Showing posts with label Jon Voight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jon Voight. Show all posts

October 5, 2020

20,000 vinyl LPs 244: The Temptations & Richard Street ~ A Song for You

~     
vinyl LP front cover 
photo by Styrous®


Today, October 5, is the birthday of Richard Street, one of the members of the Motown group, The Temptations, from 1971 to 1993.
 
A number of best-selling hits by The Temptations feature Street's lead vocals, including Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are) (1971), Papa Was a Rollin' Stone (1972), Masterpiece (1973), and he was featured solo on Hey Girl (I Like Your Style) (1973) as well as The First Time I Saw Your Face from the All Directions album (1972) and from this album, A Song for You (1975) Firefly (links below).    
 
First, a bit about the unusual album cover itself. It is completely black both front and back; there have only been two albums totally black with not a single graphic on them. Murray Roman did it with his Blind Man's Movie album in 1969 (link below) and Prince did it in 1987 with his The Black Album.   


vinyl LP back cover 
photo by Styrous®
 

A Flip-Back and Die-cut flap on the front cover spells out the name of the group, The Temptations, and the name is only visible because the grey record sleeve inside shows through the cuts.   
 

vinyl LP front cover 
with Flip-Back + Die-cut flap 
photo by Styrous®
      
 
 
 The Temptations ~ A Song for You  
vinyl LP front cover detail
with Flip-Back + Die-cut flap 
detail photo by Styrous®
 
 

 
vinyl LP front cover 
with Flip-Back + Die-cut flap  
detail photo by Styrous®
  


vinyl LP record sleeve
photo by Styrous®
 
 
 
My favorite cut from the album is The Profit which is totally different from any of the other songs on it. It is moderately slow but with a driving beat that is terrific to slow dance to and features a huge chorus with tons of strings. The lead vocal by Melvin Franklin is sensual, almost erotic but the lyrics are intense and have a religious slant (link below).        


The Profit
 
[Verse 1]
A man cried
“Where do we look? Where do we search? How do we find it?”
A woman cried love
“My body needs love, my soul needs love, how do I find it?”
We all need love, gotta have love
Prophet! Prophet!

[Verse 2]
He said that love will call to you
So follow him, though it’s hard to do
Believe, believe! We gotta believe!
Within your heart is the secret of life
With joy and sorrow, pleasure and strife
Love is all of these things

[Refrain]
I dream of the prophet man from a far distant land
Ali!

[Verse 3]
A priestess said, “Tell us a prayer!”
A lawyer said, “Is law fair?”
Astronomers cried of galaxies and time
A poet said, “Is there duty to find?”
Speak of God, speak of reason
Speak about death, speak about freedom
Gotta have truth, gotta have wisdom
Give us your word to give to our children


[Refrain]
I dream of the prophet man from a far distant land
Ali!

[Bridge]
The clock struck twelve on the church odd wall
Their voices beckoned to the prophet’s call
You give up yourself when you truly give
Possessions shouldn’t rule the life you live
Work with love and love your work
And idle man is a stranger on earth
Blame yourself for wrong deeds done
The innocent can be the guilty ones
Freedom disguises itself in chains
Happiness sometimes hides in pain
Children are made and are born to you
But they’re not slaves that belong to you
God doesn’t listen to the words you pray
He hears what your heart has got to say

[Outro]
I dream of the prophet man from a far distant land
Ali!
I dream of the prophet man from a far distant land

 

The Temptations ~ A Song for You  
vinyl LP record sleeve detail
detail photo by Styrous®


Firefly from A Song for You, which features Street as lead singer, is a slow, dreamy and romantic R&B ballad with tons of strings, a huge chorus and the fantastic bass vocal of Melvin Franklin backing him up.          
 
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone is probably the most well known and popular of all of the The Temptations songs and justifiably so. It was pre-disco and I remember dancing to the radio edit played on jukeboxes in the bars; a couple of years later when disco came in the longer version from the album was played. I'm sure many will forever remember smoke-filled nights (sometimes afternoons) of floating in a haze of dreamland bliss while hearing Street's vocal and the trippy psychedelic effects of the song carry them to heights of happy and sometimes sexual pleasure which seemed to last forever, well, at almost fourteen minutes long, it seems forever even when NOT high!       
  
Happy People and Glasshouse are great funk dance tunes, the latter a bit faster. I remember dancing to them in the bars where it was against the law to dance (discos were still a couple of years away).          
 
Shakey Ground is a moderate speed with a great grinding-beat song that is REALLY terrific to dance with erotic abandon. One of the  girls at the Hungry i on Broadway would use it in her set to GREAT advantage (link below)!        
 
 
The Temptations ~ A Song for You  
vinyl LP record sleeve detail
detail photo by Styrous®
 
 
Richard Street was the first member to actually have been born (1942) and raised in Motown (Detroit, Michigan).       
 
 


Street was the lead singer of Otis Williams & the Distants, which also included future Temptations Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin who was Street's cousin, and Elbridge "Al" Bryant. Williams, Franklin and Bryant, later formed The Temptations with Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams.       
 
He acted in two films, in 1987, Happy New Year, which starred Peter Falk, with a score by Bill Conti and a cover of the song I Only Have Eyes for You performed by The Temptations. In 2006, he appeared in Glory Road which was based on a true story surrounding the events leading to the 1966 NCAA University Division Basketball Championship; Jon Voight starred and the score was composed and orchestrated by musician Trevor Rabin. Street appeared in, Derrick in 1974. This was a German TV crime series produced between 1974 and 1998 starring Horst Tappert as the Detective Chief Inspector. Derrick is considered to be one of the most successful television programmes in German television history, it was also a major international success and the series was sold in over 100 countries. On May 2, 2013 ZDF announced it would no longer carry reruns of the show, after it emerged that Tappert had been untruthful in discussing his service in the Waffen-SS in World War II.          
        
In 1998, NBC aired The Temptations, a four-hour television miniseries based upon an autobiographical book by Otis Williams. Street was portrayed by actor J. August Richards.      

Richard Street died on Friday, February 27, 2013, in Las Vegas, Nevada of a pulmonary embolism; after suffering back pain and breathing difficulties doctors found a clot in his lung. His death occurred nine days after the death of fellow former Temptation Damon Harris. Street is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Cypress, Orange County, California.                
 
At the time of his death, Street was completing his autobiography, Ball of Confusion (referring to The Temptations song Ball of Confusion (That's What the World is Today), which Street did not appear on as he joined The Temptations in 1971, the year after it was released). Completed by his co-author, Gary Flanigan, Ball of Confusion: My Life as a Temptin' Temptation was published in 2014. It is the second autobiographical account of The Temptations, the first being the Otis Williams Temptations book from 1988.                


The Temptations ~ A Song for You  
vinyl LP record sleeve detail
detail photo by Styrous®
 

The Temptations ~ A Song for You  
vinyl LP record sleeve detail
detail photo by Styrous®
 

 



The Temptations ~ A Song for You  
vinyl LP record, side 1
detail photo by Styrous®


The Temptations ~ A Song for You  
vinyl LP record label, side 1
detail photo by Styrous®
 
 
 
 

The Temptations ~ A Song for You  
vinyl LP record, side 2
detail photo by Styrous®


The Temptations ~ A Song for You  
vinyl LP record label, side 2
detail photo by Styrous®
 

Track listing:

Side one

  1. "Happy People" – 3:38 (Lionel Richie, Jeffrey Bowen, Donald Baldwin) ((lead singer: Dennis Edwards)
  2. "Glasshouse" – 3:54 (Charlemagne) (lead singers: Dennis Edwards, Damon Harris, Richard Street, Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin)
  3. "Shakey Ground" – 4:03 (Eddie Hazel, Al Boyd, Bowen) (lead singer: Dennis Edwards)
  4. "The Prophet" – 4:28 (Bowen, Kathy Wakefield, Larry Duncan) (lead singer: Melvin Franklin)
  5. "Happy People" (Instrumental) – 2:57 (Richie, Bowen, Baldwin)

Side two

  1. "A Song for You" – 4:40 (Leon Russell) (lead singer: Dennis Edwards)
  2. "Memories" – 6:01 (Baldwin, Wakefield, Bowen) (lead singer: Dennis Edwards)
  3. "I'm a Bachelor" (Dennis Edwards, Otis Williams, Damon Harris, Richard Street, Melvin Franklin) – 4:21 (lead singer: Dennis Edwards)
  4. "Firefly" – 4:02 (Jesse Boyce) (lead singers: Richard Street, Melvin Franklin)

Personnel:

The Temptations ‎– A Song For You
Label: Gordy ‎– G6-969S1
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Flip-Back + Die-cut sleeve
Country: US
Released: 1975
Genre: Funk / Soul
Style: Soul, Disco       
      
 
 
 
Viewfinder links:             
          
Melvin Franklin          
Prince          
Trevor Rabin         
Richard Street          
The Temptations          
Otis Williams         
          
Net links:             
          
The Hungry i, S. F.          
         
         
YouTube links:             
          
Rare Earth ~ Ma (17 mins., 10 secs.)        
The Temptations ~      
             Firefly (8:07)         
             Happy People         
             Glasshouse             
             Papa Was a Rolling Stone (11:50)    
             The Prophet (13:34)          
             Shakey Ground full album (42:28)    
            
        
 
 
 

 Richard Street - December 14, 2004 
photo By Kim Webster
 
 
 
 
Styrous® ~ Monday, October 5, 2020       
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July 7, 2017

20,000 Vinyl LPs 95: Fred Neil ~ A Midnight Cowboy












Fred Neil       
photographer unknown  



Frederick "Fred" Neil died on this date, July 7, in 2001. He was an American folk singer-songwriter in the 1960s and early 1970s who was highly regarded by contemporary folk singers; however, as he was reluctant to tour, never achieved fame nor commercial success as a performer and is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material. His song, Everybody's Talkin, became a hit for Harry Nilsson after it was used in the film Midnight Cowboy in 1969.       


vinyl LP album
front album cover: movie stills
photo of album cover by Styrous®


In late May of 1997 I was prepping for a fashion show by Obiko (link below) at the Marriott Hotel in Oakland, California to take place on the 6th of June. Entitled, Tribal Visions, it was to be a benefit for  the Asian Health Services. While going to a production meeting with the hotel staff to plan technical details, I was with a couple of members of my team, Phil Hofstetter (photographer/lighting designer) and Don Bright (video). We entered the elevator to go up to the office and a couple of men were in it. One of the men asked me which floor we wanted, I told him and he pressed the button. I thanked him and continued talking to Phil, paying no further attention to the two men who got off a floor before us. After they got out and the doors of the elevator closed, I said to Phil that the man who had talked to me reminded me of, "that guy in Midnight Cowboy but I can't remember his name." Phil said, "Jon Voight was in the movie and that was him"! So close, yet so far!       

An interesting item I discovered when researching for this blog; Michael Sarrazin was cast in the Joe Buck role but shortly before filming he pulled out over a wage dispute. Jon Voight was then brought in to replace him. Midnight Cowboy was his third film and made Voight a star.   





 Jon Voight
vinyl LP album
front album cover detail 
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®



Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. The film was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars the aforementioned Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman.      

Jon Voight plays Joe Buck, a young Texan working as a dishwasher in New York City, hoping to succeed as a male prostitute. Initially unsuccessful, he meets Enrico Salvatore "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a street con man with a limp who introduces him to a pimp (John McGiver). It's a great film and Hoffman's performance is stellar!    



vinyl LP album
back album cover: movie still
photo of album cover by Styrous®



Midnight Cowboy was the first gay-related Best Picture winner and the ONLY X-rated film EVER to win that award, though its rating has since been changed to R. It has been placed 36th on the American Film Institute list of the 100 greatest American films of all time, and 43rd on its 2007 updated version.    



vinyl LP album
album cover detail: movie still
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®



John Barry supervised the music, composed the score and won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Theme. The song, Everybody's Talkin', composed by Fred Neil, won a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for Harry Nilsson. The film's director, John Schlesinger, chose the song as the theme which underscores the first part of the film. Other songs considered for the theme included, I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City, also by Nilsson, and Cowboy by Randy Newman. Bob Dylan wrote Lay Lady Lay to serve as the theme song, but did not finish it in time. The soundtrack album was released by United Artists Records in 1969.        






vinyl LP album
album cover detail
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®


The song, He Quit Me Man, was composed by Warren W. Zevon who was also responsible for  Werewolves of London, Lawyers, Guns and Money, and many other hit songs. I fell in love with Werewolves, of course, which was composed by LeRoy Marinell, Waddy Wachtel, and Zevon (link Below).     

He Quit Me is a terrific song! Lesley Miller swoops 'n soars on it in high-flyin' style. Languid and slow with a great piano and bass sax backup it meanders around with a funky feeling (link below).     

      



vinyl LP album
back cover detail: movie still
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®



The Midnight Cowboy main theme, by John Barry, featured harmonica by Toots Thielemans, but on the LP album version it was played by Tommy Reilly. It is heartrendingly beautiful. It is Moon River without the chorus and the schmaltz. Don't get me wrong, I love Moon River; I think it's one of the most beautiful songs ever written! But ya gotta admit, it's schmaltzy!    

The harmonica in the Theme, played by Tommy Reilly, is gorgeous! It lifts the music above the schmaltz level to something quite wondrous. It is slow and pensive but lonely and distant in a quiet, beautiful way (link below).   


vinyl LP album
back cover detail: movie still
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®


Then there is Everybody's Talkin' written by Fred Neil and sung by Harry Nilsson. To be honest, I didn't like the song when I first heard it; I can't remember why. Because I wasn't crazy about it back then, I haven't really listened to it until I started researching for this blog. I am discovering it for the first time, so to speak, and beginning to like it for reasons I hadn't found before. If I had heard the version by Neil first, I think I would have liked the song right off the bat (links below).   

The song describes a desire to retreat to the ocean, to be alone and in control of your own destiny. It dreams of a better place, maybe a better time. It is fast paced but dreamy at the same time with lush strings overlying it all. The song ends with Nilsson fading out in a "Wah Wah" howl, cry, prayer? It's hard to tell which but it's beautiful.     

Everybody's Talkin' was written and first recorded by singer-songwriter Neil in 1966 but not released until early 1967 with his second album, the self-titled Fred Neil. It was composed towards the end of the recording session, after Neil had become anxious to wrap the album so he could return to his home in Miami, Florida. Manager Herb Cohen promised that if Neil wrote and recorded a final track, he could go. Everybody's Talkin', recorded in one take, was the result.    

The song is among the most famous works of both artists, and has been covered by many other performers. It appeared in the 1994 film Forrest Gump and on the film's soundtrack album. It also appeared in the comedy film Borat, The Hangover Part III soundtrack and in the English television show Black Books.       


vinyl LP album
back cover detail: movie still
detail photo of album cover by Styrous®



Performed by Harry Nilsson, Everybody's Talkin' became a hit in 1969, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and winning a Grammy Award after it was featured in Midnight Cowboy.     



vinyl LP, side 1
photo by Styrous®



Fred Neil was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was exposed to music at an early age, traveling around the US with his father, who was a representative for Wurlitzer Jukeboxes. I think that is totally cool! I've always had a love for Jukeboxes; I almost bought one in the late 50's but it was over a hundred bucks and that was a lot of money back then; to give some perspective, it was four times my monthly rent. 

Neil was a singer-songwriter who worked out of the Brill Building in New York City, a center for music industry offices. While composing at the Building for other artists, Neil also recorded six rockabilly-pop singles for different labels as a solo artist. He wrote songs that were recorded by early rock and roll artists such as Buddy Holly, Come Back Baby - 1958, not to be confused with the slow blues song written and recorded by the blues singer and pianist Walter Davis in 1940 (links below). Neil also wrote Candy Man, 1961, which was recorded by Roy Orbison. The Neil version is slower than the Orbison one (links below).   

Neil met Vince Martin in 1961, and they formed a singing partnership; his first LP, Tear Down The Walls (1965) was recorded with Martin; some really fine harmonizing on the song (links below).  

vinyl LP label, side 1
photo by Styrous®



He was one of the pioneers of the folk rock and singer-songwriter musical genres, and is credited with influencing these prominent musical talents: Tim Buckley, Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Joni Mitchell, Karen Dalton, Tim Hardin, Dino Valenti, Vince Martin, Peter Stampfel (of the avant-folk ensemble the Holy Modal Rounders), John Sebastian (the Lovin' Spoonful), Gram Parsons, Jerry Jeff Walker, Barry McGuire, and Paul Kantner (Jefferson Airplane).  WOW!    





vinyl LP, side 2
photo by Styrous®


In Neil's obituary in Rolling Stone, Anthony DeCurtis wrote, "So why is Neil a hero to David Crosby? Because back when Crosby was an aspiring folkie who just arrived in New York, Neil bothered to take an interest in him, just as he did for the young Bob Dylan, who backed Neil on harmonica at the Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village. 'He taught me that everything was music,' Crosby says."         

In his memoir, Richie Havens recalled Neil and his then-partner Vince Martin, also an American folk singer and songwriter, making an entrance through the audience, without microphones, and getting the audience up and clapping by relying only on their harmonious vocals.        

vinyl LP label, side 2
photo by Styrous®



Many of Neil's 1970s recordings remain unissued, including a 1973 session with Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist John Cipollina and some Woodstock recordings with guitarist Arlen Roth. In a later interview, Ric O'Barry claimed that Neil recorded two albums of cover songs in 1977 and 1978 but that they had been buried by Columbia Records. According to Barry, he produced the first of the recordings in the sessions in Miami. Neil was joined by Pete Childs (link below) on guitar, John Sebastian on harmonica, and Harvey Brooks on bass. The second album was more fully arranged, with Neil accompanied by the New York session band Stuff and some old friends, including Slick Aguilar. The songs on these albums were written by Bobby Charles, John Braheny, Bobby Ingram, Panama Red/Billy Joe Shaver, and Billy Roberts (composer of Hey Joe).    

Neil died from skin cancer in 2001 but as they say, his music lives on and on . . .



Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 – Nilsson* – Everybody's Talkin’, composed by Fred Neil*, vocals by Nilsson* – 2:30

A2 – John Barry – Joe Buck Rides Again, composed by John Barry – 3:46

A3 – The Groop – A Famous Myth, composed by Jeffrey M. Comanor*, vocals by  The Groop – 3:22

A4 – John Barry – Fun City, composed by John Barry – 3:52

A5 – Leslie Miller – He Quit Me Man, composed by Warren W. Zevon*, vocal by  Leslie Miller – 2:46

A6 – Elephants Memory – Jungle Gym At The Zoo, composed by R. Sussman*, R. Frank*, S. Bronstein*, vocals by Elephants Memory – 2:15

Side 1:

B1 – John Barry – Midnight Cowboy, composed by John Barry – 2:34

B2 – Elephants Memory – Old Man Willow, composed by M. Shapiro*, M. Yules*, R. Sussman*, S. Bronstein*, vocals by Elephants Memory – 7:03

B3 – John Barry – Florida Fantasy, composed by John Barry – 2:08

B4 – The Groop - Tears And Joys, composed by Jeffrey M. Comanor*, vocals by  The Groop – 2:29

B5 – John Barry – Science Fiction, composed by John Barry – 1:57

B6 – Nilsson* – Everybody's Talkin', composed by Fred Neal*, vocal by  NIlsson* – 1:54

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Matrix / Runout (Side A, etched, variant 1): UAS-5198A-1A 6>17-69
    Matrix / Runout (Side B, etched, variant 1): UAS-5198A-1B 10>6-69
    Matrix / Runout (Side A, etched, variant 2): UAS-5198A-1A 6-17-69
    Matrix / Runout (Side B, etched, variant 2): UAS-5198B-1A 10-6-69

Various ‎– Midnight Cowboy (Original Motion Picture Score)
Label: United Artists Records ‎– UAS 5198
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1969
Genre: Rock, Stage & Screen
Style: Folk Rock, Score, Soundtrack


         
Net links:           
          
Midnight Cowboy Trivia           
Midnight Cowboy Cast           
Midnight Cowboy Plot summary           
Genius: The Best of Warren Zevon
Fred Neil Discography    
Fred Neil  website   
Fred Neil & Vince Martin     
Pete Childs ~ Fred Neil     
         
Viewfinder links:           
          
         
YouTube links: 
                
Leslie Miller ~ He Quit Me Man
Midnight Cowboy ~ Theme     
The Groop ~ Tears and joys         
The Groop ~ A Famous Myth    
Warren Zevon ~ Werewolves of London            
Harry Nilsson ~ Everybody's Talkin’              
Fred Neil ~ Everybody`s Talkin’      
Fred Neil & Vince Martin ~ Tear Down the Walls         
Fred Neil songs           
Buddy Holly ~ Come Back Baby     
Walter Davis ~ Come Back Baby        
Fred Neil - Candy Man       
Roy Orbison ~ Candy Man       
       
    
     
          
               
My thanks to Lisa who urged me to do this blog 
& for her support of many others. 
          

     
    















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