I was talking about looking for hidden
gems tucked away on B sides a couple of days ago and said I’d found some… and I’ve
just found another that I have to post straightaway!
Working through a batch of singles I
bought at a boot sale earlier this year I came to this, a copy of Tamla Motown
TMG 604. The A side is Take Me in Your
Arms… which is a great enough track
on its own, but then I turned it over and…. just WOW!
I think I paid 20p for this single but if
I had already known of this B side I would have gladly paid 100 times that
amount. It’s hauntingly beautiful, and
somehow seems appropriate as a Christmas track too. We have one of those snow
domes, a large clockwork one that plays a tune, and I could imagine this track
playing along behind some mistily nostalgic scene – snow flurries and romance (as it's Christmas I like to think his answer is yes) in
the air.
I have always maintained that Candi
Staton is my favourite singer, however I have come to realise that Gladys
Knight is a challenger for that honour. There is a purity to her voice that
probably makes her a better singer. She is possibly more versatile too (athough
maybe Candi was never allowed, or never desired, that). That versatility is
probably why, later in her career, Gladys Knight (was?) moved more into the mainstream,
dare I say it MOR, arena. That was a
pity in my book, because much of the material she sang later in the Seventies,
for example, left me cold.
PS. You can also listen to
it here on YouTube where you can also enjoy a wonderful montage of pictures of
Gladys. Put it on repeat, I did. Come to think of it, I think Gladys Knight and
Candi Staton look alike, especially the eyes.
PPS. Pop over to The
Hi-Fi Cabinet Of Curiosities where something
equally haunting awaits.
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1 comment:
Admiring all these gold discs you seem to have acquired Darcy!
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