Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

What a bitter-sweet year 1989 was: throughout the year, I was in love, which is nice. Alas, it was unrequited, which is decidedly not nice. Worse, it was in the “friends-zone”. But it was a beautiful, profound friendship, which is nice… It was also a year of parties, more deep friendships, lots of cinema (the bonus track pays tribute to a great year for movies), and political engagement in the struggle against apartheid. It was a wonderful year, despite or perhaps because of the pain of the friend-zone, and so the memories of the music of the year is intense, too.

Nobody can accuse 1989 of having been a fantastic year for mainstream pop music — though it was great for certain subcultures. But some terrible things happened, including Tina Turner’s The Best, with the worst excess led by the intolerable Jive Bunny hits.

At the time, I used to DJ at houseparties, executing carefully judged sequences which would guide and ride the mood of the guests. Sometimes the host would demand Jive Bunny, and would answer my excuse that I did not own this platter of iniquity by recourse to his own record collection. I would like to claim that my hitherto happily boogying audience resolutely sat down in revolt against the evil Bunny, but the fuckers would actually dance extra-hard to it. To this day, the strains of In The Mood and Jailhouse Rock can awaken a homicidal rage in me.

Still, all a good DJ should want is a full dancefloor, and Jive Bunny kept the party going. I’d follow that crap with The Gypsy Kings (a sure-fire winner at these parties), and then find the way back to the better things. I still love Black Box’s Italo-disco megahit Ride On Time (despite all the ethical problems surrounding it), and I said it then and I say it now: Pump Up The Jam is a stone-cold slice-of-genius dance classic.

But I don’t include those tracks in this mix. Still, the songs represented here all were frequent guests on my turntable that year, alongside all the 1970s soul records I bought at the time in superb second-hand record shops I had found.

One album I bought on the day of its local release was Fine Young Cannibals’ The Raw And The Cooked, the long-awaited follow-up to their fine 1985 debut album. Oddly, I soon grew tired of the two big hits on the album, Good Thing and She Drives Me Crazy. It was only in recent years that I have come to appreciate those songs again.

South African music features on three tracks. One of these was an international hit, The Art of Noise’s collaboration with the legendary Mahlathini and The Mahotella Queens (the title, Yebo!, simply means “Yes”). Special Star by the multiracial Mango Groove pays tribute to the pennywhistle legend Spokes Mashiane; the song really ought to have been a global hit. It’s Only Me by Rush Hour is rather more obscure. Rush Hour were big on the jazz club circuit, and though their one LP was quite marvellous, the group was soon forgotten. I love the keyboard solo on the featured track.

This mix closes with Wet Wet Wet’s Sweet Surrender. I’ve long argued that the Scottish group is rather underrated. Sweet Surrender is a lovely song, but it has a special meaning for me. The story takes us a few weeks into 1990. I was at my regular club on a Saturday afternoon (the matinee jazz sessions were a great tradition) when a remix of Sweet Surrender was playing. Suddenly the DJ interrupted the song to announce to loud cheers the news that the next day, Nelson Mandela would be released. Oh, I remember, apartheid’s sweet surrender!

As always, CD-R length, home-struggled covers, illustrated PDF, PW in comments.

1. Traveling Wilburys – Handle With Care
2. Marc Almond & Gene Pitney – Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart
3. Fine Young Cannibals – Good Thing
4. Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – What I Am
5. Simply Red – You’ve Got It
6. Natalie Cole – Miss You Like Crazy
7. Diane Schuur – Louisiana Sunday Afternoon
8. Najee – Personality
9. Rush Hour – It’s Only Me
10. Malcolm McLaren feat. Lisa Marie – Something’s Jumping In My Shirt
11. Art Of Noise feat. Mahlathini and The Mahotella Queens – Yebo!
12. Mango Groove – Special Star
13. Swing Out Sister – You On My Mind
14. Soul II Soul – Back To Life
15. De La Soul – Me, Myself And I
16. Tracy Chapman – Freedom Now
17. Chris Isaak – Wicked Game
18. Wet Wet Wet – Sweet Surrender
Bonus Track:
Harry Connick Jr. – It Had To Be You

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More A Life In Vinyl
More Mix-CD-Rs

The big headline death this month was that of Burt Bacharach, a true giant in the story of pop music. A few days after Burt, one of his earlier collaborators, Chuck Jackson, followed him into the great recording studio in the sky.

The Master
At 94, Burt Bacharach had a long and full life, as chronicled in his autobiography, which I read a couple of years ago. The memoirs revealed a man who must have been good company in good times and pretty awful to know in bad. Burt certainly had ways of establishing great friendships and also of burning bridges, not rarely involving litigation. Nobody could accused him of false modesty or of excessive humility. Attractive though qualities as modesty and humility are, if your body of work was that of Bacharach’s, their scarcity could be forgiven.

I’ve posted five Bacharach collections, the latest in the week after Burt’s death. I wrote at some length about Burt & Hal for the Bacharach & David Songbook Vol. 1. The other four collections:
Bacharach & David Songbook Vol. 2
Bacharach: The Lesser Known Songbook
The Originals: Bacharach Edition
Covered With Soul Vol. 7: Bacharach/David Edition

The R&B Singer
Among the first R&B artists for whom Bacharach wrote in the early 1960s — before he found his muse in Dionne Warwick — was R&B singer Chuck Jackson, who has died at 85. Their most notable collaborations were Any Day Now (featured on The Originals: Bacharach Edition) and I Wake Up Crying (featured on Any Major Morning Vol. 2). In a bad career move, Jackson bought out his contract with Sceptre Records to sign for Motown. There his career stalled, with the release of only two singles. One of them was the gorgeous Honey Come Back, which featured on the Jimmy Webb Songbook Vol. 1.

Jackson’s career never really recovered from the Motown disaster. He continued recording into the 1980s, and had an audience, but he never scored a big hit again.

When they first shot to prominence, the members of The Beatles regularly referred to Jackson as being among their favourite acts. One of the songs the Fabs very likely dug was I Keep Forgetting. When 20 years later Michael McDonald had a hit with a song of the same name, the similarities were so apparent that the writers of the Jackson song, Leiber & Stoller, received a credit for McDonald’s hit.

The Boogie Woogie Man
A prime exponent of New Orleans R&B, Huey ‘Piano’ Smith never became a rock & roll superstar, perhaps because he did not put himself and his piano in the spotlight, the way Little Ruchard or Jerry Lee Lewis did. He had some success in the late 1950s, and was hugely influential on the New Orleans scene. Among those young musicians who were mentored by Smith was Dr John.

Smith’s big hit was Rocking Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu (covered in 1972 to good commercial effect by Johnny Rivers) and Don’t You Just Know It. The latter was reworked in 1966 by Cass & The Governors as Don’t Ha Ha; it featured in In Memoriam – December 2022. Huey’s song Sea Cruise was summarily given to a white singer, Frankie Ford, whose vocals were dubbed over Smith’s backing track. Huey was not happy about that.

Smith also backed other acts, including Smiley Lewis on his original of I Hear You Knocking.

By the 1960s the hits had dried up, and Smith gradually retired from music. Having made bad publishing deals, he was in frequent financial trouble, even after court judgments provided some relief.

The Hip Hop Hippie
For a brief time in the early 1990s, it looked like the softer side of hip hop might have future, with acts like De La Soul, PM Dawn and Arrested Development channelling hippie vibes, with a space for social consciousness, humour and a bit of romance, and graceful genre-hopping. Gangsta rap blew that stuff out of the water.

Still, De La Soul were pioneers in hip hop, especially in the art of sampling. Now the trio’s Trugoy, or David Jude Jolicoeur, has died at the horribly young age of 54. Trugoy (backwards for Yogurt) would rightly object to the heading above: De La Soul’s hippie phase was only a snapshot in time — the time of the great 1989 debut 3 Feet High And Rising. The response to that image was stated in the follow-up’s title: De La Soul Is Dead.

For the past few years, Trugoy was living with congestive heart failure, for which he had to wear a defibrillator machine vest at all times. When De La Soul performed at the Grammys on February 5, Trugoy could not be part of it. A week later he was dead.

The Assassination Victim
The USA has Biggie and 2Pac, South Africa now has AKA — a big-name rapper shot dead point blank in an assassination, in public outside a restaurant. The 35-year-old, born Kiernan Forbes, was preparing to perform gig at a nightclub in Durban when he was murdered. His friend, celebrity chef Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane, was also killed, apparently by a second gunman giving the hitman cover. As of writing, no suspects have been identified.

In South Africa, AKA’s three bestselling albums since his 2011 debut and his collaborations with other acts made him a hip hop superstar, maybe the biggest. Why a hitman would kill him remains a mystery.

The TV Scorer
If you watch American movies or TV, you very likely have heard the music of Gerald Fried, who has died at 95. Oddly, there are no compositions one can refer to which everybody would immediately know, except maybe the Star Trek score for the episode where Kirk and Spock have a fight, which became a recurring score throughout the series.

Fried also composed much of the soundtrack for the seminal TV min-series Roots, though Quincy Jones usually gets all the attention for it. Other TV series he scored many episodes for include M Squad, Shotgun Slade, Gilligan’s Island, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Man Who Never Was, It’s About Time, Mission: Impossible, Roots: The Next Generations, Dynasty, and many more.

The Racing Drummer
Among the more unusual career paths in pop music is that of Slim Borgudd. In the 1960s he was drumming for the Swedish rock band Lea Riders Group and helped out the Hootenanny Singers, among whose members was future ABBA legend Björn Ulvaeus.

He was already racing cars, but his career took off in 1972, culminating in Borgudd joining the Formula 1 circuit in 1981. He collected points in only one Grand Prix, but earned media attention when he placed the ABBA logo on his car — it was a move to attract sponsors; ABBA didn’t pay him for that. While he was rising up the racing world, Borgudd continued to swing the sticks, and in 1976 even released his one LP, a funk-rock effort cleverly titled Funky Formula.As always, this post is reproduced in illustrated PDF format in the package, which also includes my personal playlist of the featured tracks. PW in comments.

Butch Miles, 78, jazz drummer, on Feb. 2
Count Basie and His Orchestra – Bundle O’ Funk (1977, on drums)

Tim Quy, 61, percussionist of UK rock band Cardiacs, on Feb. 2
Cardiacs – Is This The Life? (1988)

Paul Janovitz, 54, singer-guitarist of alt.rock band Cold Water Flat, on Feb. 3
Cold Water Flat – Magnetic North Pole (1995)

Lillian Walker, 78, singer with soul group The Exciters, on Feb. 5
The Exciters – A Little Bit Of Soap (1966)

Phil Spalding, 65, English bassist, on Feb. 6
Mike Oldfield – Moonlight Shadow (1983, on bass)
Terence Trent D’Arby – Wishing Well (1987, on bass)

Steve Sostak, 49, member of art-punk band Sweep the Leg Johnny, on Feb. 7

Mendelson Joe, 78, Canadian singer-songwriter, on Feb. 7
Mendelson Joe – The Name Of The Game (1975)

Burt Bacharach, 94, legendary pop composer, on Feb. 8
Jimmy Radcliffe – (There Goes) The Forgotten Man (1962)
Burt Bacharach – (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me (1969)
Isaac Hayes – The Look Of Love (live) (1973, as co-writer)
Elvis Costello with Burt Bacharach – God Give Me Strength (1998, as co-writer)
Rumer – Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) (2015, as co-writer)

Dennis Lotis, 97, South African-born British singer and actor, on Feb. 8
Dennis Lotis – Look At That Girl (1953)

Marijke Merckens, 83, Dutch actress and singer, on Feb. 9

AKA, 35, South African rapper, shot dead on Feb. 10
AKA feat. K.O – Run Jozi (Godly)

Tito Fernández, 80, Chilean singer-songwriter, on Feb. 11

David Jude ‘Trugoy’ Jolicoeur, 54, rapper and songwriter with De La Soul, on Feb. 12
De La Soul – Eye Know (1989, also as co-writer)
De La Soul – Keepin’ The Faith (1991, also as co-writer)
De La Soul – Breakadawn (1993, also as co-writer)
Gorillaz feat. De La Soul – Feel Good Inc. (2005, also as co-writer)

Huey ‘Piano’ Smith, 89, R&B pianist and songwriter, on Feb. 13
Smiley Lewis – I Hear You Knocking (1955, on piano)
Huey ‘Piano’ Smith & The Clowns – Rockin’ Pneumonia & The Boogie Woogie Flu (1957)
Huey ‘Piano’ Smith & The Clowns – Don’t You Just Know It (1958)

Spencer Wiggins, 81, soul singer, on Feb. 13
Spencer Wiggins – Double Lovin’ (1970)

Guido Basso, 85, Canadian jazz trumpeter, on Feb. 13

Alain Goraguer, 91, French jazz pianist, arranger and film composer, on Feb. 13
Serge Gainsbourg avec Alain Goraguer et son Orchestre – La Jambe De Bois (1959)
France Gall – Poupée De Cire Poupée De Son (1965, as conductor and arranger)

Tohru Okada, 73, Japanese musician, creator of PlayStation 1 startup theme, on Feb. 13

Akira Tsuneoka, 51, drummer of Japanese pop-punk bank Hi-Standard, on Feb. 14
Hi-Standard – My First Kiss (2000)

Peter Renkens, 55, singer of Belgian pop band Confetti’s, announced on Feb. 14
Confetti’s – The Sound Of C (1988)

Tim Aymar, 59, singer of heavy metal band Pharaoh, on Feb. 14

Raquel Welch, 82, actress and occasional singer, on Feb. 15
Raquel Welch – This Girl’s Back In Town (1987)

Chuck Jackson, 85, American R&B singer, on Feb. 16
The Del Vikings – Willette (1959, as member on lead vocals)
Chuck Jackson – I Keep Forgettin’ (1962)
Chuck Jackson – Good Things Come To Those Who Wait (1967)
Chuck Jackson – Through All Times (1973)

Tony Marshall, 85, German schlager singer, on Feb. 16

Alberto Radius, 80, Italian rock guitarist, singer-songwriter, producer, on Feb. 16
Formula 3 – Io ritorno solo (1970, as member on lead vocals and guitar)
Alberto Radius – Il Respiro di Laura (1975)

Maon Kurosaki, 35, Japanese pop singer, on Feb. 16

Michael Kupper, 65, ex-guitarist of German heavy metal band Running Wild, on Feb. 16
Running Wild – Bad To The Bone (1989)

Tom Whitlock, 68 or 69, pop songwriter, on Feb. 17
Berlin – Take My Breath Away (1986, as co-writer)

Kyle Jacobs, 49, country songwriter, on Feb. 17
Garth Brooks – More Than A Memory (2007, as co-writer)

Otis Barthoulameu, musician and producer, on Feb. 17

Gerald Fried, 95, film and television composer, on Feb. 17
Joe Williams – The Sounds Of The Night (1963, as writer)
Star Trek – Amok Time (1967, as composer)
Hank Crawford & Jimmy McGriff – Second Time Around (1986, as writer)

Jerry Dodgion, 90, jazz saxophonist and flautist, on Feb. 17
Benny Goodman – Mission To Moscow (1962, live in Moscow, on alto sax)
Bob James – Angela (Theme from Taxi) (1978, on flute, with two others)

Hans Poulsen, 77, Australian singer and songwriter, on Feb. 17
Hans Poulsen – There’s A Light Across The Valley (1970)

Don Shinn, 77, English prog-rock multi-instrumentalist, composer, vocalist, on Feb. 18
Don Shinn & The Soul Agents – A-Minor Explosion (1966, also as writer)

Davis Causey, 74, guitarist of fusion/rock band Sea Level, on Feb. 19
Sea Level – It Hurts To Want It So Bad (1977)

Victor Brox, 81, English blues musician, on Feb. 20
Victor Brox & Annette Reis – I’ve Got The World In A Jug (1965)

Bruce Barthol, 75, bassist of Country Joe and the Fish, on Feb. 20
Country Joe And The Fish – The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die (1967)

Jesse Gress, 67, rock guitarist, on Feb. 21

Ron Altbach, 76, co-founder and keyboardist of King Harvest, on Feb. 21
King Harvest – Dancing In The Moonlight (1972)

Germano Mathias, 88, Brazilian samba singer, on Feb. 22

Slim Borgudd, 76, Swedish racing driver and drummer, on Feb. 23
The Lea Riders Group – Got No Woman! (1966, as member on drums)
Slim Borgudd – Hot Metal (1976)

Jeff Young, keyboardist and songwriter, on Feb. 23
Vonda Shepard – Searchin’ My Soul (1998, on Hammond organ)

Junnosuke Kuroda, 34, guitarist of Japanese rock band Sumika, on Feb. 23

Walter ‘Gavitt’ Ferguson, 103, Panama-born Costa Rican calypso singer, on Feb. 25
Walter Ferguson – Carnaval Day (2003, also as writer)

Carl Saunders, 80, jazz trumpeter, on Feb. 25
Carl Saunders – Some Bones Of Contention (2002)

François Hadji-Lazaro, 66, French alt.rock musician, on Feb. 25
Les Garçons Bouchers – La Bastringue (1988, also as co-writer)

Hansi Behrendt, 68, drummer of German new wave group Ideal, on Feb. 27
Ideal – Blaue Augen (1980)

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