{"id":5812,"date":"2014-06-09T05:30:08","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T09:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=5812"},"modified":"2014-06-09T05:30:08","modified_gmt":"2014-06-09T09:30:08","slug":"capsule-reviews-and-yet-three-more-from-real-gone-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/09\/capsule-reviews-and-yet-three-more-from-real-gone-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Capsule Reviews: And Yet Three More from Real Gone Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s the third of four collections of brief reviews of recently-released reissues and\/or compilations from Real Gone Music<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Dr. John, The Night Tripper \u2013 <\/strong>GRIS-gris<\/strong><\/em>
\nDr. John<\/strong> (aka Mac Rebbenack<\/strong>) was a well-known fixture on the New Orleans music scene long before he cut this, his debut album in 1968. And while he’d later enjoy commercial success with his 1973 single, \u201cRight Place Wrong Time,\u201d this album makes no concessions to the marketplace. As Richie Unterberger<\/strong><\/a>‘s liner notes mention, Atlantic head Ahmet Ertegun<\/strong> is reputed to have asked, \u201cHow can we market this boogaloo crap?\u201d It’s a weird, spooky gumbo of cajun, voodoo, jazz and funk styles, all filtered through a thick, (hard-) druggy haze. The audio quality on some tracks \u2013 notably \u201cDanse Kalinda Ba Doom\u201d makes it sound as if the mics were all in the next room over from the musicians (who sound as if they’re dancing over a cauldron while playing).<\/p>\n

Definitely weird stuff and not for the faint of heart, GRIS-gris<\/em> is nonetheless a historically important musical document. For a bit of fun, compare Dr. John’s reading of \u201cI Walk on Guilded Splinters\u201d (sic) with the one cut live by Humble Pie<\/strong><\/a>. If you’re open to the sonic equivalent of a bad trip sprinkled liberally with Louisiana hot sauce, this is the ticket.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Irma Thomas \u2013 Full Time Woman: The Lost Cotillion Album<\/em><\/strong>
\nSpeaking of New Orleans, here’s a previously unreleased cache of recordings from the vocalist known as the \u201cSoul Queen of New Orleans.\u201d Irma Thomas<\/strong> had cut a pair of albums for Imperial in the mid 1960s, and even earlier (1960) enjoyed a brief chart presence with \u201c(You Can Have My Husband But) Don’t Mess With My Man.\u201d And in the early part of the 70s, she was signed to Atlantic associated label Cotillion, for whom she cut fifteen songs. Only two were released: \u201cFull Time Woman\u201d and its b-side, \u201cShe’s Taken My Part.\u201d For reasons that seemed to have to do with changing popular tastes, none of the other material was ever released.<\/p>\n

But once again, Real Gone Music comes to rescue, and the results are quality stuff, very much in line with what Aretha Franklin<\/strong> was doing in those days. David Nathan<\/strong>‘s liner notes tell the story in rich detail.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/center>Patti Labelle and The Bluebelles \u2013 <\/strong>The Complete Atlantic Sides Plus<\/strong><\/em>
\nIf you like your r&b female vocal a little gritter and soulful than The Supremes<\/strong>, then if you don’t already know about Patti Labelle & the Bluebelles<\/strong>, you owe it to yourself to check out this comprehensive set. Acts like The Bluebelles were always focused more on singles than album-length releases, so with this collection \u2013 forty tracks including all the single releases the group had on Atlantic, plus some other scattered gems including several previously-unreleased cuts \u2013 listeners get a good overview of what they were all about.<\/p>\n

Despite their efforts, not a single one of these tunes (other than \u201cAll Or Nothing\u201d b\/w \u201cOver the Rainbow\u201d) dented the pop charts. Of course once they’d altered their approach and shortened their name to Labelle<\/strong>, they’d hit it big with 1974’s \u201cLady Marmalade.\u201d But these earlier sides \u2013 dating 1965 to 1969 \u2013 are quite good and have sadly been long overlooked.<\/p>\n

Still more on the way.<\/p>\n

Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on \"\" Twitter<\/a> and get notified
\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s the third of four collections of brief reviews of recently-released reissues and\/or compilations from Real Gone Music. Dr. John, The Night Tripper \u2013 GRIS-gris Dr. John (aka Mac Rebbenack) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,64,65,69],"tags":[351,712,1061,1368,1656,1796],"class_list":["post-5812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rb","category-reissue","category-review","category-soul","tag-bluebelles","tag-dr-john","tag-irma-thomas","tag-mac-rebbenack","tag-patti-labelle","tag-real-gone-music","cat-60-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}