar, the intensity. It burns. And at times explodes. Plus, it is hard to pin down. There are times it makes me think of that old Jazzman compilation whatiswrongwithgroovin’ and how some tracks might fit alongside Kathleen Emery’s ‘Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child’, Fred Johnson’s ‘A Child Runs Free’, Lorez Alexandria’s ‘Send In The Clowns’, Freddie Cole’s ‘Brother Where Are You’ and the title track by Letta Mbulu: ‘Free Soul’ indeed.

Speaking of which, there are a couple of astonishing tracks on The Lovin’ People which in my view would be perfect for an enlightened Northern Soul-related dancefloor, ‘Bound To Fly’ plus ‘And Still I Dream’. Although it is more of a ballad the song that really fascinates me is Len’s ‘Sold Out, No More Reservations’. I don’t know if it refers to anyone specific or if it is simply a character study of a bitter old lover or fan left behind when someone becomes a star. There, however, is the all-too-real sense or feeling of betrayal experienced in the music world when someone we’ve been close to changes or compromises or conforms and it seems loses something special along the way. Some of you may know what I mean and will have your own names:

“But the girl I saw through the spotlight that night was not the girl I'd known in ’63 / The gay and carefree clown had somehow settled down / Her eyes had a strange new brightness / In between her words it seems now that I heard no hint of her old brand of lightness.” It makes a striking companion piece to Phil Ochs’ ‘Chords of Fame’, both being songs about those left behind on the other side of fame. Coincidentally or not, Len sang a defiant version of ‘Links on the Chain’ at the Phil Ochs Memorial Concert at Felt Forum in NYC in 1976, a month after Phil's death.

The Lovin’ People was produced by Elliot Mazer who went on to work with some of the big names, and had a long working relationship with Neil Young, but back then in 1967 he was pretty new to the Columbia set-up, pretty young too, in his mid-20s – most producers working for major labels were considerably older - but he’d already produced some cool jazz records for Cameo Parkway and Prestige by artists such as Dave Pike and Clark Terry.

I suspect that, as a newcomer, Mazer initially got to work with the artists Columbia didn’t know what to do with, like Len and also Pozo-Seco who’d dropped the Singers part of their name for the LP they made with Elliot, 1968’s Shades of Time. The Pozos had been around for a little while by then, and Columbia had tried a few things with them. Producer Bob Johnston had even taken the folk-pop outfit into quasi-Northern Soul territory with their take on Chip Taylor’s ‘I Can Make It With You’ and his own ‘Excuse Me Dear Martha’ which wonderfully sounds like it could be a Charlie Rich mid-1960s cut. It’s that good.

Shades of Time closes with a beautiful cover of Len Chandler’s ‘Keep On Keepin’ On’. I don’t think there have been too many other versions. Susan Taylor takes the lead vocals on this. Now, I have a lot of time for her musical partner in the Pozos, Don Williams, and love the ensemble’s celestial harmonies, but when Susan sings something strange happens inside of me, icebergs melt, things noticeably shiver and shake, that kind of thing. Her voice is amazing. Just have a listen to her singing ‘Bye Bye Love’. It is quite frighteningly beautiful and spiritual.

I am kind of ashamed to say I am a new convert to the Pozos’ cause, and as part of that I have only recently discovered Susan made one solo LP, Finally Getting Home in 1972, which is pretty special. In modern times this lovely record has been reissued by Susan on the PuffBunny label which she is involved in running. You are likely to find it under the name of Taylor Pie which is the name Susan has used for many years now.

Fortuitously, I recently found a wonderful documentary on Taylor Pie and the Pozo-Seco Singers, Nobody Famous, directed and produced by Elizabeth Ahlstrom. It’s an enlightening look back at the 1960s and how later Susan as Taylor Pie went on to create her own safe space where she carried on making folk music in a way she could avoid compromising and kowtowing. If you have a spare hour anytime, it is very much worth watching.

In the film, 30 minutes in, there is a tantalising glimpse of footage from October 1967 of the Pozo-Seco Singers performing Bonnie Dobson’s ‘Morning Dew’ on The Mike Douglas Show with Susan (or Taylor) taking the lead. It’s almost frighteningly moving, but there is so little of it. It doesn’t seem to have emerged anywhere else, either. In fact, I can find no clips of the Pozos performing on YouTube. It’s far starker and darker than their single version, an early cover of the song. Incidentally, one of the first people to record ‘Morning Dew’ was Fred Neil on the LP he made with Vince Martin. Fred’s own ‘Dolphins’ has been widely covered, and soul fans will know Al Wilson’s gorgeous 1968 version. An honourable mention must go to Terry Callier for his duet with Beth Orton which Heavenly released in 1997.  

The song written by Fred Neil which I guess most people know is ‘Everybody’s Talkin’’ with the Nilsson version appearing on the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack. Looking back, I believe I first became aware of the film via Dexys Midnight Runners and mentions by Kevin in ‘Keep It Part Two’ and the insert that came with ‘Show Me’. When I finally got to see the film, it seemed strange to come across ‘Everybody’s Talkin’’ in it as the song seemed so familiar from radio shows while growing up.

Anyway, among the many people who have covered the song there is the great Salena Jones and appropriately her 1970 LP was titled Everybody’s Talkin’ About Salena Jones. It’s a great version. ‘Everybody’s Talkin’’ quickly became something of a standard within the soul community and it was recorded by some of the big hitters such as Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Martha & the Vandellas, Carolyn Franklin, Bobby Womack, Tamiko Jones, Bill Withers and Harold Melvin, who all covered it with class. I won’t pretend I was familiar with all of those before looking at the often invaluable SecondHandSongs site.

One uptempo version I was aware of, and love dearly, is the 1969 one by, rather neatly, Bonnie Dobson. I don’t suppose it’s been played at too many Northern Soul events, but you never know. Stranger things have happened. Speaking of Bonnie, fellow addicts of connectivity will appreciate that her ‘Morning Dew’ was also covered by Salena Jones in 1970 with a gloriously funky arrangement by Keith Mansfield which is not a million miles from his own ‘Morning Broadway’ which appeared on the 1969 KPM LP Chorus and Orchestra and much later on that Jazzman whatiswrongwithgroovin’ compilation.