THE BEAU BRUMMELS: BEAU BRUMMELS '66 (1966)
1) You've Got To Hide Your
Love Away; 2) Mr. Tambourine Man; 3) Louie Louie; 4) Homeward Bound; 5) These
Boots Are Made For Walkin'; 6) Yesterday; 7) Monday Monday; 8) Bang Bang; 9)
Hang On Sloopy; 10) Play With Fire; 11) Woman; 12) Mrs. Brown, You've Got A
Lovely Daughter.
In a blazingly inane move of complete
incompetence, Warner Bros., under whose wing the Brummels found themselves
with their old record label, Autumn, in early 1966, demanded that the band stop
producing original material and release an entire album of covers instead.
Apparently, the thinking process behind it went like this: «This band is not producing
any big hits — maybe they suck at writing songs — but they have a lovely style
of playing — maybe they can fare better covering other people's material —
after all, some of our biggest hits are covers». That the issue was
essentially out of the band's hands is made evident by the fact that they were recording original material — some
of it resurfaced later on archival compilations — but had to put it down in
order to make way for...
...you know, one curious thing that I realize
from time to time is that, even though ʽYesterdayʼ is supposed to be the most frequently covered pop song of all time,
I don't seem to have any covers of it in my not-too-small collection, except
for maybe the Ray Charles version. Of course, this does not say so much about the
song as it does about the average type of artist covering it. But this already
does not bode well for the Beau Brummels. You're risking quite a lot if you
decide to cover ʽYesterdayʼ — simply because the very act may land you in a
category to which you wouldn't really want to belong.
Anyway, if there is one thing that Beau Brummels '66 proves to us, it is
that they had a pretty good reason to stay away from covers on their first two
LPs: as a cover band, the Beau Brummels are a completely, utterly incompetent
bunch. Half of these songs are incompetently chosen, and the other half
incompetently performed — to the point of sounding like clumsy high school parodies
on the artists. It could have been better if the band tried faithfully sticking
to the original arrangements; in keeping with the times, they decided to
«brummelize» them, and the results are almost uniformly disastrous.
Chief culprit here is Sal Valentino, who
thought it would benefit the recordings if he kept straying away from the
melody, changing notes in mid-air, adding extra vocalization, and throwing in
all sorts of annoying mannerisms. What's up with all the "eveyyy-wheey
people stayyyy" and "yes,
and I hear them say" stuff on ʽYou've Got To Hide Your Love Awayʼ? With
the "why don't you play a song
for me" and the "I'd like to
go far, far from the twisted reach..." on ʽMr. Tambourine Manʼ? Why is
Simon's ʽHomeward Boundʼ, a song that should really be performed at
barely-audible level to reveal its full potential, sung with the flamboyance of
a Tom Jones? Why do they think that the last verse of the Stones' ʽPlay With
Fireʼ should rise from the quiet
menace of "now you've got some diamonds..." to the ugly barking
threat of "...or start living with your mother?" There was a good
reason why Mick Jagger never did that, even though the thought might have
visited him — there is no good reason to dump the subtlety here.
But the band's musical decisions are not that
far advanced, either. Extending the Beatles' songs with extra repeated verses
and additional solos — including a solo on ʽYesterdayʼ — seems cheap (for that
matter, completely instrumental versions of these songs might have been a
better move). The decision to do ʽLouie Louieʼ, a lonesome garage rocker among
a sea of folk-pop, is extremely strange — the Brummels were never a rock'n'roll
band, unless, of course, they actually wanted
to prove this by covering the song. They fare a little better with their moody
R'n'B arrangement of Nancy Sinatra's ʽBootsʼ — the combo of melancholic jangly
guitar, fuzz bass, oddly placed chimes, and sneering kill-it-kid vocal delivery
adds some serious spice, but it's also quite telling that the only song in this batch that somehow
stands competition with the original is a cover of Nancy Sinatra.
«Embarrassing» choices, other than the Beatles
songs and ʽLouie Louieʼ, include ʽMr. Tambourine Manʼ (which can only remind
us of the time when the Byrds came into existence and blew the Brummels off the
stage), and ʽMonday Mondayʼ — actually, a decent arrangement, but the choice,
all by itself, places the Brummels on the «oldies» shelf, since The Mamas
& Papas themselves pretty much owed their existence to the BBs, and now
here they are basically acknowledging that somebody already outdid them at
their own game.
All in all, this is one of the most inane cover
albums of the decade — worth a curious peek, perhaps, as a reminder that even a
bunch of absolutely great tunes may be easily spoiled with wrong attitudes and
poor translation from one artist's language to another's. And although the
Brummels would recoil from this artistic disaster, and get their act together
the following year, the damage was done: it struck one further blow at their
reputation, tougher and meaner than all the previous ones. Completely justified
at the time, alas. Thumbs down.
Wow, George! Thanks for the great review. I've been collecting records for YEARS and never knew this even existed. I have the first LP and their later stuff, but didn't know about this one.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm curious and want to hear it for myself! Too bad, cuz like you say, the BB deserve better than this. Not all cover LPs suck. I'm reminded of recent releases by Def Leppard and Rush. Those were GREAT.
thanks, and keep them reviews coming.
John
Toronto
These poor saps never stood a chance. You can safely skip over this twee pop twaddle, straight to the Left Banke. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
ReplyDeleteOh if I have a dollar every time someone bitches about an artist not being reviewed earlier on another artist's reviews...
DeleteI'm not bitching about anything, just mentioning that anything you hear on a Beau Brummels record, you'll hear ten times better from other sources. Such as the Beatles, Byrds, Lovin' Spoonful, Association, and Left Banke.
Delete