"...Miss Him So..."
When I saw this Eddie Hinton
'Various Artists' CD Reissue on the October 2018 release schedule – I knew I'd
have to own it. And jammy bugger that I am, I was right. Because those nubile
sexpots over at Ace Records of the UK have once again nailed another
nuclear-powered acupuncture needle into my already pin-cushioned musical
dartboard of a heart.
So why only four stars -
"Cover Me: The EDDIE HINTON Songbook" is not perfect by any means -
one or two tunes are borderline twee while others are good rather than being
great. It’s the kind of compilation you wish was a 5-star whopper but it just
misses the mark. But make no mistake – this near 74-minute CD compilation is a
wee little nugget anyway - never flashy – never too fast - just sweetly
Rock-Soulful and defiantly Southern as it shuffles its sexy way through 24
lesser-heard songs penned by the Blessed Eddie and his friends - Marlin Greene,
Donnie Fritts, Dan Penn and others – culminating with three solo. Let the
gushing commence...
Who is EH and why should you
love him? Imagine a cherub-faced Jon Voight in "Midnight Cowboy" with
a character just as naive and you get a visual on Tuscaloosa's Eddie Hinton. A
gifted guitar-player and songwriter taboot, he arrived aged just 24 into the
creative bosom of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section band in 1966 (affectionately
known as The Swampers). Hinton’s slick licks and complimentary hooks would soon
be adding that Southern Swing to wads of Soul and Soul-Rock recordings laid
down in those halcyon years at Rick Hall's legendary Fame Studios in Alabama
(Aretha Franklyn, Elvis Presley, The Dells, Percy Sledge, The Staple Singers
and even Boz Scaggs were amongst a long list of those who benefitted).
As if this double-whammy of
playing and songwriting wasn't enough – cute-looking Hinton then opened his
mouth and sang - and out popped a white Otis Redding - literally. Legend has it
that the normally sanguine Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records was so awestruck at
the singing voice he heard - Jerry immediately predicted a star would be born
when Hinton finally stepped out from those session shadows into a front man
position and made his solo pitch. In fact Hinton's raspy guttural vocal cross
between Otis Redding and Little Richard in his Seventies Reprise Years had
always been something of a well-kept secret amongst those in the know. But of
course - it absolutely shouldn't have been.
And therein lies the
tragedy. Things just always seemed to get in the way for the man and despite a
late flourish with his first and only official solo LP – the sappily titled
"Very Extremely Dangerous" on Capricorn Records in March 1978 - the
label once famous for The Allman Brothers (Duane and Gregg covered one of his
songs when they were The Hour Glass) folded within weeks of its release and
Hinton's shot at fame went with it.
He died aged only 51 of a
heart attack in 1985 from drug-and-drink related health issues which had dogged
him for years just as he was beginning to be appreciated by UK and European
Soul aficionados. Post - there have been at least four CD compilations across
the subsequent decades covering demo recordings left behind with songs
stretching back as far as 1967. Which brings us to this...
UK released Friday, 26
October 2018 (9 November 2018 in the USA) - "Cover Me: The EDDIE HINTON
Songbook" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace Records CDTOP 1535 (Barcode
029667092722) is a 24-Track CD compilation that plays as follows (73:45
minutes):
1. Breakfast In Bed - DUSTY
SPRINGFIELD (February 1969 US 7" single on Atlantic 2606, B-side to
"Don't Forget About Me" and on the "Dusty In Memphis" LP)
2. Down In Texas - OSCAR
TONEY JR. (March 1969 US 7" single on Bell 776, A-side)
3. Cover Me - JACKIE MOORE
(August 1971 US 7" single on Atlantic 2830, B-side to "Time")
4. A Little Bit Salty -
BOBBY WOMACK (from the November 1976 US LP "Home Is Where The Heart Is” on
Columbia PC 34384)
5. Sure As Sin - CANDI
STATON (May 1972 US 7" single on Fame 91000, B-side of "In The
Ghetto")
6. 300 Pounds Of Hongry -
TONY JOE WHITE (from the April 1972 US LP "The Train I'm On" on
Warner Brothers BS 2580)
7. Masquerade - DON VARNER
(June 1967 USA 7" single on South Camp 7003, B-side to “Down In
Texas")
8. Always David - THE SWEET
INSPIRATIONS (from the August 1969 US LP "Sweets For My Sweet" on
Atlantic SD 8225)
9. Poor Mary Has Drowned -
BRICK WALL (July 1969 US 7" single on Capitol 2545, A-side)
10. It's All Wrong But It's
Alright - EDDIE HINTON (1967 Recording released September 2000 on the UK Eddie
Hinton CD compilation "Dear Y'All" on Zane Records ZNCD 1016)
11. Help Me Make It (Power
Of A Woman's Love) - MINK DeVILLE (from the November 1981 US LP "Coup De
Grace" on Atlantic SD 18311)
12. Save The Children - CHER
(from the June 1969 US LP "3614 Jackson Highway" on Atlantic SD
33-298)
13. Every Natural Thing -
ARETHA FRANKLIN (from the February 1974 US LP "Let Me Into Your Life"
on Atlantic SD 7292)
14. If I Had Let You In -
THE BOX TOPS (from the July 1968 US LP "Non Stop" on Bell Records
BELL 6023)
15. Satisfaction Guaranteed
- JUDY WHITE (December 1968 US 7" single on Buddah BDA 79, A-side)
16. Standing On The Mountain
- PERCY SLEDGE (January 1972 US 7" single on Atlantic 2848, B-side of
"Rainbow Road")
17. I Got The Feeling - THE
AMAZING RHYTHM ACES (from the October 1980 US LP "How The Hell Do You
Spell Rythum?" on Warner Brothers BSK 3476)
18. Home For The Summer -
THE HOUR GLASS featuring Paul Hornsby with Gregg and Duane Allman (from the
March 1968 US Stereo LP "Power Of Love" on Liberty LST-7555)
19. Lay It On Me - GWEN
McCRAE (January 1971 US 7" single on Columbia 45320, A-side)
20. People In Love - LOU
JOHNSON (April 1969 US 7" single on Cotillion 44026, B-side of "Don't
Play That Song (You Lied)")
21. Where You Come From -
BONNIE BRAMLETT (from the February 1975 US LP "It's Time" on
Capricorn CP 0148)
22. Seventeen Year Old Girl
- MICKEY BUCKINS & THE NEW BREED (July 1967 US 7" single on South Camp
7004, A-side)
23. Love Waits For No Man -
AL JOHNSON (May 1967 US 7" single on South Camp 7002, B-side of
"Bless Your Sweet Little Soul")
24. Where's Eddie - LULU and
THE DIXIE FLYERS (May 1970 US 7" single on Atco 6749, B-side of "Hum
A Song (From Your Heart)"
NOTES:
Tracks 7, 9, 10, 15, 16, 19,
20, 22 and 23 are in MONO - all others in STEREO
Tracks 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 16,
18 and 23 co-written with MARLIN GREENE (Track 22 is a co-production only with
MG)
Tracks 1, 6, 9, 14, 19 and
24 co-written with DONNIE FRITTS
Tracks 12 and 17 co-written
with DAN PENN; Track 8 co-written with DAN PENN and WAYNE JACKSON
Track 20 co-written with
Grady Smith; Track 21 co-written with JIM COLEMAN
Tracks 4, 11, 13 and 22
written by EDDIE HINTON
Helmed by long-time Ace
Records associate, Soul Expert and Southern Soul aficionado TONY ROUNCE - the
24-page booklet is the usual feast of info and display. You get those
tantalising promo photos of cool types like Bobby Womack, Judy White, Lou
Johnson, and on Page 17, a spectacularly hip shot of the four gorgeous gals in
The Sweet Inspirations with Cissy Houston (Whitney's mum) smiling at the top of
the downwards body cascade. Rounce has broken down the song-by-song evaluations
into writing partners (as pointed out in the NOTES above) and in between the
text and pics of Gwen McCrae and Mink De Ville single and album sleeves - you
get those US 45 label repros that make collector's hearts flutter just a little
faster - Cotillion, Capitol, South Camp, Atco, Buddah, Bell, Fame etc.
Mastering by DUNCAN COWELL is also great even when sources fluctuate as on
those uber-rare-didn't sell-jack South Camp singles that I suspect may be
dubbed off discs. Whatever you look at it - this is impressive stuff. To the
actual music...
Not surprisingly the
compilation opens strongly with a dip into Springfield's "Dusty In
Memphis" LP called "Breakfast In Bed" - a slinky little Stereo
crawl that sounds like the aftermath its title suggests - baby I'm tired, but
I'm pleased, now make me some coffee and shut up. I immediately then race down
to an album I played into the wall - "Coup De Grace" by Mink De Ville
- a 1981 platter on Atlantic that held the gorgeous groove of "Help Me
Make It (Power Of A Woman's Love)" – bliss - Hinton's song combined with
the swagger of Willy De Ville's Southern Politician sipping mint juleps persona
(succumb my buttery friends). Like many who are reading this - Dan Penn is a
name that will have some of us step out of our chairs and genuflect in front of
the computer - another Southern white boy with Soul in his (well) Soul. His
co-write on "I Got The Feeling" is so typical of his church-organ
crawl as Lead Vocalist Russell Smith of The Amazing Rhythm Aces literally sounds
like an uncanny combo of both Penn and Hinton - sexy, sexy man. Although others
may enjoy them, I found "Always David" by The Sweet Inspirations,
Cher's "Save The Children" and Brick Wall's "Poor Mary Has
Drowned" all a little too saccharine in their subject matters and creepy in
delivery too (but I liked the genuine feeling in Lulu’s “Where’s Eddie” (she
had a thing for him) and lyrics from the song title this review). And who among
us brave troopers can resist Tony Joe White's fabulous groove in "300
Pounds Of Hongry" or Aretha getting into that funky-monkey
motion-in-the-ocean shake she got when she recorded any damn thing at Atlantic
- Hinton's neck-jerking "Every Natural Thing" a perfect fit for her.
Al Johnson puts in a stormer too with "Love Waits For No Man" - the
kind of angst-ridden rip-your-innards out song that is liable to have Northern
Soul boys reaching a whole bottle of Kalms (not for the first time will herbal
pharmaceuticals help them make it through the night). And on it goes...
2018 sees the 50th
Anniversary of all things 1968 - so we grey-haired grizzled grumblies are being
bombarded with a wallet-depleting plethora of cultural touchstone reissue
giants - Love's "Forever Changes" hit us in April - The Small Faces
"Ogden's Nutgone Flake" came in October and on the 9th of November -
we'll get wrist-spraining versions of The Beatles "White Album" and
Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland" - worthy beasts one and all.
But spare a thought for this
unassuming entry – this rather lovely musical CD.
As Eddie Hinton said 51
years ago in 1967 - it's all wrong but somehow it's all right. How prophetic
and true. Recommended...and I miss him so...
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