Disc of the day
Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement
From Sheffield, synth pop and funk to stick it to Thatcher. Currently being played live!
Features Disc of the day
Dan Penn
Nobody's Fool
(Bell, 1973)
One of soul's greatest songwriters steps into the limelight...
As part of Rick Hall's FAME stable of songwriters, producers and session players, Alabama native Dan Penn cut his teeth throughout the early '60s with some of soul's finest architects. With childhood friend Spooner Oldham, Penn would quickly meld the gospel fervour of the black church with the plaintive country sounds of Nashville and Bakersfield. The result was a sanctified country-soul amalgam that took the likes of Joe Simon, Percy Sledge and Mighty Sam onto the US airwaves. Before the decade was out he'd served up two defining southern soul anthems in the form of James Carr's The Dark End Of The Street and Aretha Franklin's Do Right Woman - both co-written with Memphis ace Chips Moman. 1973 saw Penn somewhat reluctantly take centre stage, cutting this low-key collection of home-cooked, earthy R&B grooves. It's not an easy record to find (there's a CD version currently sitting on Amazon marketplace for an astonishing £128) which is a crying shame when it contains the waltzy, organ-propelled Time and the driving, Stax-y If Love Was Money. Of course, we knew Penn could write songs, but could he sing them? Well, the answer is a resounding 'yes'. Check out his churchy delivery of CCR's Lodi or the Charlie Rich-esque I Hate You. Penn's is a voice steeped in the romantic heritage of the deep south and it cuts through some of the more polished production numbers like a rusty scythe through a corn field. "We're not the stars, we're just the twinkle behind the stars," Penn told MOJO in 2006. Nobody's Fool proves that some of the backroom boys can cut it out front too.
Ross Bennett
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 01/07/2009
Further Listening
Various - Country Got Soul: Volume 1 (Casual, 2004)
Jim Ford - The Sounds Of Our Time (Bear Family, 2007)
Elvis Presley - From Elvis To Memphis (RCA, 1969)
Previous Disc of the day
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Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement
From Sheffield, synth pop and funk to stick it to Thatcher. Currently being played live!
6:00 AM GMT 18/03/2010
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6:00 AM GMT 16/03/2010
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The Pop Group - Y
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6:00 AM GMT 11/03/2010
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