I really like this album. Unlike yesterday I can remember exactly when and where I got it — just not the why. It was a spring day in 2001. I realised I hadn't been to Record Collector in Broomhill for a long time, probably years, so I decided to take the morning off work and walk up there to see if they'd got anything "special". There's an idea, eh: going shopping deliberately. Nowadays I go out of my way to avoid record shops because I know that I'll waste money if I go into one. I'm not alone in this, according to this list of resolutions in The Guardian today, which includes "Try and walk past Fopp without going in and spending £20 on… albums I will never listen to," "Try and get rid of the unlistened-to wall of CDs in my study," "repeat the mantra: this eight-CD box set will not make me any happier". Quite so.
Despite having no idea why I bought it, this CD does make me happier. A brilliant variety of songs — some classics, some interesting obscurities; some covers, and some written by the singer — and a great range of performances, from the opening song, where Bobbie Gentry really belts out "M I double-S I / Double-S I double-P I", to the smooth and willowy vocal in I'll Never Fall in Love Again. And it says something that the "classics" (I'll Never Fall in Love Again, Son of a Preacher Man, In the Ghetto and Gentry's Ode to Billy Joe) don't dominate the album, but nestle in next to new favourites of mine like Apartment 21 and the ideologically-questionable-but-irresistibly-plausible He Made a Woman Out of Me.
I can't help comparing this to Terry Reid's recordings from 1966-69, as all these songs date from 1967-70. They're everything that Reid's are not: fresh, timeless, well-judged. And fun, too: anyone would enjoy them.
I need to find out more about Bobbie Gentry. We7 and Spotify have very little of her material, but Last.fm has another Capitol compilation for on-demand listening. Beyond that, I reckon Mark Lamarr must be an authority on her music. Perhaps he's already had her as a featured artist on God's Jukebox, but if not… I might see if I can persuade him to make her one.
 MusicBrainz entry for this albumWikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Listen to this album in full at Last.fm |
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