Bobby 'Blue' Bland (born Robert Calvin Brooks, in Rosemark, Tennessee, 1930) has been for over half a century 'The King Of The Chitlin' Circuit', and remains so. His voice is all shot to hell, and he can no longer stand up onstage, but he's still out there on the road, and although he gets plenty of good bookings at places like House Of Blues, casinos and festivals, a good portion of his gigs are still southern 'Chitlin' Circuit' clubs where his loyal audience is full of large boned ladies of color, and every table has a bottle of Crown Royal (served in a blue velour bag) on it. He is of the most influential rhythm and blues singers of all time, the source of such standards as Turn On Your Lovelight, Further On Up The Road and I Pity The Fool and had a string of R&B hits that stretched over forty years, he was still making the R&B charts regularly with his Malaco releases into the early 1990's.
His career is too long and he has made too many good records to cover in one posting (although I'd recommend to anyone single out there, if you don't own a copy of his Two Steps From The Blues LP, get one, I used to keep it along with Sam Cooke's Night Beat next to my stereo as my 'guaranteed to get you laid' records. If you're making out and Two Steps From The Blues doesn't close the deal, you're hopeless). In a coconut shell, Bland's family moved to Memphis when he was seventeen.
He began hanging around on Beale Street and fell in with a loose group of musicians who wore shiny suits and are often referred to as the Beale Streeters, although they never used that name themselves,- Johnny Ace, B.B. King, Rosco Gordon, Earl Forrest and Little Junior Parker. He cut his first disc in 1951 fronting a band with Ike Turner on piano and Matt 'Guitar' Murphy on, guess, right, the guitar. 'I'll Love You Til The Day Die' was released on the b-side of the Chess version of Rosco Gordon's Booted (Booted, in an alternate take was also released by Modern's RPM subsidiary, although Bland wasn't on the flip of that version). He recorded tunes, including a duet with Little Junior Parker for Chess and RPM under the tutelage of Ike Turner before signing with Memphis DJ James Mattis' Duke label who released I.O.U. Blues b/w Lovin' Blues (on which B.B. Artificial intelligence rich knight pdf. King played guitar) in '52 and then he was promptly drafted into the U.S.
Bland was stationed in Texas and while in the Army did some gigs around Houston and also recorded some sides for Duke including b/w (Duke 115). When he was discharged in 1955, Duke Records, along with Bland's contract, had been sold to Don Robey, the Houston based, black-Jewish gangster who ran the powerhouse R&B and gospel Peacock label and a snazzy sepia nightclub called the Bronze Peacock. Robey wasted no time in getting Bland in the studio and in February 1955 in Houston, Bland was coupled with producer/arranger Joe Scott and band leader Bill Harvey whose killer group included Connie Mack Booker on piano and Roy Gaines on guitar, for a session that produced his most incendiary disc- b/w (Duke 141), along with two outtakes- and that were as good as anything he'd ever record.
All four songs feature the voluminous guitar of Roy Gaines (who later cut such classics as Skippy Is A Sissy for RCA and Loud Mouth Lucy for Chart). Having already blogged about, and, et al, I think I am running out of verbs to describe wild, distorted, blues based guitar work outs. Have I over used that one yet? Gaines' solos on the above sides are truly b rutal. If the solo on It's My Life Baby doesn't pin your ears back, there may be something wrong with your ears. Bland was becoming a popular club draw and soon teamed up with Little Junior Parker and together they went out on the road as the Blues Consolidated tour.
Roy Gaines was soon hired away by Chuck Willis who made him his band leader and he was replaced by the equally unique and talented Clarence Hollimon, then still a teenager. Holliman would be featured on Bland's next set of recordings- (Duke 146, and from the same session but left in the vault), b/w (Duke 153), b/w (Duke 167) and b/w Sometime Tomorrow (Duke 170). The latter, released in 1957, would go to #1 R&B and kick off the string of R&B hits that would stretch over the coming decades. His next two records- b/w (Duke 182) and b/w (Duke 185) were not hits, but are excellent none the less. We end our discussion with a four song session from 1958 that produced his next hit- the wailing, ultra-dramatic b/w (Duke 196) and b/w(Duke 300). The version of I Lost Sight Of The World posted here is missing the flute overdub heard on the original disc, I hope you don't mind.
Robert Ward Hot Stuff
As Buddy Rich once said (and not to Ian Anderson)- 'there's no sound in flutes'. Little Boy Blue, a masterful vocal performance by Bland, would go top ten R&B in October of 1958. These sides all prominently feature the ferocious, nearly out of control guitar playing of young Clarence Hollimon. How he managed to remain such an obscure figure in the ensuing years is a mystery to me.
But soon, as Bland's music changed there would be little room for Hollimon's extreme tendencies, and the sound of a distorted guitar would pretty much disappear from Bland's records, replaced by more sophisticated horn charts and often saxophone solos. From 1959 on, Bland's sides would become smoother and more urbane, a formula that proved a winning one for in addition to dozens of hit singles Bland produced a string of classic albums cut with producer Joe Scott (or sometimes our old pal Zephyr Andre Williams)- the aforementioned Two Steps From The Blues (1961), Here's The Man (1962), Call On Me (1963), Ain't Nothin' You Can Do (1964), and The Soul Of The Man (1965) that presented Bland as a polished, mature, worldly, uptown blues singer. While I'm talking albums, Bland's first- Blues Consolidated (1959) which features one side of early Bland hits and another side of Little Junior Parker's Duke classics is one of the greatest albums ever made. It was also one of the first blues LP's ever released and became highly influential with younger musicians, nearly every song on it would become a blues band standard. Bobby 'Blue' Bland would tour the world, working 300 days a year or more for the rest of his life (although these days it's down to around half that), as well as all of the achievements mentioned in the first paragraph.
While Bland carried on, Clarence Hollimon left Bland's group in '59 and Bland would, for a time, share a band with Little Junior Parker as part of the Blues Consolidated road show, so Hollimon's replacement was Pat 'I'm Gonna Murder My Baby' Hare for a couple of years. Clarence Hollimon would resurface in the late 1980's and form an act with his wife- Carol Fran, the singer/pianist who had cut a string of fine sides for Excello in the early sixties. Too bad they recorded for Black Top. I've made my thoughts on Black Top's production values in my last year, I won't go into it again, suffice to say Hollimon was still playing well, but he was recorded badly. He passed away in 2000.
The best examples of his guitar prowess remain Bobby Blue Bland's early Duke sides. No home should be without them. 'seems like Wayne Bennett on guitar on the left of the 1 picture' Could very well be, Bennett joined Bland's band around '59, but since he's partially obscured in the photo and I wasn't quite sure what he looked like (the only time I ever saw Bennett play was when he was w/Ray Charles in the 80's). What I didn't mention in the post was that Pat Hare didn't last long w/Jr. Parker, less than a year, then moved to Chicago and joined Muddy Waters band. He stayed w/Muddy until '62 (he's on Live At Newport), then moved to Minneapolis.
It was there that he had the altercation that led him to kill his girlfriend and a cop, he got a life sentence and died in prison in 1980. 'Regarding Gaines don't forget his recording of 'Gainesville' for Deluxe circa 1957 which is a smokin' guitar instro! There was a 45 of 'Loud Mouth Lucy' on Chart on Ebay recently that I lost out to and I had bid over $300!' He cut another great instro for Deluxe called Night Beat (the flipside of Annabella), Gaines deserves a posting all to himself, I just need to dig up a good photo. There's some un-issued tracks in RCA's vault from the Groove sessions also. Some of those Chart 45's are impossible to find these days, I've been looking for the Elder Beck on 45 rpm for over 30 years! Never even saw one, but Henry Stone told me all the Chart discs were pressed on 45 RPM.
' Do you know if any live recordings exist of BBB from the early years?' No live recordings before the 1970's have surfaced although it's hard to believe he was never recorded live by some radio station or club owner. It's a shame that so few of the greats were recorded at their peak. In fact, the first decent live Chuck Berry stuff has just be issued as part of the Chuck Berry Complete Chess Recordings: You Never Can Tell (1960-66). It's excellent stuff (and yes, his guitar is out of tune), it's hard to believe that L. Chess thought the fake live On Stage LP they released was better.
'Regarding Chart 45's I don't know of a copy ever surfacing of the Elder Beck on a 45! ' Which doesn't mean there's not one out there someplace, given the year ('56) and the fact that the records issued before (The Charms) and after (Wilbert Harrison) are more common on 45 than on 78. My guess is that Beck himself ordered the 78's to sell at his revivals since his audience was older and were more apt to have old 78 players.
Stone might have pressed up a handful of 45's to send out to gospel radio stations. What ever became of WLAC's record library? Someplace like that is where one might eventually turn up.
On the other hand, has anyone out there ever seen the Calvin Vaughn? I never have.was it actually released? Ken from NJ said. I saw Bobby perform at a free concert a few years back, at the South Street Seaport. The audience was about half young 'in-the know' types and half,as you said, 'large boned ladies of color'. Oh and one aging 60's Frat Boy (me).
It was mildly disapointing, he sang mostly his 70's disco period material (lots of gettin' on down's and and my my my's) and precious little of his 50/60's peak stuff. This certainly pleased the ladies, but left me out.
At the end, when it became obvious that he was done after one encore, the old black guy sitting next to mesaid, somewhat increduously, 'What?? No Lovelight??' My sentiments exactly.
I guess if he could no longer get down on his knees, he felt there was no point in singing it. Love your blog, as I did your shwo for many years.Ken from NJ.
I saw Bobby Bland in 1987 at a short-lived place called the Benz nightclub in New Orleans. It was like the chitlin' circuit shows you describe, except instead of Chivas Regal, there were fake roses on most tables. Everyone was dressed to the nines and at least twice our age. The place was already packed when we got there but a table was found for us anyway - I guess people were just being nice to us, but that was the New Orleans way in my experience. Bobby sang a long set of his great r&b repertoire that night, no disco that I can recall.
New York City, Chelsea, United States James 'The Hound' Marshall is a former WFMU deejay (1985-97), music writer and bar owner (Lakeside Lounge NYC, Circle Bar, New Orleans). He has contributed articles to dozens of mags and newspapers including the Village Voice, NY Times, LA Weekly, Spin, Penthouse Forum, New York Rocker, Newark Star-Ledger, East Village Eye, High Times (columnist for ten years), Kicks, and worse. He also wrote liner notes to CD re-issues by Larry Williams and Johnny Guitar Watson, Ray Price, Eric Ambel, Challenge Records,The Okeh R&B Box, and others as well as compiling three volumes of the early rock'n'roll compilations Jook Block Busters (Valmor). At age 17 he edited two issues of the punk fanzine New Order (1977) He was born in Paterson, N.J. And raised mostly in Broward County, Florida, moving to New York City at age 18 in 1977 and has resided there ever since except for 1998-2002 when he split his time between New York and New Orleans. He has been acclaimed in print in the New York Times, Village Voice, Time Out New York, New York Magazine,The Manhattan Catalogue, and other publications you wouldn't be caught dead reading.
This article needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (October 2017) Ohio Players Also known as The Ohio Untouchables Origin, Genres, Years active 1959 ( 1959)–2002 ( 2002) Labels, Website Past members Cornelius Johnson Robert 'Kuumba' Jones Wes Boatman Dean Simms Marvin 'Merv' Pierce Ralph 'Pee Wee' Middlebrooks Jimmy Sampson Vincent Thomas James 'Diamond' Williams Clarence 'Chet' Willis Shaun'Shaunie Mac'Dedrick Ronald 'Nooky' Nooks Odeen'Deeno'Mays Greg Webster Bruce Napier Andrew Noland Clarence 'Satch' Satchell Bobby Lee Fears Robert Ward Charles Dale Allen Ohio Players were an American, and band, most popular in the 1970s. They are best known for their songs ' and '. Gold certifications, records selling at least five hundred thousand copies, were awarded to the singles ', 'Skin Tight', ', and '; as well as their albums, and. On August 17, 2013, Ohio Players were inducted into the inaugural class of the Official R&B Music Hall of Fame that took place at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. Contents.
History The band formed in in 1959 as the Ohio Untouchables and initially included members (vocals/guitar), (bass), Clarence 'Satch' Satchell (saxophone/guitar), Cornelius Johnson (drums), and Ralph 'Pee Wee' Middlebrooks (trumpet/trombone). They were best known at the time as a backing group for. Ward had proved to be an unreliable leader, who would sometimes, during gigs, walk off the stage, forcing the group to stop playing. Eventually, the group vowed to keep playing even after he left. Ward and Jones got into a fistfight in 1964, after which the group broke up.
Ward found new backups, and the group's core members returned to Dayton. They replaced Ward with 21-year-old (guitar), who would become the group's front man, and added Gregory Webster (drums).
To accommodate Bonner's musical style preferences for the group ('R&B with a little flair to it') and to avoid competing with Ward, the group changed their format. By 1965, the group had renamed themselves Ohio Players, reflecting its members' self-perceptions as musicians and as ladies' men. The group added two more singers, Bobby Lee Fears and, and became the for the -based. In 1967, they added vocalist Helena Ferguson Kilpatrick. The group disbanded again in 1970. After again re-forming with a line-up including Bonner, Satchell, Middlebrooks, Jones, Webster, trumpeter Bruce Napier, vocalist Charles Dale Allen, trombonist Marvin Pierce, and, the Players had a minor hit on the Detroit-based Westbound in with 'Pain' , which reached the of the. Io Checker.
James Johnson joined the group at this time as vocalist and saxophonist. Dale Allen shared co-lead vocals on some of the early material, although he was not credited on their albums Pain and Pleasure. It was at Westbound Records where the group met, who admired their music.
The two albums' avante-garde covers featured a spiked-black leather-bikini clad, bald model Pat 'Running Bear' Evans, who would later grace additional Ohio Players albums, including Climax, Ecstasy, and Gold. The band's first big hit single was ', which reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and made the Top 20 on the in early 1973.
It sold over one million copies and was awarded a by the in May of that year. The band signed with in 1974. By then, their line-up had changed again, with keyboardist Billy Beck instead of Morrison and Jimmy 'Diamond' Williams on drums instead of Webster. On later album releases, they added second guitarist/vocalist Clarence 'Chet' Willis and conga player Robert 'Rumba' Jones. Meanwhile, keyboardist Walter 'Junie' Morrison recorded three albums on his own before joining as the force behind their hit. An internet story in advance of a June, 2017 concert indicated that Billy Beck, Jimmy 'Diamond' Williams, Clarence 'Chet' Willis, and Robert 'Rumba' Jones are still performing. The band had seven Top 40 hits between 1973 and 1976.
These included ' (No. 1 on both the R&B and pop chart for two weeks and one week respectively in February 1975 and another million seller) and ' (No. 1 on both the R&B and pop charts for one week in January 1976; another gold disc recipient). The group also took on saxophonist James Johnson. The group's last big hit was ' a No. 1 R&B hit in August 1976.
It was their only success in the, where it peaked at No. 43 on the in July 1976. In the late seventies, three members of the group went on to form, which would release three albums.
In August of 2013-the Ohio Players were inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame at the Waetjen Auditorium of Cleveland State University as part of the inaugural class Deaths Clarence Satchell (born April 15, 1940) died December 30, 1995 after suffering a brain at the age of 55; Ralph Middlebrooks (born August 20, 1939) died in November 1997 of cancer; Vincent Thomas ('Venny Wu'), (born January 26, 1958) died February 16, 2008, of cancer, in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas, and Robert Ward (born October 15, 1938) died at home December 25, 2008. Cornelius Johnson (born July 12, 1937) died February 1, 2009.
(born March 14, 1943, Hamilton, Ohio) died January 26, 2013 at age 69 of cancer. (born January 1, 1941, Dayton, Ohio), the last surviving member from the Ohio Untouchables line-up, died of cancer on May 27, 2016 in Houston, Texas, at age 75. Died in February 2017, aged 62.
Discography Studio albums Year Album Peak chart positions Record label 1969 — — — 1972 177 21 —. US: Gold 63 4 — 1973 70 19 — 1974 11 1 15. US: Platinum 1 1 17.
US: Platinum 1975 2 1 36. US: Platinum 1976 12 1 26. US: Gold 1977 41 9 58 68 69 15 — 1979 80 19 — 1981 Tenderness 165 49 — Ouch! 201 — — 1984 Graduation — — — Century Vista 1988 Back — 55 — Track Record '—' denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. Live albums. (1996, Essential Music).
Jam (1996, ). Live 1977 (2013 ) Compilation albums Year Album Peak chart positions Record label 1972 First Impressions — — — Trip 1974 The Ohio Players — 32 — 102 24 — 1975 Greatest Hits 92 22 — Rattlesnake 61 8 — 1976 31 10 28. US: Gold 1977 The Best of the Early Years, Vol.
1 — 58 — Westbound 1995 Funk on Fire: The Mercury Anthology — — — Mercury 1998 Orgasm: The Very Best of the Westbound Years — — — Westbound 2000 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection - The Best of Ohio Players — — — Mercury 2008 Gold 2008 — — — '—' denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. ^ McGinn, Andrew (May 30, 2009). Archived from on October 3, 2010. Retrieved April 29, 2015. July 4, 2011. Retrieved 2015-07-12. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
November 23, 2011. Hymie's Vintage Records. May 17, 2011. Sweetlocs (November 6, 2012). Eric Roberson Music. Uwumarogi, Victoria (February 12, 2014).
Madame Noire. ^ Murrells, Joseph (1978).
The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. Pp. 332, 348, 349 & 362. Retrieved 26 October 2017. Roberts, David (2006).
British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. Retrieved 2015-07-12. Retrieved 2015-07-12. Retrieved 2015-07-12. Cartwright, Garth (March 4, 2009).
The Guardian. Retrieved June 29, 2011. Retrieved 2015-07-12. Retrieved 2015-07-12. Vacher, Peter (May 27, 2016). Retrieved September 30, 2016. Kaufman, Gil (February 16, 2017).
Retrieved February 17, 2017. Grow, Kory (February 16, 2017).
Retrieved February 17, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2010. Retrieved January 14, 2012. Retrieved January 14, 2012. Retrieved 2015-07-12. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
Retrieved 2015-07-12. Retrieved 2015-07-12. Retrieved 2015-07-12. Retrieved June 8, 2010. Betts, Graham (2004). Complete UK Hit Singles 1952-2004 (1st ed.).
London: Collins. External links. at Wenig-LaMonica Associates.
It’s surprising to learn that the only significant acting credit associated with Annie Lennox is a role in a Robert Altman-directed adaptation of a Harold Pinter play. If you’ve watched any of the videos she made as a member of the mega-selling pop duo Eurythmics or for her solo albums, particularly those created with the aid of UK director Sophie Muller, you’ve seen her range. Hell, all you need to do is watch the clip for her 1992 single, “Why.” The camera spends a long time focused on Lennox’s face as she puts on makeup and examines her visage. She is at times amused, crestfallen, furious, and reserved. Once she is all made-up and costumed in her Diva-wear, she confronts the camera and cycles through even more moods: playful, lustful, fearful, impassioned, passive It’s a reflection of a song that recounts the wounds of a broken relationship, but it’s also a marvelous showcase for Lennox’s impressive acting range.
This chameleonic quality is precisely why Lennox is considered one of the world’s greatest living singers. Even when she’s singing a song written by someone else, as on her most recent album Nostalgia, a collection of her favorite tunes from the jazz and blues canon, her voice changes almost imperceptibly to capture the raw emotion of each one. She doesn’t dare try to replicate the growl of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins for her take on “I Put A Spell On You,” preferring instead to add a subtle tone of frustration and desire around the edges of that familiar alto, and on the Duke Ellington classic “Mood Indigo,” she adds an ironically catty twinge to the lamenting lyrics, inspired by Don Was’s swinging arrangement. The 60-year-old Scot singer/songwriter’s career has been marked by this rare and remarkable quality.
And she’s had plenty of occasion to display this over the years, having worked in an admirable number of different musical styles. Most recently, at this year’s Grammy Awards, as his duet partner on his own song.
But when Lennox came to the attention of the European music scene, it was in 1977, and she was a power-pop/post-punk player in her first band, the Tourists — where she started working with her longtime partner (and now-former flame) Dave Stewart. Later working alongside Stewart in Eurythmics, she was able to give off vibes both chilly and toasty in the service of blinking technopop, stomping R&B, cut-and-paste art rock, and pure Europop bliss.
And throughout her solo career, she’s moved in a dozen different artistic directions, guided only by her own curiosity and a need to express her deeply felt emotions. The beautiful and frustrating thing about a list like this is that it’s going to stir up debate. And likely the first argument anyone’s going to make is about my omission of “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This),” Lennox’s breakthrough 1983 single with Eurythmics.
When I put together a list like this, I look at it more as a 10-way tie for first. I also try to find the best way to best represent an artist’s career as a whole, putting 10 different spotlights on their varied gifts. In this, I approached it like Muller’s direction in the “Why” video, looking for those nuances and shades of personality that, when combined, best sum up Lennox’s long career as a vocalist.
These 10 songs, in my mind, provide the most complete picture of Lennox’s remarkable ability to capture the core of a song’s essence using only her voice as her tool. By my rough mental metrics, “Sweet Dreams” just barely got edged out of the picture.
Hopefully that eases your troubled mind on the matter, and if not, well, that’s what our comments section is for. “Walking On Broken Glass” (from Diva, 1992) This song could easily have been a slow, soulful, burning ballad, with Lennox pitching her pleas for relief to the heavens in the wake of a shattered relationship, with fists clenched and strings sweeping behind her like gale force winds. Instead, the singer and songwriter follows the path of her Motown inspirations, casting this song with an “Ain’t That Peculiar”-like bounce anchored by that insistent opening piano line and a string section that bobs and weaves through the whole song. Listen, though, for Lennox’s absolute restraint through almost every moment here. She only pitches her voice up in the bridge as the song reaches its emotional peak, otherwise choosing a tone of resignation and near-defeat as she tends to the wounds still festering on in her soul and on her soles. “Don’t Let It Bring You Down” (from Medusa, 1995) Prior to recording Medusa, Lennox had considered retirement, but returned to the studio to play around with the idea of speaking her inner dialogue through the work of other writers.
Through that lens, Paul Simon’s “Something So Right” feels like a shout-out to her husband, while “No More ‘I Love You’s” comes off as a last goodbye to lovers of the past (which included her Eurythmics cohort Stewart). Others were nods to those artists that inspired her to take up a career in music (the Temptations, the Clash, and Al Green, among them).
This selection, a cover of a track found on Neil Young’s 1970 album After The Gold Rush, feels much more resonant when viewed through that lens: a plea following the breakup of her former band to keep moving forward. It helps that Lennox drops her voice down to a husky rumble, a move that minimizes the otherwise raw power of her singing but adds a deep well of emotion to the original folksy melody. She may have helped build the castles that she’s now watching smolder, but this is Lennox arriving at the “river of sight.”. “Into The West” (from The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King Soundtrack, 2003) On paper, this is pure treacle.
A tune overrun with syrupy strings and horns, all pitched to maximum emotional effect as accompaniment for your slow walk out of a movie theater. But damn if it doesn’t send even the most cynical fantasy fan rushing for the tissue box. The song runs deep, aiming to soothe the troubled spirit facing the end of their days and, in turn, helping ease the hearts of their loved ones. And it wouldn’t be nearly as affecting without a powerhouse like Lennox turning the lyrics (which she had a hand in writing) into both a lullaby and triumphal call from the mountaintops. Great as the studio version is, if you really want to hear the power of this song, watch the live performance Lennox gave of it at the 2004 Oscars. She looks downright possessed as she teases out each emotional upswing and downward swoop.
“Savage” (from the Eurythmics’ Savage, 1987) Possibly the most underrated album in the Eurythmics’ discography, the duo’s sixth full-length is marked by meaty, clattering production that sounded as if Dave Stewart had spent the previous year subsisting on a diet of the Art Of Noise albums. Lennox responded with some of her most daring lyrics to date, casting herself in a brazenly and alluringly sexual light. The album proceeds into downcast balladry on the title track, but it is cut through with an air of danger via Stewart’s guitar stabs and the breathy croon that Lennox employs. She also sounds exhausted here, all the better to capture the “over it” sensibility of the character she’s portraying in the song. She’s like a fading ’50s movie star, taking her regular seat at the end of a bar and spouting lines to a handsome bloke nearby through a cloud of cigarette smoke. She’s well aware that she could easily seduce him, but she’s not sure if it’s worth the trouble.
“Take Me To Your Heart” (from the Eurythmics’ In The Garden, 1981) The first album that Lennox and Dave Stewart worked on outside the fold of the Tourists is the product of songwriters still finding their collective voice. They still hadn’t completely shed the guitar-heavy post-punk approach of their previous band even as they sprinkled a healthy amount of synthesizer pixie dust over much of it. In The Garden is a fine enough album, but it doesn’t get any finer than this track. You can hear hints of the cool, sultry reserve that Lennox would bring to the next Eurythmics album as she plays against the herky-jerky beat and the splay of tinny keyboard melodies. The surface of these lyrics is a romantic notion, but with the way she sings it, the true meaning of her hot and bothered intentions becomes clear.
Replace the word “heart” in the title with “bed” or “backseat” in your mind as you listen to this song and you’ll see just what I mean. “Bitter Pill” (from Bare, 2003) Like all good albums born of a relationship’s dissolution, Lennox’s third solo record, Bare, is splattered with all the shades of the emotional palette. She’s furious, regretful, rueful, and shattered in equal measure. On this highlight from the album, Lennox tempers her anger with a peppy R&B groove that feels as if it was borrowed from an En Vogue session.
But the acid on her tongue is still palpable as she takes herself and her ex to task; him for causing the pain, and her for blindly accepting it as she’s “hangin’ on by my nails hopin’ I won’t fall.” Ultimately, the song is a defiant one, the kind of anthem that sits comfortably on a playlist alongside “You Don’t Own Me” and “Irreplaceable.” When Lennox sings, “It means nothing to me / You mean nothing to me,” in the chorus, you want to cheer her on as she sashays towards a better future and, hopefully, a better man. “Here Comes The Rain Again” (from the Eurythmics’ Touch, 1983) The second top-10 hit for Eurythmics is a marvel of arranging and performance. Surely, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of Pet Shop Boys lamented that Stewart and Lennox beat them to the punch of matching up the trill of arpeggiated Moroder-like synths with Gainsbourg-like string parts. As well, the song feels like it is just one extended chorus, one sustained outpouring of emotion that not even the “Talk to me” section offers much reprieve from.
The key though is to pay close attention to the way Lennox sings this desperate love song. At the beginning, she sounds coy and a little reserved, but as it moves forward, a forcefulness starts to take over. By the last verses, she’s sparring with a background vocal that is firing off sparks and explosions as she tries to maintain her cool, repeating those mantra-like lines. It’s hard to know by that point whether to brave the downpour and run into her open arms or phone someone for help. “Would I Lie To You?” (from the Eurythmics’ Be Yourself Tonight, 1985) There was always a vein of ’60s R&B running underneath even the most synthesized of Eurythmics songs.
You could imagine that with a sweet Wrecking Crew arrangement, “Here Comes The Rain Again” could have been a hit for the Supremes. On their fourth album, Stewart and Lennox decided to tap into that rich source material to help drive at least part of these new recordings. Landing a coup like getting Aretha Franklin to join in the fun on their empowering anthem “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves” was great enough, but writing a song as urgent and bracing as “Would I Lie To You?” on top of that is downright unfair. It also put to rest any lingering doubts about Lennox’s abilities as a vocalist. She throws down on this track, setting that two-timing son of a bitch back on his heels and she growls out her intentions to pack her bags and fly the coop. Why she feels the need to clean the floor on her way out is anyone’s guess, but when faced with someone as determined and fiery as Lennox is, you’d do well to not question her motivations.
Just take your lumps and say goodbye. “Love Is A Stranger” (from the Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), 1983) Although it is named after the Eurythmics’s eventual #1 U.S. Single, the duo’s second album opens with a different mindset. The cold sweat of the title track was to come, but before they got there, Lennox and Stewart had seduction on the mind.
32 years later, this song, with its insistent Roland 606 beat and those feather synth trills, sounds as fresh and sexy as ever. Things get even more heated when Lennox eventually slinks in, hair shorn and dyed orange, tempting you to jump into that open car and perform unspeakable acts on the leather seats. Who among us hasn’t wanted someone to hear “I want you” in that same breathy cadence and slight catch of urgency coming from the voice of their paramour? Great as the LP’s title track is, this is the stuff dreams are made of. At least the kind of dreams that you’re embarrassed to talk about out loud.