The Only Album "Bob Dylan" Ever Produced
http://www.counterpunch.org/simmons12282009.html
By MICHAEL SIMMONS
December 28, 2009
Thomas Wolfe said you can't go home again. Was he right?
One of the quiet gems of 2009 was an album originally produced by Bob
Dylan in 1973. Other than his work under the pseudonymous Jack
Frost, it's the only album Dylan ever produced. It's not, however, a
Dylan record, it's a Barry Goldberg record. Even if you've never
heard of Barry Goldberg, you've heard Barry
Goldberg. Keyboardist/songwriter/producer, he wrote a #1 hit ("I've
Got To Use My Imagination" by Gladys Knight & The Pips) and played on
another ("Devil With A Blue Dress" by Mitch Ryder & The Detroit
Wheels). As part of the Chicago blues mafia of the 1960s, he ran
with the late string king Mike Bloomfield. They co-founded Electric
Flag (with Buddy Miles, among others), and Barry later played on the
proto-jam Super Session with Mike and Al Kooper and another Bloomers
collab, infamously titled Two Jew's Blues. And then there were the
Phil Spector productions from Leonard Cohen to the Ramones.
The cat's been around, he's still playing, he's still cookin'.
Anyway, this rock 'n' roll Zelig also pounded the ivories behind Bob
at Newport '65 when Zimmy stuck his middle finger in an electric
socket and his hair frizzed out, after which every one else began
letting their hair frizz out (or something like that). When you've
shared a stage with someone in front of a hostile audience, it's like
sharing a trench. They stayed in touch and jammed together with the
Band and Sir Doug Sahm and, of course, Bloomfield. In '73, Goldberg
had a heap of good songs and was gonna record a single at RCA
Records. His pal Bob sez "No no Barry, let me take 'em to Jerry
Wexler," the legendary R&B producer at Atlantic Records. Wex agrees
to sign him and take Goldberg into the studio but says Bob's gotta
co-produce the sessions with him.
When Bob Dylan is handed to you on a silver platter as producer (co
or udderwise), you say yes. With relish. Especially when you're the
only artist he's ever offered his services to in this role (and ever will).
So everybody descends on Muscle Shoals, Alabama -- Barry and
wife/co-writer Gail and Dylan and Wex. Waiting for them are the
hotshot Southern studio cats with whom one Duane Allman had paid his
dues before the Brothers and who'd grooved on Two Jew's Blues. Eddie
Hinton, Jimmy Johnson, Pete Carr, David Hood, Roger Hawkins and
friends. If you've ever dug an Aretha Franklin tune
from the late '60s, you've heard these aces of soulfulness. They
tracked Barry's Gladys Knight tune and one Rod Stewart covered called
"It's Not the Spotlight" and a bunch of others. "…Spotlight" and
"Minstrel Show" were damn good songs about being a working
musician. "Orange County Bus" is about the kind of legal trouble
hippie musicians experienced all too frequently in them days. It's a
song of its time, as is "Dusty Country," a paean to the earthy rural
ideal sporting a lovely dobro. Even the strings on "She Was Such A
Lady" and "…Spotlight" sound natural -- no cold synthesizers that
were beginning to be popular in that period. A solid
album. Comfortable. Real. What they now call Americana.
Dylan and Wexler's production is fine. They might've said "do this"
or "do that" but it sounds like they let a bunch of killer players
render tasteful chops to support Goldberg's first-rate songs. (Bob
also sings back-up and supplies percussion.) Like I said, it's
comfortable and real and damn it, if those aren't two qualities we
couldn't use here now in the dystopian present. But there was a
problem. Wexler had the magic touch in the studio, but he futzed
with Barry's original vocals and made him re-cut 'em in Miami. For
35 years this ate away at Goldberg. He hated his re-cut
vocals. "Man, the vocals. The vocals," little voices would repeat
to him in his dreams.
So this past year of aught-nine saw Barry back in the studio,
restoring his original vocals to the album, adding a couple of
unreleased tunes and a ghost track at the end. Goldberg's no
Pavarotti or Aretha, but his singing is direct and simple and, most
importantly, he gets his top shelf songs across. Appropriately
titled Barry Goldberg, it's a slice of funky country soul guaranteed
to make you smile and sway. What's more, Barry Goldberg proved that
you can indeed go home again. That you can correct a decades-old
mistake. That -- to quote philosopher Yogi Berra -- it ain't over
'til it's over.
SPEAKIN' OF SOULFUL
For the past seven years, my wall has been graced by the same
calendar. I'm aware that I can find a calendar on my computer, but
it's a pleasure to have one or two items that have no connection to
microchips. John Tefteller is a great American who finds, collects,
safekeeps, treasures, respects old 78 recordings, particularly of the
early 20th Century country blues giants. His company Blues Images
offers a calendar that graces each month with the soulful (there's
that word again) retro advertisements for these 78s from back in
their day. In addition, with each calendar, you get a CD of some of
Tefteller's rare finds. 2010's disc includes Charley Patton, Blind
Lemon Jefferson, Ma Rainey, Ida Cox, Robert Wilkins, Skip James,
Ramblin' Thomas, the Mississippi Sheiks, Irene Scruggs with Blind
Blake, Papa Charlie Jackson, plus two Henry Townsend songs that are
remastered from the only surviving disc!
For a lot of us, except for, say, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan
Chase & Co. (more on robber barons from me soon), times is tough and
for many, calendars are an extravagance, even with the cool art and
hoppin' blues. Tefteller says he may have to discontinue this annual
treat. As another great American, artist Robert Crumb, says of these
musical calendars and the New Depression: "It's worse now than in the
'30s 'cause we don't have music and graphics like this anymore to get
us through it!" So if you're fortunate enough to have a double on
ya, or even better, a few doubles for friends and family, go to
www.BluesImages.com (OK…a connection to a microchip) and order as
many 2010 blues calendars as you can afford so we can have one in
2011 too. They -- quite literally -- don't make 'em like this anymore.
--
Michael Simmons is an award-winning journalist and currently filming
a documentary on the Yippies. He can be reached at guydebord@sbcglobal.net.
.
0 comments:
Post a Comment