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All posts for the month March, 2018

Two by Malvina Reynolds

Posted by funky16corners on March 25, 2018
Posted in: acoustic, Culture, folk, Iron Leg, Music. 1 Comment

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Malvina Reynolds

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Listen/Download – Malvina Reynolds – The New Restaurant

Listen/Download – Malvina Reynolds – I Don’t Mind Failing

Greetings all.

If the name Malvina Reynolds isn’t a familiar one, you’ve probably heard her music before. Her song ‘Little Boxes’ has had a second life in commercials and as the theme song to the show ‘Weeds’.

Born in 1900, Reynolds herself was a pioneering singer songwriter, leftist/feminist, having worked as a musician before getting her masters and doctorate in the late 1930s, and only really devoting herself to music (again) in her late 40s.

Pete Seeger popularized ‘Little Boxes’ her paen to the deadening uniformity of suburbia, and she went on to record her first LP for Folkways in 1960, and then her most popular album (from whence today’s selections come) for Columbia in 1967.

‘Malvina Reynolds Sings the Truth’ is a quiet, low-key (yet razor sharp) masterpiece of poetic social commentary.

The first few times I listened to the album I found my brain trying to wrap itself around the music, and continually slipping off, until – that is – I figured it out.

I walked into the listening session expecting a ‘folk singer’, which in some basic ways, Reynolds is, yet the content of the music reveals her to be so much more.

Here we have a woman, well into her 60s, presaging an uncompromising take on what would soon be labeled ‘singer/songwriter’ music.

Yet Reynolds, really – if not sui generis – is far enough out that the group of musicians she belongs to is almost imperceptible unless you cast your net wide enough to include the likes of Jake Thackray.

Her songs are literary, in an almost Raymond Carver-ish way, ironic, symbolic and philosophical.

The two songs I picked to bring you today are ‘The New Restaurant’ and ‘I Don’t Mind Failing’, both in their own ways, meditations on modern society.

‘The New Restaurant’ is an almost circular song, singing the praises of the fancy, superficial accoutrements but always coming back to the idea that in spite of all the flash the restaurant has failed at its most basic mission, i.e. FOOD.

‘I Don’t Mind Failing’ is a testimonial to the power of just living your life, a cry against Trumpism 50 years before it’s rise.

Malvina Reynolds may not be for everyone, but I find the more I listen to this album, the deeper it gets.

I hope it works that way for you, too.

See you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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The Cowsills Meet Connie Stevens

Posted by funky16corners on March 18, 2018
Posted in: 45s, cover versions, Cowsills Project, Culture, Iron Leg, Music, pop, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

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The Cowsills and Connie Stevens

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Listen/Download – The Cowsills – Most of All

Listen/Download – Connie Stevens – Most of All

Greetings all.

If you follow Iron Leg (the blog or the podcast) you will already know that I am a huge fan of the Cowsills.

A few years back, during a dig in Pittsburgh I was lucky enough to put my hands on copies of all of their little-heard but excellent pre-MGM 45s.

The band (when it was just the boys) had built up a head of steam as local favorites in New England,and recorded some excellent records for Johnny Nash’s JoDa label and then a few for Mercury’s Philips subsidiary.

One their early records that really caught my ear was the tune ‘Most of All’.

Written by Gary Geld and Peter Udell (who wrote Bryan Hyland’s ‘Sealed With a Kiss’ and the Walker Brothers (and the Carpenters) ‘Hurting Each Other’), ‘Most of All’ is a groovy little pop number that is redolent of that transitional period when the Beatles were spurring all kinds of groups to drag earlier pop styles into the 60s.

The chord changes are interesting, and the Cowsills vocals are (typically) excellent.

When I started to dig for information on the record I discovered that the song had gotten around, also having been recorded by Connie Stevens.

Her version of the song is a sugary sweet pop confection, with any and all rock feeling of the Cowsills version stripped away. This is not to say that it’s bad – which it isn’t – but in her hands it’s a different kind of record entirely. It was also produced by Dick Glasser, who produced many of the Apollas’ 45s.

The information I’ve found suggests that the Cowsills version was released shortly before Stevens’ (by a month) and outperformed hers significantly, charting in a number of Northeast markets (where Stevens doesn’t appeared to have charted anywhere,  having had her last significant hit the previous year with ‘Now That You’ve Gone’).

The good thing is, that if you dig either of these records, they’re both inexpensive.

I hope you like them, and I’ll see you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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Piccola Pupa – Break Away

Posted by funky16corners on March 11, 2018
Posted in: 45s, cover versions, Culture, Iron Leg, Music, pop. Leave a comment

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Piccola Pupa with Dean Martin on the Hollywood Palace

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Listen/Download – Piccola Pupa – Break Away

Greetings all.

Today’s selection is a record that I had been in search of for years, before finally scoring a copy a few months ago.

‘Breakway’, written by Jackie Deshannon and Sharon Sheeley is best known via the 1964 version by Irma Thomas, where it appeared on the flipside of her epic ballad ‘I Wish Someone Would Care’ (and appeared on the LP of the same name).

Deshannon also recorded a demo version of the song but that remained in the can until the 1994 ‘What the World Needs Now…’ collection.

The version I bring you today is a 1965 recording by the oddly named Piccola Pupa.

Born Giuliana Coverlizza, in Italy, Piccola Pupa (translating as Little Doll) came to the United States as a protégé of TV comedian Danny Thomas.

She appeared on the Danny Thomas Show a number of times, as well as all manner of US variety and dance party shows (including Hollywood A Go Go, Shindig and American Bandstand) and appeared in ‘The Ghost In the Invisible Bikini’ singing ‘Stand Up and Fight’.

Though it’s hard to find a lot of info on her, it would appear (going by her vinyl releases) that the initial idea was to present her as a teen idol-type, which eventually morphed into ‘international singer’ (her sole album, from 1967 is almost entirely sung in Italian).

She recorded ‘Break Away’ (sic) in 1965 with a killer arrangement by Perry Botkin Jr.

Though Pupa wasn’t a terribly strong singer, she does a bang up job on ‘Break Away’ managing to work in bits of girl group, 1965 LA pop and even a little bit of soul.

I suppose a lot of this is testament to the greatness of the song itself, but the different arrangement and the great production by Gil Garfield (who had written and produced for Robin Ward) makes this version stand out.

Piccola Pupa pretty much retired from the music industry by her late teens, returning to Italy where she still lives today.

I hope you dig the track and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #83

Posted by funky16corners on March 4, 2018
Posted in: 45s, Au Go Go, Bacharach/David, Baroque, Beatles-esque Sounds, Brill Building, British Beat, Buffalo Springfield, cover versions, Culture, Easy Listening, Exploito, folk rock, Iron Leg, Laurel Canyon, Music, pop, psychedelia, Rock, Soundtrack, Sunset Strip, Sunshine Pop. Leave a comment

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Why hello there!

Playlist

Buddy Greco – Time’s A Wasting When Your Gone (Epic)
Judy Henske – Hey Babe (Elektra)
Judy Henske – Nobody Knows (Elektra)
Piccola Pupa – Break Away (WB)

Group Therapy – Foxy Lady (RCA)
Group Therapy – Hey Joe (RCA)
Group Therapy – Morning Dew (RCA)
Bagetelle – Such a Fuss About Sunday (ABC)

Don Sebesky and the Jazz Rock Syndrome – Somebody Groovy (Verve)
Don Sebesky and the Jazz Rock Syndrome – Dancing In the Street (Verve)
Don Sebesky and the Jazz Rock Syndrome – I Dig Rock and Roll Music (Verve)
Folkswingers – Shapes of Things (World Pacific)
Folkswingers – Grim Reaper of Love (World Pacific)

Chaps – Ascension To Virginity (Decca)
Chaps – Constant Journey (Decca)
El Chicano – Un Mundo (MCA)
Searchers – This Empty Place (Kapp)

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #83 – 170MB/256kbps

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It’s Iron Leg Radio time again!

We’re back with a grip of new and recent arrivals, including groovers from Buddy Greco (seriously, check it out!), Judy Henske, Piccola Pupa, Group Therapy, the Bagatelle, Don Sebesky and the Jazz Rock Syndrome, Folkswingers, Chaps, El Chicano and the Searchers!

Dig it all, and make sure to subscribe to the show as a podcast in iTunes.

Click here to subscribe to any of the Funky16Corners Radio Network shows!

See you next week!

Peace

Larry

 

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If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

Example

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PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.