Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod the Mod finds his solo footing, headed for stardom, with the Faces in his wake.
6:00 AM GMT 22/06/2011
Features Disc of the day
Alexander O'Neal
My Gift To You
(Tabu, 1988)
Jam & Lewis's techno-funky Christmas has to be heard to be believed...
Smoothly sympatico or jarringly brusque and abrasive, the clash of genres that is the side product of any Christmas record makes the sub-division endlessly fascinating, eternally cringworthy. For example, carols and festive ditties shoehorned very comfortably into Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound, but Berry Gordy's Motown teams were so keen on extracting every last ounce of goodwill sales out of Christmas records that some pretty awful crimes against pop, soul and, indeed, Father Christmas were committed down Snakepit way. By the '80s the Christmas album seemed a less desirable addition to an artist's catalogue, which is what made Alexander O'Neal's 1988 chestnut roaster so fascinating. Because here was another hugely distinctive production team - Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis - addressing the same set of questions. Which were, How does our sound absorb a prescribed format as the Christmas record? and, How do we stop the artist from sounding like a prat? Their solution was to write five of the nine tracks, with seasonal subject matter and titles (Sleigh Ride, Our First Christmas, Remember Why (It's Christmas) and the title track among them), thus giving the singer the comfort blanket of a familiar format. Certainly, O'Neal makes a better fist of the originals than the Jam-Lewis reworkings of Winter Wonderland, The Christmas Song and The Little Drummer Boy. To the best of my knowledge, neither O'Neal nor Jam-Lewis returned to the format. They had said their piece. Their Minneapolis confrère, Prince, has dipped his empurpled toe in the icy waters but once, I think, with the lovely Another Lonely Christmas. Surely the genre is not too constraining?
Geoff Brown
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 29/12/2009
Further Listening
Bobby Womack - The Christmas Album (Indigo, 2000)
Alexander O'Neal - Hearsay (Tabu, 1986)
Various - A Very Special Christmas (A&M, 1987)
Previous Disc of the day
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
12:04 PM GMT 08/06/2011
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2011
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
6:00 AM GMT 17/05/2011
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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Comments
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Not sure techno-funky is the right description though. Techno in the 1980s was a genre from Detroit. This is pure Flyte Tyme Minneapolis funk
Glad to see this album recognised..parts of it are rather good, including it should be said, the Little Drummer Boy.
Posted by Simon at 6:40 AM GMT 29/12/2009 Report Abuse
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Yes, Sleigh Ride. Very funky, very good.
Posted by Alexander Meerkat at 5:15 PM GMT 29/12/2009 Report Abuse
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lmUNsEx
Posted by wPfzJRd at 6:48 PM GMT 17/04/2010 Report Abuse
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