BRENDA HOLLOWAY: THE EARLY YEARS (1962-1964/2009)
1) Constant Love; 2) Suddenly;
3) The Game Of Love; 4) Hey Fool; 5) I Never Knew You Looked So Good Until I
Quit You; 6) I Want A Boyfriend (Girlfriend); 7) I'll Give My Life; 8) I Ain't
Gonna Take You Back; 9) Gonna Make You Mine; 10) Unless I Have You; 11) Candy;
12) Echo; 13) I Get A Feeling; 14) It's You; 15) He's Gone; 16) The Nursery;
17) Will You Be My Love; 18) I Told You Baby; 19) I'll Find Myself A Guy; 20)
Do The Del Viking, Pt. 1; 21) You're My Only Love; 22) Every Little Bit Hurts
(demo).
Few people know that Brenda Holloway actually
had a recording career prior to her Motown engagement — and probably even fewer
give a damn about that. Big frickin'
mistake, as it turns out, now that we have this wonderful, carefully assembled
collection of the various tracks that she recorded either as a solo artist, or
as part of a duo or a vocal band from 1962 to early 1964. This compilation, as
inauspicious as it is on the surface, is actually a fun-filled, representative
slice of, let's say so, «Afro-American bubble-gum pop» in the pre-British
Invasion era, and is not to be missed by any nostalgic fan of those young and
innocent days.
First of all, it is interesting that very
little here, if anything at all, actually sounds like ʽEvery Little Bit Hurtsʼ
(for some strange reason, her original recording of it from 1962 is omitted
here in favor of a new demo version from 1964, for Motown already — with strings
instead of keyboards). Instead of being slow, regal, and tragic, she comes
across as upbeat, energetic, loud, sometimes even abrasive — and occasionally
screeching her head off with even more recklessness than Aretha in those same
years. Of course, this is all basically «teen pop» without much pretense at
depth of any sort, but it does raise the issue of pigeonholing: here, she is
all over the place, and then, in one year's time, she'd become a prisoner of
her biggest hit. Was that voluntary, or the result of Motown's forceful
image-making? Just three or four of these songs, had they been included on her
first LP, would have made it far less formulaic and far more exciting.
For instance, here is her first single, ʽHey
Foolʼ, credited to Jesse James and released on the small Donna label — a gritty
blues-rocker with a scorching electric guitar solo played by God knows who, but
with a fierce, piercing tone that reminds one of Freddie King (and,
subsequently, early Yardbirds-era Clapton). The rhythm section is a bit wobbly,
but guitar and vocals are impeccable. And the B-side is ʽEchoʼ, co-credited to
Brenda and her sister Patrice — a slow, waltzing ballad this time, but with an
imaginative gimmick as Brenda and Patrice bounce their "there's an echo...
echo... echo..." off each other in a unique combination (they have
slightly different ranges whose interference produces an almost psychedelic
effect). Both these songs are better
than just about anything on her Motown debut, bar the big hit single, of
course.
Several of the songs are exciting and hilarious
duets with male singers: on ʽI Never Knew You Looked So Good Until I Quit Youʼ
and ʽGonna Make You Mineʼ, she is downright nasty and raunchy, roughing up her
vocal cords while Jess Harris is playing the part of the dumb, but weirdly
seductive, baritone — and on ʽI Want A Boyfriendʼ, recorded with Robert
Jackson, they put a sharp echo effect on her already hysterical "I want a,
I want a, I want a boyfriend!" intro that is guaranteed to glue your
attention: there was not a single song in her Motown catalog where she would
sound that fiery and insistent. And
in each and every one of these vocal battles, she always makes it clear who's
on top and who's really in the background.
One has to be careful, though, because not
every one of these tracks has Brenda as lead vocalist: for instance, the one
single included here under the name of ʽThe Four J'sʼ (appropriately recorded
for the 4J label) features two other ladies, while Holloway is dismissed to the
position of background singer; and the joke number ʽDo The Del Viking, Pt. 1ʼ was
released under the name of Patricia Holloway, so I suppose that once again,
Brenda is just singing backup here. But that's not a big problem, because, like
I said, the collection works as a «wholistic» package — sort of «the early life
and times of Brenda Holloway», a little bit of a working Odyssey as she goes
through label after label, team after team, style after style, carefully
building up an original pedigree that would eventually assure her a place in
the big leagues (and not a very respectable place at that — this compilation
definitely shows that she deserved a lot better).
Discussing the other songs would not be very
helpful, because composition and arrangements are predictably not the strongest
elements here: most of the chord sequences, lyrics, and sentiments are totally
in line with the formulae of the day. And this is the mistake which most people
who have reviewed this package seem to have made — for some reason, they tended
to focus on the songs, when in reality you have to focus on the delivery of the songs, on the character behind the songs, and on the difference between this character and
Brenda's subsequent Motown image. Just put on ʽI Never Knew You Looked So Goodʼ
and then go listen to some of her
Motown dirges, and it's like two different singers, and it's, like, a
transition that took place in between when she was fifteen years of age and seventeen
years of age. Reason enough to be at least slightly amazed, not to mention
seriously amused, and to issue a surefire thumbs up and a strong recommendation, provided
the package is still circulating somewhere out there.
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