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Searching for the Dolphins
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Searching for the Dolphins
Current price: $13.99
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Searching for the Dolphins
Current price: $13.99
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Kent
's 2008 CD
Searching for the Dolphins
is the first reissue of
Al Wilson
's earliest recordings, containing all of his 1968 debut for
Soul City
records,
, along with a bunch of singles he had for that label,
Bell
, and
Carousel
in the early '70s.
Wilson
's
"Show and Tell"
is not on this disc -- for that and his other '70s singles, turn to the 2004
Fuel 2000
set
Show & Tell: The Best of Al Wilson
-- but its absence is in a way a blessing, as it forces the focus on
's depth as a singer and how these recordings are quite unlike a lot of
soul
of the time. Part of the reason for that is the presence of
Johnny Rivers
, the L.A.
blue-eyed soul
singer who signed
to his own
imprint and produced
, encouraging
to pursue a lush sound that encompassed mellow Californian
pop
,
folk
jazz
rock & roll
, something that was sonically closer to what
Rivers
was cutting at the time, but hardly a
sellout. After all, one of the highlights here is
's first single (and only U.K. hit), a hip, swinging version of
Oscar Brown, Jr.
"The Snake,"
a groovy dance number that deservedly became a
Northern soul
staple, and it's not the only funky moment here, as it has a rival in a version of
Holland-Dozier-Holland
"Shake Me Wake Me (When It's Over)."
Also on this album is a slow-burning, late-night reading of
Jerry Butler
/
William Butler
Curtis Mayfield
"I Stand Accused"
and the terrific
"Who Could Be Lovin' You (Other Than Me),"
an early
Willie Hutch
song that strikes a precise balance between the aforementioned funky moments and the luxurious
singer/songwriter
material that comprises the rest of the record. The title song is an allusion to the
Fred Neil
'60s standard
"The Dolphins,"
and
also sings two
Jimmy Webb
songs (
"By the Time I Get to Phoenix,"
"Do What You Gotta Do"
) and a pair of
hits (
"Summer Rain,"
"Poor Side of Town"
), all of which have a smooth, rolling feel as reminiscent of
folk-pop
as it is of
. All taken together,
is a unique record, a place where many divergent strands in '60s
converge in a way that is perhaps easier to appreciate now than it was then.
As good as this album proper is, the
Kent/Ace
CD gets really interesting on the bonus tracks, almost all of which are considerably less soft than the LP itself. Sometimes this does mean harder, funkier sides, as on a pair of
tunes from 1967,
"When You Love (You're Loved Too)"
"Now I Know What Love Is"
(
Hutch
is also responsible for folkier, poppier
"Getting' Ready for Tomorrow,"
a 1968 single with nearly
baroque
harpsichords that's closer in feel to
than anything else here). Sometimes, this hardness means that
dips into down-n-dirty
, as on a phenomenal version of
Creedence Clearwater Revival
"Lodi"
from 1969 that has a thicker groove than
CCR
's original, filled with greasy slide guitars and horns.
That isn't the only time
rocks it hard: he bizarrely replicates
Dave Edmunds
' version of
"I Hear You Knockin',"
right down to the phased vocals, slide guitars, piano punctuations, and exultations of '50s rockers in the solo section (funnily enough, he leaves out
Smiley Lewis
, who had the original hit with this), and even more bizarrely, it works, as
invests this blatant steal with down-home
. A better example of his daring is
"Sugar Cane Girl,"
a
Daniel Cohen
song that rocks as hard as
, while being funkier. It's a hell of a long lost gem of a song, but it's also clear why this and
didn't click at the time -- they're fully rock and fully
, so they didn't fit comfortably in either format. More of the time they were dirty fuzz
funk
, like in
"Falling in Love with You"
"Bachelor Man,"
the latter a quite wonderful evocation of swinging singledom in the early '70s, thanks to its cascade of strings and harpsichords, all adding up to a loungey vibe scaled toward television. These didn't sell either, but hearing them next to the driving
, the jazzy
, the
deep soul
, and the sun-bleached
found elsewhere on this disc, it becomes clear that
was capable of singing anything, he just didn't catch the right breaks that would bring him to the top with these singles. Once he did, just a couple years later, he didn't stay at the top long enough to truly show his versatility, but
stands as a testament to
's enormous gifts. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
's 2008 CD
Searching for the Dolphins
is the first reissue of
Al Wilson
's earliest recordings, containing all of his 1968 debut for
Soul City
records,
, along with a bunch of singles he had for that label,
Bell
, and
Carousel
in the early '70s.
Wilson
's
"Show and Tell"
is not on this disc -- for that and his other '70s singles, turn to the 2004
Fuel 2000
set
Show & Tell: The Best of Al Wilson
-- but its absence is in a way a blessing, as it forces the focus on
's depth as a singer and how these recordings are quite unlike a lot of
soul
of the time. Part of the reason for that is the presence of
Johnny Rivers
, the L.A.
blue-eyed soul
singer who signed
to his own
imprint and produced
, encouraging
to pursue a lush sound that encompassed mellow Californian
pop
,
folk
jazz
rock & roll
, something that was sonically closer to what
Rivers
was cutting at the time, but hardly a
sellout. After all, one of the highlights here is
's first single (and only U.K. hit), a hip, swinging version of
Oscar Brown, Jr.
"The Snake,"
a groovy dance number that deservedly became a
Northern soul
staple, and it's not the only funky moment here, as it has a rival in a version of
Holland-Dozier-Holland
"Shake Me Wake Me (When It's Over)."
Also on this album is a slow-burning, late-night reading of
Jerry Butler
/
William Butler
Curtis Mayfield
"I Stand Accused"
and the terrific
"Who Could Be Lovin' You (Other Than Me),"
an early
Willie Hutch
song that strikes a precise balance between the aforementioned funky moments and the luxurious
singer/songwriter
material that comprises the rest of the record. The title song is an allusion to the
Fred Neil
'60s standard
"The Dolphins,"
and
also sings two
Jimmy Webb
songs (
"By the Time I Get to Phoenix,"
"Do What You Gotta Do"
) and a pair of
hits (
"Summer Rain,"
"Poor Side of Town"
), all of which have a smooth, rolling feel as reminiscent of
folk-pop
as it is of
. All taken together,
is a unique record, a place where many divergent strands in '60s
converge in a way that is perhaps easier to appreciate now than it was then.
As good as this album proper is, the
Kent/Ace
CD gets really interesting on the bonus tracks, almost all of which are considerably less soft than the LP itself. Sometimes this does mean harder, funkier sides, as on a pair of
tunes from 1967,
"When You Love (You're Loved Too)"
"Now I Know What Love Is"
(
Hutch
is also responsible for folkier, poppier
"Getting' Ready for Tomorrow,"
a 1968 single with nearly
baroque
harpsichords that's closer in feel to
than anything else here). Sometimes, this hardness means that
dips into down-n-dirty
, as on a phenomenal version of
Creedence Clearwater Revival
"Lodi"
from 1969 that has a thicker groove than
CCR
's original, filled with greasy slide guitars and horns.
That isn't the only time
rocks it hard: he bizarrely replicates
Dave Edmunds
' version of
"I Hear You Knockin',"
right down to the phased vocals, slide guitars, piano punctuations, and exultations of '50s rockers in the solo section (funnily enough, he leaves out
Smiley Lewis
, who had the original hit with this), and even more bizarrely, it works, as
invests this blatant steal with down-home
. A better example of his daring is
"Sugar Cane Girl,"
a
Daniel Cohen
song that rocks as hard as
, while being funkier. It's a hell of a long lost gem of a song, but it's also clear why this and
didn't click at the time -- they're fully rock and fully
, so they didn't fit comfortably in either format. More of the time they were dirty fuzz
funk
, like in
"Falling in Love with You"
"Bachelor Man,"
the latter a quite wonderful evocation of swinging singledom in the early '70s, thanks to its cascade of strings and harpsichords, all adding up to a loungey vibe scaled toward television. These didn't sell either, but hearing them next to the driving
, the jazzy
, the
deep soul
, and the sun-bleached
found elsewhere on this disc, it becomes clear that
was capable of singing anything, he just didn't catch the right breaks that would bring him to the top with these singles. Once he did, just a couple years later, he didn't stay at the top long enough to truly show his versatility, but
stands as a testament to
's enormous gifts. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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