Bobby Darin Hidden Gems (inc. previously unheard song)

[pmp]

With the 50th anniversary of Bobby Darin's passing coming around on December 20th of this year, I'm running a series of posts highlighting hidden gems on the BD blog. I thought I would post them here, too.


#1 THE PROPER GANDER (1968)

First in a series of short posts coming up over the next couple of weeks, highlighting some of the lesser-heard Bobby Darin "deep cuts" as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of his passing on December 20th. I don't pretend that all of these songs are Bobby's absolute best, but I think they are some of the most interesting.

Bobby Darin's 1968 album Bobby Darin born Walden Robert Cassotto was an intensely personal project, and very few heard it at the time, but for anyone trying to understand the Bobby Darin story, this is essential listening.

In The Proper Gander, we have an allegorical tale about a group of mice encouraged by their leader to go to war to fight a Siamese Cat that doesn’t actually exist, with the leader being found out as the song comes to the end of its seven verses. Everything here is tied up in the lyrics. Out of each verse’s 28 bars, 22 of them are simply the chord of G.

The lyrics more than make up for the harmonic simplicity, however, with Darin writing them in such a way that they can not only relate to the Vietnam war but to any propaganda/spin produced by a government on any issue in order to win votes and confidence. In other words, he's talking about "fake news" albeit fifty years before the term was first used, and from the opposite side of the political spectrum when compared to those we associate with the term today. Despite the musical simplicity, there is a remarkable confidence in the writing of the song, with Darin having complete trust in his work as a lyricist, and his use of wordplay is both intelligent and fun and shows a different side to his songwriting.

[pmp]

#2 WAIT BY THE WATER (1964)

Bobby Darin's career was in a strange place in January 1964, when this song was recorded. Just after this session, Bobby got a release from his contract with Capitol Records, and started the search for a new label. Less than six months later, he re-signed with Capitol, only to seek a further release the following year. Despite recording some very fine music during this period (including the From Hello Dolly to Goodbye Charlie album), he seemed to be lost. At one moment saying he was returning full-time to big band/swing music only for him then to release a couple of singles that were very much in the style of the British Invasion. He had also said he wouldn't make any more films with Sandra Dee - and then made That Funny Feeling with her. And he had just retired from live performances - a retirement that ended just over two years later.

Four songs were recorded on January 13th 1964, of which Wait By the Water is the best. The song was written by Darin, but is loosely based on a spiritual. This was a contemporary-sounding recording that, for some inexplicable reason, didn’t get much attention at the time.  The song is also yet another recording in which Bobby approaches the subject of death, with the lyrics being considerably darker than the pop production might suggest.  Bobby himself gives a fine, rocking, slightly bluesy performance, and the result was one of his best recordings for Capitol that was not in the swinging/big band mould.  This should certainly have been included on the 4CD Rhino boxed set in 1995.  An alternate take appeared on CD in the late 1980s on the Capitol Collectors Series album (it's the alternate take linked to in this post).

Wait By the Water was originally issued as the B-side to the far less commercial The Things in This House, a parody of country music of the period. The single was released in August 1964, just after Bobby had re-signed with Capitol.  Cash Box said that Wait by the Water “is a hard-driving, shufflin’, chorus-backed hope for romance with a fine gospel-style backing,” and that The Things in this House “is a twangy…country-styled affair.”

[jeremylr]

[pmp]

#3: Long Time Man (1962)

In a December 1961 interview with Hedda Hopper, Bobby Darin said that “I believe there’s a field for folk songs now and will do some of them.”  During the same set of sessions that produced the Oh! Look at Me Now! album in 1962, Bobby was able to do just that.  However, rather than simply mimicking the Peter, Paul and Mary sound that was popular at the time, he instead did something completely different, creating an album of folk songs (and songs in the folk style) ranging from prison songs to Latin American material, gospel songs, protest songs and even a song from Haiti.  If Oh! Look at Me Now! was one of Darin’s less ambitious albums because of its more traditional repertoire, then Earthy! is at the other end of the spectrum completely.

The remark to Hedda Hopper was not the first time that Darin had referred to his admiration of folk songs.  He had also done so just before singing I’m Just a Country Boy with Duane Eddy during the 1960 UK TV special.  On record, he had also recorded the faux work song Timber at his very first recording session back in 1956, the slow calypso-like love song Lost Love a couple of years later and, more recently, Jailer Bring Me Water, a Darin song that imitated the folk and prison song genres.  He had also added a folk section (including Cottonfields and Boil That Cabbage Down, neither of which were tackled in the studio) into his live act by the time that this LP was recorded. 

Earthy! opens with two “prison songs,” the first of which is Long Time Man.  Long Time Man may have writer’s credits given to Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker, but it is based on a traditional African-American prison song that went back decades.  Tyson and Fricker were a Canadian folk duo who performed under the name of Ian & Sylvia, and one listen to their rendition of Long Time Man shows just how much Darin’s version owes to theirs, with the arrangement being virtually the same.   With Earthy! often being regarded as one of Darin’s most original works, the similarities here come as quite a shock,  and yet he still manages to bring things to the table that are wholly his.  While Oh! Look at Me Now! smoothed out Bobby's swinging style, and was devoid of yelps, eeks and groans, here he shrieks, whistles and shouts his way through the song, and also provides his own harmony vocals.  It's a striking opening to what is a contender for Bobby's best album, and he returns to this raw sound and feel of Long Time Man elsewhere in the album, including on La Bamba and Guantanamera. Long Time Man was added to Bobby's live act in early 1963 with the twenty-year-old Jim (soon to be Roger) McGuinn featured on guitar.

[pmp]

I was hoping to do more in this series, but spent nearly a week with what I've been told was likely salmonella instead. Still, I wanted to go on a diet, so I guess we should be thankful...

Anyway, today is the 50th anniversary of Bobby's passing, and so it's rather fitting to share this brand new, unreleased, previously unheard Bobby Darin studio recording. Recorded in November 1967, this song was always thought to be "All Strung Out," but it turned out to be a much more groovy number called "All Strung Out Over You," a cover of a song by The Chambers Brothers. I've known about the recording emerging for some time, but it wasn't mine to share, so really pleased that it's now appeared on YouTube for everyone to hear.

[Greystoke]

Thanks, Shane. Great tracks.

[pmp]

For anyone wanting more rare Darin...

Here's alternate takes 3, 6 and 7 of Mack the Knife.




And the mono takes of The Gal That Got Away and That Funny Feeling.




Bobby in rehearsal in 1973 with Bob Rosario on piano.




An audience recording from the Copa in 1972.




And Brooklyn Roads, from the 1973 TV series (and edited out of the DVD)