Features Disc of the day
Dion
Dion
(Ace, 1968)
In the wake of his flying UK visit, we salute the doo-wopper’s lost 1968 pastoral folk gem.
By 1967 Dion had hit rock bottom. After three years banging out raw, heartfelt blues for an uninterested Columbia Records, the New York doo-wop doyen was skirting skid row, sharing needles with Frankie Lymon and going down fast. Lymon’s OD death in February ’68 saw Dion hightail it to Florida, find God, get clean, and cut the intense proto Led Zep howl of Daddy Rollin’, his calling card at new label Laurie. Backed with the dreamlike A-side, Abraham, Martin And John, it put him back in the charts and set the tone for this comeback blend of Sinatra croon and Tim Buckley vulnerability. With its flute, harp and strings-heavy covers of Hendrix’s Purple Haze and Buckley’s Dolphins, Dion possesses an ecstatic rush of clean-veined release that sometimes hurts the teeth but is just as heartfelt as Daddy Rollin’s from-the-depths moan.
Andrew Male
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 07/12/2007
Further Listening
Del Shannon - The Further Adventures Of Charles Westover (Liberty, 1968)
Bobby Darin - If I Were a Carpenter (Atlantic, 1966)
Richard Hawley - Late Night Final (Setanta, 2001)
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