Just recently I came across a twofer CD of This Old Heart Of Mine and Soul On The Rocks by The Isley Brothers. I always had a real soft spot for these two records, so I bought the CD.
Now it seems to me that the Isleys Motown adventure is written out of their history a bit. No doubt this is partly very logical - Motown probably want to control their part of the back catalogue - and the Isleys might not be too keen to look back on a part of their career over which they would have had to relinquish so much control, but to me they produced some good stuff during that time.
This Old Heart Of Mine has an awful cover (white boy and girl on beach) - it seems completely unrelated to what is going on inside. It's a strange album... I don't know the story of how the Brothers signed to Motown, but they were well known thanks to Shout and Twist & Shout, and Motown must have valued them at the time because this album is produced by Holland & Dozier, and is stuffed with H-D-H material. However, a lot of the H-D-H stuff had already been released by The Supremes. This is typical of Motown albums, and I suppose we should be thankful that the versions are not cheesy, but nothing extra of any great worth is added to these songs.
Hold on! I'm taking the trouble to write about this record, and I just dismissed half the album... well sorry, but for me the highs are very high.
The big hit on this album was the title track - the biggest hit the Brothers had on Motown. Everyone knows it, you've probably danced to it at a wedding, it's a good pop song. For me, the next interesting song is Take Some Time Out For Love. I always imagine the Motown execs sitting there saying 'how can we exploit these boys?', and someone was bound to pipe up with 'Let's rip off Twist & Shout!'. I apologise, the song was obviously influenced by T&S, but it has some oddness thrown in that makes it interesting. It's the sort of song The Contours had been doing a couple of years earlier, I know I'm being manipulated, but I like it.
It's time to jump to the point. Who Could Ever Doubt My Love is one of my favourite songs ever. It has a style I love - a droning rhythmic bass line over which the other instruments vary. On top of this the lyrics sing those pleading words of the title. Like a lot of Motown, there is a strong gospel influence -which the Isleys really enhance. There are a number of soul songs like this that I love the intensity of (Betty Everett's I'm Gonna Be Ready springs to mind). It's not what you would call deep soul, but I generally find it more affecting than the Ettas and Arethas. It's a H-D-H song, but it doesn't sound like one to me.
That was the end of side one (on the vinyl album). The end of side two is just as good. Seek And You Shall Find is the same kind of song. Slightly more bluesy, with a drum beat someone should sample (probably have), the gospel feel is even stronger - as the title surely testifies. This time, the drone really is stretched (H-D-H couldn't help but go pop, but this song is not one of theirs), and this adds to the intensity - being periodically relieved with a break into another key. During the song, a piano and guitar sneak into the mix early, then the brass which gets stronger, building into the breaks and coming back stronger into the main theme. The song is like a journey - sort of into the dark, but also it seems to the light. But the writers should be proud as they decide to opt to tell us that 'there's no happy ending to this story' - the journey goes on...
That song was written by Ivy Jo Hunter and Mickey Stevenson, and someone must have been pleased because Hunter got a large chunk of the next album.
There used to be a shop in West Derby run by two sisters that specialised in Tamla Motown. They had stocked loads of the stuff during the 60s, but hadn't been able to sell it at the time. Like a musical fairytale (for me anyway), they had retained their stock and in later years were selling it to people like me who were hungry for this stuff but couldn't get it. Yes, this is before the days of CD, and it was difficult to get anything outside a small group of Motown records.
I got my copy of the Behind A Painted Smile LP there. I guess this was a British cash in on the success of that single, as I now find out that that luscious purple thing was a rehashed Soul On The Rocks - with a couple of singles added. The other thing I find, that also doesn't matter but changes my mental image, is Ivy Jo Hunter was a man...
Not too long after I got this record, the Undertones discovered soul, and did a (pretty good) cover of Got To Have You Back - the first track on Soul On The Rocks. A great pop song, with a nice harpsichord break.
This album is not a bad album - it is more rounded than the previous one, and not plagued by covers, but it doesn't have those two songs. Someone has decided a bit of fuzz guitar will make it real - it certainly takes it away from the standard Motown sound.
Other highlights for me are Tell Me It's Just A Rumour Baby, Little Miss Sweetness, Good Things (a cover of the Paul Revere & The Raiders song) and of course Behind A Painted Smile.
As far as I can tell (I was too young to know), there was some kind of Motown revival in the late 60s / early 70s in the UK, and a re-released Behind A Painted Smile was a hit then. This is also the time that Smokey's Tears Of A Clown was a hit, and I Don't Blame You At All was written to cash in on (what a song!).
There's no drone in this song, but we get all the intensity we can handle and quite an inovative chord sequence. I used to think the Hunter/Verdi credit meant Ivy Jo had ripped off the classical composer - but it now seems that it was Beatrice Verdi. Her credits include Dusty Springfield's Little By Little - another weird illusion broken. Anyway, BAPS is a great song with those strange weeping backing vocals the Isleys do so well, and a kind of breathlessness to the chorus that pulls you into the despair. It ends on a killer drum roll.
There are three extra songs on this CD - singles that weren't on the original albums (but the first two made it onto my BAPS LP). Take Me In Your Arms is the Kim Weston classic reinterpreted. I actually prefer this version - it's got an exciting live quality.
All Because I Love You was one of my favourite songs on the BAPS album. It's written by Frank Wilson of Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) fame - so needless to say ir's great and it appears to have bombed! Another intense pleading song. This may have been the last thing Motown released by the Isleys.
The CD completes with My Love Is Your Love (Forever) - a damp squib for me.
So that's it. The Isleys re-emerged with a funkier brand of soul and an independence to be admired after leaving Motown. I like what they did then, but the songs I have enthused about above are the ones that do it most for me.
Neal - 30/11/02