(CG)
For many years long after its release in 1971 and subsequent mix in 1976 for the rare groove scene, this was a tune coveted by many who paid highly to acquire it on vinyl. It was initially the first release of the Selector label set up 1971 by Gloria Ann Taylor, her producer husband Walter Whisenhunt, and her younger brother Leonard as vehicle for Taylor’s songs. Love is a Hurtin’ Thing had been a hit for Lou Rawls but the trio stamped a distinctive style on their version with a complex mix of sounds from smouldering gospel R&B vocals to a Spector influenced layered approach to tune-making, incorporating orchestral strings that echoed the Philly soul sound and soul imbued psychedelic guitar work. However its production was more complex and adventurous than this characterisation. As Andrew Jervis points out in his liner notes for the recent release of the album (Love is a Hurtin’Thing, Ubiquity Records 2015), Taylor and the band played live, where encouraged by Whisenhunt, they would jam improvisations during the performances. Extensive time was then spent in the studio with the musicians brought together by Whisenhunt (who had worked with James Brown, Bootsy Collins and notable Motown acts and other session musicians) often reworking the same songs across a recording session and incorporating variations developed from the live performances. These different cuts were dubbed together in creative and original mixes to produce the final recording with the vocals layerd at the last moment.
Gloria Ann Taylor had grown up in Toledo and sang in churches in the nineteen fifties from childhood onwards along with her brother Leonard (who developed as a musician, song-writer and producer) and performed with two gospel ensembles. In 1966 she left church music to sing R&B in Toledo clubs where she garnered an enthusiastic local following. It was here that she was introduced to Whisenhunt and they started to collaborate musically. Among her early releases was You Gotta Pay the Price which gained a Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal performance in 1970 and won that year by Aretha Franklin for Chain of Fools which highlights Taylor’s vocal peers. In the 1970’s Columbia took her up but did not promote her enough to advance her career and Whisenhunt ended the contract prematurely. As the marriage fizzled out Whisenhunt released in 1976 the EP with three tracks Deep in Your Eyes, What’s Your World and Love is a Hurtin’ Thing extended and remixed. Love is a Hurtin Thing in this extended version has overdubbed drumming and mixes in, or perhaps more accurately blends in, other Taylor tunes with panache and creative flair. This EP was released in small quantities due to a lack of funds which reduced its impact but with time became one of the stand-out rare groove records, celebrated both for its musical originality and scarcity
Discouraged perhaps by the
initial nearness of success and then it’s recession by the mid nineteen
seventies, as well as the breakup of her marriage, Taylor withdrew from the
professional music scene to solely sing in church. But Love is a Hurtin’ Thing
and her other notable tunes, such as Deep Eyes, What’s Your World, and even a
cover version of Dolly Patton’s Jolene, compare favourably with far more famous
R&B and soul vocalists and her distinctive vocals underpinned by dynamic
tunes and innovative production have an originality and brio that asserts a
unique creative perspective, perhaps engendered by the collective collaboration
with her then husband and brother as well as participating musicians (Ed.That’s
a long sentence). Her records and Love is a Hurtin’ Thing in either version are
well worth a listen for soulful classic yet innovative takes on R&B that,
despite lack of recognition, has stood the test of time and stand out.
Ref.Andrew Jervis, liner notes,
Love is a Hurtin’Thing, Ubiquity Records 2015.
(JS)
For every little kiss there's a little teardrop
For every single thrill there's another heartache
The road is rough
The going gets tough
Love is a hurtin' thing
Oh, love is a hurtin' thing
When you're in my arms I'm a king on a throne
But when we're apart I walk the streets alone
One day happiness
The next day, loneliness
When love brings so much joy why must it bring such pain
Guess it's a mystery that nobody can explain
Maybe I'm a fool to keep on loving you
'Cause there may come a time you'll break my heart in two
But I want you so
I want you though I know that
Love is a hurtin' thing
Oh, love is a hurtin' thing
Cover of soul standard by Gloria Anne Taylor and Husband producer Walt Whisenhunt. Released in 1973 to a different audience. Taylor, touted as another Aretha Franklin, clearly has strong gospel roots in her lyrical delivery and singing style. Walt Whisenhunt clearly has other influences. Having discovered Gloria, he proceeded to marry and move her to California whereby her career stalled by 1977. The intrusive psych guitar wig out which introduces the song is recorded at a louder level than the vocal. The verse remains sweet, but the chorus gets buried in the mix and the song ends with another guitar excursions to somewhere west coast. When compared to the original the song doesn’t really make sense any more. The individual parts are all there but they don’t belong together. Music’s loss was the Ohio chicken industry’s gain. Taylor saw a brief revival in 2010 during the vinyl mining boom.
(MS)
This is a stunner. It takes me back to those sweaty nights at “The Twisted WheeI” that I never had and those long nights on the Piccadilly Station forecourt I had far too often. Missing trains, eating chips, sleeping out. It kicks off like Link Wray getting tangled up in his own strings, then almost immediately Eddie Hazell-like stuff, fresh outta “Maggot Brain” comes bubbling in. In fact I believe Parliafunkster Bootsy Collins is actually on this session. A great session, pretty lo-fi but ambitious too. Was the orchestra in the bathroom and the horns in the wardrobe? Rawls and Axelrod did the original back in 1966 and that’s good but this is something else. (Ed*.Axelrod did a great version with David “Man From Uncle” McCallum on French Horn at the same time.) Listen to those frenzied ejaculations at 1.13 and 1.38 where she lets riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip. It’s 72-73 an interesting time for black music – paradigms shifting – funk morphing towards something
*(Ed. But I am the Ed)
(PS)
Hmmmmm.
I hadn't heard of Gloria Taylor before hearing this, and I can
sort of see why. A quick spin of her 1969 hit You Got to Pay the Price was
welcome - disciplined, catchy, memorable, if unspectacular - but this from a
few years later is frankly a bit of a mess.
It starts with a sprawling bit of sub-Jimi fuzz guitar which has
no apparent connection to the orchestration which comes directly after, and I
struggled to get a hook on the song at all. It's a bit like an over-complicated
soup and you can't work out which is the main ingredient.
After a couple of minutes one of the singers (can't tell which one) says "oooh can't you feel it?" and before I could answer "not really", a lovely bit of echoey guitar came in to rescue it for me - and then moments later, all the reverb suddenly drops off and it sounds like he's moved out of the hall and into the control room - and I can't tell why the producer would do that, it just detaches him from the rest of the players. Dry guitar solo to fade, a bit more oooh-ing and that's that.
It's clearly recorded live in a massive room, with dozens of
musicians and no apparent overdubs - fair play there - but because the voice is
competing with strings, piano, backing vocals and guitar for the same part of
the stage, they all get mixed up in the same mush. You can let it all hang
loose with fewer people, but the more you bring in, the tighter the rein needs
to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment