"White"
blues
Tony Joe White may well be the most sympathetic man making music today. His records show a man who cares about people, a Shoutherner with an open mind, thoughtful, considerate. But these qualities, which could lead him to become the best singer of his generation, might equally well side-track him into making good-natured liberal statements about American society which lack the important personal quality of popular music.
"Polk Salad Annie" by far his best record so far, is at last moving up the U.S. top fifty; maybe this will qualify it for attention from the BBC's producers, who unfortunately seem incapable of judging records by their sound. The record was hard to get in the country when it was issued here early this year; now with its beautiful, reflective flip, "Aspen Colorado", the song may be more accessible on White's new L.P., "Black And White" (Monument). Unfortunately, there's not really enough on the L.P. to justify the extra cash, so it may still be necessary to make that special order.
For reasons not explained, the L.P. doesn't include White's first two singles, "Georgia Pines" / "Ten More Miles To Louisiana" and "Watching The Trains Go By" / "Old Man Willis". These records weren't released in this country and U.S. Monument don't have them available any more; Not having heard them, I can't report on them, but the titles on the first sound promising.
What we do have on the L.P. is one side of original compositions, including White's first release here "Soul Francisco", and a selection of modern standards from four major fields of modern popular music,soul, blues, progressive country and western, and ballads. The neat balance suggest a programming committee where the decision reached was. "We'll let him do his own thing on one side, but give the jocks something to play on the other; while we're at it, we'll make sure we get a good spread, from soul to easy listening". So we get "Who's Making Love", "Scratch My Back", "Little Green Apples", and "Wichita Line-man", and even Bacharach/David's "Look of Love", each with suitable arrangement.
But even on his own side, White doesn't seem to have given free run. Two of the songs are, by his standards, fairly straight soul dance songs. "Whompt Out On You" and "Don't Steal My Love" straight, that is, except for the guitar, 'which is in the underwater West Coast style, and which seems to have no more to say in the long solo on "Don't Steal My Love" than any other guitarist has managed to say with the technique. In "Polk Salad Annie" the guitar is played conventionally until right at the end when White throws in snatches of soul grunts, down-home harmonica - and West Coast guitar - like a serie of exclamation marks.
"Soul Francisco" is presented as the thoughts of a Louisiana boy who "ain't never been to San Francisco." who likes the idea of what the people there were doing - "some of those children seem to have something to say". But again, that guitar; if he ain't never been there, what's he doing playing guitar as if that's where he learned it?
But the most depressing track is the first, "Willie And Laura Mae Jones". Parts of the songs are as good as "Polk Salad Annie", in the description of people meeting, working, talking, traveling. Unfortunately, White seems to have set out to write a moral epic to mach "Ode To Billie Joe", the moral being that although poverty-stricken black and white people might get on well, they can't extend their friendships in towns, where middle-class decide what is socially acceptable.
The theme is new to popular music, which maybe explains why White is so self-conscious as he sings the line about people who live in shacks not having time to think of another man's colour, but it's that self-conscioucness that spoils the song, together with the accompaniment, which wants to make sure we're paying attention to various bits of the story, bringing in strings and flutes like a Hollywood film score. (For the single, Monument have had White go back into the studio and do the thing again, putting in a lot of brass riffs instead of the strings, but the sounds even more uncomfortable with the social comment he's making).
Our only hope is that "Polk Salad Annie" will do so well that Monument will let Tony Joe White decide for himself what he wants to do next - and that he will choose to do without West Coast guitar, Hollywood strings, or songs by Jim Webb or Bobby Russell. His voice, and his eye for descriptive detail, are so good, it would be sad to waste them.
Among the few singers with comparable ability to White are Dallas Frazier, Joe South and Lonnie Mack. Frazier, best-known as a composer ("Alley Oop", Mohair Sam", "Son Of Hickory Holler's Tramp") has had a few singles released here, but had a fine L.P. on Capitol in the States named after his own hit :Elvira". From Oklahoma, Frazier has a plaintive but strong voice, similar to Charlie Rich's; although he rarely seems able to take himself or his songs seriously, he can sing a straight ballad verywell, as in "Especially For You". His faster songs often use the "alley" piano which was first used 9as far as I know) by Leiber and Stoller in their arrangement for "Searchin'" by the Coasters.
Lonnie Mack (who, like White, was born in Louisiana) is best known as a guitarist; he sneaked into the U.S. charts in 1963 with a version of Chuck Berry's "Memphis" in the middle of the surfin' music craze; neither surfing nor Mack meant much here, and Stateside didn't persevere very long with releasing his stuff. A couple of years ago President got the rights to Fraternity material, and released an L.P., "The Wham Of The Memphis Man" which included not only his instrumental hits, "Memphis", "Wham", and "Down In The Dumps", but several vocal tracks. If he'd been asked, Mack would probably have credited Elvis Presley and Ray Charles as his major influences - he has the adventurous approach to lyrics of the early Presley, and the easy relationship with an answering vocal group that Ray Charles pioneered.
Mack's version of Hank Ballard's "I'll Keep You Happy" is a fine pop song. Doing Jimmy Reed's "Baby, What's Wrong", Mack sounds a bit like Jerry Lee Lewis, confidently hanging back behind the beat, then coming in on it with a fierce guitar solo. Best of all the vocal tracks is his own "Why", which shifts from gentle reflection to harsh challenge, laced together by his sharp, economical guitar playing.
The instrumental tracks still sound good, much more varied than most of the better known, earlier Memphis instrumentals by Bill Black's Combo. The six-piece band (for once named and pictured on the sleeve) made a rich sound, archieving an intense rhythm with what sounds like about three guitars, plus piano, drums and a sax section; who played what, the sleeve note doesn't tell us. Very few guitarists can say as much with so little effort and so few notes as Lonnie Mack does on "Down And Out", or get such an insistent rhythm without bullying, as he does again and again, on "Wham", "Memphis", "The Bounce".
Many thanks to the readers who've sent comments, criticisms and corrections; John Anderson pointed out that Wilbert Harrison was from Florida, not New Orleans, and that he cut "Kansas City" for Fury in New York; a biography and discography of Harrison were in "Soul Music 33", a Fury label listing was in "Soul Music 20". Ron Poore writes to say that Charlie Rich went to Hi after he left Phillips International, then on to RCA, Smash, and most recently he's been with Epic.
1968.
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