Make The Music Play: Black America Sings Bacharach and David

[pljms]

A new compilation from Ace is released next week featuring the following tracks:

1. Make It Easy On Yourself - Dionne Warwick
2. My Little Red Book - Burt Bacharach Orchestra Featuring Tony Middleton
3. Long After Tonight Is All Over - Irma Thomas
4. Another Tear Falls - Marv Johnson
5. I Say A Little Prayer - Aretha Franklin
6. Message To Martha - Jerry Butler
7. This Empty Place - Cissy Houston
8. In The Land Of Make Believe - The Drifters
9. I Cry Alone - Ruby & The Romantics
10. Let The Music Play - Roy Hamilton
11. (There's) Always Something There To Remind Me - Patti La Belle And Her Blue Belles
12. The Last One To Be Loved - Lou Johnson
13. Reach Out For Me - Willie Tee
14. Alfie - The Delfonics
15. (There Goes) The Forgotten Man - Gene Mcdaniels
16. The Look Of Love - Nina Simone
17. Anyone Who Had A Heart - The Orlons
18. What The World Needs Now Is Love - James Carr
19. Walk On By (Single Version) - Gloria Gaynor
20. (They Long To Be) Close To You (Edited Version) - Bobby Womack
21. One Less Bell To Answer - Gladys Knight & The Pips
22. I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself - Isaac Hayes
23. Don't Make Me Over - Brenda & The Tabulations
24. A House Is Not A Home - Mavis Staples

I don't own 16 of the 24 recordings of the classic B&D songs featured on the disc although I've heard a few of them, including Cissy Houston's more than a little OTT version of 'This Empty Place'. I can already hear my wife saying upon hearing it, "Calm down, woman"!

Paul

[Blair N. Cummings]

Two observations:
1. The title song isn`t included
2. While the phrase "Black America" conjures a newsreel`s worth of images from the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, the subsequent "sings Bacharach and David", um...doesn`t.
Maybe it`s just me but it seems a little odd: part non-sequitur, part time travel.
Not a bad collection, `though.

[pljms]

Blair, the title track is included in the song's alternative title, 'Let the Music Play' as sung by Roy Hamilton.

Ace has already issued two compilations that I know of in the Black America Sings series, those dedicated to the songs of Lennon and McCartney and Bob Dylan.

[Alistair]

I see that the title of this compilation is now "Let the Music Play". Have ordered this from amazon.co.uk.
Alistair

[Blair N. Cummings]

pljms:
How in the world could anyone countenance a "Black American"
compilation of Zimmerman or the Beatles?
These were two of the most devastating of frauds ever perpetrated upon the American people.

[An Enormous BB Fan]

pljms:
How in the world could anyone countenance a "Black American"
compilation of Zimmerman or the Beatles?
These were two of the most devastating of frauds ever perpetrated upon the American people.

I'm sorry Blair, but I don't understand what you're saying here. Please explain: What frauds are you talking about here?

[Blair N. Cummings]

I think I skipped a topic here as opposed to one in my mind.
The Beatles were the luckiest bastards ever to receive a record contract. They began the re-writing and dumbing down of American pop songs.
As to "Dylan", I wrote this a while back:

I really don`t want to get into this. Bob "Dylan"`s fame rests on the early folk-ish and "folk-rock" material. Most of is is speed- or acid-generated logorrhea and, therefore, consists of hit-or-miss imagery. Since he scrawled reams of this stuff, most of it was incomprehensible which led too many who should have known better to assume that he was writing over their heads which (of course!) made him a poet. Those early `6os albums were embraced by the student left as anthemic endorsements of the various civil rights movements of the time. In fact, "Dylan" never (to my knowledge) had any serious interest in or involvement with any of these groups or struggles. His turn to these themes was chiefly the result of his relationship with Suze Rotolo (sp?) whose parents were supporters of progressive causes. He wanted to ingratiate himself with her and them and wrote his early songs under their influence. When that affair ended, so did his interest in political or "protest" songs.
His crackpot fling with fundamentalist Christianity also saw him inveighing against space exploration and "Daughters of Satan" (Women, to you and me).
I really don`t want to go on. He`s a clumsy scribbler of doggerel and a lazy bullshit artist. If you like him, enjoy him.
Blair N. Cummings Posts: 468Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2004 4:14 pm

What all of this has to do with Black America is no more than its appropriation of its "traditional" vocal style.

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Thanks for the clarification, Blair.

[pljms]

Of all the tracks on this compilation that I'd not heard before the one by Mavis Staples seemed to me the most intriguing. This video credits The Staple Singers but it's really Mavis by herself. Yes, she's lip-synching to the record but I thought it would be good to see her as well:

[Martin Johnson]

Another track from this fine collection: Ruby and the Romantics' beautifully arranged and sung version of 'I Cry Alone'.

[grooverider]

Pljms, thank you for that clip from Mavis Staples, which is availabe on the 2 disc, "The Rare Bacharach 1" from Raven Records, out of Australia.

[Martin Johnson]

Heard on BBC Radio 2's 'Sounds of the 60s' this morning: