How Do You Do? - Mouth and MacNeal

How Do You Do?

Mouth and MacNeal

Philips PHS 700-000

1971

As I get older my memories of my youth are getting fuzzier which I am not happy about although there is plenty of stuff from back then I wish I could forget.  For some reason I still remember 1972 quite well.  That was the year that I consider my first year as a fan of pop music.  I have liked music as long as I can remember but that was the year it became important to me.  It began that summer when my family rented a vacation cabin at Lake Tahoe that had no television.  It did have a radio that was tuned to a top 40 station all day long.  In retrospect the summer of 1972 was not a particularly good year for music, but back then I loved what I heard.  I remember singing along to Sammy Davis Jr.'s "Candy Man,"  Gallery's "Nice to Be with You," Elton John's "Rocket Man," Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again (Naturally)," Bill Withers' "Lean On Me," and my two favorites "Brandy" by Looking Glass and "How Do You Do?" by this band.  When we came back home I convinced my mom to give me an old clock radio she was not using much and with access to my own radio I was hooked.  My tastes rapidly evolved once I discovered the oldies stations (and later AOR when I got a radio with FM) and soon I did not listen much to top 40 radio at all.  The Beatles obliterated any interest I had in collecting popular music from the 1970s on vinyl although I did eventually come to like and buy Elton John and Bill Withers albums.  I also bought the Looking Glass album many years ago.  This record I bought last year online mostly out of nostalgia.  As usual with childhood memories, "How Do You Do?" is not as good as I remembered but I am not sorry about the album which is better than I expected.  This is the 1972 American release of this Dutch duo's 1971 debut album which features an identical track selection and running order but different cover art.  The duo consisted of a male singer named Willem Duyn who performed under the apt pseudonym Big Mouth shortened to Mouth here.  He has the kind of loud gravelly voice that people seemed to dig back then.  He sounds like a cross between John Fogerty and David Clayton-Thomas.  His partner was Sjoukje van't Spijker who performed under the name Maggie MacNeal.  She has a smoother, sweeter voice that acts as a refined counterpoint to Mouth's growling.  The album opens with "A.B.C" which was written by Andreas Holten and the album's producer Hans van Hemert.  The song has a spoken (or shouted in Mouth's case) intro before it gets down to its pounding riff.  The dynamic between Mouth's bellowing and MacNeal's silky crooning is displayed to impressive effect.  It gives the record a strong start that is largely dissipated by a lumbering and lethargic cover of Ivory Joe Hunter's "I Almost Lost My Mind." "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" was lifted from MacNeal's 1971 solo debut single.  It follows the familiar arrangement of the Marvin Gaye classic and MacNeal delivers a robust vocal which with her heavily accented English reminds me of Mariska Veres of Shocking Blue.  This cover is pointless but I enjoy it.  "Hey, You Love" was written by van Hemert and the album's arranger Harry van Hoof.  Much of the tune is stolen from "Rule Britannia" and is largely pedestrian although I like the interplay between MacNeal and Mouth.  "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" was taken from the debut Big Mouth single from 1971.  Somehow the song is even more melodramatic than the Shangri-Las' classic original with Mouth's histrionic yowling suggesting he's auditioning for a Joe Cocker cover band.  Side one closes with "Rosianna" which was written by the Manhattan Transfer's Gene Pistilli along with Terry Cashman and Tommy West and was featured on the Transfer's debut album.  It is a rollicking country style song that does not play to the duo's strengths but it is still engaging.  Side two opens with van Hemert's "Why Did You, Why?" which is a slow soulful song beautifully sung by MacNeal supplemented by some subdued roars from Mouth.  "How Do You Do?" was written by van Hemert and van Hoof.  When I bought this album I don't think I had heard the song for at least 40 years.  I remembered it as a boisterous rocker which it definitely is not, although I was so naïve back then maybe it really did sound rocking to me.  Once I got over my initial disappointment that it was not like I remembered, I started to like the song again.  It is charming with a touch of bubblegum and to my great surprise an appealing string arrangement.  I like the shifts in tone and the contrast between the rowdy sections featuring Mouth and the softer sections with MacNeal although she cuts loose in a few places to show off her own ability to bring the noise.  The song is extremely catchy and sticks in my head all day whenever I play it just like it did when I was kid.  "Land of Milk and Honey" is another Holten/van Hemert collaboration.  It sounds very Europop with a bit of a Mediterranean flavor.  Mouth reins in his vocal and listening to him I can easily imagine someone like Tom Jones performing it.  Jones could also cover van Hemert and van Hoof's "Tell Me World" which is more bouncy Europop that reminds me of ABBA.  "It Happened Long Ago" was written by Leo Bennink and Rudy Bennett and was the b-side of the first Big Mouth single.  It has a dramatic arrangement that almost achieves the impossible task of overwhelming Mouth's emoting.  The album ends with John Lennon's "Isolation" which was the b-side of MacNeal's debut single.  It lacks the intensity of Lennon's version but MacNeal sings it with feeling and I am grateful that Mouth is not around to muck it up.  This is definitely a minor record, but I find it mostly entertaining.  Mouth and MacNeal work well together.  On his own I would find Mouth hard to listen to since he is so intense and overbearing and the material is not strong enough to contain him.  MacNeal is more my style and I think she is a good singer, but she isn't good enough to stand out with such ordinary material.  Mouth brings the energy and intensity that she lacks.  This is exemplified by "How Do You Do?" which probably would have been a hit for anyone, but is made more memorable by their chemistry.  I expect some of my fondness for this record is nostalgia and objectively I can't deny that most of the songs are mediocre, so I am hesitant to fully endorse it.  I enjoy it but I know I am not going to play it much.  Nonetheless if you like the music of this era (I have mixed feelings about it) you will likely find stuff on here that will appeal to you.  You could definitely do worse.  Recommended to Sonny and Cher fans who dig ABBA.

Eight Miles High - The Golden Earring

Eight Miles High
The Golden Earring
Polydor 2485 113
1969

This is a late 1970s/early 1980s Dutch re-issue of Golden Earring's fifth album.  Like most Americans I first became aware of the band when "Radar Love" became a hit here in 1974.  I had just started to listen to the radio a lot and it was one of my favorite songs of the time.  I liked the song so much that I eventually bought "Moontan" which is the album it was featured on.  I figured that was all the Golden Earring I would ever need.  Many years later I learned that Golden Earring had been around long before I had ever heard them.  Their career dates back to the early 1960s.  I bought a CD compilation of their 1960s singles in the Netherlands and liked it although it is pretty derivative of British Invasion style pop.  It made me interested enough in the band to buy this album when I came across it in a record store.  I might have bought it even without knowing anything about the band simply because I was intrigued by their side long cover of the Byrds' "Eight Miles High" which is one of my all-time favorite songs.  The record opens with bassist/keyboardist Marinus Gerritsen's "Landing" which is a heavy organ driven rocker that reminds me of a cross between Iron Butterfly and Deep Purple.  I'm a sucker for a good riff and I dig the song's heaviness.  The lyrics are trippy and enigmatic.  The remaining songs on side one were written by guitarist George Kooymans.  "Song of a Devil's Servant" opens with a lengthy instrumental passage featuring flute runs by lead singer Barry Hay.  Sieb Warner contributes some Indian style percussion as well.  The song initially sounds like the Moody Blues, but then the band begins rocking out with a Jethro Tull-like riff.  The song is about a guy who sold his soul to the devil.  Hay isn't a strong enough singer to hold his own against the band's forceful sound, he sounds strained at times.  "One Huge Road" is a straight ahead rocker.  It features another booming riff and lots of energetic guitar noise.  Kooymans takes the mike on this track but he isn't any more effective than Hay.  Despite the song's heaviness it also has an agreeable poppiness to its sound.  That is largely absent from the pounding dreariness of "Everyday's Torture."  It reminds me of Led Zeppelin's cover of "Dazed and Confused."  The torture in the song refers to unrequited love and heartbreak although the lyrics are so awkward that they have little impact.  Side two consists of the band's extended workout on "Eight Miles High."  The song begins with a subdued, jangly sound that adheres closely to the original song's arrangement.  It drifts away from that in the instrumental break with some raga-ish guitar noodling that gradually gains in strength and volume leading into a more highly charged riff-driven instrumental passage that has little resemblance to the original version of the song.  Regrettably that gives way to Warner's drum solo which goes on way too long.  Gerritsen then joins him for an extended bass solo that isn't much better but restores a little of the song's momentum.  Finally the guitar returns and the band lurches into some energetic jamming that eventually after a brief pause evolves into a riff that sounds like it was lifted from Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive."  From there the original Byrds song at last reappears leading to the songs rather abrupt conclusion.  I have to admit the first time I played this track I was really disappointed.  I like it better now although I still think the drum and bass solos are boring.  You should check it out if you are a fan of the original song.  The album itself is too derivative and lyrically weak to be essential, but it is worth looking for if you like late 1960s hard rock and appreciate a good riff.  Recommended to fans of Humble Pie and Free.

At Home - Shocking Blue

At Home
Shocking Blue
Metronome MLP 15 353
1969

This is a German pressing of Shocking Blue's second album originally released in the Netherlands on Pink Elephant Records.  It was Mariska Veres' debut album with the band as lead vocalist.  I first encountered the band as a kid on the first rock record I ever bought, a compilation called "Get It Together," which featured their international hit single "Venus."  I liked the song but not so much that I made a big effort to obtain one of their albums which are not all that easy to find in the United States.  About 20 years later I heard Nirvana's wonderful cover of "Love Buzz" on "Bleach" and decided I had to get the original version by Shocking Blue.  Thus I finally ended up with this delightful album which contains both "Venus" and "Love Buzz."  The album opens with "Boll Weevil" which like all but one of the songs on the album was written by the band's guitarist/sitarist Robbie van Leeuwen.  It is a hard rocking song with a rockabilly flavor particularly in the chorus and guitar solo.  The lyrics are slight but Veres sings them with admirable verve.  "I'll Write Your Name Through The Fire" is trippy folk-rock.  The lyrics are of the "gotta ramble" variety.  Like most of the lyrics on the record, they sound awkward to me.  "Acka Raga" is a cover of a song by John Mayer (no not that John Mayer.)  It is a raga rock instrumental driven by van Leeuwen on sitar and one of my favorite tracks.  "Love Machine" is greasy rock with stimulating guitar runs from van Leeuwen and a heavy bass riff propelling it.  Veres' vocal sounds slightly hoarse heightening the passion of her delivery.  "I'm a Woman" is a mix of raga rock and soul with a seductive vocal from Veres as she intones quasi-feminist lyrics of female empowerment.  The lyrics are extremely awkward bordering on abstruse which mutes the songs impact although Veres sings them so convincingly that they still convey the song's message.  Side one concludes with "Venus" which was their biggest hit and deservedly so.  The song features a hypnotic guitar riff over which Veres intones alluring lyrics of irresistible desire.  When I heard the song as a boy, Veres' vocal captivated me with her accent and her sensuality and all these years later I still find her performance very appealing.  I greatly prefer it to Bananarama's cover version.  Side two opens with "California Here I Come" which is driven by a strong guitar riff and features a stimulating instrumental break.  It is another "gotta ramble" type song that is a paean to California as well.  Despite the listing on the record sleeve the next song is "Long and Lonesome Road" which is a pounding rocker with an urgent vocal from Veres.  It is powered by a compelling organ riff and plenty of noisy guitar work from van Leeuwen.  "Poor Boy" opens with a lengthy instrumental passage featuring raga inflected guitar runs from van Leeuwen.  After a couple of minutes the vocal part of the song begins with Veres plaintively singing about the unhappy titular character.  She again uses the hoarse quality of her voice to great effect heightening the emotional impact of her singing.  "Love Buzz" begins with a memorable raga-style bass riff augmented by sitar over which Veres sings clumsy lyrics about desire leading to a frenzied rave up in the instrumental break.  Kurt Cobain followed the arrangement for Nirvana's cover but increased the tempo and rocked up the sound more.  I prefer the Nirvana version for its intensity, but being a raga rock fan I appreciate the Shocking Blue version too.  "The Butterfly and I" features more awkward lyrics so much so that I can't even figure out what the song is about.  Veres accent sounds particularly heavy on this track.  The song starts out with a raga rock sound and then halfway through the song it is weirdly transformed by a big band arrangement complete with a couple of trumpet solos.  If nothing else it gives the album a dynamic finish.  I really love the sound of this album, it pushes a lot of my buttons.  Van Leeuwen came up with a lot of great riffs and I like the sitar as well.  Veres was a charismatic and emotional singer and she goes a long way towards compensating for the weakness of the lyrics.  I suppose the lyrics are not bad for a Dutch guy, but they definitely diminish the strength of several of the songs.  It is still a terrific record though, well worth seeking out.  Recommended to fans of George Harrison's sitar playing.