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Volume #0405 April 8, 2000
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Free on request at your dealer's
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Subject: the Spector special
Received: 04/08/00 12:55 am
From: Tilley Five
Does anybody have info on the Spector special that was to
be aired a few weeks back on TLC?
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Subject: girl groups & more
Received: 04/08/00 12:55 am
From: sheila
Oh, how amazing it was to read everyone's favorite girl
group moments- and in such detail! It seems that my
favorites change week by week- so today I'd say it's
Bernadette Castro's "A Girl In Love Forgives." It's really
the wailing saxophone that grabs at my heart (just like the
sax solo in Andrea Carroll's "The Doolang")! Its just
shocking to me that this song never made it. Of course I
can say the same thing about many girl group records, but
this one is up there will "Be My Baby," in my opinion.
Killer melodies, a full-on sound, and just the right
amount of sadness in Bernadette's voice.
I'm just loving all the sad songs right now- Margaret
Mandolph's "I wanna make you happy" is playing in the
background. Ahh..........just divine.
To add on to the High Fidelity discussion- I LOVED the
book! It was probably the most fun I've ever had reading a
book. I couldn't put it down, and I laughed out loud so
many times (something I never do, unless it's written by
Woody Allen). I think everyone on this list would love the
book. I couldn't recommend it enough.
When JimmyB said that the songs in the film are a bit too
well known, keep in mind that this is a Hollywood film.
The majority of the population probably doesn't even know
these well known songs (you'd be shocked!). So if John
Cusack and gang were discussing obscure Ellie Greenwich
records, there would be no one at the box office (except
us of course).
The other day I was watching VH1's "The List," and they
were debating about the best girl groups. I was all
excited about this one, until one smart journalist
mentioned The Ronettes, and all the other panelists were
like "Who??? What's the Ronettes?" Needless to say, I was
shocked. Spectropop can be deceiving- after being on this
list for awhile I start to think that EVERYONE obviously
knows who the Ronettes are, and they were HUGE! But most
of the music-buying public has no clue, and that's the
audience that Hollywood needs to catch in order to make
money with "High Fidelity."
By the way, it was TLC who won best girl group. Sad eh?
Sheila B.
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Subject: My Secret Love
Received: 04/08/00 12:55 am
From: Jimmy Crescitelli
Hi there all...
Many thanks again : ) It's been truly a pleasure walking
the streets of 60's Bay Ridge with you guys.
This posting title refers to a song I heard this week in
the Illeana Douglas movie "Grace of My Heart." At one
point, young songwriter Illeana (doing a loosely-based
life-of-Carole-King) is hired to write a song for teen
songstress "Kelly Porter," essayed so flippily and wittily
by Bridget Fonda. Kelly also travels with a roommate named
Marian. A recording date is soon scheduled. The production
turns out to be a typically overwrought and nasal early 60's
angst-ridden teen paean called "My Secret Love,"
complete with violins, echo, multi-tracking, and matching
sweater sets. Listening, I thought, "this is SO Lesley
Gore doing 'You Don't Own Me.' " Marian (Chanel suit, low
heels, French modified beehive) is present at this session.
After the song's spoken break--- ('You and I are like
spies in the house of holy love," Kelly intones; "we are
actors in a heartless play, I smile my smile, and play
my part and forever hide my lonely heart, my secret
love" -- Illeana stops the proceedings and calls out
to Kelly that "it's okay to be dramatic as long as you're
truthful." Fine... Kelly casts her eyes down, a new, firm
resolve manifesting itself in her clenched fists. She
takes the cue and from then on looks directly-yet-shyly
into Marian's eyes as she lays down the next take,
pointedly smoothing her skirts, the two of them ultimately
trading smoldering looks. Priceless. At the film's end I
read the end credits, and learn that the incandescenet
Lesley Gore herself has helped pen "My Secret Love."
Remarkable. The song for the film is actually sung by Miss
Lily Banquette, she of a group called Combustible Edison,
but Bridget does it glorious lip-synching justice. Catch
it now. Eminently rentable!
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Subject: On High Fidelity...
Received: 04/08/00 12:55 am
From: Keith D'Arcy
Hi All,
Something we should keep in mind in judging the musical
content of High Fidelity (a rare occasion where I think
the film rivals the book): our perspective on what
qualifies as obscure is vastly different to the rest of
the world-at-large. What I think the music supervisor from
Disney must've been thinking is "Everybody knows Aretha
Franklin, but not everybody knows Rock Steady. It's a
brilliant song that's not as remembered as say... Respect
(although it did chart as high as 9 on the pop charts)"
Why fill the movie with songs that cannot be found outside
collector's circles? The good thing about a film like High
Fidelity (and Rushmore and The Iron Giant) is that it'll
help some people get started on discovering stuff. The
world-at-large cares very little about great songs if they
have to go and find them for themselves. My favorite
case-in-point is the Left Banke. A brilliant, deep band
that is remembered for one song (and I think not their
best one).
I found High Fidelity to ring true in a lot of ways, both
in what it says about relationships and what it says about
the omnipresent notion that "it's not what you're like,
it's what you like" that defines us and becomes a
(misplaced) virtue. In the end I think that the main
character realises something it's taken me just about as
long to realise (I'm 30)... if you don't do anything with
what you know and love, it's pointless. So talk about
music, write about music, make music and whenever possible,
sing. And go see the movie.
Over, KD
PS: Another case of a brilliant song hidden deep within a
major artist's catalog, "Together We Stand" by Marvin Gaye
(on the four CD set from last year). Unreleased at the time
it was recorded, yet one of the best soul songs I've ever
heard.
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Subject: Overproductions
Received: 04/08/00 12:55 am
From: Jimmy Crescitelli
Hmmm... La La Brooks trying to make vocal sense as the
instrumental onslaught of "I Wonder" advances upon her
like an orchestral Panzer division? Yeah... I realize her
track was probably laid in after the musical tracks, but
still... she had to listen in on mike, right? Think of
what she might have felt when she was expected to begin...
and so soon after doing "Little Boy." I remember first
hearing "Little Boy" after finding it in a record store on
Flatbush Avenue that my grandmother brought me to in Summer
1970. (I was 14.) Saw the 45 in a bin... "The Crystals..."
"DJ Record, Not for Sale." Brought it home, played it on
my mother's spindle-disk 45 RPM player... was totally
blown away. I remember looking at the record itself and
wondering, how did he get all that music in there???
Played it a LOT that summer, trying to explain to anyone
and everyone just what magic it was. To no avail.
Considering it was only 6 years past 1964, everything had
already changed so much... what did people know from the
Crystals? Jeez, people wearing freaking love beads by then!
Ahhhh well... love beads were just another form of
overproduction too...
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Subject: Re: David Feldman/Overproductions
Received: 04/08/00 12:55 am
From: jake tassell
Dear David
You said:-
Of course, even a brilliant artist can "overproduce," too.
To my taste, for example, "River Deep" falls into that
category,
I can't agree there I'm afraid. However; A personal
aesthetic is a personal aesthetic, so there's no argument
to be had here.
My feeling about the matter is that a certain
'over-vividness' is the hallmark of all great pop music
(if this was written on every record company office wall
I'm damn sure I'd spend a lot more money on new music). I
believe that pops' essential function is to be a pure
font of life-giving and spirit-affirming forces in a
mechanised, pressurised (and now computerised) world, and
that it is in pop's nature to be larger than life. I
also believe that Messrs Spector and Wilson were two
people that understood this more than most and the burden
of this knowledge is reflected in their careers and some
of the things we know about their lives.
'River Deep Mountain High' is the moment in pop history
when the artist understands his function and his mission
fully, and without fear of personal risk exercises his
capability to turn that font into a mighty torrent.
There's no case to answer over wantonness or musical
vandalism here (Albert Goldman - eat my sock) and I've
waxed on about this before on this list :- One of the
many remarkable things about 'River Deep - Mountain High'
is the discipline involved in every aspect of the
arrangement, production and performance, and the sublime
and delicate balancing of incredibly huge (and positive)
forces.
The same could not necessarily be said about The Susan
Rafey Record, but with a thrill factor as high as that; -
who cares if it's got a couple of ragged edges?
Great to see Joannie Sommers getting a mention on
Spectropop - 'Don't Pity Me' being another one of my fav
2 minute blue touch-paper epics ('Johnny Get Angry' is
fun too, but doesn't have you swinging from the lampshade
quite like the former).
Jake Tassell
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Subject: Re: Johnny Mathis
Received: 04/08/00 12:55 am
From: Horatio Hornblower
David Feldman wrote:
>It includes one beautiful anti-abortion polemic
>("A Child Is Born")
Don't forget Mathis' follow-up song, "A Doctor Is Shot" :-)
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Subject: RE: Spectropop V#0404
Received: 04/08/00 12:55 am
From: John Love
Posted by Jim Gardner
The song, "Don't It Make You Feel Good," is
a snappy pop thing with traditional 60's combo
instrumentation: guitar, combo organ, rhythm section. The
title line is the hook and there's some nice, two-part
harmony on it.
Jim, from your description this sound like the British
group the Overlanders (three boys from memory), who made
it to number 1 in the UK with their version of the Beatles'
Michelle in January 1966, but never made the charts
again. I don't remember now whether Don't It Make You Feel
Good was before or after Michelle. I've got a very fond
memory of it although I've not heard it since then. I've
never seen it appear in any compilation. It was released
on Pye in the UK.
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Subject: Don't It Make You Feel Good?
Received: 04/08/00 12:55 am
From: Lindsay Martin
Jim Gardner asked about "Don't It Make You Feel Good" by
the "Over..."
This would be the British, Tony Hatch-produced track by
The Overlanders, from 1964. It was written by Hank B.
Marvin & Bruce Welch, well known in Britain & some of the
"colonies" as members of instrumental group the Shadows.
The Overlanders' main claim to fame was a successful cover
of the Beatles' "Michelle" in 1966.
Because it was a Top 10 hit in Australia (and probably
nowhere else), "Don't It Make You Feel Good" is included
on "Hard To Get Hits Vol. 1", an excellent Australian
Columbia CD compiled by rock journalist Glenn A. Baker.
Lindsay
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