RECORDS

Rip It Up, Issue 60, 1 July 1982, Page 20

RECORDS

Hello Sailor Last Chance to Dance Th' Dudes So You Wanna Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star Key The age of the mini-album is upon us, it seems, and Key Records have now released matching 'almost-best-of' collections of Th' Dudes and Hello Sailor. Each contains five tracks selected on a 'greatest hits' basis, plus one previously unreleased song salvaged from the attic of chez Stebbing for the occasion. There is not much room for argument with the selection of the 'best of' tracks, other than to suggest that in the case of Hello Sailor, the selection could well have run to more than five tracks ('Casablanca Holiday', 'Lyin' In The Sand' and, assuming a recorded version exists, 'Son Of Sam’, might easily have been added). All this material will be familiar enough to prospective customers, although it seems to have been remixed to varying degrees, and requires little comment. The two new tracks are Th' Dudes’ 'Hope' and Hello Sailor's 'Here Comes Johnny'. 'Hope' is solid enough, but doesn't hack it with the cream-of-the-crop selection. Urlich's vocals, are a bit weak, and the track doesn't exhibit the polish which characterised Th' Dudes' studio work. Here Comes Johnny', with Brazier doing his street tough thang, fares rather better, and manages to hold its own. Well worthwhile for those who can remember the bands at their best but don't have the albums, and for youngsters requiring proof that there was good music in NZ pre-ornamental safety pin. Don Mac Kay Killing Joke Revelations Malicious Damage Note the title. The album artwork features Masonic symbols, mystical insignia from the English pound note, and the pyramid-and-eye motif of the Yankee dollar, previously featured in the 'lllumi-

nati' books, and by the builders at Christchurch's Star and Garter. The lead singer recently disappeared and turned up alive and casting spells in Iceland, a great believer in yer arcane powers, it transpires. The album seems little affected by any magic, despite the title. However, if you're as old as I am, you may recall a whole swag of albums released by Vertigo and Bronze in the very early 70s that, were very heavily steeped in mystical bits and pieces. Sabbath and Uriah Heep were the most successful, but it seemed like hundreds of the garish, one-off, deep, meaningful, polysyllabic, mono-brain-celled, gatefold monstrosities were being released. All of 'em was 'eavy, but each had an acoustic guitar song that showed the 'sensitive' side of the dark, crazy beasts. All of them were vaguely conceptual and vaguely concerned. 99 percent of them were awful. I fear that, 10 years after, the cycle may be in full sway again. Newish, punkish British band meet influential German producer (Conny Plank) and make a harsh, bleak, hollow metal hunk of sound that I would like to like 'cos some of the lyrical content's good, but it's so like one of those 70s albums that it's all a bit depressing. Ee well, the 80s T Rex and Slade must be just around the corner. Chris Knox Sam Cooke Golden Age Of (RCA) James Brown Best Of (Polydor) Temptations Million Sellers (Motown) Sly & Family Stone Anthology (Epic) The Best of Soul Boxed Set: Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Sam & Dave, Percy Sledge, Booker T & MGs (Atlantic) , With the renewed interest in soul and funk, several collections by major black artists have been released locally, including pioneers Sam Cooke and James Brown, Otis Redding who did it best and Siy Stone who took it to Woodstock. The 20 track, single album Sam Cooke compilation, Golden Age, is excellent. 'Soothe Me' is the only classic absent. The sleeve notes are exhaustive.

Though equally popular with white America and prone to also recording saccharin pop, an early Cooke compilation was rightly titled The Man Who Invented Soul. Immediately prior to his death in 1964 (shot by a black motel owner, she claimed "selfdefence") he recorded the prescription for a soul decade, RCA 8486: 'Shake' (the archetypal dance number) coupled with 'A Change Is Gonna Come', a ballad often emmulated but never surpassed. The 12 track Best Of James Brown spans 1957 to 1972 and is a fine intro to a very insular and influential groove. Brown invented funk and is still No. 1. He recorded the landmark Live At The Apollo in 1962 and recorded a live album easily its equal in 1980, Hot On The One. Highlights of his first 15 years include 'Please Please Please', 'Say Loud I'm Black And I'm Proud', 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag' and for the automatic set, 'Sex Machine'. Bonus is 'King Heroin', where Brown deals to a problem facing the nation. Superb.

The Atlantic Records boxed set contains 12 track albums by six major artists. The Sam & Dave album is excellent and even has their final single, 'Soul Sister Brown Sugar'. Classics 'Soul Man', I Thank You', 'Hold On I'm Coming' are all here. 'Wrap It Up' is my only fave missing.

The track selections for Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, all artists who recorded 10 or more albums for Atlantic,, are less satisfying. Aretha's album includes all her hits up to 1970 ('Respect, Think', 'Dr Feelgood' etc) but nothing from her never gemless later albums. But the album is ample proof that Aretha is the 'Queen of Soul'. Redding is the sixties soul man, he aspired to sing and write like Sam Cooke and echoed James Brown's uncompromising delivery. He died late 1967 shortly after playing the Monterey Pop Festival and recording two superb soul albums, Immortal and Love Man.

The Redding album is curious. It includes a live cut of 'I Can't Turn You Loose', four tracks from Immortal but only one from UK critics' fave, Otis Blue. Absent are 'Respect', 'Shake', 'Pain In My Heart', 'Security', 'Been Loving You Too Long' and 'These Arms Of Mine' all essential on a Best

Of. The still available Otis Gold is a better buy. The best dressed man of soul is the prolific Pickett. His hits others have covered are here ('Midnight Hour', "Mustang Sally', '634-5789') and his 'Land Of 1000 Dances' and 'Staggerlee'. But while '991/2 Won't Do' is absent, why include his covers of 'Hey Joe' or 'Born To Be Wild'? The Booker T & the MGs and Percy Sledge albums are more specialist. The MGs album contains early 60s recordings (includes 'Green Onions') prior to their big Stax label hits. (The cover photo is of the 1977 reunion line-up, after the death of drummer, A 1 Jackson). The Percy Sledge album features his great tracks 'When A Man Loves A Woman' and Warm and Tender Love'. Too sweet a soul music for many. It's a pity this series doesn't put the Sledge hits on an album along with Ben E. King's 'Stand By Me', 'Don't Play That Song'; Arthur Conley's 'Sweet Soul Music', 'People Sure Act Funny', Aunt Dora's Soul Shack'; Don Covay's 'See Saw', 'Chain Of Fools' etc. Entire albums by Joe Tex or Solomon Burke are more essential than Sledge. With Sly & the Family Stone, Epic have wisely chosen to do a 20 track double album. Ten tracks is not enough for Sly as it isn't for Redding, Pickett or Aretha. In 1968 Sly Stone's amalgam of San Francisco psychedelia and James Brown's funk, turned black music upside down. Dance to the Music' sounds as over-the-top as it did then. All the hits are here, 'Everyday People', 'Family Affar', 'Sing A Simple Song' etc, along with less commercial, 'Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey' and Thank You For Talkin' to Me Africa' (obvious basis for Devoto's Thank You' version on Soap). Motown Records followed Sly into psychedelia and producer Norman Whitfield masterminded a new Temptations era from 'Cloud Nine' (1968) to .'Papa Was A Rolling Stone! (1972). On All The Million Sellers there is only one pre-Whitfield track, Smokey's 'My Girl'. Instead there's 'Psychedelic Shack', 'Ball of Confusion' (as on 8.E.F.), 'I Can't Get Next To You'. Great fun, play loud. Treat yourself to a reissue. Best value are James Brown, Sam & Dave, Sly Stone and Sam Cooke. Murray Cammick