01.28.2021
AMERICANA SIN LÁGRIMAS PART ONE
Liverpool, 1972.
The tide is out.
Not much Merseybeat that I could hear.
“Famepushers” finest at The Cavern.
Met Nick Lowe in The Grapes on Mathew Street.
Donny, Little Jimmy and David, T Rex, The Sweet, Slade and Marmalade on the radio.
Fading signal from Luxembourg after what had once been the Light Programme went off in the wee small hours of the morning.
The map of America looked like this:Tamla was from Motown, Stax from Memphis but Lee Dorsey was “Working In A Coalmine”, he would “Ride Your Pony” and your “Holy Cow” down South in New Orleans.
Lee said, “Get Out My Life Woman”
The Brinsleys sang of his “Wonder Woman” at The Cavern
All written and produced by Allen Toussaint.
Cool as a pistol, sharp as a blade…
Some time later…
Pathway Studio. 1977
A bloom of Clover, a Fantasy band Dick Whittington-ed to London from Marin County just as their luck ran out.
I was the fortunate son.
The crew on the first mission was just Squadron Leader N.D. Lowe at the controls with Clover’s drummer, Mickey Shine and John McFee on pedal steel.
Nick swung the bass-line of “Radio Sweetheart” and a drumstick swept down the piano keys in a “Mystery Dance”.
Took a train past sweet Virginia Water to an old workhouse on the Liphook road on sick days and holidays to meet a whole bunch of Clover, bassist John Ciambotti and keyboard player, Sean Hopper, while singers, Alex Call and Huey Lewis sat on the sidelines or went to the pub.
Welcome to the working week. Days at an IBM 360 in an air-conditioned cubicle next to the lipstick factory.
Nights whispering songs meant to be hollered.
Five months later, I discovered America.
The reverse could not said to be true.
It was a year of overstatement and denial. Or as Joe Strummer might have put it “No Beatles, Stones or George Jones in 1977”.
I had a premonition called “Stranger In The House”
It turned out to be my ticket to Nashville.
Would it be a “Brilliant Mistake” or a “Mission Impossible”?
Could you poison a rose with the same hands that propelled Little Richard’s “Rip It Up”?
I don’t know, but it all came true in a matter of time.
To be continued……
1) RADIO SWEETHEART – Elvis Costello from “My Aim Is True”
2) DON’T LOSE YOUR GRIP ON LOVE – Brinsley Schwarz from “Surrender To The Rhythm”
3) THE UGLY THINGS – Elvis Costello from “Spike”
4) MR MOON – Clover from “Forty-Niner”
5) LIP SERVICE – Elvis Costello from “My Aim Is True”
6) KING OF CONFIDENCE – Elvis Costello from “King Of America” –
7) STRANGER IN THE HOUSE – Elvis Costello from “My Aim Is True”
8) WONDER WOMAN – Lee Dorsey from “Ride Your Pony”
11) BRILLIANT MISTAKE – Elvis Costello from “King Of America”
12) RIP IT UP – Little Richard from “Here’s Little Richard”
13) POISONED ROSE – Elvis Costello from “King Of America”14) MISSION IMPOSSIBLE – John E Davis & Lalo Schifrin 15 Featuring Earl Palmer from “Mission Impossible: Then & Now”
15) LOSING GAME – La Santa Cecilia with Elvis Costello from “Treinta Dias”
16) SHIP OF FOOLS – Elvis Costello from “Dedicated” & “Kojak Variety”
17) YOU BOWED DOWN – Roger McGuinn with Elvis Costello from “Back From Rio”
18) A MATTER OF TIME – Elvis Costello & Los Lobos from “The Ride” (Los Lobos)