"...Good Times Don't Go To Waste..."
"...Do you feel like an
outcast...well the Red Palace is the name of the place...good times don't go to
waste..." - John Koerner sings on the barrelhouse opener "Red
Palace" where his six-piece ensemble of late 60ts Folk outcasts feel like
The Band have hit a bar and hijacked the upright piano in the corner - drunk
and fearless...
Taking its album-name from
the Richard Lester Goons Film of 1960 (Directed by Lester and Peter Sellers) -
Folky and Bluesman "Spider" John Koerner got together with Blues
keyboardist Willie Murphy to make an album of all sorts. It's hard to describe
this LP - part Folk-Rock, part Americana - it could easily be The Band album
between 1968's "Music From Big Pink" and 1969's "The Band".
"Running Jumping
Standing Still" is pictured and critiqued on Page 50 of the truly gorgeous
hardback book that accompanies the November 2006 "Forever Changing: The
Golden Age Of Elektra Records 1963-1973" 5CD Deluxe Edition Box Set -
given a sort of 'overlooked' pride of place. And this gorgeous-sounding Red
House Records ‘25th Anniversary Edition’ Expanded CD Reissue and
Remaster brings it to audio life big time. Here are the mixed-up details...
USA released February 1993 -
"Running Jumping Standing Still" by "SPIDER" JOHN KOERNER
and WILLIE MURPHY on Red House Records RHR CD 63 (Barcode 033651006329) is a
'25th Anniversary Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster and plays out as follows
(49:43 minutes):
1. Red Palace
2. I Ain't Blue
3. Bill & Annie
4. Old Brown Dog
5. Running, Jumping,
Standing Still
6. Sidestep [Side 2]
7. Magazine Lady
8. Friends And Lovers
9. Sometimes I Can't Help
Myself
10. Goodnight
Tracks 1 to 10 are the album
"Running Jumping Standing Still" - released June 1969 in the USA on
Elektra Records EKS 74041 and in the UK on Elektra EKL 4041 (Mono) and Elektra
EKS 74041 (Stereo) – reissued in the UK in 1971 on Elektra Records K 42026. Produced
by FRAZIER MOHAWK and recorded at Elektra's Paxton Lodge on the Feather Rover,
Keddie, California - all songs by John Koerner and Willie Murphy. The STEREO
MIX was used for this CD.
BONUS TRACK (Previously
Unreleased):
11. Some Sweet Nancy
Musicians:
JOHN KOERNER - Guitar and
Vocals
WILLIE MURPHY - Piano,
Electric Bass and Vocals
KEN JENKINS - Trombone,
Tenor Saxophone, Cello and Acoustic Bass
TOD ANDERSON - Horns
JOHN WILCE - Banjo and
Mandolin
SANDY KONIKOFF - Drums
The gatefold slip of paper
that is the inlay has brief but informative liner notes by ERIC PELTONIEMI
about the 'might have been' album and its gestation, reissue credits and so
forth - it even offers a potted Koerner/Murphy discography - but no photos and
a distinct lack of wow. The same can not be said of the fantastic Remaster by
ROGER SIEBEL from original tapes - this Red House Records CD sounds amazing - a
tiny bit hissy in places but never dampened down or pro-tooled out of
existence. There's warmth to these recordings that bring in my mind of the
neutrality Link Wray achieved on his Link Wray and Mordecai Jones album in the
early 70ts on Polydor (see review for "3-Way Shack").
"Spider" John
Koerner and his eclectic voice/guitar tunings went way back with Elektra
Records to 1963 and the legendary "Blues, Rags & Hollers" LP
(followed in 1964 with "More Blues, Rags & Hollers"). Both
records were Rag Mama Rag albums Koerner did with the duo of Tony
"Snaker" Glover" and Dave "Liitle Sun" Ray. Those LPs
shook up the Folk-Blues scene at the time and are hard to find (Rhino
remastered both in 2004 onto 1CD when they began reissuing Elektra Records Folk
artists in earnest). Koerner also had three songs featured on the equally
legendary and wonderful "The Blues Project" LP on Elektra in 1964 -
see my review of that inside February 2015 "The GREENWICH VILLAGE Folk
Scene" 5CD Box Set in Rhino's "Original Album Series".
Minneapolis kid Willie Murphy was a Keyboard and Bassist who would later go on
to produce Bonnie Raitt's debut LP and ply his trade as Willie And The Bees
following his departure from Koerner after their lone collaboration flopped.
Riding the shirt tales of
November 1968’s "Music From Big Pink" by THE BAND - the
Folk/Blues/Jazz/Vaudeville mash-up that is "Running Jumping Standing
Still" LP hit the shops in June 1969 in the USA in a blizzard of Elektra
publicity - but no one took any notice. But since its commercial failure on release
– it’s gained a sort of hallowed reputation amongst Americana collectors as the
illegitimate but deserving child of The Band’s musical legacy.
Actually “Running Jumping
Standing Still” is a difficult record to describe. Never is this more apparent
on the near eight-minute "Old Brown Dog" which is a Band amble on
piano and acoustic guitar that despite its length doesn't overstay itself. And
just when you think you've got a measure of its Americana folksiness - it
launches into piano soloing that feels like Herbie Hancock let loose on a
Steinway with a few brandies - and he don't care. It's quite brilliant really.
"It Ain't Blue" has beautiful musicality in its 'lonesome' moan while
"Running Jumping Standing Still" is fast and furious - like The Doors
gone hillbilly. "Sidestep" is a Rock song at its guitar core while
the excellent "Magazine Lady" even has slightly Psych brass sections
that sound like Mungo Jerry popped a few mushrooms and turned on a microphone
(it was picked as the track to represent the album on the "Forever
Changing" 5CD Box Set). "Friends And Lovers" is a pretty piano
ballad where they sound like Emitt Rhodes on Probe Records.
"Goodnight" ends the record with Koerner 'putting to bed my tired
head'. The Previously Unreleased song "Some Sweet Nancy" was meant
for the record apparently but left off due to vinyl's limitations - it's
excellent and similar to "Sometimes I Can't Help Myself".
A mad record - a great album
- a cocktail of so many styles – "Running Jumping Standing Still" by
"SPIDER" JOHN KOERNER and WILLIE MURPHY is all of these disparate
things and worse. I dig it man. This is one orphaned son of The Band that
deserves your cuddles...
