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THE TOWN HAS
NO NEED TO BE
NERVOUS!
THE GROOVIEST 1960s MUSIC ON CD
NO NEED TO BE
NERVOUS!
THE GROOVIEST 1960s MUSIC ON CD
Your All-Genres Guide To
Exceptional Reissues and Remasters
"...My Baby Specializes..."
Ohio's Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett's second album "Home" hit
the shops on Stax Records in late October 1969 in the USA (delayed until March
1970 in the UK) and featured their much-loved brand of Rock-Soul - a bit of
Stax meets Atlantic meets two great vocalists who pioneered the genre and could
pen a tune or two into the bargain.
As you see from the musician list provided below, the album also
featured an impressive roster of Stax talent and players – all of Booker T
& The MGs with Isaac Hayes and William Bell too and guests like Leon
Russell (the Production was handled by Donald "Duck" Dunn of The MG's
with funky troubadour Don Nix as his partner in crime). A true crossover
record, it's no wonder the 10-track LP is viewed with such affection even in
2020.
But its CD history (especially this rejiggered and slightly buggered-up
CD reissue which is actually in MONO instead of STEREO) needs a bit of an
encyclopedia to fully understand, so to the details my groovy 60ts pals...
UK released 13 July 2006 (23 May 2006 in the USA) - "Home" by
DELANEY & BONNIE on Universal/Concord/Stax 0025218862622 (Barcode 025218862622)
offers a Remaster of the 10-Track October 1969 US LP Plus Six Bonus Tracks (in
a rejiggered formation) and plays out as follows (46:34 minutes):
1. A Long Road Ahead
2. My Baby Specializes
3. Things Get Better
4. We Can Love
5. All We Really Want To Do
6. It's Been A Long Time Coming
7. Just Plain Beautiful
8. Everybody Loves A Winner
9. Look What We Have Found
10. Piece Of My Heart
11. A Right Now Love
12. I've Just Been Feeling Bad
13. Dirty Old Man
14. Get Ourselves Together
15. Pour Your Love On Me
16. Hard To Say Goodbye
The CD is configured as above with 1, 2, 9, 12, 13 and 14 listed as
BONUS TRACKS. As well as rejiggering the original playing order of the album,
it also states the CD is remastered in STEREO when in fact it was mastered and
released in MONO in error and as of February 2020 this mistake remains unfixed.
The original 1969 (Mono) LP can be sequenced using the following CD tracks:
Side 1:
1. It's Been A Long Time Coming [Track 5]
2. A Right Now Love [Track 11]
3. We Can Love [Track 4]
4. My Baby Specializes [Track 2]
5. Everybody Loves A Winner [Track 83]
Side 2:
1. Things Get Better [Track 3]
2. Just Plain Beautiful [Track 7]
3. Hard To Say Goodbye
4. Pour Your Love On Me [Track 15]
5. Piece Of My Heart [Track 10]
Tracks 1 to 10 above are their second album "Home" - released
late October 1969 in the USA on Stax Records STS 2026 in Stereo and March 1970
in the UK on Stax Records SXATS 1029 in Stereo. Produced by DONALD
"Duck" DUNN and DON NIX - it didn't chart in either country.
Musicians:
DELANEY BRAMLETT – Lead Vocals and Guitar
BONNIE BRAMLETT – Lead Vocals
BOOKER T. JONES and ISAAC HAYES – Keyboards
STEVE CROPPER – Guitar
DONALD "Duck" DUNN and CARL RADLE – Bass
AL JACKSON, Jr. – Drums
WAYNE JACKSON and BEN CAULEY – Trumpets
JAY PRUITT, DICK STEFF and JOHN DAVIS - Trumpets
ANDREW LOVE, ED LOGAN, JOE ARNOLD and JIM TERRY – Saxophones
WILLIAM BELL and PHIL FORREST – Backing Vocals
LEON RUSSELL – Keyboards
JIMMY KARSTEIN – Percussion
The six-leaf three-way foldout inlay offers a potted history of the
trailblazing crossover duo and their second LP by MICHAEL POINT with recording
and reissue credits on the last leafs (written in 2002). Point claims their
entry in the annals of Rock Music is woefully underappreciated and Michael
would be right. Steeped in Soul Music and Stax Records whilst able to put up
similar fare with tunes like their own "It's Been A Long Time
Coming", they co-wrote "Pour Your Love On Me" and "A Right
Now Love" with deep Soul hero HOMER BANKS and "Hard To Say
Goodbye" with bassist CARL RADLE. A quick glance through the credits for
the outtakes that were left off the album (included here as bonus tracks) and
again you can see the co-writes with Radle on "A Long Road Ahead" and
"Get Ourselves Together". And even though you can so hear why some of
the extras were left off the LP (weakness) – its still a very nice vaults trawl
for fans (their rejects don't sound so bad now).
The audio is provided by STEPHEN HART and as already mentioned, is
mistakenly mastered into MONO despite the CD and rear labeling it as Stereo.
But bizarrely enough it kicks like a mule. The listen feels like an extended
singles list from 1968 and 1969 and is a vast improvement on a Stereo CD I had
by Ace/Stax from the late 80ts that was both weedy and dull in comparison. As
you can see from the total playing time of 46:34 minutes for 16 cuts, the
bonuses can be dropped for a future reissue and both Mono and Stereo versions
of the LP easily fitted onto 1CD – but alas we must wait and see...
Begun in 27 February 1968 sessions, recordings and overdubs continued
into August, September and November 1968 right through until two final studio
spurges on the 1st and 2nd of July 1969. The CD listen opens on a Bonus -
"A Long Road Ahead" initially laid down in November 1968 with Leon
Russell, Carl Radle and Jimmy Karstein playing, then returned to in July 1969
with Booker T on further Keyboards and Phil Forrest on Backing Vocals. It's a
goodie and sets the Rock-Soul tone nicely. Next up is the first song from the
original LP - "My Baby Specializes" - an Isaac Hayes/David Porter
composition that William Bell and Judy Clay made a duet hit 45 in December 1968
on Stax STA-0017. With the bulk of Booker T & The MG's as the backing band,
it was laid down at the 27 Feb 1968 session with none other than William Bell
singing backing vocals (no doubt he spotted the potential hit even then for him
and Judy).
From the same February 1968 recording date and written by Eddie Floyd, Steve
Cropper and Al Jackson - "Things Get Better" fills your speakers with
Stax Funk – a very Blues Brothers moment as those horns jerk and jab while
Delaney and Bonnie declare that they have no doubts – duality makes things
better baby. Cropper and Eddie Floyd penned "We Can Love" – a truly
joyous baby-I've-been-lovin'-you Rock-Soul dancer. Written by Bobby Crutcher
with Steve Cropper – Stax UK tried a 45 A-side with the brass-swinging
duet-vocals of "Just Plain Beautiful". Released a few months before
the album appeared in Blighty (March 1970) – the early January 1970 British
single on Stax STAX 139 had the LP cut "Hard To Say Goodbye" as its
B-side. But despite the strength of both cuts, it didn't take.
Homer Banks and Bonnie Bramlett penned the lovely "A Right Now
Love" - a without your lovin' arms pleader where starving hearts need some
lurve stat. The album ends of a storming brass/vocals cover of Erma Franklin's
"Piece Of My Heart" that by the end feels like Bonnie is a channeling
her inner Janis Joplin screams (lovely organ work from Booker T and we never do
find out who is providing those girly backing vocals). Of the bonus cuts -
"Look What We Have Found" feels like a discovery worth making even if
Concord Music don't know who wrote it to forward those royalties to.
Prior to "Home" - the dynamic duo had issued "Accept No
Substitute" on Elektra in July 1969 and after "Home" three more
on Atco - "Delaney & Bonnie and Friends On Tour With Eric
Clapton" (April 1970), "To Bonnie From Delaney" (October 1970),
"Motel Shot" (April 1971). With a label change to Columbia Records,
"D & B Together" came in March 1972 (see review) after which the
partnership dissolved into divorce and further solo releases.
I can't help thinking that someone like Esoteric Recordings should do a
6LP/6CD Box Set of DELANEY & BONNIE and their 1969 to 1972 output - get all
their stuff out there in one cool remastered place - hopefully sometime in the
future. In the meantime, Mono or no, give this cheap but rather cool little CD
reissue a spin...
