|
THE LONG LOST BLACKBERRIES ALBUM - WORKING TITLE "WRAP YOU IN OUR COLOUR" * * * *
It's certainly strange to hear that well known Humble Pie unit working behind a gospel / soul band. They can sometimes sound a bit ponderous. But then again - they ain't trying to be the Memphis Horns.
And it works !
Proceedings open with the album version of Twist and Shout. It's less elaborate than the single version, and I prefer it. It's very similar - with a sax break rather than a guitar break toward the end....but without some nice Blackberry 'shake it now's' during the intro. The track is dominated by heavy organ and bass.
I actually much much preferred the single "B" side "Don't Change on Me" - which Ray Charles did. It was written by Jimmy Holiday and Eddie Reeves. Jimmy was signed to Minit Records, where Clydie released 5 singles in the late 60's. In fact, Jimmy wrote most of the singles for her, and sang and recorded with her on some classics.
Anyway, for me this track epitomises what the Blackberries with Pie are all about - given that it's sung over a basic RnB rhythm, and it has some great piano and bass backing to boot. Tremendous !
"You be the Fool" introduces a kind of Supremes intro together with a Spectoresque sound. Soon you realise that it actually sounds like "Eat It", the sound a bit muffled and bassy - however a nice feel, good singing and vocal interplay. Some great bass from Greg Ridley. This is decades before dance music and "drums and bass" !
"I Turn my Good Side On" is one of the standouts on the album. A Clydie King lead vocal, the whole track is reminiscent of Ann Peebles - with a quite sparse backing of bass and piano. Later a deep sax and Clem and Steve's guitars join in.
"On the wrong wrong side of town
I had trouble with my mother
See I had problems with my father
and discontentment with myself
I sent to see my doctor
to seek some good advice
He said you need a "tune up"
He thought that'd be just right"
Yes, we're cookin' now !
"Love is the Way" features a typical Humble Pie funky backing a la Thunderbox album, with lots of vocal overlay.....a good song - "We ain't doctors, and we ain't lawyers, and we ain't got a degree", and "we can't all be leaders, some of us must follow"
Another highlight is "He was a Man" which features heavy wah wah guitar from Clem over a jungle riff - while "Jesus Loves Me" is a gospel standout from Venetta - with swirling organ accompaniment.
"Jesus loves me, this I know
for the bible tells me so"
I would have to say that "Don't Change on Me", "Jesus Loves Me", "I Turn my Good Side On" and "He was a Man" are right up there with anything either Steve or The Blackberries ever recorded, either together or apart.
Pity, that these Blackberries albums seemed to be jinxed when it came to getting properly released.
At the time, certainly in the UK music press, there was a fair amount of publicity given to the whole notion of the Blackberries augmenting Humble Pie, and of course the fact that "Eat It" included the "Black Coffee" single.
For quite a long time there was barely a mention of Steve in the music press without a mention of
"my skin is white, but my soul is black", a line which ironically Steve didn't write.
But he was happy to play up to it....."I mean, the chicks in the band used to call me nigger"
Jerry Shirley recalls that indeed Steve had gotten closer and closer to the girls. "He walked and talked and mimicked what they were saying between themselves. Excuse me for saying - but "nigger" talk......"nigger this and nigger that...hey what's up nigger", and he included himself. You know how black people openly refer to themselves. Well he got so close to them that they allowed him into that small circle of white people who are allowed to be included. Black people will talk to each other like that, but if you presume and say anything they look at you and it's a real problem"
In fact, the girls got on him on a number of occasions about keeping it behind closed doors. They told him off a number of times for talking like that onstage"
Around this time, Steve was actually trying hard to augment the band further. He often talked about adding a brass section.
Certainly, he specifically tried to get Junior Walker to join the tour and play a few songs - presumably as part of The Revue. At the time he said
"I wanted to get Junior Walker to tour with us. He'd step out. We'd back him up, and do - say - "Shotgun". We'd could do a couple of our numbers, and the Blackberries could step out and doa couple of old Ikettes things,"Peaches and Cream" and stuff.
Steve gave a curious answer to the UK Press as to why he failed on that particular question
"Yeah, but we had a run in with the black mafia. We just couldn't pull it off"
He did take sax player Sidney George on an American tour through Spring 1973, but that was as far as it got.
Sidney had a recent background playing with Stephen Stills and on Dr John's Gumbo. He was recommeneded by Clydie, and came to play on "Eat It"
But even while the Humble Pie live juggernaut was rolling, the wheels were starting to come off the Pie / Blackberries partnership!
Eat It had been expected to follow Smokin' as a hit album - in fact it had been expected to be the big one - the coup de gras that put the group right up there !
In fact, it stiffed !
Well it got to the US Number 12 - which was considered a stiff versus expectations. Both Smokin' and Rocking the Fillmore had been certified platinum albums in the US.
Steve says sarcastically "it was considered a failure 'cos it only got to Number 12 in the US. What a pity ! Maybe it wasn't the right time, but f*** it, I'll own up to that. It was my fault - if you can call it fault - and I really enjoyed doing it.
There are probably a number of reasons for this lack of commercial success.
While his home studio "Clearsounds" allowed Steve a hugely creative few years, the output from the studio in sound quality terms was just not consistent with a premier league rock act. Eat It suffered from its muffly sound, and from Steve's voice being buried in the mix. It didn't translate well to radio either.
Nowadays, this just wouldn't happen. The album would have been halted, remixed, remastered. But in those days the ability to do this without starting all over again was limited.
Now while, I absolutely love Eat It - and it features at the very top of fans' opinion nowadays as to the best ever Humble Pie studio albums - at the time it came across as a bit of a hotch potch of different styles. A confusing mixure of studio rock on one side, gospel tinged soul on another, acoustic on a third, and live on a fourth.
I am quite certain that this confusing direction of the Eat It album, together with the issues about the sound and the production, led to disappointing sales. Clem states that he wasn't at all unhappy with the direction they were going in - just the speed at which they were moving there. Meanwhile, the market was looking for Smokin' #2
Commercially, Humble Pie never overcame this setback. So, while Eat It is a wonderful album, it was a major nail in the coffin of the band. And after that point Steve never quite had the artistic freedom that A&M had given him for years.
For a while,Steve could do no wrong - and the record company went along with every whim. Now the tables were turned.
We can also turn attention for a moment to the role in the band politics that the Blackberries themselves played. Expanding the group to include the Blackberries had been Steve's idea. No-one else was keen. In retrospect, he was right - he was again ahead of his time, and created a fusion of rock and blues and soul and gospel which was unique - unparallelled at the time. When he was forced to revert to a four piece, some of the fire left Steve - some of his love for the whole Humble Pie project.
But more importantly, in the eyes of the Record Company and the Management, these ladies were streetwise and sassy, and had introduced a new problem for the band - money. With their knowledge and experience of the music business they started to get band members really thinking.
Jerry Shirley says "The girls were a distraction financially and were a subversive force. They had our ears early on - could see where we were getting screwed. They knew their onions"
The Management and Record Company were keen for Humble Pie to revert to a rock band format, and started to apply pressure to that effect.
Jerry Shirley - "Wherever we went they went. And that pissed the record company off. Little things like photo shoots and stuff like that. We expected them included. They would say "oh no, without the back up girls". We didn't see them as back up. We saw them as members of the group".
Well, all these little annoyances were maybe so, and from that point the band were never happy about their money situation, but in terms of the two parties coming to a parting of the ways, more so it was the pressure for the group to go back to the format that had brought Humble Pie commercial success.
And the band members other than Steve were also beginning to long for a more compact rock sound - essentially to go back to a true Smokin' follow up.
Apparently, Clempson and Shirley were putting their foot down, on the verge of open rebellion.
Steve said "look, we've gotta make rock n roll album, according to Clem. I don't understand that logic. What the hell is rock n roll ? Is it Black Sabbath ? Is it Chuck Berry ? Yes ? or just what other people say when you do it ?"
At the same time, though, Given Steve's penchant for avoiding formulae, he could buy in to the idea that the Blackberries had to go.
On the night of one of their best ever gigs, at Glasgow Apollo in late 1973, Steve admitted "The girls have got to go soon for their sake and ours. Otherwise we'd be holding each other back, and it'll just turn into a formula for success. I mean it's been great working with them. Venetta's been an inspiration for me. I think they should go and get their own rhythm section and Pie should go back to being a rock band for a while".
So things came to an end. The Blackberries didn't set the world on fire commercially. But for a one year period they made an enormous contribution to rock music history. For a period, Pie were untouchable as a live band - the Blackberries brought class and an absolute top drawer level of vocal performance, and together they provided a live show spectacle which was unparalleled at the time.
In my mind, there is no doubt. When you think of classic live performance over the last 40 years - whether it be James Brown, Led Zepellin, The Who, Prince, Madonna, U2, Garth Brooks - the Humble Pie / Blackberries Revue is right up there with the very best.
Anyway, when the subsequent Humble Pie album "Thunderbox" was released early in 1974, the Blackberries were gone.
As you listened to the first two tracks "Thunderbox" and "Groovin' with Jesus", and the single from the Album "Oh La De Da" you would be forgiven for thinking that nothing much had changed. Humble Pie getting further into gospel and funky grooves - with the Blackberries very much to the fore. But in reality, the ladies appeared on only half of the album tracks.
On 1974 tour dates, not only were the Blackberries gone, but so was the soul revue, the Las Vegas staging and lighting, and Humble Pie were back to a four piece playing in denim.
The sparkle had gone. It had certainly gone from Steve's eyes.
It was not a move for the better.
Steve did keep an association with the Blackberries for some years. Venetta and Clydie sang on the last Humble Pie album "Street Rats", and on various Clearsounds studios projects during the mid 70's, including what became the "Scrubbers" and "Clear through the Night" albums, and the Blackberries were part of the Steve Marriott Allstars tour of the USA in March 1976, which was aborted after only a few dates.
For his A&M solo album, the Blackberries had become Carlena Williams, Venetta Fields and Maxayn Lewis. The latter had fronted her own funk rock band "Maxayn"...........well, apparently Motown thought that her husband Andre, who was the real band leader, was too ugly to put on album covers !
Instead, they made some great sleeves with Maxayn's picture on instead. The last Maxayn album has a close up of her in a white Affro !
Thereafter, Steve's choice of backing singers tended to revolve around Vicky and Sam Brown, and going back to his old soul sisters PP Arnold and Madeline Bell
BROWN SUGAR REVIEW * * *
If you recall, Clydie King had left Humble Pie and the Blackberries in mid'73 to pursue her own solo career. This is effectively Clydie's second solo album, although it is guised as a group release "Brown Sugar featuring Clydie King", and a curious affair it is too.
It is a very good album, but there are so many styles evident, it tends to be a bit confusing.
The first track "Didn't I", which was also released as a single, is a fine effort - mid-paced, and one of several tracks on the album with almost Diana Ross type vocals.
However, immediately, the album moves into the heavy riffed slow rocker "Midnight and Taming You" which is a huge switch for the listener. It sounds more like a group track, although Clydie is still very prominent.
And third up is the country tinged "If you like my Music"....well kind of country meets gospel. Then, immediately on to the Earth Wind and Fire type funk of "Love can Bring You Down".
There are some excellent cuts - "Soul Asylum", "Loneliness", "Don't hold Back" and the superb gospel "Weep for Me"
Overall - just no consistent style or theme. The straight soul numbers such as "Loneliness", "Soul Asylum" and "Didn't I" are excellent, though.
Blackberries Career after Humble Pie
In truth, the Blackberries just continued working together, actually working almost as normal even through the hectic year of 1973 when they were touring with Humble Pie. Apart from some great Venetta/Clydie work on Joe Walsh's "The Smoker you Get" album, the three original Blackberries Clydie, Sherlie and Venetta all worked together on a bunch of albums that year, including Dusty Springfield, Thomas Jefferson Kaye and Laurie Kaye Cohen. "The Blackberries" got credits on albums by Catman and by Sherman Hayes.
As previously mentioned, the group released an excellent second single on A&M (Yesterday's Music), but to no avail. They continued to be denied the album release to really showcase their talent.
But session work continued unabated through 1974 and 1975, with Venetta and Carlena (for example) working on an album for Love, Sherlie and Clydie woeking on Keith Moon's "Two Sides of the Moon" and Venetta and Clydie on albums for Joe Cocker, Kris Kristofferson, Elkie Brooks, Stephen Michael Schwartz, America, and Lon and Derreck Van Eaton, with Sherlie contributing too on the Joe Cocker album.
All four Blackberries (Sherlie, Venetta, Clydie and Carlena) worked on the Gene Clark album "No Other" in 1974.
The Blackberries' formal credits continued too - notably on Ringo Starr's 1974 album "Good night Vienna" and on Sammy Johns' self titled record in 1975.
After the Blackberries name was put into retirement, the ladies still worked together in various combinations.
Sherlie, Venetta and Clydie all worked together on a bunch of albums through 1976, 1977 and 1978, for artists such as John Klemmer, Corky Laing, Leonard Cohen, Steely Dan, Commander Cody and Rita Coolidge.
Venetta and Clydie worked together right through until the very early 80's on albums for Greg Allman, Neil Diamond, Bill Wyman and Poco
Probably their most prominent incarnation after the Blackberries was as "The Oreoles", who got a credit on the Firefall album of 1977, and comprised, Venetta, Clydie and Sherlie. In fact, the previous year, Clydie and Venetta were part of "The Oreoles" who appeared under this name in the Streisand film "A Star is Born".
Sherlie and Clydie combined with Rebecca Louis the following year as "The Nightengales". Rebecca worked with them, and with Venetta on the classic Steely Dan albums around that time, like "The Royal Scam" and "Aja".
And years later, Sherlie and Venetta worked together in "Venetta's Taxi"
VENETTA FIELDS
After Humble Pie, Venetta continued a sparkling career, working with Quincy Jones, Diana Ross, Burt Bacharach, Barbra Streisand and her great friend and mentor Aretha Franklin.
Venetta first visited Australia shortly after the time of The Oreoles, touring with Boz Scaggs in 1978 and 1980. She then made the decision to move there, and still lives in Australia today, almost 25 years later.
She began recording with the cream of Australian musical royalty, including New Zealander Tim Finn, and has toured many times , including her own group "Venetta's Taxi" and her very own Gospel Show "Gospel Jubilee".
In the late 80's Venetta started a stage career, and has since starred in "Big River", "Blues in the Night" and in the concert version of "Chess", as well as two plays for the Melbourne Theatre Company.
She has taken the country by storm on several occasions, opening for Barbra Streisand, Thelma Houston, Randy Crawford and George Benson.
In 1999 Venetta released the wonderful CD "At Last", was awarded the 2002 Best Gospel Song Award and the aforementioned 2005 induction into the Hall of Fame in her hometown Buffalo, NY.
Venetta has actually become a household name in Australia over the years, for many reasons, not least her many TV Appearances , and as previously mentioned, she was voice coach to the most recent winner of "Australian Idol", which has got her phone ringing constantly and her voice coaching bookings full to breaking point !
REVIEW - AT LAST - VENETTA FIELDS * * * * *
The CD is called "At Last", and it's strong. It grows on you with each playing.
You've also got to be wary of the fact that while the first four tracks are very good - don't be fooled by them - when you dip past those to the last 6 tracks on the album, there's a real treat in store.
Venetta shares the fact that the album is made from "pieces of all the people I've worked with".....and three of the ten tracks are co-written by herself and Michael Wade.
"Oasis" opens the album - and instrumentally sounds very reminiscent of Whitney Houston - a polished kind of soul funk sound. In fact a bit reminiscent of the PP Arnold sound in latter years. But a strong track - and helped by confident vocals from Venetta.
"Crazy" is up next, which adds a harder edge to the smoothness of the first track. "You Send Me" is the first highlight....a runthrough of the Sam Cooke classic - but Ms Fields manages to make this version her own - and gives us the first of the standout tracks on the CD.
"Celebrate New Life" takes us back into Whitney Houston territory,before "Gonna Be Ready" opens the floodgates into the second half of the album. Venetta is sheer class on an up tempo number, which is curiously reminiscent of Stevie Wonder at times. Absolute top of her game.
"Operator" maintains the high standard - a pure up tempo gospel shuffle - which heralds in the more gospel feel of the second half of the album. On this, there is a great call and response with the backing singers. Excellent
"He is the Lord" continues obviously the gospel theme. It is self penned, and it follows two great songs - which is a hard thing to do - but she pulls it off.
"At Last" is the soul classic. I don't know who originally did this - maybe Aretha ? Classic - and a superb vocal performance from Venetta. "In my daily Life" gets us back to gospel, and then "Amazing Grace"........the most perfect version I've ever
heard....puts her way up there with the divas......in fact it's one of the few songs to compete with Eva Cassidy's "over the
rainbow"...so there's praise for ya gal !
CLYDIE KING
Clydie left here solo career behind in the late 70's, but continued to build up a peerless CV of session singer credits, right up to date in the 21st century. Her list of album credits is endless.
She became very associated with Bob Dylan throughout the 80's, appearing on many albums and tours, and becoming romantically involved with him. It is even rumoured that he bought Clydie a house.
Dylan recorded a bunch of tracks with Clydie singing, and there is a whole unreleased album worth of Bob and Clydie that the record company has.
Clydie continued working as a backing vocalist into the new millenium, until ill health precluded her from working, but she remains in touch with the other Blackberries
SHERLIE MATTHEWS
Over the years, Sherlie added a lot of stage performance credits to her other accomplishments, for Burt Bacharach, Lionel Richie and the Commodores, Linda Ronstadt and many others.
From a studio perspective, as well as songwriting and producing for The Jackson Five, the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye and the other Motown legends, her voice can be heard on all time classic singles like "Staying Alive" for the Bee Gees and "With a Little Help from my Friends" for Joe Cocker.
She, too, moved to Australia for some years, working in the Australian music industry, and in fact appearing in quite a few Australian rock videos. She worked with Tim Finn along with Venetta, and toured with Venetta as part of the Gospel Jubilee and venetta's Taxi.
Sherlie returned to the US in the late 80's, and continued to sing and act professionally, but gradually her elderly mother and grandmother needed more help, and she slowly but surely dropped away from the music and entertainment industry.
In the mid 90's Sherlie returned to UCLA and attained new skills in computing and computer graphics and animation, continuing her singing only for personal pleasure and to keep in practice.
However, as recently as summer 2005, she played shows in England with her old friend Marva Holiday as "The New Belles"
I must catch them if they are ever in the UK again !
BILLIE BARNUM
Billie went on from Humble Pie to record in the 70's for Weather Report, Funk inc. Johnny Bristol, Cannonball Adderley, Willie Hutch and Frank Sinatra.
Across the next decade or so she worked with Taj Mahal, Teddy Pendergrass abd many others - contributing vocals to some classic albums, like U2's "Rattle and Hum" and Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling".
The 90's saw Billie add some film credits to her achievements, in "What's Love Got to Do With It" and "Spy Hard".
As recently as 2005, Billie tells me she had a reunion with Jerry Shirley and Clem Clempson in London, where they reminisced over times gone by, and when they were all really like family.
CARLENA WILLIAMS
Carlena continued with Session work , and has also racked up a sizeable number of credits, working with The Carpenters, Van Morrison, Etta James, Donna Summer and Bonnie Raitt.
In doing so, she crossed paths with the other Blackberries many times, for example working with Venetta and Sherlie on Country Joe McDonald albums.
So ladies - thanks for the memories ! The Blackberries never got the recognition they deserved, and are too easily forgotten nowadays.
As I raise a glass to you, I just get the feeling that Steve and Greg are there too in spirit saying "Cheers" !
|
