Description
Alas, here we go again, the work of a quintessentially American artist being available only to the nations on the other sides of both ponds. In this case it's the great Delaney Bramlett -- the man who managed to teach Eric Clapton how to sing, wrote one of his biggest hits, and produced his first solo album (anyone who has heard the original version of Clapton's self-titled debut album realizes with great clarity the superiority of Bramlett's version over the officially released one). This is the guy who, along with then-wife Bonnie (who was an Ikette), put together one of the greatest tours this side of the Mad Dogs & Englishmen thang in Great Britain, only to have it stolen by a record company eager to cash in on Clapton's rising star. The album? It's was called On Tour with Eric Clapton by Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. One more thing: Delaney taught Mr. George Harrison how to play the slide guitar because he is a monster on the six-string and plays second to none. Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett issued a handful of albums, including the greatest live-to-tape recorded album in the history of rock & roll: Motel Shot. It was done in a single night in a motel room with all manner of guests, from Mr. Clapton to Mr. Gram Parsons crowding the mikes. In addition, there is the joyous and powerful To Bonnie from Delaney. This pair of sides, Some Things Coming (a classic in its own right) and Mobius Strip, may not rank quite as high in the pantheon of believers as the aforementioned three, but perhaps they deserve to. And they do smoke -- the former with its hard-driving Southern soul meets funk-happy rock band recorded and issued in 1972, and the latter with its larger, more ambitious follow-up in 1973.
Some Things Coming features Bramlett on lead vocals and guitars with a full-on horn section, Venetta Fields and Clydie King on backing vocals throughout, string arrangements by George Bohannon, percussionist Milt Holland, Ronnie Grayson on drums, bassist Robert Wilson, and B-3 boss Tim Hedding -- the backing chorus added on several cuts includes future disco diva Gloria Jones and Shirley Matthews. The material is wide-ranging but always greasy. The opener is the driving funky Southern soul and gospel of "Over and Over"; it's revved to rockist hedonism with a splintering, overdriven guitar and popping bassline dueling to the death with double-time drums and an ambitious horn chart. There's the in-the-pocket ballad "Thank God," which manages to evoke both Ray Charles and '60s Nashville without blowing it. The gospel blues of "Please Accept My Love" is done in the utterly believable, wanton, pleading singing voice that Leon Russell and Bramlett shared -- but Bramlett's range is wider. It gets downright hard and funky on "Keep It Going," a tune that Bramlett co-wrote with Elvin Bishop. This is snaky voodoo funk at its best. One can hear the Meters and a gospel choir meeting on the street corner where Saturday night reluctantly gives way to Sunday morning and the spirits are everywhere duking it out. Add the title track and the album is worth its weight in gold. Bramlett -- via percussionist Holland with a kalimba, congas, and a boatload of hand percussion, and a gospel choir singing in Zulu -- simply takes the innovation of Hugh Masakela into the rock and Southern soul idiom. He answers them, line for line, in English. It all flows together until it erupts in razor-sharp lead guitar lines; funked-out bass and drums are underscored by the B-3 in the middle eight before it gives way again to the chant. It's stunning -- especially considering it's followed here with the traditional "Down by the Riverside," done with so much class you'd swear you were in church, except for maybe that guitar solo. Speaking of which, "Sit Right Down" offers one of the nastiest-sounding National Steel bottleneck guitars ever put in front of a mike in a studio.
Mobius Strip was recorded and released in 1973, during Bramlett's separation from Bonnie in the wake of their imminent divorce. Amazingly, it doesn't immediately show in the music. In fact, it's more joyous in places than predecessor Some Things Coming. That said, one has to wonder if Bramlett was losing it, given that its opener is titled "Are You a Beatle or a Rolling Stone." By rights it should be dreadful, but it's not. Bramlett's cornball humor aside, its tale of life on the road depicts the '70s in all of their decadent glory. It's also a savagely funky R&B-drenched rocker. The band on this set is a bit larger but is also leaner. Bramlett handles a lot of the backing vocals and percussion himself -- offering his true worth as a singer. He plays guitar a lot more, too -- each track is shot through with his nasty Telecaster and Stratocaster fills and solos. He's got Jim Gordon and Jerry Jumonville on saxes (the latter plays bagpipes à la Rufus Harley on one cut), and George Bohannon handles the charts for the horns on a few tracks. Bramlett does the rest, and the same core session players are used from Some Things Coming -- essentially his road band of bassist Wilson, organist Hedding, and drummer Grayson. The tunes where there are other backing vocals feature Fields and King and something called the Hired Choir, as well as a "mini-choir": the children of Bramlett and King. (For Fleetwood Mac fanatics, this marks the very first recorded performance of Bekka Bramlett.) The opener and "What Am I Doin' (In a Place Like This)" could have come off Some Things Coming; they're raucous, rowdy, and drenched in the Muscle Shoals horn and rhythm section soul-meets-blues formula that crackles with power and sexual energy. But the changeup happens on the set's third track, a stripped-down ballad by B. Sharpe called "A Young Girl (In Her Garden)," which could have been composed by Jimmy Webb. The desperation in Bramlett's vocal reveals his precarious situation, caught between regret and the desire for love in his life. "Big Ol' Piece of Blues" is just what it says it is, and then comes the charging road band soul "Circles," which offers more naked confessionalism with the amazing call-and-response backing vocals and choir, in a completely hypnotic vocal pattern that matches the (no pun intended) circular rhythms employed by the drum kit and percussion section. The organ and horns here are transcendent; they offer the singer courage as he bares his ripped-up heart and lost sense of purpose for the listener. But the funky, gritty sound that typifies Bramlett's best work is everywhere and his arrangement for the chorus is astonishing.
"When a Man Is in Need of a Woman" is not a rewrite of the Percy Sledge hit; its strictly honest "let's look at this without pretense" delivery may be sung right out to Bonnie, or it may be sung to the heavens. Damn! The slide work and special synth effects on "I'm a M-A-N" are a changeup for the first few seconds before Bramlett roars like a lion and lets his slide do the talking, challenging Bohannon's horns to go the distance with him. Jim Hobson's piano is poignant here, and is the only thing that keeps the piece on the ground. The set closes with "California Rain," a ballad with Bramlett on his 12-string guitars, a B-3, piano, and a skeletal bassline that is every bit as poignant as any singer/songwriter tune that's ever been laid down, but Bramlett's singing is as expressive as ________ (name any great Atlantic or Stax male vocalist after Otis Redding). It's as sad a tune as you're likely to hear, but its music moves past grief and loneliness toward the willing to live another day. As the children's choir kicks in, all off-key and sincere, one can feel the sun coming through the clouds. What it all means, of course, is that Bramlett is a bona fide genius, and even if he never records another note, this is enough (but he's a chronic underachiever and should get off his butt and do so because he's still got it). These albums, ignored in America as they are, deserve to be heard, by many for the first time. And for those who caught them back in the day as Bowie, Kiss, and the New York Dolls were moving to the center of rock & roll's terminally short attention meter, they need to be reheard because they endure -- they are as completely fearsomely soulful and true 35 years on as they were when issued. Order them at import prices, find them on second-hand vinyl -- just go out and find them. ~ Thom Jurek
