CARLA THOMAS: THE QUEEN ALONE (1967)
1) Any Day Now; 2) Stop Thief;
3) I Take It To My Baby; 4) I Want To Be Your Baby; 5) Something Good (Is Going
To Happen To You); 6) When Tomorrow Comes; 7) I'll Always Have Faith In You; 8)
All I See Is You; 9) Unchanging Love; 10) Give Me Enough (To Keep Me Going);
11) Lie To Keep Me From Crying.
The meaning of the title is that Otis Redding
and Carla had only just recently completed a duets album called King & Queen, where Carla's role was
somewhat more supportive, so it was only fair to give her an autonomous chance
— while making the «queen» moniker stick, particularly since Aretha was only on
the verge of her national breakthrough, and the proverbial crown was pretty
much up for grabs, whoever claimed it first.
As usual, nothing particularly outstanding is
going on, but the record is a bit more consistent and fun than Carla, the real good news being that
the Porter/Hayes duo are now contributing a good half of the songs instead of
just two, as it used to be. Unsurprisingly, this half is the best half of all,
with playful grooves, hooky choruses, and plenty of charming entertainment
value, most of it due to the composers rather than the players and the singers.
ʽStop Thiefʼ ("give me back my heart") features smart usage of the
cleptomaniac metaphor; ʽI Take It To My Babyʼ uses an oddly nagging cowbell to
bring the message home; ʽSomething Goodʼ recycles the lead-vs.-backing vocals
trick previously used on ʽB-A-B-Yʼ to raise the seductiveness of the tune above
average level; ʽWhen Tomorrow Comesʼ rides a slightly modified version of the
ʽMy Girlʼ bass riff that gives this love ballad a funky edge; and only the
straightforward waltz ʽUnchanging Loveʼ looks like it took about two minutes to
piece together, though Carla still gives it her best.
The non-Porter/Hayes songs tend to drift into
schmaltz, sometimes of a pretty variety (ʽGive Me Enoughʼ, with gorgeous
falsetto harmonies), sometimes of a boring one (ʽAll I See Is Youʼ). Interestingly,
neither of these tunes, nor the even schmaltzier ʽAny Day Nowʼ, a strings-heavy
Bacharach cover, were chosen as the singles — the first single was ʽSomething
Goodʼ, clearly attesting to the fact that Atlantic/Stax were trying to repeat
the success of ʽB-A-B-Yʼ; unfortunately, the success proved to be
unrepeatable, with R&B audiences growing less and less interested in such «bubblegummy»
stuff.
The album was, nevertheless, fortunate enough
to be oficially remastered and released in an expanded CD package on its 40th
jubilee, with five bonus tracks that seem to have been outtakes (I do not see
them listed as contemporary singles or anything), including a minor pop gem
called ʽMe And My Clockʼ and more of the same ordinary, but listenable R&B
grooves. All in all, very disappointing for a true «queen-level» album (the
real queen was just minutes away from showing the true meaning of R&B
royalty), but a solid treat for any solid fan of conventional mid-Sixties R&B.
No comments:
Post a Comment