Author: Kim Simpson

“Oh the Warm Feeling” (1986) – Van Morrison

 
“Oh the Warm Feeling” (1986) – Van Morrison * Written and produced by Van Morrison * LP: No Guru, No Method, No Teacher * Label: Mercury
 
Van Morrison took the title for his No Guru, No Method, No Teacher album from a passage in the 1964 book Think on These Things by Jiddu Krishnamurti, and the songs reflect that anti-guru guru’s focus on self-knowledge as true religion. Inner peace and societal change, he teaches, both come through self-directed meditation, and you can hear Morrison express this, especially, on the album’s “Got to Go Back,” “Oh the Warm Feeling,” and “In the Garden.”
 
Recorded in Sausalito, it was New Agey in sentiment and sound, sharing the Marin County textures of late-eighties Windham Hill releases. But even if you’ve been programmed to reject such characteristics, you’d have to be truly hard-hearted not to feel the genuine spirituality in those three songs, at least.
 
“Oh the Warm Feeling” gets the spotlight here for espousing peaceful seaside pondering, filling Morrison with “devotion” and “religion” and, presumably, peace, while Richie Buckley’s soprano sax handles aforementioned aural textures. But the first four notes of the song seem to mimic the first four notes in the main riff of the Damned’s “Noise Noise Noise” (1979) which, if intentional, is quite the emphasis-through-counterpoint exercise.
 

“Utawena” (1961) – The Kingston Trio

 
“Utawena” (1961) – The Kingston Trio * Written by Nick Reynolds and Adam Yagodka * Produced by Voyle Gilmore * LP: Make Way * Label: Capitol
 
Sketchy songwriting credits abounded during the folk revival, with interpreters taking ownership of traditional-sounding tunes as “version-composers.” This could complicate the act of tracking down a song’s proper origins. In the case of “Utawena,” a song on the Kingston Trio’s 1961 Make Way album, the credits go to Trio member Nick Reynolds and his friend Adam Yagodka. But it’s really an arrangement of a South African Kinswahili song called “Ut’he Wena,” which the two credited writers likely learned from the 1960 Schirmer publication Choral Folk Songs from South Africa, with arrangements credited to Pete Seeger and Robert DeCormier. Seeger had previously recorded a number of songs in that book on a 1955 album called Bantu Choral Folk Songs from the Song Swappers. “Ut’he Wena” isn’t included on the record, but its book arrangement shows that Reynolds and Yagodka had consulted it faithfully. (The book includes a translation.)
 
A thread at Mudcat Cafe about this song illustrates how frustrating origin-hunting can be for curious researchers, with the initiator reporting finding no answers from the Bear Family label’s box set notes, from Yagodka’s widow, and from Reynolds himself via phone, who claimed his memory had failed him. The initiator finally declares it a lost cause. (The recent group history Greenback Dollar only calls the track “awful,” which it isn’t.) Another song on the Make Way album, “En El Agua,” is credited to Trio leader Bob Shane, but on the 1966 Best of the Kingston Trio, Vol. III, the label rightfully credits the then-living “Antonio Fernandez,” the real name of Cuban singer-songwriter Ñico Saquito. He had debuted the song in 1957 as “Maria Cristina.”
 

“Too Shy” (1983) – Kajagoogoo

“Too Shy” (1983) – Kajagoogoo * Written by Kajagoogoo * Produced by Colin Thurston and Nick Rhodes * 45: “Too Shy” / “Take Another View” (US), “Too Shy (instrumental) (UK) * LP: White Feathers * Label: EMI
 
That rising synth at the beginning of “Too Shy” is the sound of a digital entertainment wave sweeping across the US during the summer of 1983. Anyone between the ages of roughly 8 and 17 will remember the lifestyle shift of when video game systems and cable TV became more deeply entrenched into suburban American households, changing young perceptions of summertime itself. The song’s video, by ’80s British Invasion group Kajagoogoo, with their bleached/dyed hair and gibberish name, aired in heavy rotation on MTV during that summer, pushing the song to #5 in the US. But these outer aspects, in retrospect, overshadow the track’s virtues as sophisticated song- and studiocraft, co-produced by Nick Rhodes, whose cachet with Duran Duran, the kings of all ’80s bleached/dyed and gibberish-name groups, gave it added commercial blessing. The instrumental mix of “Too Shy,” on the b-side of the UK single, shines a worthwhile spotlight on Nick Beggs’s bass lines, reminding us of how much value British New Pop placed on the low end and how so many of its players had internalized American funk, fusion and R&B. Lead singer Limahl’s enunciated delivery reinforced an inclination among American pop bands to try and sound British, just like in the ’60s.

“Mahawara (The Fugue)” (1959) – Ahmed Abdul-Malik

“Mahawara (The Fugue)” (1959) – Ahmed Abdul-Malik * Written by Ahmed Abdul-Malik * Produced by Lee Schapiro * LP: East Meets West * Label: RCA Victor
 
An active double-bass sideman in the New York City jazz scene, Ahmed Abdul-Malik also specialized in the oud. The six albums he released under his own name between 1958 and 1964 drifted, often mid-song, from middle eastern meditations to the jazz conventions you’d otherwise expect from that era. The drifts sometimes sounded obligatory, as if to make the exotic sounds more palatable to standard jazz audiences. His East Meets West album on RCA  Victor circulated widest, being his only one shouldered by a major label.  On its “Mahawara (The Fugue),” you can hear him doing an “East never meets West” approach, with no jazz departures. His bass, a violin, qanun (middle eastern dulcimer) and dumbek (hand drum) all stay in the forefront. The music scholar Robin D.G. Kelly, in his Africa Speaks, America Answers (2012), reveals that Abdul-Malik, who claimed Sudanese heritage throughout his lifetime, was actually born Jonathan Tim, Jr., the son of immigrants who had come to New York City from the island of St. Vincent.

“The Sails of Charon” (1977) – Scorpions

“The Sails of Charon” (1977) – Scorpions * Written by Uli Jon Roth * Produced by Dieter Dierks * LP: Taken by Force * Label: RCA Victor

With “The Sails of Charon,” the Scorpions give the ancient Greek myth about the ferryman who carries deceased souls to the land of the dead a New Thought twist. Are they addressing Charon or someone doomed to ride with him? It doesn’t matter, because the song’s overriding messages are “Throw out your evil desire, the dark king’s kingdom is made out of mire” and “Keep on for the kingdom of light, there is no darkness, there is no night.” A possible translation: you have the power to break out of cyclical patterns and to move toward enlightenment. Even you, Charon. As for the track itself, it ranks as high on the metal scorecard as it possibly could, with adrenaline, fantasy, and shred factors all maxed out. Although there’s reason to suspect guitarist Uli John Roth had been listening to Duke Ellington’s “Caravan,” his fretwork and chord choices otherwise strengthen the song’s enlightenment theme by reaching toward the musical language of the East. (The original cover art for the Scorpions’ Taken By Force album, shown above, was replaced with an alternate cover in most markets. Also, the version of the track below is edited, without the minute’s worth of wind noise at the intro.)

“Take Me Back to Tulsa” (1960) – Bob Wills/Tommy Duncan and the Texas Playboys

“Take Me Back to Tulsa” (1960) – Bob Wills/Tommy Duncan and the Texas Playboys * Written by Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan * Produced by Joe Allison * LP: Together Again * Label: Liberty
 
Tommy Duncan was the lead vocalist on just about all of the Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys recordings between 1932 and 1948. A less eager stage presence than the lively Wills, Duncan nonetheless filled a crucial role in the classic Bob Wills sound that still epitomizes the “jazz for rural folks” Western Swing genre. Duncan left the band due to Wills’s drinking, reportedly, but joined up again in 1960 for a few more years of shows and studio dates. Together Again is a respectable reunion album, collecting a lot of the classics but sounding more hopped-up for the band’s fourth decade. Oklahoma native Glenn “Blub” Rhees gives the tune a post-bebop tenor sax upgrade at 1:04. The line “the darkie raises cotton, the white man gets the money,” from the 1940 original, has been changed to “the little man raises cotton, the big man makes the money.”
 

“Most Anything That You Want” (1968) – Iron Butterfly

“Most Anything That You Want” (1968) – Iron Butterfly * Written by Doug Ingle * Produced by LP: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vidda * Label: ATCO Records
 
Iron Butterfly encouraged you to expect ultra-heaviness. Their signature track “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” clocked in at 17:05, an honorable tally during the free form radio years. The instrumental hook is sludgy and emblematic enough of the era, though, to immunize even the shortened version on 45 of any potential dishonor, especially when backed on the flipside by the haunted house anthem “Iron Butterfly Theme” (from their debut album titled Heavy). Doug Ingle’s Vox Continental organ asserted itself early on as the band’s key component, although they managed to sound holistically sprightlier than organ-centric contemporaries such as Deep Purple and (especially) Vanilla Fudge. Listen to the cheerful vibe on album opener “Most Anything You Want” for a clearer illustration of this premise. Also listen, at the bridge (around 1:48), to how Ingle teases on Ray Manzarek’s key riff for “Light My Fire.”

“Alpine Star” (2019) – William Tyler

“Alpine Star” (2019) – William Tyler * Written by William Tyler * Produced by Tucker Martine and Bradley Cook * LP: Goes West * Label: Merge
 
Nashville’s William Tyler specializes in sync-ready acoustic guitar instrumentals with full band arrangements, reminding us of how solo guitarists like Leo Kottke also made records that would startle us when the first bass drum got kicked. The neo-Fahey pedigree (Tyler’s first album appeared on the Tompkins Square label) and the album art dare you to even consider considering it library music. The opening track’s central hook is the same one used by the (Bay City) Rollers’ “Elevator,” the title track from an album released the same year Tyler was born. This is likely a coincidence.

“Elevator” (1979) – The Rollers

“Elevator” (1979) – The Rollers * Written by Eric Faulkner, Duncan Faure, and Stewart Wood * Produced by Peter Ker * LP: Elevator * Label: Arista

The Bay City Rollers reconstruction project started with the Elevator album. It was their first post-Krofft Superstar Hour event and included a number of loud hints that they were interested in ditching the preteen audience. They put a barbituate on the cover. (A downer going up.) They put a moustache on guitarist Eric Faulkner and abolished the words “bay” and “city.” They banished former frontman Les McKeown and included the words “erection” and “shit” on their lyric sheet. But in spite of such try-hard invitations for ongoing ridicule was the secret reality that they had released their finest album, a power-pop pleasure piece. Producer Peter Ker had been in the midst of working with the Motors, and new Roller frontman Duncan Faure, from South Africa, was showing a clear penchant for—and investment in—songcraft that carried on throughout their next two (and final) albums, each of them highly listenable yet awkwardly marketed affairs.

“Yal Bahja Yalbahya” (1974) – Dahmane El Harrachi

“Yal Bahja Yalbahya” (1974) – Dahmane El Harrachi * LP: 74 * Label: Les Artistes Arabes Associés

An album like Dahmane El Harrachi’s 74 is a godsend in that it verifies, more or less, the year of release. The balmy sea of Middle Eastern music is notoriously undocumented, even in regard to titans like Algeria’s king of chaabi (whose birth name is Amrani Abderrahmane). A greater portion of El Harrachi’s most well-known recorded output, such as the immigration anthem “Yah Rayah,” appears to come from the ’70s, when festival appearances gave him a career resurgence at home after spending several decades in France. The title of this track refers to “joy,” but after listening, you wouldn’t need a dictionary to know that.