Hot off the mailman's truck, and to your ears this week, is a record I was lucky enough to obtain just this week, and for a bargain of a price, given its contents.
What we have here is a tribute worthy of a hero, to that then-hero of the gridiron, O. J. Simpson. And who gets to do the honor but the voice of the label, circa 1973-74 (when this record dates from), Gene Marshall. Writer Thomas Hunter doesn't actually have a lot to say about O.J. - if someone didn't know who the man was, or what he did for a living, nothing in this lyric would give even so much as a clue. The backing track is suitably funky, and the Preview arrangers do a good job of extending a fairly short lyric into a standard 2 1/2 minute pop song.
And of course, the lyricist was 100% correct that (in a very musical phrase indeed) "his popularity is never going down". Of course that's the case - have you seen him on those Naked Gun movies? The guy is a stitch.
Download: Gene Marshall: O. J. Simpson
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The flip side presents a few fascinating areas of inquiry. It's a peppy record, with a sinewy melody and understated backing.
Here's what fascinates me: It features a vocal performance credited to "Dean Curtis", who's shows up on well under a dozen known Preview 45's. Maybe I'm projecting more onto this than is there, but the lyrics, in which the writer "thought
But I have a suspicion that this might actually be Rodd Keith. It's not clear to me if Keith was even at Preview by this point (the records with his name on them cease about 200 label numbers earlier. But boy, that vocal is full of things that sound like his inflections, and has the understated sound of some of the records he made for MSR near the end of his life. And the Dean Curtis records dry up by the time that Rodd died.
Or maybe it's more simple - maybe Rodd, having moved on to MSR, had to appear under a different pseudonym - I have no idea how any of that works.
Or maybe it's not Rodd, but just a guy named Dean Curtis, I'm wrong about the Black angle, and there was no effort to deceive anyone, for any reason. What the hell do I know?
Download: Dean Curtis - I Can't Get No Sweet Lovin'
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5 comments:
First, thank you for posting this! The a-side is pretty standard to me, but the lack of actual content about O.J. Simpson is pretty funny.
I'm sure that you're right about the b-side, that it's Rodd. His piano and vocals are kinda unmistakeable, as well as the burned-out quality of the performance. I love that he sings:
'I thought I was super fly/I feel like I'm a soup in a fly.'
Preview changed Bobbi Blake's name to Barbara Foster for some of its more soulful releases, so why wouldn't they give Rodd a psuedonym too? It might also be, as you said, that since Rodd was on MSR by this time, he had to do things for Preview on the downlow.
I agree that it must be Rodd on the B Side. I came across an auction on eBay that I thought other Rodd fans may find interesting,not just for the records but the Preview mail mailout box that comes with the auction. Special Fourth Class indeed!!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/19-Vintage-Rodd-Keith-Preview-Records-45RPM-Oh-Baby-Dont-Go-Since-My-Baby/362496961075?hash=item546680aa33:g:EyYAAOSwD~Fb4hoX
Judging by the fact that there were 19 copies of the same record, and adding one the lyric-writer kept, that would mean Preview made 20 copies of each 45.
Yes, I was thinking that it goes some way to explain how many Preview pressed up of each release.I suppose the answer is as many as the buyer or songwriter wanted. Sometimes a handful and other times maybe 100 +
Yup - all the Dean Curtis records I've heard are by Rodd. It was his final pseudonym. Why he adopted it (or why it was given to him) at this late stage, though, I have no idea. I kind of doubt that it was out of a contractual obligation to M.S.R., what with all demo vocalists working freelance & being paid by the song. On the other hand, it's not like the name 'Rodd Keith' carried any weight with it at that point in time - no potential customer was going to be lured in by the opportunity to have their deathless lyrics sung by the famous Rodd Keith, nor would any recipient of the record be impressed by it.
While these productions from the end of Rodd's life aren't as musically consistent as his early Previews heyday, I have a great fondness for them - and the best ones have a uniquely personal quality unmatched in the rest of his discography, imho.
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