"...Out Of My
Hands..."
The music world can be
joyous and cruel place - Los Angelino Pamela Polland (born in Hollywood of all
things) is a case in point. Originally part of a Sixties Folk-Duo with Rick
Stanley called THE GENTLE SOUL - they managed one highly rated self-titled
album on Epic Records in October 1968 featuring guest spots from such future luminaries as Ry
Cooder, Taj Mahal and Van Dyke Parks. The groovy band imploded and after a
stint with Joe Cocker and Leon Russell's "Mad Dogs & Englishmen"
travelling circus in 1970 and 1971 (Polland is on the double-album and in the film)
- it was time for her (inevitable) solo album.
Signing to Columbia Records,
Pamela's all-original-material self-titled debut arrived in May 1972 armed with
more of the same big-name guests and a few other bands from the period thrown
in for good measure (see artists below). But any momentum that initial flurry had
was quickly scuppered when the follow-up LP of 1973 was mysteriously scrapped. Recorded in London with Gus Dudgeon of Elton John fame and featuring a guest appearance from Joan Armatrading (the recording her debut on Cube Records) and members of EJ's backing band - it was mixed and made ready for release -
even going as far as having a name, artwork and a catalogue number allocated.
Effectively kiboshed by this pull of support at a crucial time, Polland
then returned to the civilian world and apart from a foray as an old-timey
jazz-singing dame called Melba Rounds in the mid Seventies and a few songs
covered by other artists, has been (musically anyway) all but forgotten ever
since.
And that's where this
typically top-notch 2CD reissue from England's Beat Goes On (BGO) comes
swanning in. In conjunction with the artist, this 2CD Reissue and Remaster
offers up the 12-tracks of the 1972 debut album alongside the unreleased
11-track second album including two cuts recorded at the 1973 sessions as Bonus
Tracks tail-ending Disc 2. Here are the lost and found details...
UK released Friday, 1 March
2019 - "Pamela Polland/Have You Heard The One About The Gas Station
Attendant?" by PAMELA POLLAND on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1369 (Barcode
5017261213693) is a 2CD Reissue and Remaster that plays out as follows:
Disc 1 (35:56 minutes):
1. In My Imagination [Side
1]
2. Out Of My Hands (Still In
My Heart)
3. Sing-A-Song Man
4. When I Got Home
5. Please Mr. D.J.
6. Abalone Dream
7. The Rescuer [Side 2]
8. Sugar Dad
9. The Teddy Bears' Picnic
10. The Dream (For Karuna)
11. Texas
12. Lighthouse
Tracks 1 to 12 are her debut
album "Pamela Polland" – released May 1972 in the USA on Columbia KC
31116 and CBS Records S 64934 in the UK. Produced by GEORGE DALY [ex The
Hangmen] – all tracks written by Pamela Polland except the short instrumental
cover of "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" (the album didn’t chart in either
country).
PAMELA POLLAND – Vocals and
Piano
EDDIE HINTON – Guitars on
Tracks 2, 3 and 5
TAJ MAHAL – Silver National
Slide Guitar on Track 7
JOHN SHINE – Guitars
(unspecified tracks)
NICKY HOPKINS – Piano
(unspecified tracks)
DAVID BRIGGS of Area Code
615 – Piano on Tracks 2, 3 and 5
PAUL FAUERSO of The Loading
Zone – Organ (unspecified tracks)
NORBERT PUTNAM of Area Code
615 (with TOMMY COGBILL) – Bass on Tracks 2, 3 and 5
BING NATHAN – Bass
(unspecified tracks)
KENNY BUTTREY of Area Code
615 – Percussion on Tracks 2, 3 and 5
RICHARD SHLOSSER –
Percussion (unspecified tracks)
BOBBY WOOD of Garth Brook’s
backing vocal group The Ordinaires – Organ on Tracks 2, 3 and 5
JIMMY SPHEERIS and MARCUS McCALLEN
– Vocals on Track 6
RAY SAWYER, DENIS LOCORRIERE
and GEORGE CUMMINGS of Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show and THE ROWAN BROTHERS
– Vocals on Track 8
MARC McCLURE of Joyous Noise
– Vocals on Tracks 1 and 8
GEORGE DALY of The Hangmen
[LP’s Producer] – Vocals on Track 12
THE HOLIDAY SISTERS – Vocals
on Track 2
Disc 2 (50:36 minutes):
1. The Refuge [Side 1]
2. Wild Roses
3. You Stand By Me
4. To Earl
5. Music Music
6. Thank You, Operator
7. Willsdon Manor
8. Untitled (Dusty Rose)
9. The Ship
10. Prelude
11. The Clearing
BONUS TRACKS
12. Didn't Get Enough Of
Your Love
13. Take In The Light
Tracks 1 to 11 are her
unreleased mixed and ready-for-release second album "Have You Heard The One About The Gas Station
Attendant?" scheduled for US issue in 1973 on Columbia Records but withdrawn. Produced by GUS DUDGEON and Engineered by KEN SCOTT. Tracks 12 and 13 were
recorded at the Trident Studio sessions in London and are included here as
Bonuses.
PAMELA POLLAND - Lead and
Backing Vocals, Piano, Guitar and Dulcimer
GEOFF LEVIN - Electric
Guitar on Tracks 1, 4, 7 and 9 - Acoustic Guitar on Track 5
RAY FENWICK – Electric
Guitars on Tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12 and 13
TAJ MAHAL - National Steel
Guitar on Track 6
RONNIE CARYL of Flaming
Youth – Acoustic Guitar on Track 13
DAVID HENTSCHEL - ARP
Synthesiser on Track 1, Organ and ARP Synthesiser on Track 11
KENDALL KARDT – Piano on
Track 6
(Beck’s Dad) DAVID CAMPBELL
- Violin and Viola on Track 4
HERBIE FLOWERS of Blue Mink
and Sky - Bass on Tracks 2, 3, 8, 11 and 12
LELAND SKLAR - Bass on
Tracks 1, 5, 6, 7
LARRY STEELE – Bass on Track
13
RUSS KUNKEL - Drums on Track
1, 5, 6, 7
BARRY De SOUZA - Drums on
Tracks 2, 3, 11 and 12
TERRY COX of Pentangle –
Drums on Track 13
GUS DUDGEON - Percussion and
Bass Backing Vocals on Track 1, Tambourine and Snare on Track 7 and Drums on
Track 11
GUS DUDGEON and RAY COOPER
(of Elton John's Band) - Percussion on Track 2
RAY COOPER of Elton John's
Band - Vibes on Track 3, Water Gong and Tambourine on Track 11 and Tambourine
on Track 12
BRUCE JOHNSTON of The Beach
Boys and MARC McCLURE of Joyful Noise - Backing Vocals on Tracks 1, 5 and 11
JOAN ARMATRADING - Backing
Vocals on Track 2
DEL NEWMAN - Orchestration
on Tracks 8 and 9
CHRIS HUGHES – Horn
Arrangements on Track 13
The outer card slipcase is
classy and so looks the part, but sensing that this release is a bit special
for both fans and artist alike, the 28-page booklet is sumptuous even by BGO's
standards. It includes high-gloss pages with all the lyrics and album credits
for both records and a huge dissection of Polland's career by CHARLES DONOVAN
for whom this project has clearly been a lifetime ambition and labour of love.
And as you can see from my detailed artist-involvement list above - there are
some big-name session players in there along with Bowie's Engineer Ken Scott
and Elton's Producer Gus Dudgeon for the unreleased second album. But the
really great news is spiffing new audio from BGO's resident Audio Engineer
ANDREW THOMPSON - new 2019 Remasters from recently located master tapes. And
gorgeous it is too - all those quality original production values now shining
through. Let's get to the actual music...
You wouldn't call
"Pamela Polland" a "Tapestry" by any stretch, but there's
such prettiness in "Out Of My Hands (Still In My Heart)" - a hurt and
heartfelt pain pouring out the pounded piano notes ("I think I should go
back to my hometown... "). The jaunty "Sing-A-Song Man" is a
twinkle-in-his-eye tune about some piano man keeping the punters happy.
Columbia tried the Side 1 opener "In My Imagination" as a taster 45
in the USA in June 1972 with the album's "Lighthouse" on the flipside
(Columbia 4-45627) - but interest was minimal and stock copies are hard to
locate these days (slipped away, just like you always do). "When I Got
Home" is a soft-rock ballad of yearning perfectly complimenting
"Please Mr. D.J." - a soulful piano plea for a turntable'd happy song
so the lady is not alone when she turns the radio on (been working all week). A
hippy-sounding bamboo flute and chimes ensemble joins her floating 'down river'
on "Abalone Dream" ending Side 1 on a mellow vibe.
Taj Mahal with his National
Steel Guitar and organ by Paul Fauerso (of The Loading Zone) lift up the Side 2
opener "The Rescuer" considerably and it seems strange that no one at
Columbia saw or heard the upbeat sale angle in the song – especially with Taj
Mahal on board. Pamela wants to have a little fun and do her sexy dance for her
"Sugar Dad" - or is that a jab at music industry insiders. Forty seconds
of "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" probably seemed like a good idea for some
between-tracks instrumental back in the day, but now it just feels superfluous.
This minor glitch is quickly fixed with a keeping the dream-alive song for her
sister K - "The Dream (For Karuna)" being probably the prettiest song
on the album. So very West Coast singer-songwriter, "Texas" is a
gorgeous piano and acoustic piece of yearning. "Lighthouse" offers
ships in darkness a light in the distance - her soulful song hoping all will be
saved in the light.
An indication of what was
canned and lost in 1973 by Columbia Records comes in the shape of "You
Stand By Me" – the string orchestration of Del Newman lifting the pretty
song up into an epic territory. And again you can literally hear why Polland
was so crest-fallen when the second LP got pulled – there’s a genuine
sophistication to the London recordings – David Campbell and his exquisite
violin and viola playing on "To Earl" giving the ballad amazing
pathos. Everyone can use it "Music Music" is a tad cornball despite
Ray Fenwick’s clever guitar licks – but the US recorded "Thank You,
Operator" is a very cool piece of Bluesy Funk as Taj Mahal and the rhythm
section of Leland Sklar and Russ Kunkel anchor the groove.
"Willsdon Manor"
would probably have opened Side 2 of "Have You Heard The One About The Gas
Station Attendant?" – another sweetly realised acoustic and piano shuffle
– Pamela playing some lovely piano fills. Very much in the Lesley Duncan and
Kiki Dee mode of 1973, "Untitled (Dusty Rose)" is also lifted by
beautiful Del Newman orchestration. The one-minute "Prelude" sees her
play every instrument (guitar, piano and vocals) – a sweet observation of how
she starts a song every time love looms its tempting head. That segues into an
epic called "The Clearing" where Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys and
Marc McClure of Joyful Noise bring in backing vocals, her religious beliefs
coming to the fore. It seems odd now that the two very upbeat Bonus Tracks with
their huge productions and brass-punchy hipness were left off the intended
album, but I suspect the overall mellow vibe took over. And therein lies the
tragedy – you can't help think that had "Have You Heard The One About The
Gas Station Attendant?" been released 'before' the self-titled debut - the
name Pamela Polland would be a well known these days and not just a footnote in
Rock music's fickle-fingered history.
This twofer isn't all genius
for damn sure (despite what Pamela Polland fans may say) - but you can't help
smiling at BGO for doing such a sterling job on this reissue – bringing to
people's attention music that deserved better all those years ago. Well dig in
now and enjoy...
