Dan Penn — Nobody's Fool (Bear Family) LP
With "I'm Your Puppet," "Dark End of the Street" and other South-ern soul classics, Dan Penn's song-writing landed him national hits and a vocation. His 1973 solo debut No-body's Fool didn't find the same com-mercial niche, but Penn did find his as a performer. .'grooved in Memphis, Nashville and' 'other nice places" (according ponnj over the course of several to s Nobody's Fool is cut from the ;le cloth as Penris rmowned tales o ovef l and loss, highlighted by bal-lads like the country-tinged title ock, the tearjerking "I Hate You" and the reflective "Raining in Mem-phis," which vacillates between or-estration and full-on Southern soul. Penn also veers into honky-tonk vn "Tearjoint" and the album's only cover, "Lodi," but the real standout is the yearning "If Love Was Money," a funky horn-driven soul number (first released three years earlier on a Happy Tiger single, like "Nobody's Fool") that shows off Penn's under-rated singing. It also makes may for "Skin." a genial, orchestrated spo-ken-word piece preaching against racism—and the perfect closer on an album by a man who did no much to blur racial lines in his own music. (Doug Sheppard)
