1069 - Mojo 71. The Left Banke - Walk Away Renée/Pretty Ballerina (1967)

Track Listing

1. Pretty Ballerina
2. She May Call You up Tonight
3. Barterers and Their Wives
4. I've Got Something on My Mind
5. Let Go of You Girl
6. Evening Gown
7. Walk Away Renée
8. What Do You Know
9. Shadows Breaking over my Head
10. I Haven't Got the Nerve
11. Lazy Day

Review

There are these moments in every list where you make an amazing discovery of something you haven't even heard about. The Left Banke is one of those precious few moments. An album so original and so full or great tracks that I had decided it would be a 10 before I finished listening to the first track.

Well, I have to admit that the first track is probably the best one, although it has some competition from Walk Away Renée. But even if none of those tracks was in this album it would still get a 10. That's just how good it is.

The Left Banke are the first band to be baptised with the epithet "Baroque-rock", and even if that is a misleading name it bears out the complexity and beauty of the arrangements of the tracks. They sound ahead of their time by some years but more importantly they sound timeless. There are moments here that heard in isolation would be hard to pin-point chronologically. Amazing stuff indeed.

Track Highlights

1. Pretty Ballerina
2. Walk Away Renée
3. Lazy Day
4. She May Call You Up Tonight

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

This album has never been available on compact disc, and the LP itself has been out of print since the early 1980s but all the tracks of the album can be found on the There's Gonna Be a Storm: The Complete Recordings 1966-1969 compilation.

Walk Away Renée:

Mojo 70. Fred Neil - Fred Neil (1967)

See Review

1068 - Mojo 69. The Lovin' Spoonful - Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful (1967)

Track Listing

1. Lovin' You
2. Bes' Friends
3. Voodoo In My Basement
4. Darlin' Companion
5. Henry Thomas
6. Full Measure
7. Rain On The Roof
8. Coconut Grove
9. Nashville Cats
10. 4 Eyes
11. Summer In The City

Review

So here's some good rock/folk/pop/country stuff. The Lovin' Spoonful are particularly good becuase they have a really great songwriter in John Sebastian who was able to create a number of classic numbers which have lived on through covers and other version throughout the years.

The most obvious example of that in this album is Summer In The City known to several generations in several iterations. The original is still the best, however, and this is the definitive version of that track.

The album is extremely eclectic but all is brought together by the sheer quality of it, even if some tracks are a bit too gonzo for their own good. This is a band which can appeal to a wide number of people from Johnny Cash who covered Darlin' Companion to Joe Cocker who did Summer in the City and has been sampled by endless musicians. Great stuff.

Track Highlights

1. Summer in the City
2. Rain on the Roof
3. Lovin' You
4. Darlin' Companion

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Cover versions of the song include BB King in 1972, Quincy Jones in 1973, Tim Curry in 1982, Joe Cocker in 1993, and The Stranglers on their 1997 album Written in Red. In 2000, Joe Jackson released a live album titled Summer in the City: Live in New York, which opens with a cover of the song. The band Eat released a cover of the song in 1989. Country music artist Larry Stewart recorded it on his 1999 album Learning to Breathe. The Butthole Surfers covered the song on "Music for Our Mother Ocean (MOM)" Series No. 3 released in 1999. Styx covered the song on their "Big Bang Theory" released in 2005. It was also sampled by Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip in 2006 for their song "First Time We Met Musik". A modified version of the chorus was used in the third single Thru Ya City from Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump by De La Soul, Feat. D.V. Alias Khrist. In 2008, Barry Hay (The leadsinger of Golden Earring) covered this song together with the Metropole Orchestra.

The Quincy Jones cover of "Summer in the City" has been sampled by Massive Attack in the song "Exchange" from their acclaimed album Mezzanine, Nightmares on Wax in his song "Night's Introlude" on the album Smokers Delight, and also by The Pharcyde on their seminal hit "Passin' Me By" from the album Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde. It has also been sampled by Black Moon on their 1994 song "Reality" and also sampled by Joe on the remix to his 2001 hit "Stutter". Another cover, by the Gutter Brothers appeared on the soundtrack to the Only Fools and Horses film "Miami Twice". The song has also been covered by UK jazz-dance act, Incognito on the 2006 album Bees + Things + Flowers.

Summer in the City:

Mojo 68. The Doors - The Doors (1967)

See Review

1067 - Mojo 67. Bobby Darin - If I Were a Carpenter (1967)

Track Listing

1. If I Were A Carpenter
2. Reason To Believe
3. Sittin' Here Lovin' You
4. Misty Roses
5. Until It's Time For You To Go
6. For Baby
7. Girl Who Stood Beside Me
8. Red Balloon
9. Amy
10. Don't Make Promises
11. Daydream

Review

Bobby Darin really isn't the most original of artists, and even if the album might sound very much like a singer-songwriter affair it is not that. Darin is just banking on the singer-songwriter emerging fashion of the day.

So almost half the songs here are by Tim Hardin and much of the other half by John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful. Not that there is anything wrong with this, and in fact Darin does a great job of singing these tracks, even if the songs or even the idea for the album might not be his... his producers also represented Hardin and Sebastian, and the title track sounds uncannilly like the Hardin release which would come out some time later.

So the ugly head of producers giving Darin a track by Hardin, with the same arrangements, because they knew Darin had a following and would always be more successful rears itself. And they were right. It was a hit, and it is a great song. The album is, however slightly uneven, if competent and often interesting, however not all tracks are equally performed in terms of quality. Still, it is a pretty nice album to listen to and overall I quite liked it when I manage to ignore the ugly things behind it.

Track Highlights

1. If I Were a Carpenter
2. Reason to Believe
3. Girl Who Stood Beside Me
4. Red Balloon

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In 1966, he charted with folksinger Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter". It was Darin's return to the Top 10 after a four-year absence (the single peaked at No. 8 in the US and No. 9 in the UK in 1966). The tracks leaned heavily towards songs by Hardin and John Sebastian — seven of the songs were written by these two songwriters and Darin's next album would follow a similar process.

If I were a carpenter: