Robert Gordon The Lost Album, Plus...(CD)
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Robert Gordon: The Lost Album, Plus...(CD)
Incredibly, it has now been more twenty years since Robert Gordon announced himself with mid-Fifties rockabilly music delivered with late-Seventies punk attitude. Over the course of the next few years, it looked as though Robert Gordon might indeed be the next big thing. This, you must remember, was at the time of prog rock’s grizzliest excesses and disco. How refreshing to hear songs that didn’t pretend to say anything about the human condition, and said it in less than three minutes. Then, when Robert’s original record company, Private Stock, went belly-up, he was signed by RCA, the very label that had lost the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll just a year before.
Somehow it didn’t quite happen. American radio didn’t bite, and if American radio doesn’t bite, the game’s over in commercial terms. Two singles got to #83 and #76, and that was it. Along the way, Robert Gordon attracted three stellar pickers, Link Wray, Danny Gatton, and Chris Spedding, all of whom can be heard here (Wray, incidentally, is now growing old disgracefully in Denmark, Gatton committed suicide, and Spedding is in Los Angeles, working sessions, and still making occasional tours with Robert).
The original records still sound freshly minted. For proof, consult our two previous Robert Gordon CDs (BCD 15446 and 15489). Now we’ve finally found ten unissued recordings that were thought to have been lost forever in the bowels of the RCA tape vault. To those we’ve added ten recordings and mixes that didn’t see light-of-day on our other Robert Gordon CDs, among them a menacing version of Endless Sleep and several songs by the Wray clan, including Woman (You’re My Woman), It’s In The Bottle, and the gorgeously underproduced Blue Eyes (Don’t Run Away).
Robert’s best shot came in 1978 when he released Fire. Not only was it a great song, but it was written by the artiste du jour, Bruce Springsteen. God knows why Springsteen didn’t cut it himself, but he didn’t. He gave it to Robert, and even showed up to play piano on the date. With that kind of pedigree and buzz, you’d think that Fire wouldn’t stop short of the Top 10. It didn’t disappoint; it got all the way to #2--but by the Pointer Sisters. The original single mix is here, together with the single mix of the preceding single, Frankie Ford’s Sea Cruise. In this case, ‘single mix’ means the addition of horns and chorus in an attempt to fatten up the sound for what was then the mighty God of AM radio. That was 1978. At the end of that year, Robert signed with RCA. “RCA has always been like a fantasy to me,“ Robert said at the time. “They really exposed this kind of music to the masses. It’s a sort of natural move.“ Two albums followed, but neither achieved the big breakthrough. By June 1980, it was make-or-break time. Robert went into the Record Plant with Chris Spedding and Danny Gatton and laid down twelve tracks, only two of which, Marshall Crenshaw’s Something’s Gonna Happen and Wasting My Time, were released. The rest, featuring Robert and small group. Those ten buried tracks now resurface here. While they’re stripped down and unfinished in the technical sense, they’re true to the essence of Robert Gordon’s music. Fans will have no problems recognising the Elvis/Terry Stafford hit Suspicion or Lennon-McCartney’s Run For Your Life, but the others were mostly originals gathered together by Robert and his producer, ex-Strangelove Richard Gottehrer. Gatton and Spedding probably intended to re-do their guitar parts at some point, but it’s still well worth listening for their solos on Girl Like You and So Young, So Bad.
RCA didn’t hear anything they liked in the tracks, so Gottehrer was canned and Robert was brought back to the Power Plant later that year with new producers, and the tacit understanding that this was the last shot. Another Marshall Crenshaw song, Someday Some Way, from the Power Plant sessions crept into the lower reaches of the charts. An album, ‘Are You Gonna Be The One’ briefly hit the racks, and then it was over for Robert Gordon and RCA.
By all accounts, Robert went into a tailspin. Chris Spedding departed in late 1980 to work with a band called the Necessaries. There were rumours of contraband substances, and, for a while, Robert Gordon appearances were few and far between. There were tours of Japan and a few other outings, but they weren’t well reported. Through it all, though, Spedding could usually be relied upon to make an appearance. In 1995, Robert was sidelined by a vicious mugging on Thanksgiving Day, but then a new album appeared, and Robert Gordon began making the clubs again.
Anyone who wants the Robert Gordon story is directed towards the two previous CDs. Like this, they’re wall-to-wall good stuff with that edgy, snarly sound that isn’t quite rockabilly but certainly isn’t anything else. For those too young, or those who simply want to blot out a particularly wretched period of music history, you have to remember that these recordings originally appeared during the disco era. Around the same time, prog rock was taking its long overdue last gasp and punk was coming and going. These recordings were part of a vain rearguard action on behalf of music that had melody, guts, and didn’t sound as though it had been preassembled. In the end, American radio gave it a double thumbs-down. Too retro. So what’s wrong with that?
COLIN ESCOTT
Toronto, February 1998
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Article properties:Robert Gordon: The Lost Album, Plus...(CD)
Interpret: Robert Gordon
Album titlle: The Lost Album, Plus...(CD)
Genre Rock'n'Roll
Label Bear Family Records
- Preiscode AH
Artikelart CD
EAN: 4000127162519
- weight in Kg 0.115
Gordon, Robert - The Lost Album, Plus...(CD) CD 1 | ||||
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01 | She's Not Mine Anymore | Robert Gordon | ||
02 | It Hurts So Much | Robert Gordon | ||
03 | Run For Your Life | Robert Gordon | ||
04 | One Day Left | Robert Gordon | ||
05 | Suspicion | Robert Gordon | ||
06 | Movin' Too Slow | Robert Gordon | ||
07 | You Girl | Robert Gordon | ||
08 | I Found You | Robert Gordon | ||
09 | Signs Of Love | Robert Gordon | ||
10 | Wasting My Time | Robert Gordon | ||
11 | Girl Like You | Robert Gordon | ||
12 | So Young So Bad | Robert Gordon | ||
13 | If This Is Wrong | Robert Gordon | ||
14 | Blue Eyes (Don't Run Away) | Robert Gordon | ||
15 | Is This The Way | Robert Gordon | ||
16 | Endless Sleep | Robert Gordon | ||
17 | Woman (You're My Woman) | Robert Gordon | ||
18 | Sweet Surrender | Robert Gordon | ||
19 | It's In The Bottle | Robert Gordon | ||
20 | Sea Cruise (single version) | Robert Gordon | ||
21 | Fire (single version) | Robert Gordon |
Robert Gordon
March 29, 1947 - October 18, 2022
ROBERT GORDON OBITUARY
Robert Gordon
Mainstream interest in rockabilly had ebbed to a disturbingly low level when Robert Gordon helped restore the idiom to international prominence. His vocal style heavily influenced by Gene Vincent, Jack Scott, and Billy Riley, Gordon rendered the classic music of those hallowed ‘50s legends cool to a new generation of fans that in many cases weren’t even aware of their existence prior to Gordon’s emergence. For others, he represented a throwback to the beloved rock and roll of their youth, when pomade and pegged pants were imperative fashion statements.
Gordon, who died October 18, 2022 in Bethesda, Maryland at age 75, had little use for rock music of the ‘60s and beyond. Born in Bethesda, Maryland on March 29, 1947, Gordon heard Elvis’ immortal Heartbreak Hotel on the radio when he was nine and knew what he wanted to do with his life. During the ‘60s, Gordon preferred attending shows at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C., where James Brown and Otis Redding drove crowds into a sweat-stained frenzy, to listening to the British Invasion crowd.
A 1970 relocation to New York City with his young family preceded Robert Gordon joining what’s been described as a punk rock outfit, The Tuff Darts, as their lead singer. Their All For The Love Of Rock And Roll and two more songs were included on a compilation album, ‘Live At CBGB’s,’ dedicated to New York’s thriving new wave scene. Producer Richard Gottehrer, formerly of The Strangeloves and a longtime successful record producer, caught a Tuff Darts rehearsal and rather than opting to work with the band, suggested teaming a solo Gordon with grizzled guitar legend Link Wray, whose thundering instrumental Rumble was a major 1958 hit and went a long way towards introducing the concept of the crunching power chord.
Gottehrer produced the young vocalist’s 1977 debut album ‘Robert Gordon with Link Wray’ for the Private Stock imprint, its contents an intriguing mix of ‘50s rockabilly covers from the repertoires of Vincent, Riley, Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, and Sanford Clark and three Wray originals. Gordon’s revival of Billy ‘The Kid’ Emerson’s Sun label classic Red Hot, done Riley-style and decorated with Wray’s slashing lead guitar, made inroads on the pop singles charts. Gordon steadfastly dressed the part of a ‘50s rocker, complete with high hair.
Gottehrer, who shared his production credit with the singer this time, summoned The Jordanaires to handle the backing vocals on Gordon’s ’78 Private Stock encore set ‘Fresh Fish Special,’ Wray again lending his blistering fretwork to the proceedings. Once again, remakes of classic rockers by Vincent, Scott, Cochran, Elvis, Johnny Burnette, Bob Luman, and Frankie Ford were the order of the day, along with a couple more of Link’s originals. But there was a rooker: Fire was the work of prolific rocker Bruce Springsteen (who played piano on the song), and the feel was quite a bit more modern. The Pointer Sisters’ smash version of Fire killed any chance of Gordon enjoying a hit with the theme.
After Private Stock tanked, Robert Gordon switched over to RCA for his ’79 LP ‘Rock Billy Boogie,’ and Wray was gone, replaced on lead guitar by British rocker Chris Spedding. Gottehrer was still in charge and the basic concept survived the move intact, Gordon tearing into classics by Conway Twitty, Hayden Thompson, Burnette, Cochran, Presley, Fats Domino, Leroy Van Dyke, and Joe Bennett and The Sparkletones along with a freshly prepared tribute to Vincent, The Catman. It turned out to be his highest-charting album.
‘Bad Boy,’ produced by Gottehrer and Robert Gordon and issued on RCA in 1980, stayed in the same rockabilly-obsessed groove, with Spedding handling lead guitar as Gordon dug deep into vintage Tommy Sands, Warner Mack. Roy Orbison, Bill Haley, Marty Wilde material, along with more Burnette.
But change was decidedly in the air on ‘Are You Gonna Be The One,’ Gordon’s last RCA long-player in 1981. Instead of Gottehrer ensconced in the driver’s seat, Robert produced the album with Lance Quinn and Scott Litt, and the emphasis was no longer on familiar remakes apart from Don Gibson’s Look Who’s Blue. Originals now dominated the proceedings, including three compositions by young rocker Marshall Crenshaw. One of Crenshaw’s contributions, Someday, Someway, briefly cracked the pop hit parade as a single. Washington, D.C. guitar wizard Danny Gatton was Gordon’s fret foil this time.
The relative success of Someday, Someway wasn’t enough to keep RCA interested in Gordon’s services. He branched into acting in 1982, co-starring with newcomer Willem Dafoe in director Kathryn Bigelow’s first feature, a motorcycle film entitled ‘The Loveless’ that’s taken on cult status. Gordon recorded intermittently after leaving RCA, reuniting with Spedding and The Jordanaires for 2007’s Elvis tribute disc ‘It’s Now Or Never’ on Rykodisc. Lanark released his 2014 set ‘I’m Coming Home.’
One thing’s for sure: Robert Gordon’s lifelong love for real deal rockabilly never wavered, defining his career from one end to the other.
Read more at: https://www.bear-family.de/gordon-robert-in-concert-march-1979-philadelphia-pa.html
Copyright © Bear Family Records
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