Author: Kim Simpson

“Whistling Milkman” (1976) – Dave Evans * Written by Dave Evans * LP: Take a Bite Out of Life * Produced by Stefan Grossman * Label: Kicking Mule

The British guitarist Dave Evans found a following among U.S. fingerpickers through two albums on the Kicking Mule label: the all-instrumental Sad Pig Dance (1974) and the half-vocal Take a Bite Out of Life (1976). What set Evans apart, first of all, were his ten fingers, which accommodated his fully-constructed guitar arrangements like the gears and wheels of a clock. Evans’ left hand worked just as hard as the right hand did – no ten-minute unfretted musings passed for compositions in Evans’s world. His tunings, too, varied extraordinarily while his handmade guitars rang with a sweet warmth you’re unlikely to hear elsewhere. His “Whistling Milkman,” which I’m linking to here, could have made for a cheerful children’s TV show theme. (The song appeared on Take a Bite Out of Life although the video link attributes it to a later reissue of Sad Pig Dance that included instrumentals from its successor.) By the early eighties Evans had gone off to Belgium to devote his life to lutherie.

“The ABC’s of Love” (1956) – Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers * Written by George Goldner and Richard Barrett * 45: “The ABS’s of Love” / “Share” * LP: The Teenagers Featuring Frankie Lymon * Label: Gee

The Motown label must have had a hunch in ’69 that their new group, the Jackson 5, would be the Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers of their day. No surprise, then, that those role models’ catalog would get drawn from as inspiration right off the bat. At 1:10, tenor saxophone session ace Jimmy Bryant quotes “Bali Hai” from South Pacific.

“ABC” (1970) – The Jackson 5 * Written and produced by The Corporation (Berry Gordy, Freddie Perren, Alphonzo Mizell, and Deke Richards) * 45: “ABC” / “The Young Folks” * LP: ABC * Label: Motown

A full listen-through is what keeps this overly familiar song fresh. Let the cheerful Sesame Street images of the original album cover come into focus. Open yourself up to flashbacks of the Jackson 5 cartoon’s vibrant colors and happy childhood Saturday mornings. Then let eleven-year-old Michael knock you sideways once again with his wondrous authority: “Sit down, girl! I think I love you! No! Get up, girl! Show me what you can do! Shake it, shake it, baby!…” The 1969 single, with its usage of the “na na na na boo boo” melody in the second verse, appeared on the forefront of an early ’70s pop music preoccupation with children. The song also hearkens to Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers’ “ABC’s of Love,” with Lymon being the same sort of vocal prodigy frontman that Michael appeared to be. The flipside offsets any childishness with a contribution (previously done by the Supremes) to the era’s expanding catalog of socially-conscious soul. “We’re marching with signs, we’re getting in line,” sings Michael at possibly his highest-ever point of political activism on record. 

“Backwards and Forwards” (1984) – Aztec Camera
Written by Roddy Frame * LP: Knife *Produced by Mark Knopfler * Label: Sire

The dullest song on Aztec Camera’s Knife album will nonetheless jump out to fans of Love’s Forever Changes because, at 2:04, the guitar solo quotes the twisty verse melody of “Old Man.” Scotsman Roddy Frame, the creative force behind Aztec Camera, was never secretive about his admiration for the Los Angeles cult group’s late sixties albums, so it comes off as a loving wink.

“Across the Universe” (1970) – The Beatles * Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney * LP: Let It Be * Produced by Phil Spector * Label: Apple

This Lennon number with the tricky guitar intro brings to mind the following: 1) Its far Eastern poetic aura, as if it were a hymn to John Lennon’s liaison with Yoko Ono; 2) evidence that the Maharishi era enhanced the Beatles’ artistry; and 3) that Lennon was a craftsman to the core. The Let It Be album version featured overwrought Phil Spector choirs, while an earlier version included bumble bee hums and horses. The Anthology version presents Lennon having trouble controlling his breath. Perhaps the best version overall is on Let It Be Naked, although it doesn’t include the ascending eighth notes that reinforce the outro on the Spector version. The chorus words jai guru deva are Sanskrit for, roughly, “hail the divine guru.” Lennon had learned them from the Maharishi, and we’re lucky Lennon’s disillusionment didn’t squelch his adoption of those beautiful words in this song. That he places the cosmic affirmative word om on a V chord instead of a I, though, does suggest a characteristic ambivalence. 

“Neighbor Neighbor” (1966) – Jimmy Hughes * Written by Huey Meaux * 45: “Neighbor Neighbor” / “It’s a Good Thing” * Label: Fame

With his fan base in Houston and New Orleans, it was fitting that “Steal Away” Jimmy Hughes would also chart with a song written by Crazy Cajun Records’ Huey Meaux. “Neighbor Neighbor” (1966) reached #4 on Billboard’s R&B chart and #65 on the Hot 100, and captures Percy Sledge’s Alabama cousin sounding like Little Willie John’s rock and roll twin. In 1970, after a few unsuccessful years on Stax/Volt, Hughes would lose patience with the music industry and abandon it for a job with the nuclear industry in Tennessee.

“It’s a New Day (Part 1 and 2)” (1970) – James Brown *Written and produced by James Brown * 45: “It’s a New Day (Part 1 and 2)” / “Georgia on My Mind” * LP: It’s a New Day – Let a Man Come In * Label: King

James Brown’s first charting single of the 1970s—a two-part slab of high grade funk—echoed a familiar strain of soul chauvinism, instructing a woman that where a man is concerned, she should “do what he wants and give what he wants.” Brown’s spoken opening lines, though, sound in retrospect like an incredulous dispatch from the dawn of women’s lib. “Fellas, things have gotten too far gone,” he says. “We’ve gotta let the girls know what they’ve gotta do for us.” In Brown’s “man’s man’s” world, it was girls vs. men. “A man can’t do nothing no more,” he says, before letting out a big, crucial laugh.

“A’Soalin’” (1963) – Peter, Paul and Mary * Traditional Arrangement by Paul Stookey, Elaina Mezzetti, and Tracy Batteaste * LP: (Moving) * Produced by Albert B. Grossman * Label: Warner Bros.

“A’Soalin'” is a folk rendition of “Soul Cake,” a traditional British Christmas song for the dead associated with certain door-to-door proto-Halloween traditions. This one stands out among holiday recordings by creating a haunting, wintry mood; its guitar part, too, still serves as an alluring entry point for newcomers to the instrument. But Paul Stookey’s verse about the “lit-tle chul-dren” brings to mind a demonstrative Dickensian headmaster. On the label, songwriting credits go to Stookey, Mezzetti, and Batteaste, even though it’s an arrangement.