This is a sort of fascinating record. While not every Preview release has been documented yet, and that will probably never happen, there is only one Preview release precisely like this one documented at the AS/PMA Preview page, and now here's a second one.
What this record contains is a standard song-poem vocal rendition of a song, by Gene Marshall in this case (and in the other case, too), and on the flip side, the Preview house band, identified as "The Squires", play an instrumental version of the same song. And it's not just the instrumental track from the Gene Marshall version, it's another, different performance of the song.
And this is a pretty misbegotten song. It seems that maybe the song-poet's first verse lyrics to "I Don't Love You No More" simply could not be fit into standard three-to-the-bar waltz beat. Or maybe someone was just getting overly creative in a way that really didn't work. Whatever the reason, in the middle of the first verse, there are two four-beat bars, and then near the end of that verse, there is a seven-beat bar (or I suppose it could be one four-beat bar). Even the nearly always perfect Gene seams tripped up by the second one. Oddly, the second time through the verse, the oddly places measures aren't present.
And that's without even getting to the lyrics, which suggest that the singer has fallen out of love with his former flame because he doesn't like her behavior. Is that a thing? Can one simply turn off love? I don't think I ever experienced that, in any of my relationships. Maybe I'm the odd one. I dunno.
Download: Gene Marshall - I Don't Love You No More
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The flip side, as mentioned, is an instrumental rendition of the same song. And this suggests that I was right with my second guess - that someone was getting creative with the structure of the song. I say that because the two four-bar measure in the first version are heard here, and there is no lyrical line to make space for here - in other words, the whole thing could have been a waltz in this version, if they'd wanted it to be. The actual performance is pretty much a sleep walk.
Download: The Squires - I Don't Love You No More
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2 comments:
Well, I'm not impressed by either side of this, but in a way that's probably the point, right? Misbegotten song, misbegotten arrangement on side A, and some clams on side B. Thanks for posting, though, because it confirms once again how poor so many song-poems actually are.
OK, now, just WAIT. I've been blessed by a new remarkable revelation... The vocal version here offered by Gene is grand enough, but then to realize that the instrumental version can enlighten me with the same fragrance as his soulful singing, well -- it's all too much to ask for! Never before in the history of recorded music has there been such an expertise job of replicating the emotions of a vocal performance with a matching solid, instrumental masterpiece. Thank you, Preview Records.
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