Ellen Foley: Nightout - 1979

By

Produced by Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson. This is a Springsteenesque New York City rock album of the highest order. The opener, the Spectoresque majesty that is We Belong To The Night is superb and Ellen's voice is powerful, just as we knew her from the vocal duet on Paradise By The Dashboard Light on Meat Loaf's iconic Bat Out Of Hell. 

What's A Matter Baby is like a 60s Phil Spector girl group song, and then there is a rocking cover of The Rolling Stones' Stupid Girl which vastly improves on the original. 

In late 1979, Philip Rambow was said to be one of the most promising new singer-songwriters. What happened to him I wonder? The first of his tracks here, Night Out, is just great, such an NYC rock song, bristling with late-night Springsteen-esque street rock atmosphere. 

Rambow's other track, the chunky, powerful Young Lust is excellent too. Ellen's voice and approach making me feel all, shall we say, distracted. Her delivery is urgent and mega-sexy, particularly at the end when she reaches her crescendo and blurts out "young lust!!". Lordy, I need a lie down.

Graham Parker's Thunder And Rain is another punchy rocker, as is the frenetic, riffy and downright irresistible rock of Hideaway. Sad Songs is catchily appealing and Ian Hunter's plaintive ballad, Don't Let Go, is a heartbreaking closer to what was a very impressive album, albeit one very much of its time. It always brings back great memories for me. I caught her live in 1980 at the old "Venue" in London's Victoria, touring this album. Excellent show it was too.

Comments

  1. bobbyb08/03/2024, 07:06

    Is she the one that sang on the Clash's Hitsville UK? I always forget if it's her or Ellen Shipley. There used to be all these Ellens whose records I used to see in the used vinyl but I never heard them. Hitsville UK is actually my favorite song on Sandinista. As a matter of fact, it may be my favorite Clash record ever. I wonder if We Belong to the Night is the same one as the Pat Benatar hit. That was all Phil Spectory too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Punk Panther08/03/2024, 09:27

      Yes it is Ellen Foley on Hitsville UK (check my Sandinista review). She was Mick Jones's girlfriend for a while. He and Joe Strummer wrote most of her Spirit Of St. Louis album (again, check the review).

      The Pat Benatar song is simply called We Belong.

      Delete
  2. bobbyb08/03/2024, 10:10

    Do you remember another album that someone in the Clash produced and they all play on it and she was the girlfriend of one of the guys in the Clash? Pearl Harbour was her name and I loved that album. It was like rockabilly and it was really great fun. It had Fujiyama Mama on it. I had it on CD.

    I just went to look it up to see which Clash guy it was and I found this article here and it tells all about it.

    https://www.thepunksite.com/news/pearl-harbours-1980-album-dont-follow-me-im-lost-too-gets-expanded-reissue/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Punk Panther08/03/2024, 10:16

      I was vaguely aware of this one. The Clash loved their rockabilly.

      Delete
  3. bobbyb08/03/2024, 10:58

    I didn't know she actually married him. For some reason I thought it was Joe Strummer and not Paul Simonon. How do you pronounce his name anyway? I don't think I've ever heard Simonon pronounced.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Punk Panther08/03/2024, 11:03

      Sim-o-non, with the emphasis on "sim" - SIMMANON

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Joni Mitchell: Don Juan's Reckless Daughter - 1977

By
Image
  This was a somewhat sprawling, very experimental acquired taste of a double album here from Joni. It was made so, to a great extent, by the side long and possibly indulgent (only in places, I might add) of  Paprika Plains , which is probably eight or so minutes too long, at sixteen of them. I love the superb rock drums and clarinet bit fourteen minutes in though! Knock eight minutes off and you have a great track. Mitchell said of it - "....the Improvisational, the spontaneous aspect of this creative process – still as a poet – is to set words to the music, which is a hammer and chisel process. Sometimes it flows, but a lot of times it's blocked by concept. And if you're writing free consciousness – which I do once in a while just to remind myself that I can, you know, because I'm fitting little pieces of this puzzle together – the end result must flow as if it was spoken for the first time...." Ok, now I get it, Joni 😕 Other than this, the music largely contin
View Full Post »

Joni Mitchell: For The Roses - 1972

By
Image
  Things liven up for Joni Mitchell from the bleakness of Blue   a little (well only slightly) on this more melodic and playful offering (again, only at times) although it is still essentially Joni as singer-songwriter accompanying herself.   A song like  Banquet  is a lovely song - with some wonderfully inventive lyrics about who gets the marrowbone and who gets the gristle - but its piano and vocal sound is nothing we haven't heard before. The same applies to  Lesson In Survival , but again I cannot deny its stark, lyrical, poetic beauty. "I looked again at the ocean, love to see that green water in motion...". Joni never fails to delver, does she? For The Roses  is beautifully, acoustically warm. It is simply lovely songwriting too, I can't hope to convincingly analyse it.  See You Sometime  is in the same category.  "I spring from the boulders like a mama lion"  is my pick of the lyrics here. Musically similar is  Woman Of   Heart And Mind , albeit with
View Full Post »

Glam Greats: 20 Seventies Stompers

By
Image
This wonderfully-nostalgic CD for people like me, whose teenage years had glam rock as its soundtrack, was released in 2000. I remember that Woolworth's stores were still open and they used to sell CD like this one, along with lots of similar compilations from various genres - funk, reggae, punk etc. I couldn't get enough of them, often coming away with several on a Saturday morning. They retailed for only about a fiver each so it was great value.  There were three CDs in this series - what does this first one give us? It kicks off with a real glam barnstormer in T. Rex's gloriously riffy and totally infectious Telegram Sam , where Marc Bolan showcased his ability to turn a few seemingly inane lyrical couplets into a big, classic number one chart hit. Rivals to T. Rex in 1972-73 were lovable yam-yams* Slade, and they serve up the mighty Cum On Feel The Noize , introduced by Noddy Holder's "baby, baby, baaaby!!!" vocal and subsequently covered by Oasis and man
View Full Post »

Bruce Springsteen: Greatest Hits

By
Image
Bruce Springsteen, like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison, isn't your "greatest hits" kinda guy, is he? Like those two, he is not particularly known for hit singles and many of his best album tracks are lengthy numbers.  I am sure there are many Bruce aficionados/obsessives just like me who would have chosen tracks such as Racing In The Street, The Promised Land, Rosalita (Come Out Tonight), Incident On 57th Street, Blinded By The Light, Lost In the Flood, Sandy (4th Of July, Asbury Park), Jungleland,  Backstreets, Cadillac Ranch, The Price You Pay, Sherry Darling, Point Blank, No Surrender, Highway Patrolman .....I could type on endlessly and none of them are on here.  What we get on here are actually a few of my least favourite Boss numbers! So, I'm not quite sure who this collection is intended to appeal to. I will add my song-by-song comments, however. First, a brief diversion - a little intro to "me 'n' Bruce" - On Friday September 29, 1978, aged nine
View Full Post »

Glam Greats 2: 20 Seventies Sensations

By
Image
A fine follow up to Glam Greats , here we have 20 more stomping, drum-pounding, singalong, often rock 'n' roll retro-ing glam classics.  What's on the menu, Panther? Well, from Slade we get  a sort of pre-glam single from 1971 in  the quirky, violin-backed and vaguely folky first big hit of Coz I Luv You and   also what was possibly their last true glam hit in the rousing, raucous anthem  Skweeze Me Pleeze Me , from the summer of 1974.  From rivals T. Rex comes the typically-Bolan riffage of the lyrically-perplexing and wall-of-sound attack of  Metal Guru and the "hey hey hey"  fist-pumping, glam fun of Solid Gold Easy Action . Are The Sweet here? They sure are, with two killers as well - the marvellous let 'em 'ave it teen anthem Teenage Rampage and the equally infectious, irresistible Ballroom Blitz . Contained in these two is the very essence of glam. Bottle it and sell it to people like me.  From Wizzard, just as on the previous compilation, we get o
View Full Post »

The Beat: You Just Can't Beat It: The Best Of The Beat

By
Image
Of the late seventies/early eighties UK "two t one" punk meets ska groups, it was Birmingham's The Beat who were always my favourites. I seriously loved their first two albums and was lucky enough to catch them live on a couple of occasions. They were great.  A six-piece, they featured the clever, culturally-relevant lyrics and distinctive voice of Dave Wakeling on shared lead vocals, shared with the ebullient Ranking Roger. The group's distinctive saxophone sound was delivered by Saxa, a veteran Jamaican who was said to be fifty, sixty, seventy, or eighty. Nobody really knew. It added to the mythology.  The music was essentially ska, full of lilting guitar licks, dub influences and that deep, gloriously tuneful saxophone wailing away beneath nearly every tune. This is, by far, the best Beat compila tion, featuring pretty much all three of their albums, save for one track off the third album, Rotating Head . They may as well have just put it on there. So, let's ge
View Full Post »

The Gladiators: Sweet So Till - 1979

By
Image
  Another Gladiators album that comes highly recommended by me. In terms of a detailed review, I would be repeating myself from the first three albums of theirs that I have covered, however, and I'm sure you don't want that. Just take my word that it is crucial roots quality. Fancy some back yard meditation.... Highlights are the delicious Sweet So Till, along with the poppy  A Day We Go, the righteous Let Jah Be Praised, the attractive Back Yard Meditation and Holiday Ride .  It goes without saying that Rasta concerns are still high in the group's lyrical priorities. Introduced instrumentally at this point in the group's were those very early eighties "boing boing" electronic percussion sounds. On a track like Sweet So Till , the group have become softer in their delivery, rather like Aswad did at the same time. The eighties were coming and poppy reggae was seen as a more accessible alternative to roots. There is also a bluesy, melodic harmonica on Sweet
View Full Post »

Desmond Dekker: You Can Get It If You Really Want - 1970

By
Image
  In contrast to Intensified , this release showcases Dekker's orchestrated poppy early seventies sound, including the strings that were used so much in the 1970-1972 pop reggae era. It includes the wonderful You Can Get It If You Really Want , the catchy Pickney Gal, Peace Of Mind and You Got Soul . The plea for racial harmony of Polka Dot is a nice one too.  This album is the more instantly appealing and has a slightly smoother sound quality to it, possibly due to those typical of the era strings. The previous album has some more dated material on it too. 
View Full Post »

UB40: Labour Of Love II - 1989

By
Image
Released in 1989, I love this album, possibly even more so than the wonderful Labour Of Love 1. It is full of atmospheric covers of reggae classics delivered by Ali Campbell’s unique voice. Despite never having been remastered the sound is still good. I lived in Moseley, Birmingham, at the time and it is so evocative of that part of the city.   Highlights for me are their versions of  Lord Creator ’s  Kingston Town ;  Honey Boy ’s  Sweet Cherrie ,  Smokey Robinson ’s  The Way You Do The Things You Do ; a superbly bassy, toasty take on  John Holt ’s  Wear You To The Ball    and  The Kingstonian ’s  Singer Man .  Tears From My Eyes  and the laid-back but catchy  Groovin'   are both most attractively covered while  Wedding Day  and  Impossible Love  are sweet, soulful hartbrreakers.   Homely Girl  is lovely too.   Here I Am Baby  (originally done by soul legend Al Green) is a great brassy opener and Ken Boothe's  Just Another Girl  is a sad serving of embryonic lovers' rock. 
View Full Post »

Third World: 96 Degrees In The Shade - 1977

By
Image
After an impressive, inventive and often inspirational debut album, the intriguing  Third World  returned in 1977 with this equally notable album.   Theirs was a mesmerising mix of roots reggae, soulful vocals, disco stylings on occasions and many “world music” sounds.   The opening track,  Jah Glory , is a perfect example of this - great, airy, tuneful vocals and all sorts of tropical sounds in the backing. Just perfect music for a hot summer’s day. There is, of course, a rasta consciousness to the band’s lyrics but it never overwhelms the music, that washes over you like a cool Caribbean breeze.  Tribal War  is a Rasta-drum rhythm backed intoxicating groover, backed by some seriously “crucial” lead guitar and some deep, urgent lyrics. This is one of the most “roots” tracks on the album, suitable for any “punky reggae party” playlist.  The mood changes now for the truly beautiful  Dreamland , a cover of  Bunny Wailer ’s track from his  Blackheart Man  album of the previous year. This
View Full Post »