CANDI STATON: I'M JUST A PRISONER (1970)
1) Someone You Use; 2) I'd
Rather Be An Old Man's Sweetheart; 3) You Don't Love Me No More; 4) Evidence;
5) Sweet Feeling; 6) Do Your Duty; 7) That's How Strong My Love Is; 8) I'm Just
A Prisoner (Of Your Good Lovin'); 9) Another Man's Woman, Another Woman's Man;
10) Get It When I Want It.
The «First Lady of Southern Soul» (for about a
few days in the early 1970s) was first discovered by the notorious soulster
Clarence Carter, for whom she was first his backing vocalist, and then his
wife, for about three years. In personal terms, that was improvement over her
first husband, who beat her up — the second one merely cheated, which meant
that the marriage also did not last long. But at least in professional terms
Carter did good for her: recognizing that she had what it takes to step out as
a solo artist, he set her up as such, getting her to Fame Studios at Muscle
Shoals and even writing some songs for her.
Although there is nothing particularly original
or unusual about this debut record (not to mention how small it is — ten short
songs that are over in a jiffy), Clarence's instincts did not fail him: I'm Just A Prisoner is required
listening for any serious fan of old school soul music. The songs have mostly
been written specially for the artist (Carter is joined by other established
songwriters such as George Jackson and Ronnie Shannon, and Staton herself gets
at least one co-credit); the arrangements, given that we find ourselves in
Muscle Shoals, are sonically impeccable; the backing band is tough and knows
how to set itself on fire at all the right moments. But most importantly,
right from the get-go Ms. Staton establishes an awesome presence and keeps it
up right until the end.
Her earliest experience was gospel singing,
which explains why it looks like she's taking Aretha Franklin as her role model
— the power, the passion, the self-assertion, the fight for your right. She
cannot scale the same heights as Aretha, yet, on the other hand, there is a
gritty "bad bitch" vibe to her singing that you cannot find in
Aretha's singing, either, and the whole slant of the album is on aggressive
resistance — just look at these song titles: there are, at best, one or two
songs with sentimental values, and even these are delivered with a flaming
sword (ʽSweet Feelingʼ is a song of rescue and loyalty rather than one of
tender love). Much more often it's about infidelity and treachery, though: the
very first song states that "I'm just someone you run to, I'm just someone
you use", even if it is set to an R&B-pop hybrid melody that one
usually associates with chivalrous serenades from the likes of Sam Cooke.
The best effect is reached, however, when
gritty words rub against gritty music — ʽEvidenceʼ sets up a cool mid-tempo
funky groove as a foundation for two and a half minutes of fervent rants and
verbal slapping in such a pissed-off way as you'd rarely, if ever, get a chance
to hear on an Aretha album. Where Franklin fights for the right to earn
"respect when I come home", Staton makes accusations instead of
demands, with little in the way of reconciliation. It's a hot, infuriating,
involving performance, and the only problem is that the song fades out just as
it begins to hit its stride — which, by the way, is a common problem with most
of the material on here (each of the songs could have benefited from a little
extra jam power). The most extreme case is probably ʽI'd Rather Be An Old Man's
Sweetheartʼ, rolling on a bit faster and explaining how stability in life is
more important than getting it on with young men who'd all rather "do the
camel walk", so, Romeo, take a hike. In theory, this point is debatable on
several levels, but Candi's delivery is so tense, fast, fluent, and powerful
that you barely have the opportunity to retort — she emerges here as a true
master of «artistic flooding».
Accordingly, there's this real powerful gospel
take here on ʽThat's How Strong My Love Isʼ, for some reason featuring a
completely new set of lyrics (compared to the classic Otis Redding version)
and a completely new attitude — one of iron-willed loyalty rather than insane
devotion, all the more ironic seeing as how the song is surrounded on all sides
with tunes complaining about mistreatment and deception. But the irony does not
really matter as long as everything is delivered with credibility — and it is,
enough for the lady to have placed three singles from here in the lower ranges
of the US pop charts and in the higher ranges of the R&B ones. (The biggest
R&B chart success was ʽSweet Feelingʼ, a song melodically reminiscent of
Aretha's ʽI Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)ʼ, but more rhythmically
conventional). Were this released on the Atlantic label, we'd probably be
hearing much more about it than we usually do — but a technical inconvenience
like that should never stand in the way of a well-earned thumbs up.
No comments:
Post a Comment