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Overlooked blues powerhouse Duffy Power never got his due, but a recently unearthed album with progressive rockers Argent shows that he could deliver the goods.<\/b><\/p>\nOverlooked blues powerhouse Duffy Power never got his due, but a recently unearthed album with progressive rockers Argent shows that he could deliver the goods.<\/b><\/p>\n
London-born singer Raymond Howard started out as a rock \u2018n\u2019 roller; he was performing in clubs by age 18. Discovered and rechristened by impresario Larry Parnes as Duffy Power, he would release more than a dozen singles between 1959 and 1967 on a variety of labels (Fontana, Parlophone, Jamie, Decca). Nothing much happened with those records; Power\u2019s first love was the blues.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Parnes I never liked anything I recorded,\u201d he told author Richie Unterberger in 1998, \u201cand [I] never performed any of it onstage.\u201d Nonetheless, he did record with superb bands including The Graham Bond Quartet; they backed him on an early cover of The Beatles\u2019 \u201cI Saw Her Standing There.\u201d Yet as the \u201860s drew to a close, Power had yet to secure an album deal.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, The Zombies\u2019 era as a unit was coming to an end. After a promising start with their debut single \u201cShe\u2019s Not There,\u201d the London group found each of its successive singles failing to match that record\u2019s success. The group\u2019s second album, Odessey and Oracle<\/i> had been released but had failed to take off in the marketplace, and in 1967 the group folded.<\/p>\n
Zombies songwriters Rod Argent and Chris White had long since developed a productive working relationship, so the two opted to continue. They launched a band using Argent\u2019s surname; White would be a non-performing songwriting member; he also co-produced the group\u2019s recordings.<\/p>\n
When The Zombies\u2019 \u201cTime of the Season\u201d became a posthumous hit for the group, Argent and White leveraged the associated interest. \u201cWe went over to CBS [Records] and got a deal to produce new artists,\u201d White recalls. Recordings featuring Nexus Productions\u2019 early clients failed to set the charts alight, but they kept looking.<\/p>\n
The two knew Duffy Power. \u201cWe had played with him at concerts,\u201d White recalls. \u201cHe had a great voice, and a great feel for the blues,\u201d he says. But White thought that Power\u2019s talent was unappreciated and being wasted. So he and Argent decided to record a demo with the singer.<\/p>\n
A May 1970 session at Regent Sound featured Power with Argent on piano plus a two-man rhythm section. That session yielded a Power original, \u201cLilly,\u201d and a reading of Robert Johnson\u2019s blues classic \u201cHell Hound.\u201d A later overdub added guitar by Patto guitarist Ollie Halsall plus a horn section. \u201cWe wanted \u2018Hummingbird\u2019 to be the A-side,\u201d White recalls, but when BB King released his own version of the tune, CBS said no. CBS released the \u201cHell Hound\u201d single in September, but it went nowhere.<\/p>\n
Around the same time, a cache of Power\u2019s earlier recordings with top-flight musicians including John McLaughlin and Jack Bruce were released as an album, Innovations<\/i>. The modest success of that record increased CBS\u2019 interest in Duffy, and work began on an album of new material, with Argent and White producing.<\/p>\n
The primary lineup for the sessions featured Argent plus his band mates: bassist Jim Rodford, guitarist Russ Ballard and drummer Bob Henrit. \u201cDuffy brought some of his mates to play on other songs,\u201d says Henrit. Those mates included Danny Thompson and Terry Cox from Pentangle, Sam Mitchell and several backing vocalists.<\/p>\n
Belying Power\u2019s reputation as an erratic personality, White says that when it came to the blues, \u201che was fantastic.\u201d Pausing a beat, White adds, \u201cHe did<\/i> smoke a lot of pot, though. But I just loved his cool and relaxed attitude. With Duffy, it was usually one take; he\u2019d get the feeling because his heart was in it.\u201d<\/p>\n
As work continued on the album, CBS re-released \u201cHell Hound,\u201d relegating it to the single\u2019s B-side; \u201cHummingbird\u201d would now be the A-side.<\/p>\n
White says that little time was required to come up with arrangements for the songs. \u201cIt was basically Rod sitting down at his keyboard, talking to Duffy, rehearsing a bit and then putting a track down,\u201d he recalls. \u201cSimple as that.\u201d By design, the sessions had a live-in-the-studio feel. \u201cThat\u2019s what we liked about Duffy,\u201d White says. \u201cHis blues thing was always ad-libbed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody was contributing,\u201d says Henrit. He notes that Argent\u2019s history with Power made the sessions almost effortless. \u201cWe had toured with him for, I think, 31 gigs,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAnd if you\u2019re touring with somebody, you get to know them a lot better than just being in the studio.\u201d Work on the album proceeded quickly and smoothly. \u201cWe just went into the studio and got on with it,\u201d Henrit says.<\/p>\n
When Argent and White finished the 11-track album, they presented the master to CBS. The label\u2019s response shocked the producers. \u201cThey said it was \u2018a bit loose,\u2019 and that it needed more professional work on it,\u201d White recalls. \u201cWhich we totally disagreed with.\u201d Argent and White stood firm, unwilling to make changes to what they viewed as a fine and finished album. In response, CBS canceled the planned release.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they may have been looking for an excuse,\u201d Bob Henrit surmises. He suggests that CBS might have thought Duffy Power \u201cwasn\u2019t ready for worldwide stardom. He was very bluesy and jazzy, so maybe they just didn\u2019t know what to do with him, how to market him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not long after the non-release of the 1971 sessions, two albums \u2013 both titled Duffy Power<\/i> \u2013 appeared on record store shelves. One was a compilation of \u201860s tracks; the other an album of new material co-produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. Later in that decade, Power would cut another LP for a small label; it too sank without a trace. Power left the music business (\u201cHe ended up a drive instructor,\u201d White believes) but did eventually return to music, gaining some measure of success in the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n Power died in 2014. But the recently-unearthed recording from 1971 comes closer than any previous release in showcasing the unique artistry of this blues singer.<\/p>\n Duffy Power & Argent\u2019s Hell Hound: The Lost 1971 CBS Album<\/i> was released May 16 by Think Like a Key Music, in 2CD, WAV\/FLAC and MP3 formats. The album includes the original 11 tracks recorded for the unreleased record plus additional demos and alternate mixes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Overlooked blues powerhouse Duffy Power never got his due, but a recently unearthed album with progressive rockers Argent shows that he could deliver the goods. London-born singer Raymond Howard started […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,41,49],"tags":[4944,5715,5714,5713,1872],"class_list":["post-29564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-interview","category-new-release","tag-argent","tag-bob-henrit","tag-chris-white","tag-duffy-power","tag-rod-argent","cat-9-id","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29566,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29564\/revisions\/29566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}