Best known for the book taken from his teen journal, Carroll turned to music after his poetic writings began making noise outside of New York.
His fame came from the book called The Basketball Diaries. Leonardo DiCaprio played Carroll in the movie of the same name.
The album Catholic Boy had on it the underground hit ‘People Who Died,” which chronicled a list of friends who died.
Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room Bobby hung himself from a cell in The Tombs Judy jumped in front of a subway train Eddie got slit in the jugular vein And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others And I salute you brother
His music on Catholic Boy is pretty straightforward hard rock, new wave with a darkness that seemed to shade his life. There’s a Lou Reed, Patti Smith, New York vibe here for sure.
Carroll was apparently a promising New York City basketball player until he got into the heroin, an addiction he battled much of his life.
Carroll died at 60 in 2009 on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. His photo tells the story.
ALBUMS: Fervor (1983); Lost and Found (1985); Still Standing (1986)
MVC Rating: Fervor,4.5/$$$; Lost 4.0/$$$; Standing 4.0/$$$.
When I think back to Jason in the 1980s, I think Sloss, the steel refinery turned venue near downtown Birmingham.
Jason and the Scorchers ‘Still Standing.”
I think of Jason climbing up into the rafters (or whatever the ceiling’s infrastructure was called), until he was sitting dozens upon dozens of feet in the air. Still singing. I was hoping he didn’t take to swinging.
The band was a high energy rock band that some called country punk, or punk-a-billy music. They played fast and hard and were really quite the thing, a contrast to synthesizer driven bands popular at the time such as Depeche Mode, the Cure and Ultravox.
I think. Jason crazy!
Colleague and longtime AL.com writer Bob Carlton once called lead singer Jason Ringenberg and guitarist Warner Hodges the “Mick and Keith of cowpunk.”
But like all good things, they eventually ran out of steam. I think it was in a way the usual story: Pressure to be more commercial resulted in higher production, which hurt, not helped, this band. Jason and the Scorchers scorched and climbed up into the rafters. Tamping down on that took the essence away, whether overt or not. J&S was a shot of Wild Turkey, not fancy brandy.
For the above reasons I recommend the first album, Fervor, as a first buy. The Dylan cover, Absolutely Sweet Marie, is excellent and sets the tone. ‘Help There’s a Fire‘ puts the punk in Billy.
But all of the albums (at least these three are excellent). I think it’s pretty hard to find some of these used. But still not super expensive if you search online. (As always check with the locals first).
Other bands around that time playing similar music included the Beat Farmers, Rank and File, Rubber Rodeo, Webb Wilder, and perhaps you could throw in Lone Justice and the very excellent Long Ryders.
Sure, it’s a cliche’. But you know what they say about cliches’ — it became a cliche’ for a reason. The phrase sums up what I’m about to say about dementia.
The hardest thing about living with Lewy body dementia or any fatal disease is the unknown and dealing with that psychologically.
Will my brain damage progress slowly with controllable symptoms until I die peacefully (if that’s a thing) in my sleep?
Or will I shout, scream, accuse my wife of seeing other men or trying to poison me? All stories I’ve heard from caregivers and patients.
Will I be incontinent, impolite, and insulting, one who wanders out the front door and disappears? As Bob Dylan wrote,”No direction home, a complete unknown.” Will I be a heartbreaking shell of the man who was a father, son and husband?
When the word got out through my columns, I began hearing lots of stories. I have heard stories from friends, neighbors, in online support groups, emails from strangers. Some people run down in explicit detail how their loved one was at the end.
“He was in extreme pain,” one person wrote me. Another said she wouldn’t wish the disease on her worst enemy. I’m so sorry Mr. Oliver, another wrote.
I’m try to process this.
Many folks living with dementia or caring for a loved one with Lewy body, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s want information. And this is where I see light.
Certainly everybody can decide for themselves how to handle this — until you can’t. I chose to come out in public early with my diagnosis in an effort to raise awareness of this little known form of dementia. But my advice works on a broader scale, I hope.
Learn what you can about the disease, what can happen from best to worst, from living a full, relatively long life to sitting in a nursing home blank faced and unresponsive, not even knowing your daughters’ names as they stand crying before you.
This is serious.
Don’t be afraid to do the research, to name the disease, to listen to people’s stories. But you are not obligated. OK, you might say at some point: I get it. My brain is dying which controls everything I am, my perceptions, my memories, my motor skills.’ That doesn’t sound good. Talk to your friends and loved ones openly and make a plan for the worst.
I was diagnosed at a relatively young age for Lewy body — age 57. Now 59, I have progressed slowly due, in part to medications which were developed for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients. (That there are no specific drugs developed for Lewy body dementia I see as a sign the disease is flying under the radar, and that’s a key reason I am trying to spread the news and keep up the pressure to find a cure for Lewy body dementia.)
Once you know how bad it can be, you can begin to expect the best.
When I was young I remember my parents had a book called ‘The Power of Positive Thinking,’ a title that kind of made me roll my eyes. But I’m thinking there may be something there.
“Stand up to an obstacle,’ wrote Norman Vincent Peele decades ago. “Just stand up to it, that’s all, and don’t give way under it, and it will finally break. You will break it. Something has to break, and it won’t be you, it will be the obstacle.”
Exercise, treat yourself to healthy but delicious meals, go see something you haven’t seen, write about your life, engage in a community of fellow LBD patients, or just friends, family, faith-based groups.
And I’m no Norm Van Peale but I offer up another suggestion:
This is an opinion column by Mike Oliver who writes for AL.com about his fatal brain diagnosis and other life issues. See his Living With Lewy Body blog at www.myvinylcountdown.com
I heard the song ’96 Tears’ for the first time as it was sung by Garland Jeffreys. It got my attention. I later I found out it was a cover by Jeffreys of the 1960’s song by ? and Mysterians (That’s Question Mark and the Mysterians.) Great song. By both.
But firmly planted in my head — that’s how it works — I had Jeffreys’ name, and when I saw a record of his in the cutout bin, I jumped.
Another good inexpensive purchase. Jeffreys, who used to hang out with Lou Reed, is more mainstream than Reed. He comfortably shifts from soul, pop and reggae. He addresses issues like race as in the title song: “Here comes the One-Eyed Jack, sometimes white and sometimes black.”
An homage to his hero Jackie Robinson. Good record that has big production but didn’t do so well. Maybe there is a bit of a strain to be commercial here that backfired. I see Phoebe Snow, of the multi-octave voice, and my man David Lasley, among the back-up vocalists. Dr. John is on keys.
Look for it in record stores, it’s a good, overlooked record.
Newer music from Jeffreys in the form of a 2011 album called the ‘King of In-Between’ was given an ‘A’ by critic Robert Christgau, who does not grade on a curve.
Jimi Hendrix died at 27, one of many rock stars whose lives ended at that sweet young age.
Big Chief Ellis, a blues piano player of the highest talent, died in Birmingham on this date — Dec. 20, 1977.
He was 63.
Not many folks know today his the anniversary of his death. He was a self-taught piano player, professional gambler and ‘rolling stone.’
As he sings in the attached recording: “I do love to drink and gamble but I stay broke all the time .”
His piano playing is effortless, rolling and rocking.
I definitely want to learn more about this blues great. I found Ellis on a spreadsheet posted online. It is Wikipedia’s “List of deaths in rock and roll.”
There’s a bigger story here. In our culture of celebrity worship, where Elvis is king, and thousands pack Graceland on that Aug. 16 anniversary, there are a lot of great musicians who die in obscurity. For every Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon who lived and died with millions of fans there are those that played great music, died too often it seems, tragically.
Elvis was 42 when he died in 1977, of heart failure due to years of prescription drug abuse.
Other examples:
On the night before Christmas in 1985, Tommy Blake, a rockabilly pioneer, was shot to death by his third wife, according to the Wikipedia list. (Steve’s Dead Rock Stars and thedeadrockstarclub are also resources.} Blake was 54.
On Christmas Day in 1954, Johnny Ace (real name John Marshall Alexander Jr.) accidentally shot himself in the face while goofing around. Blues legend Big Mama Thornton saw the whole thing. At 25, with hits on the charts, Ace’s life was cut short. Witnesses said he was drunk.
I am writing this as I listen to Big Chief Ellis play some tasty blues. Ellis is now singing.
“I do love to drink and gamble but I stay broke all the time.” He sings the line twice in the blues tradition.
He sings more: “You know my life has been just like a rolling stone, until I find someone who loves me I just keep on moving on.”
He was born in Birmingham taught himself piano and traveled extensively in the 1920s and 1930s, according to an Allmusic.com bio. He settled in New York City and was known in blues circles for years there and later in Washington D.C. He came home to Birmingham and died at 63 in 1977.
The title of this post comes from poet, basketball player and former heroin addict Jim Carroll, who with his rock band wrote and released’ People who Died’ in 1980. (The writings that inspired the book, The Basketball Diaries, also was made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio.) The Jim Carroll Band’s ‘Catholic Boy is coming up quick on MyVinylCountdown.com
‘All the people who died,” Carroll sings in the punky-pop song which is built around a list of friends who died. “They were friends of mine.”
That led me to the Wikipedia list, and I was struck by the number of rock stars who died tragically or prematurely.
Jim Carroll’s Basketball Diaries was made into a movie featuring Leonardo DiCaprio.
I was also struck by how many of these deaths I had either forgotten about or never heard before.
There is what appears an outsized number of tragic deaths associated with the show business industry, especially rock stars. If true, maybe it’s because they put so many hours on the road that the law of percentages kicks in.
Plane crashes have taken out some of our biggest stars. Several members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, including key writer and leader Ronnie Van Zant, crashed in Mississippi. Buddy Holly, Big Bopper, and Richie Valens died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. Otis Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays died in a crash in a Wisconsin lake flying from Cleveland to another gig.
And there was Stevie Ray Vaughn, one of the all time great guitarists, who died in a plane crash near East Troy, Wisconsin. And Patsy Cline died March 5, 1963, in a plane crash outside Nashville. Jim Croce at age 30 died in a plane crash in Louisiana on Sept. 20, 1973.
The list also raises the question of whether being an entertainer or rock/poet may put you at greater risk for depression and substance abuse. It certainly seems that way anyway.
Or is that just a fallacy built on highly publicized overdose deaths of rock and rollers such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison to name just a few
We aren’t going to prove that the rock and roll life significantly affects your lifespan here today. But I would like to look at this list and pluck out some musicians who died an untimely death, that is drug or alcohol abuse, plane crash, car crash or something else that would be considered tragic or premature.
Here are some deaths you may not have known about or may have forgotten.:
Danny Cedrone with Bill Haley and the Comets (of Rock Around the Clock fame) died June 17, 1954,from a broken neck after falling down the stairs.
Sam Cooke, along with Otis Redding, was among the vocal greats of all time, was shot to death in Los Angeles on Dec. 11, 1964.
Bobby Fuller, of ‘I Fought the Law’ fame, died under mysterious circumstances July 18, 1966. He was found dead in his car and the coroner cited suicide in his report but put question marks beside it. He was 23.
Brian Epstein, the manager/agent who ‘discovered’ the Beatles died of an accidental overdose at 32 on Aug. 27, 1967.
Brian Jones, the Rolling Stones guitarist, drowned in a swimming pool on July 3, 1969 at 27.
King Curtis, Grammy award winning saxophonist, was stabbed to death during an argument in New York City on Aug. 13, 1971.
Duane Allman, one of the most promising guitarists in his day with the Allman Brothers and Derek and the Dominos, died in a motorcycle accident at 24 on Oct. 29, 1971 in Macon, Ga.
Berry Oakley, also with the Allman Brothers, died in a traffic accident Nov. 11, 1972.
Leslie Harvey, with rock band Stone the Crows, was electrocuted by a live microphone while on stage in Wales on May 3, 1972.
Gram Parsons, member of the Byrds and pioneering alt-country artist, died of a drug overdose Sept. 19, 1973 in Joshua Tree, California.
Nick Drake, influential singer-songwriter-guitarist, died at 26 by suicide in England on Nov. 25, 1974.
Keith Relf, a member of the pioneering band the Yardbirds, was electrocuted by his guitar on May 14, 1976 in London. He was 33.
Marc Bolan, front man for T-Rex, died in a traffic accident, Sept. 16, 1977, in London.
Sandy Denny, folk-rock singer with Fairport Convention, died April 21, 1978 of a brain hemorrhage after an accidental fall.
Sid Vicious, key member of pioneering punksters, the Sex Pistols, died of drug overdose or suicide, Feb. 2, 1979.
Chris Bell, member of Big Star, died Dec. 27, 1978, in a traffic accident near Memphis.
Lowell George, Little Feat leader, died June 29, 1979, of a heart attack at 34. He had drug and alcohol problems in addition to being obese.
John Bonham, drummer for Led Zeppelin, died by asphyxiation on vomit (same cause as Hendrix, drug/alcohol related). He was 32.
John Lennon, of the Beatles, died by gunshot, on Dec. 8, 1980, at the age of 40.
Tim Hardin, died of a drug overdose, Dec. 29, 1980 in Los Angeles.
Bob Marley, reggae legend, died at 36 of Acral lentiginous melanoma on May 11, 1981.
Roy Buchanan, virtuoso guitarist, hung himself in jail after being picked up on a drunk and disorderly charge in Virginia on Aug. 14, 1988.
There are many more on this document who died untimely deaths: Karen Carpenter, Quiet Riot’s Randy Rhoads, Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, Ricky Wilson of the B-52’s, Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, Ricky Nelson, Liberace, Cliff Burton of Metallica, Richard Manuel of the Band, Peter Tosh, Jaco Pastorius, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana,
Mike Oliver is counting down his vinyl record collection on his blog MyVinylCountdown which was created to raise awareness of Lewy body dementia. From that blog and other sources he culls material for weekly columns at AL.com.
Prosby rubbed his head, wincing at the pain from the wound on the side of his head.
He was cold on the concrete slab floor. He wasn’t restrained.
“Again Mr. Prosby, may I offer you some water, or perhaps something stronger?”
The woman appeared to be in her 40s, wearing some kind of one-piece zip-up suit with lettering on the right side of her chest, like something an auto mechanic might wear. Only it was bright neon blue.
The lights greatly enhanced his headache and he tried to stand up. He fell to a knee, inviting laughter from the woman and others he could not see.
“What do you want?” he asked, giving up on trying to stand.
:Well, Mr. Prosby, the question is ‘What do you want? Actually and more precisely, the question is: Do you want to live or die.”
“We all die some time,” He snapped back quickly, with sarcasm.
‘You’re death will be sooner than the natural world would give you and, trust me, it will be much much more painful,’ The woman in the jumpsuit continued. “And I will personally see to that.’
“You see, Mr. Prosby, our deal comes with an expiration date. It’s not a pay as you go sort of thing. If you don’t accomplish this task, and bring us what we seek, by that certain date, you will expire.
His mouth moved to answer but he couldn’t hear a word he said because of the deafening metal machine music.
It was the Irish version of Live Aid, with U2 kicking it all off with an anguished soul-killing version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Maggie’s Farm.’ I still can’t tell if that’s good or bad. Probably had to be there.
A general statement first. I don’t particularly care for most live records. ‘Most’ I say.” I like Cheap Trick’ and Dylan’s separate live albums from Budokon.
The Rolling Stones ‘Get your Ya Ya’s Out’ is old school rock concert stuff. I’ve heard cuts off Nirvana Unplugged that are surprisingly good live acoustic versions.
But it’s likely it was all probably better live, seeing about a dozen or two dozen Irish acts during a 14-hour marathon.
Some of the acts included: Tua Nua, U2, Chris Rea, Clannad, Van Morrison, The Boomtown Rats, Chris De Burgh, and a new version of Thin Lizzy which months earlier lost their frontman Phil Lynott due to a fatal drug overdose.
De Burgh’s expansive organ and guitar laden, ‘Don’t Pay the Ferryman,’ was a chartmaker in the US. DeBurgh’s MOR/classic rock style served them well in the oudoor venue
Christy Moore did a nice Irish song called Back in Derry which seemed to resonate.
The Irish concert’s goal was to help unemployment, which was a major national problem.
Thin Lizzy without Phil Lynott, lineup used in Self-Aid concert.
According to its Wikipedia page: The telethon raised millions of pounds for a job creation trust fund as well as over 1,000 job pledges.[The song chosen for the finale was “Let’s Make it Work”, written by Christy Moore and Dublin songwriter Paul Doran. Tributes were paid to Phil Lynott who had died just 4 months earlier, including a performance by a reformed Thin Lizzywith Gary Moore on lead vocals.[
The Dave Clark Band’s ‘Bits and Pieces’ is a bad song made worse by a bad video. Check it out.
And I generally like DC5 songs, such as ‘Glad all Over.’ But ‘Bits and Piece’s’ is a good title for a blog post that has, well, bits and pieces.
And that’s what this is.
I ruminate on this as I come out of my recent post on one-hit wonders. I like most of the songs on my personalized wonder list. But I considered and tossed out a couple because they weren’t good.
I was reminded of this when I visited another music blog today, and it was featuring a post about Henry Gross and the love-hate relationship with the song ‘Shannon.’ Oh the memories. See this well-done website called SliceTheLife
I dislike — but secretly like –Shannon, kind of like ‘Brandy’ by the Looking Glass.. But seeing this post reminded there was an album by Gross called ‘Plug Me into Something’ that I remember hearing every time I visited a friend’s house. I have fond memories of that record but never bought it for whatever reason, probably because I heard it so much without paying for it. The friend also had the Brothers Johnson ‘Strawberry Letter 23,” which I did buy (the album, Right on Time, and is reviewed here.
Anyway the thing that had me laughing today was the Casey Kasem, he of Top 40 fame, go off the rails on Gross’ song, Shannon, about a dead dog. SliceThe Life gives more detail on that. Here’s the video.
Casey Kasem died a few years ago of complications of Lewy body dementia.
That’s of course the disease I have and awareness of the disease is a big part of this blog and my life.
I hope those weren’t early signs of LBD.
I hope Casey was just having a bad day and being a jerk on his own. But the fact is that this insidious disease can change personalities and behavior.
I am here to tell you readers, you have the right to shut me down if I act like that. I don’t advocate violence (especially against myself) but put a piece of duct tape over my mouth or something. Or just give me some ice cream, Chunky Monkey is fine.
In other bits and pieces. I see that, ironically I guess, the song by Europe called “The Final Countdown” was named one of the top all time one-hit wonders.
My Vinyl Countdown Salutes you. Here’s what VH1 said in this somewhat dated release:
On VH1’s 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders, [Europe’s] Joey Tempest said: “It was quite a surprise that the song ‘The Final Countdown’ became such a big hit because it was written for the band, it was written for our concert, it was written to be the opening song in our concert. It was almost six-minutes long, it was never intended to be a short pop hit or anything, it was very much a surprise and its been used for all kinds of events, anything from Formula 1 to boxing. It’s been used for a lot, sort of like an anthem. I know there’s been some cover versions of it as well and I know when the Berlin Wall (fell), at the same time that all thing happened I know a lot of other people from that area saw the song as an anthem. I get a lot of letters about that. So its been interpreted in many ways.”
This is an opinion column by Mike Oliver who writes about his diagnosis of Lewy body dementia and other issues at AL.com and on his blog myvinylcountdown.com
Isn’t that it? We like to read and listen to one-hit wonders because it makes us wonder. We wonder, well, what happened to him or her or them?
We ask: “They were so good. Why didn’t they have another hit?”
“Did something tragic happen?
Oooh and it makes you wonder. Am I a one-hit wonder — in my life?”
How must the one-hit wonders feel? Working for years without another hit. Having to play that one hit as the last song at every concert gig It’s like George Reeves who played Superman in the TV show not being able toget another good job because he had been typecast.
One wonders and worries, perhaps, but they are fascinating. I’m not going to go into any deep analysis here about the psychology or analyze why some hit big only once.
But I’m going to list the top 10 one-hit wonders from My Vinyl Countdown blog. This comes from a list of my 678 albums, of which about 225 are on this blog
I’ve vowed to finish them all before I die.
I’m pulling my list from the 225 or so that I have already reviewed. We’ll do another list down the road. Remember, this is my collection, mainly bought in the 1970s and 1980s.
It’s worth pointing out that some very fine artists never make it the Billboard 100. This is not meant to be a complete list, it’s a list of songs that I like and that make me wonder why the artist never broke through again. I have a low bar, these aren’t No. 1 Billboard songs. Could be any on the top 100.
Song: Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me.) Artist:. Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel. This charted (barely) at 96 in the U.S. in 1976 but was No. 1 in England. I had this on a live album called ‘Face to Face’ but never paid much attention — it was the last song on a 2-disc live album I picked up in Athens, Ga., I then found out the song was on one of my compilations records as well, but I’ve only recently come to appreciate its cool-ness and catchiness.
Song: Sweet Mary. Artist: Wadsworth Mansion. This catchy tune sounds like it came out of the Beach Boy’s treasure chest or Jan and Deans garage. The song went to No. 7 on the Billboard 100. Despite releasing other songs, the band never had another track crack the 100. And you wonder how a band with a name like that could go wrong. (I love the speeded up outro: Chickie-chickie-chick is your heart a-break. Chickie-chickie-chick is your heart a-break
Song: A Good Heart. Artist: Feargal Sharkey. This song was also catchy as heck and went No. 1 in the UK charts but only saw No. 76 in the U.S in 1985. Despite some great songs, nothing else went Top 100 US for him. Before his solo career, Sharkey was known for fronting the Irish band ‘The Undertones,’ a significant contributor to the power-pop New Wave movement. Its hard to listen to this song and not sing-surf along to Sharkey’s powerful voice on the chorus. My personal favorite, from the same album, is a song called ‘You Little Thief’ which did well overseas but didn’t chart in the U.S.
Song: Money Changes Everything. Artist: The Brains. This song, one of the all time great rock songs, was covered by Cindi Lauper and became a worldwide hit charting at No. 27 on the U.S. Billboard 100 in 1985. It was an underground hit for The Atlanta, Ga.-based Brains, were fronted by Tom Gray who wrote and recorded the song. Athough the bands work was crtically acclaimed, they never matched the Money success. They have several albums which I review here.
Song: Resurrection Shuffle. Artist: Ashton Gardner & Dyke. This song is one of two songs I know of that have your backbone slipping in the lyrics. The other is Land of a 1,000 Dances, which is as danceable as this one, which is pretty high praise because they are high on the danceability scale. The group had several albums and released several singles but nothing that made the charts. Resurrection Shuffle however hit No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the States in 1971. Tom Jones and Clarence Clemons are among those who have covered this song.
Song: A Million Miles Away. Artist: The Plimsouls. I’m stretching my own rules here by picking something off of an album I haven’t reviewed yet. I am in the ‘H’s’ as I count these down. However, I have a good explanation. The band has Peter Case in it, whom I have already reviewed. This is a great song, and I’m sure they would have had more had they stayed together. One might remember this song (and the Plimsouls playing it), from the 80’s movie ‘Valley Girl.’
Song: Slow Dancing. Artist: The Funky Kings. Most have never heard of the Funky Kings. I reviewed them recently on this blog here. They were a pleasant laid back southern California band that left little lasting impression. Slow Dancing however became a hit on the Easy Listening charts and a Johnny Rivers cover did even better. It’s nice. It’s a high school slow dance song. It’s the kind of song that becomes a memory touchstone if you happened to be exposed to it at the right age.
Song: Sunshine. Artist: Jonathan Edwards. When you hear this song it sounds like you’ve heard it all your life, even if it’s the first time. That’s the sign of a timeless song and this is a good one. The question is (and I wonder) what happened to Edwards. He did other records, two other songs nearly cracked the top 100. He did some acting. But he never came close to matching the power and popularity of ‘Sunshine.’
Song: Telstar. Artist: The Tornadoes. This instrumental sounds like a classic, like you heard it somewhere before. The band was comprised of successful backing musicians and had numerous hits in the UK. Telstar, however, was their only US hit as far as I can tell. But it did well: No. 1. Not bad for a pop song with no words.
Song: Driver’s Seat. Artist: Sniff ‘n’ the Tears. Okay I’m cheating. I haven’t reviewed this one yet but I wanted to close strong. This is just a great piece of driving, rocking pop fluff. A little bit like ‘Radar Love’ in that it is a good driving song. But this band was truly a one-hit wonder. One and done.
NOTE: This was updated July, 2020, to reflect that when I did the original post I did not know about his other two albums. I began to do a litte research on this native of Pittsburgh and session musician in Nashville, and some in Muscle Shoals as well. Since I wrote the original column, I launched an unsuccessful search for a friend or relative. He died too early in his 1950s (It appears that he also had a Birmingham link in that he did some recording here as well.) I’ve not found family or friends but I quit pursuing because I felt like I would leave them alone and if they wanted to talk, they would contact me). Any way bottom line. I liked the other two albums better than One More Hallelujah. I have upgraded Hallelujah from 3.5 to 4.0; and the other two I’m grading to 4.5’s each. He was not only a great songwriter but also a great country-blues singer. I mean great.
ALBUM: John Hurley Delivers One More Hallelujah (1971)
This gospel-soul singer is probably best known for co-writing the classic ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ with the famous line: ‘The only man who could ever reach me was the son of a preacher man.’
The song was originally written for Aretha Franklin but when there were some delays in getting the Aretha version done and published, Wikipedia says the song was considered too gospel for the particular album Aretha was working on.
Dusty Springfield recorded it, and it became a massive hit.
Hurley was a fine singer as well as a songwriter but he only put out three albums. He died at 45 from liver failure and cerebral hemorrhage, according to his Wikipedia page.
He wrote songs with Ronnie Wilkins, for a while in Nashville. Some who have covered his songs include The Everly Brothers, Waylon Jennings and Wayne Newton.
The title song on the album I have is a full-throated gospel number that almost crosses over the gospel- secular divide with its chorus-backed soul belting of Hurley.
If you like soul or gospel, this is a strong consistent album, top to bottom by an artist who deserves a little more recognition. As oneYouTuber put it: “Another buried treasure. What an amazing, unjustly forgotten career.”
Footnote: I picked this from a used record bin thinking I was buying something from Michael Hurley and the Holy Modal Rounders which I had read about and was looking for the name ‘Hurley’ and just snagged it without remembering that it was the wrong first name. Glad I did snag it.
But still looking for that Michael Hurley record.
PPS: Larry Carlton plays guitar on this Hurley record.
A tidbit came to me before I could close out: In the 90’s, the reggae-American group Cypress Hill, sampled “Son of a Preacher Man,’ put it in a song called “Hits from the Bong.”
That added even more to a growing audience for that song, contributing royalties for the songwriters.
