When does a blog become defunct?

It’s been so long and I seem to have so little energy for it….

But still youtube remains loaded with gems like this

the curse of evie sands

This is becoming an oft told tale, but was Evie Sands the unluckiest woman in 60’s pop?

In 1965 a teenaged Evie was signed by Leiber & Stoller’s Blue Cat label and teamed with producers Chip Taylor & Al Gorgoni. (Taylor is, of course, the brother of Jon Voight and the guy who wrote “Wild Thing” made famous by The Troggs.) Taylor and Gorgoni recorded a classic debut single with Evie called “Take Me For a Little While.”

 

Evie Sands – Take Me For A Little While
Uploaded by soulpatrol

So far so good, but here’s where the bad luck starts. A pre-release copy of the song fell into the hands of an A & R man from Chess records. Chess artist Jackie Ross had just had a big hit with “Selfish One,” and the label were looking for a follow up hit. The white label of “Take Me For a Little While” was taken to Chicago, and a version recorded with Ross and rush released before Evie’s original came out officially.  DJs around the US started playing the Ross version believing it to be the original & dismissing Evie’s as the cover. A legal dispute between Blue Cat and Chess resulted in the Jackie Ross version being withdrawn – but the damage was done and Evie’s single never gathered the neccessary momentum to become a hit.

“Take Me For a Little While” was written by Trade Martin, the follow up  “I Can’t Let Go” was written by Taylor & Gorgoni themselves. Another classic, but somehow not a hit for Evie. Perhaps the whole Jackie Ross “Take Me for a Little While” affair had left some with the incorrect impression that it had been the Evie Sands camp who’d been in the wrong. Whatever the reason, the single went nowhere, but the following year the song was an international smash hit for The Hollies.

Although Evie left Blue Cat and joined Cameo records she continued to work with Taylor & Gorgini, who produced further singles.  In 1967 they must have thought they’d struck gold - Chip Taylor came up with arguably the greatest song of his career, and it was  the perfect vehicle for Evie. It was recorded as a single. It came out. It started to get air play. It started to sell – but the curse of Evie Sands struck again.  The Cameo label folded and the single disappeared. The song was “Angel of the Morning.”

Yes, that “Angel of the Morning.”
P.P. Arnold, Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts:
“Just call me Angel of the Morning, Angel.”  
A song so robust even Shaggy couldn’t kill it, though he gave it a damn good kicking in 2001. 

And so, despite 3 or 4 years of trying and producing a bunch of great singles including three stone cold classics, Evie Sands just couldn’t get a hit. If the material wasn’t up to par, if Evie was untalented or unattractive there might be an excuse, but not only is she a fox, she has a really good voice, an impressive range and a distinctive sound. Taylor and Gorgini had found or written & arranged material that suited her down to the ground. And anyway, to steal a line from Steve Jordan, you could’ve had Deputy Dawg singing these songs and still have had hits.  How could she miss? And yet miss she had. 
Strike three – but Evie wasn’t out quite yet.  Chip Taylor hatched a plan. He’d given Evie his best new songs only to see other artists get the hits. So, this time, he took a song of his that had already been a hit, on the basis that no one was likely to record a spoiler version. The song was “Any Way That You Want Me” previously recorded by The Troggs. Chip came up with a new arrangement and a new bridge with more than hint of “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” and the result was – at long last - a monster hit in 1969. Here she is performing it live in 2006 with the BMX Bandits in Glasgow.

 

Evie is still musically active – check out her Myspace page, I think she maintains it herself.  She’s still in great voice as demonstrated by “While I Look at You” the track you’ll hear there. You can hear clips from her last album Women in Prison, here.  And you can buy CDs of her two early 70s albums from those nice people at Revola records, and I recommend that you do.

heewwrrrragghhhh

You know that moment. That feeling. The one you get when you think of the perfect reply.  That witty yet cutting rejoinder that puts the other person in their place.  Or those almost poetic words that turn the object of your desire into putty in your hands.  Or that pithy remark that’s bound to impress everyone in the room, to make them look at you anew,  eyes filled with admiration and perhaps even a little envy. You know that moment when the right words are just there, magically.  In your head. At your disposal. The words that can turn any situation to your advantage.
You know that moment.
It happens anywhere between three hours and eighteen months after the time to say those words has been and gone. Lost forever. And you just standing there. Mouth gaping. With spinach stuck to your teeth.  

One afternoon, I was flicking through the TV channels and stopped on an Oprah Winfrey clipshow, featuring highlights from years of celebrity interviews. They showed an amusing moment from sometime in the early 80’s where she introduced her star guest, Sylvester Stallone, with the words: “I’m here with Sly Stone,” The audience laughs, its a genuine slip, but Oprah’s a pro, she quickly corrects herself eliciting yet more laughter. It’s a cute moment between Oprah and her audience and Stallone’s kind of left out of it, with nothing else to do but sit there and chuckle in a good natured fashion.  
Now I may be wrong, but I’d guess that sometime after he left the studio Stallone had one of those:  ”when she said that what I should’ve said was…” thoughts, that we all get from time to time. The only difference is that Stallone is a Hollywood star and he can insist, contractually, that the moment is re-enacted. Only this time he gets the chance to look just as sharp as a tack and as cool as a cucumber, because the next clip they showed was from a few years later, and Oprah is about to interview the stars of Tango & Cash. TV professional that she is, I don’t think she’d have made the same error twice, but sure enough she says: ”I’m here with Kurt Russell & Sly Stone.” The audience laughs, Oprah adopts an ‘Oops! Aren’t I a scatterbrain’ expression, and the camera cuts straight to Stallone who utters the perfect response, the timeless words: “Boom acka lacka lacka! Boom acka lacka!“

Now, if you don’t know why that was just the perfect thing to say run this Youtube clip, and make sure you’re paying attention around the 7:05 mark.

Here’s a unique tribute to the magic of Sly.

And here’s the best quality clip I could find of this summer’s shows – Sly Stone is 64. I advise caution .

let a man come in and do the popcorn

In Britain we knew the songs about these dances but we had no clue what the actual dances looked like. Now if only someone would show me how to do the Shing-a-ling.