Dusty in Memphis: is it all that?

"but hey! don't forget about me now baby!"

god bless yer love.

Choice picks!
Windmills of Your Mind is heavy and frightening, and the sweet sweet sentiments of Just a Little Lovin'. tons of range for a soul record. Classic.

that is to say, the Aretha comment.

Spot on, Douglas.

Someone I trust recently compared Lulu's "Melody Fair" favourably with "Dusty In Memphis". You can see why the comparison was made: Brit treks to the southern states to make LP with noted soul musicians (the Lulu one has the Dixie Flyers all over it).

"Melody Fair" is a very fine LP but it's no "DiM" because Dusty has the voice to carry the project off. Lulu's pipes are a little bit sub-par in a setting where you expect to hear (say) Betty Lavette really hitting it.

I think the only other comparable singer who comes close is Bobbie Gentry with her late 60s Capitol stuff.

Still classic though, but I don't know enough of her other work to answer the question properly.

i dont think dusty either tries to or sounds like aretha on it, but si understand where that comes from - she does tap into a similar mode of singing/sentiment/ - uh well mebbe something as general as vibe is what i mean.

i'm reminded of that sweet story dusty told abt post Son of a Preacher Man abt getting into the same elevator with aretha heading up into atlantic offices and feeling all nervous abt her rendition till aretha turned around and said something along the lines of 'you go girl' (does anyone remember the actual quote?)

This record is magic.

I like "Where am I Going" about as much

It is such a special, enjoyable album that it feels churlish to agree with many people here that many of the claims made for it are overstated.

Maybe its the tortured artist myth that causes those of us who love the album (and I love it to bits) to make grand claims about what it says about politics, gender or whatever... It's so very tempting to attribute profundity to the album as it is clearly the work of extraordinary talented people.

How can there not be a back story to Breakfast in Bed? The heartache in that song can reduce me to tears. It can't possibly be that its just a talented delivery surely...

Why the hell not? I've listened to this album loads of times and never been struck that it's anything more than a great set of songs performed brilliantly. That's all it needs to be.

She's a singer, delivery is what she does!

Sorry, sloppy writing, I was trying to suggest my last question was a rhetorical question to myself.

There's a -probably apocryphal- anecdote about the film Marathon Man where Dustin Hoffman is taking ages to 'get in character' and understand his motivation for a scene and Laurence Olivier says "can't you just act"?

My point being that Dusty nails the delivery of the songs so well that it's very tempting to suggest they are autobiographical - for instance I've seen people suggest that Breakfast in Bed is about her sexuality. As was mentioned, the 33 1/3 book spends 5% talking about Dusty and the rest about other things. So the original question 'is it all that' - my answer would be no, but what it is, is more than enough.

So yeah, this record is totally doing it for me right now, but I have to switch up. What is a similar record to this? Kind of in the same era, kind of the same production? Female singer? That epic, lush/raw soul-y deal? Any suggestions. Love asking you guys these questions...I usually receive awesome recommendations. I mean, I have some ideas, interested in yours.

I can answer that and also answer this:

tell me about Pet Clark's Memphis, please, if you feel like it. Country-ish? Soul-ish? Country-soul-ish? Standards? New songs? Stax personnel?

This is a great album in my estimation. It has a similar vibe to Dusty's album. Mostly original material with about three good covers (Neon Rainbow, It Don't Matter To Me, People Get Ready), soulful stuff and I think the best material/production/backing music I've heard from Petula. So much better than her Tony Hatch stuff. There's one bad song which has that musichall thing that always crops up on 60s albums but whatever.

Check out Chris Clark. She was pretty much custom designed to be Motown's answer to Dusty Springfield. She's not as good as Dusty, but she's pretty great in her own right. There's a Motown Collection CD in print that collects everything you need. Here's a taste:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WakQv3gzIkg

If you like the production and arrangements on Dusty in Memphis, the place to look is other albums cut with the American Studios crew - Reggie Young, Chips Moman, Tommy Cogbill, Bobby Emmons, Bobby Wood et al.
Some of my favorites are Dionne Warwick - Soulful; Brenda Lee - Memphis Portrait; Elvis Presley - The Memphis Record (a comp from the late 80s); Petula Clark - Memphis: Neil Diamond - Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show (LP);John Prine - John Prine; Jackie De Shannon - Jackie....and singles by Bobby Womack, Joe Tex, BJ Thomas, The Box Tops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwoKq6HPwkE

check out brenda lee's memphis portrait LP

every girl singer had to make a memphis LP in 1966-69

Yeah. Personally I like Ann Peebles better. Also Freda Payne LP Band of Gold excellent.

But I know Dusty fans who think Memphis is overated or even sonically inappropriate -- why make her sound like Aretha Franklin asks one maven.

IMO it doesn't sound much like Aretha Franklin at all. "Dusty In Memphis" was mainly about this British pop singer who was sent to the US to work with an excellent bunch of musicians and producer, then given some solid (but largely not very R&B) material to sing. It doesn't sound all that much like a Memphis soul album to me, moreover, it sounds much better than any Memphis soul album ever.

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/dusty-springfield-dusty-in-memphis-round-50-nicks-choice/

Profile of Chips Moman from a while back from the Memphis Commercial Appeal. May be linked somewhere else already but couldn't locate: http://www.commercialappeal.com/entertainment/unsung-chips-moman

And here's one by an ilxor: http://m.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2012/08/17/chips-moman-the-cream-interview

Thanks, those are both good. For a guy with his credits Chips is kind of a mystery man.

gonna listen to "I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore" six times in a row for the oboe solo.

"Goin' Back" is not on this album, is it?

no, though it's got several other goffin/king tunes.
this album is pretty perfecto. and geir otm! lol. it doesn't sound very much like aretha, except for maybe son of a preacher man.

Aretha envied and loved "...Preacher Man" so much she covered it later.

Seem to recall a Big Youth song that sampled "Breakfast in Bed" but can't find reference to it.

Oh, I see. It was "Skank in Bed," by Scotty, which was DJ version of Lorna Bennett cover.

Aretha envied and loved "...Preacher Man" so much she covered it later.
wexler claimed aretha turned it down at first, but reconsidered after hearing dusty's versions.

Have you guys seen the Muscle Shoals doc yet? Just watched it today. Some doldrums but good stuff about the whole brouhaha when Jerry Wexler brought Aretha down there to record.

That was a wild and crazy story re the horn player, Aretha's then hubby, Hall from Muscle Shoals, and Wexler...

Side note, I wonder why it's not spelled Mussel Shoals

Can't remember. Is it actually an Anglicization of an Amerindian name, nothing to do with Mussels in the Shoals.

Okay.
http://www.cityofmuscleshoals.com/Default.asp?ID=11&pg=History

Indians first inhabited the lands bordered by the Tennessee River that we call the Shoals area today. No one knows when the name Muscle Shoals was first used for this area, however, there are many theories of where the name originated. One theory is that at one time there were piles of mussel shells found along the shoals in the Tennessee River. Another theory is that the shape of the river looks like the muscle in a man’s arm, therefore, Muscle Shoals. The last theory comes from several booklets that were published before Muscle Shoals incorporated. This theory states: “Muscle Shoals, the Niagara of the South, derives its name from the Indians, who, attempting to navigate upstream, found the task almost impossible because of the strong current.” Thus came the word muscle, symbolic of the strength required to “paddle a canoe up the rapids.” The Shoals area, including Florence, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia, was first known as the Muscle Shoals district.

Muscle Shoals is really the only one of the four "Quad Cities" that doesn't have much of a personality. Tuscumbia has well-preserved old neighborhoods, Sheffield has the relics of industry (along with both the original and the second Muscle Shoals Sound studios), Florence has all the parks and urban sprawl. Muscle Shoals is just one long strip of stores and restaurants and post-war brick ranch house subdivisions. It's the least appealing of all the cities there, but it for some reason is the city that claims the whole area by name.

Tuscumbia has well-preserved old neighborhoods

Yeah.