The weather has shown an improvement recently in our neck of the woods but we (as in the family) had already given up hope of a summer in the UK and booked a holiday in the sun a few weeks ago. We will be jetting off to, hopefully, guaranteed sun and warmth in a few days time so things will be a bit quiet around here for a couple of weeks.
In an attempt to fill the void I have put three tracks up today. All three come form Jean Carn’s eponymous 1976 debut album on PIR. Jean was born Sarah Jean Perkins and became Jean Carn when she married the Jazz pianist Doug Carn. Later in her career she added an ‘e’ to her surname although I’m not sure why. By this time I think her and Doug and parted company so maybe this was the reason.
Since her first solo album Jean has always been a favourite of mine, even though I admit some of her more affected jazz tinged vocals do leave me a bit cold sometimes. But if Jean’s vocal turns aren’t exactly to your taste at all times just listen to those Philly arrangements. In 1976 the Philly crew were turning on the sophistication big time.
“You Are All I Need” is the lead track here, and I think it’s stunning. It came to mind initially as the title was a good fit for a post I was considering doing surrounding bubblegum cards of all things. But then I had a sudden flash of memory and the title seemed no longer appropriate – what am I on about? I’ll tell you some other time, and when I have hopefully confirmed my memory wasn’t playing tricks on me.
But anyway, once “You Are All I Need” was spinning around in my head it needed to be posted. On playing it again for the first time in a while is suddenly struck me that the intro is reminiscent of, although predates, MFSB’s “Mysteries Of The World”. That’ll be Dexter Wansel at the controls.
“You Are All I Need” was the B side of “If You Wanna Go Back” which was Jean Carn’s second UK single. That makes it a real quality double header. I’ve put the album track up here because you get an extra minute or so.
And for good measure I’ve included another track form the album a McFadden/Whitehead/Life/Huff penned, Bobby Martin arranged number. The Philly guns were really blazing on this album.Right, now where are my sunglasses?, Factor 20 OK? Do these trunks still fit?…
4 comments:
If you like soul, there's a really amazing album that just came out on HackTone - 'First Landing' by The Dynamics. It is excellent - a rare soul album that slipped under the radar. They're touting it as a mix of smooth Detroit and gritty Memphis soul and I agree -- the opening song is killer! Of course, there's a MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/dynamicssoul
it's still pissing down in manchester - these should help chase the clouds away
x
Andrea: thanks for alerting me to The Dynamics. Just listened to the tracks up on the myspace page. Great stuff. Just added the CD to my wants list on Amazon which on last look had topped a 100 items!
Ally: raining in Bristol too, like that's any consolation.
This is sweet stuff -- Thanks very much! Not to rub it in, but just to let you know that there are places in the world: It's sunny and 73 here today, a beautiful summer's day.
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