Songs for a Tailor

Songs for a Tailor
Studio album by Jack Bruce
Released 29 August 1969 (UK)
6 October 1969 (US)
Recorded April–May 1969
Genre Progressive rock, jazz-rock, blues-rock
Length 31:32 (initial release)
43:48 (2003 CD reissue)
Label Polydor (UK)
Atco (initial U.S. release, SD 33-306)
Producer Felix Pappalardi
Jack Bruce chronology
Songs for a Tailor
(1969)		 Things We Like
(1970)

Songs for a Tailor is the 1969 debut solo album by the Scottish musician, composer and singer Jack Bruce, who was already famous at the time of its release for his work with the supergroup Cream. Originally released on the Polydor label in Europe and on Atco Records in the U.S., Songs for a Tailor was the second solo album that Bruce recorded, though he did not release the first, Things We Like, for another year.

The album, which was titled in tribute to Cream's recently deceased clothing designer, displayed more of the musician's diverse influences than his compositions for Cream, though it did not chart as highly as his work with that band. Nevertheless, it was successful, reaching No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 55 on the Billboard "Pop Albums" chart.

While it has not been universally critically well-received, with a negative review by Rolling Stone on its first release, it is considered by many writers to be among Bruce's best albums. The literary lyrics by poet and songwriter Pete Brown have been particularly divisive, with one critic singling them out for praise while others have been more generally critical. Songs on the album include "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune", and "Theme for an Imaginary Western", which was covered famously by Leslie West's Mountain, and is featured in 2006's 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them.

Background

After performing with various blues bands in his youth, Bruce rose to prominence in the rock world as a member of influential rock band Cream.[1][2] After the group disbanded in 1969, Bruce began releasing solo material. Songs for a Tailor, released in September 1969, was Bruce's debut solo release, but chronologically his second solo album; Things We Like, his first solo recording, was released a year later.[3]

The album was titled in tribute to Jeannie Franklyn ("Genie the Tailor"), a clothing designer who designed wardrobes for Cream and was also the girlfriend of Fairport Convention guitarist Richard Thompson[4] (and, according to Bruce's 2010 biography Composing Himself, an ex-lover of Bruce's). In 1969, Franklyn wrote Bruce a letter requesting that he "[s]ing some high notes for me," a letter that reached him on 14 May 1969, two days after she was killed in a motor vehicle accident in Fairport Convention's touring van.[4] Franklyn died—and Bruce received the letter from her—on his 26th birthday.[5]

A blues and jazz musician by background who had studied Bach and Scottish folk music as a child, Bruce produced a debut effort that was musically diverse.[1][6][7] Songs for a Tailor was described in Music Week on its 2003 reissue as "an impressive effort defying musical categorisation".[8] Two of the songs—"Weird of Hermiston" and "The Clearout"—had originally been penned for possible inclusion on the 1967 Cream album Disraeli Gears.[9] However, the album was not simply a continuation of Bruce's material for Cream, but displayed more of the musician's diversity.[10]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[11]
Robert ChristgauB–[12]
Rolling Stone(unfavorable) [13]

The album was generally successful, reaching No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 55 on the Billboard "Pop Albums" chart.[14][15] It did not reach the sales levels of Bruce's work with Cream,[6] the later albums of which consistently broke the top 10 of the Billboard "Pop Albums" charts before their dissolution,[16] but, as of 2002, it was the most successful album of his solo career.[17] Largely acclaimed,[6] particularly in England,[18] the album proved influential, described in 2001 by BBC as a "seminal" work.[19] However, reviews were not universally positive, with critical opinion particularly divided on the album's lyrics, penned by long-term Bruce collaborator Pete Brown.

Ed Leimbacher, reviewing the album in 1969 for Rolling Stone, called Songs for a Tailor a "disappointment", panning it overall as "a patchwork affair lacking in any unifying thread, a baggy misfit made up of a shopworn miscellany of jazz riffs, rock underpinnings, chamber music strings, boringly baroque lyrics and a Bruce bass that [leaves] ... everything distinctly bottom heavy."[20] However, later writings in the same magazine characterized it very differently. In 1971, Loyd Grossman termed it "[a] stunning recording with more than an ample amount of beautiful songs and excellent singing and playing".[3] In 1975, he opined that "Bruce's first album, Songs for a Tailor, was so outstanding that his other albums almost always suffer by comparison."[21] In 1989, Rolling Stone writer David Fricke, though noting that Bruce could "flirt with self-indulgence in the pursuit of the unconventional", described the artist's solo output as "highly underrated".[22] In its review, Allmusic summarizes the album as "picture perfect in construction, performance, and presentation."[10]

Lyrics

Pete Brown's lyrics have been particularly divisive. Brown, a successful poet in the early 1960s,[23] had been collaborating with Bruce for some time, writing lyrics for such Cream hits as "White Room" and "Sunshine of Your Love". The lyrics he wrote for Songs for a Tailor are typically poetic and heavily inspired by literary themes, with the Shakespearean "He the Richmond" and the horror-infused "Weird of Hermiston".[20]

The first Rolling Stone review judged the lyrics as unsuccessful, dismissing them as "silly" and primarily burdened by an overabundance of literary references.[20] 2006's 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them also disparaged the lyricist, stating that his "pretentious lyrics fail to connect", an inaccessibility that the book suggests combined with the lack of "instrumental fireworks" to prevent the album from reaching better commercial success.[4] "The musicianship," that work says, particularly referencing "Bruce's soulful vocals", "remains timeless."[4] But in later review of Bruce's work, Fricke regarded the songwriting more highly, questioning whether "anybody, beside Bruce and Brown, write songs like that anymore" and suggesting the cd version of the Bruce compilation Willpower specifically so that the lyrics could be read.[22]

Notable songs

"Theme for an Imaginary Western," which Allmusic describes as "Bruce's greatest hit that never charted,"[10] is perhaps the album's best-known song. According to Allmusic, "Theme" has a "fresh, rootsy sound" reminiscent of The Band's Music from Big Pink, derived from the combination of "Bruce's overdubbed piano and organ parts" and "the country-tinged lope of the rhythm section".[24]1001 Songs profiles the number, describing it as an "elegant, masterfully-constructed piece of jazz-rock", though it suggests that Brown's lyrics for the song are "opaque at best".[4] Leimbacher, though generally dismissive of the lyrics, found an exception for this song and "To Isengard",[20] while The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music finds the song "evocative", indicating that the album contains "[s]ome of" Bruce's "finest lyrics".[25] The song was famously covered by Mountain, whose bassist-singer Felix Pappalardi had previously worked with Bruce as Cream's record producer, and also produced and appeared on Tailor. (One of Mountain's earliest performances of "Theme," at the August 1969 Woodstock Festival, predated the song's release on Songs for a Tailor by several weeks.) Colosseum (whose drummer Jon Hiseman played on Tailor's rendition of the song), and the progressive rock group Greenslade[10] also recorded cover versions.

"Weird of Hermiston" and "The Clearout" were candidates for inclusion on Cream's 1967 landmark album Disraeli Gears, but deemed too uncommercial by Cream's then-U.S. label Atlantic/Atco Records for release on that record. Bruce's dissatisfaction at this is noted in the liner notes for Cream's box set Those Were the Days: "I played them for Ahmet (Atlantic executive Ahmet Ertegun), Tommy (producer/engineer Tom Dowd), and whoever else was around ... they thought it was rubbish, just psychedelic hogwash." Demo versions of the two songs, recorded by Cream in early 1967, are included on Those Were the Days.

In 1989 Fricke described "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune" as a "wacky, brassy" "enigmatic Bruce-Brown [delight]".[22]

Bruce continued to refine and re-record the tracks from Songs for a Tailor throughout his career, both in live and studio albums. Only "To Isengard" has not been revisited.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Peter Brown, music by Jack Bruce.[10]

  1. "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune" – 3:41
  2. "Theme for an Imaginary Western" – 3:30
  3. "Tickets to Water Falls" – 3:00
  4. "Weird of Hermiston" – 2:24
  5. "Rope Ladder to the Moon" – 2:54
  6. "The Ministry of Bag" – 2:49
  7. "He the Richmond" – 3:36
  8. "Boston Ball Game 1967" – 1:45
  9. "To Isengard" – 5:28
  10. "The Clearout" – 2:35

2003 Polydor/Universal CD bonus tracks

  1. "The Ministry of Bag" (demo version) – 3:47
  2. "Weird of Hermiston" (alternate mix) – 2:33
  3. "The Clearout" (alternate mix) – 3:02
  4. "The Ministry of Bag" (alternate mix) – 2:54

Personnel

Performance

Production

Notes

  1. ↑ Harrison's guitar part is deeply buried in the mix, and is uncredited in some versions of the album, including the original Polydor issue. However, secondary sources have confirmed that he did play on the track.

References

  1. 1 2 Jack Bruce at AllMusic
  2. ↑ Cream at AllMusic
  3. 1 2 Grosman, Loyd (16 September 1971). "Harmony Row, Jack Bruce". Rolling Stone (91): 42.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Creswell, Toby (2006). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them. Thunder's Mouth Press. p. 332. ISBN 1-56025-915-9.
  5. ↑ Cossar, Neil; Pete Hawkins (2005). This Day in Music: An Everyday Record of 10,000 Musical Facts. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 1-84340-298-X.
  6. 1 2 3 Cairns, Dan (6 June 2008). "Radical ways of the ace of bass". The Australian. Retrieved 7 November 2008.
  7. ↑ Fricke, David (17 May 2005). "Pete Brown feels Cream". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 7 November 2008.
  8. ↑ "New releases: for week starting 28 April 2003". Music Week. 26 April 2003. Retrieved 7 November 2008.
  9. ↑ Welch, Chris (2000). Cream: The Legendary Sixties Supergroup : Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton. Backbeat Books. ISBN 0-87930-624-6.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Songs for a Tailor at AllMusic
  11. ↑ Viglione, Joe. Songs for a Tailor at AllMusic
  12. ↑ Christgau, Robert (29 January 1970). "Consumer Guide (7)". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  13. ↑ Leimbacher, Ed (15 November 1969). "Songs for a Tailor". Rolling Stone. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. (46): 37.
  14. ↑ Warwick, Neil; Jon Kutner; Tony Brown (2004). The Complete Book of the British Charts: Singles and Albums. Omnibus Press. p. 188. ISBN 1-84449-058-0.
  15. ↑ Songs for a Tailor Billboard Album at AllMusic
  16. ↑ Cream Billboard Albums at AllMusic
  17. ↑ Leng, Simon (2002). The Music of George Harrison: While My Guitar Gently Weeps. SAF Publishing Ltd. p. 37. ISBN 0-946719-50-0.
  18. ↑ Helander, Brock (1982). The Rock Who's who: A Biographical Dictionary and Critical Discography Including Rhythm-and-blues, Soul, Rockabilly, Folk, Country, Easy Listening, Punk, and New Wave. Schirmer Books. p. 109. ISBN 0-02-871250-1. Despite receiving much praise, particularly in England, Songs for a Tailor and Harmony Row were largely overlooked. line feed character in |quote= at position 79 (help)
  19. ↑ "Bruce goes back to basics". BBC News. 2 October 2001. Retrieved 7 November 2008.
  20. 1 2 3 4 Leimbacher, Ed (15 November 1969). "Songs for a Tailor, Jack Bruce". Rolling Stone (46): 37.
  21. ↑ Grosman, Loyd (27 February 1975). "Out of the Storm, Jack Bruce". Rolling Stone (181): 53.
  22. 1 2 3 Fricke, David (20 April 1989). "Willpower, Jack Bruce". Rolling Stone (550): 98–99.
  23. ↑ Paytress, Mark (2002). Bolan: The Rise and Fall of a 20th Century Superstar. Omnibus Press. p. 123. ISBN 0-7119-9293-2.
  24. ↑ Theme for an Imaginary Western at AllMusic
  25. ↑ Larkin, Colin (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Guinness. p. 346. ISBN 0-85112-939-0. Some of his finest lyrics are to be found on Jack Bruce's solo debut Songs for a Tailor and How's Tricks, the former included the evocative 'Theme for an Imaginary Western'(sic)
  26. ↑ Winn, John (2009). That Magic Feeling: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Volume Two, 1966–1970. Three Rivers Press. p. 289. ISBN 978-0-307-45239-9. The song in question, 'Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune', was a fairly simple slice of British soul. George's accompaniment, largely buried in the mix, was to vamp a series of low-register chords on his guitar, played through a 'fuzz' distortion pedal.
  27. ↑ Castleman, Harry; Podrazik, Walter J. (1977). "1969 – "But If Paul's Alive, How Did He Die?"". All Together Now – The First Complete Beatles Discography 1961–1975 (Second ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. p. 82. ISBN 0-345-25680-8.
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