Someone asked for suggestions for a "sad song" mix on Facebook. The two standbys for me have always been "Town Without Pity" and "Poor Side of Town", the latter being a being a favorite despite my distaste foe Johnny Rivers in general. I never quite understood what the attraction was to his stuff back in the sixties. Me not liking him probably stems from my indignation that his tepid cover of Chuck Berry's "Memphis" sold more than the far superior original. It's like Pat Boone covering Little Richard. So, yeah, it's remarkable that I like "Poor Side of Town", so I'm remarking. Though his voice isn't the only thing that carries it, it ain't bad. The production (by co-writer Lou Adler) is good and the light work on the skins by Hal Blaine kinda sorta tugs the ol' heartstrings. The background vocals (Darlene Love among them) work too, just barely skimming the corny net.
The biggee though, for me, in the sad song category is Gene Pitney's "Town Without Pity". What a fucking piece of work that one is. I'm not a musician so I don't know what the technical aspects are that make it such a gut punch, but there's something very effective in the key changes or whatever. The drums to brass intro just slays me. And Pitney sounds like the flood gates are about to open. This was the last song he sang live.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
Gene Pitney - Town Without Pity mp3 at Fimoculous
Johnny Rivers - Poor Side of Town mp3 at Smokeys Trail
2 comments:
Two songs with "Town" in the titles (both unknown to me) immediately brought Ricky Nelson's "Lonesome Town" to mind. Doesn't get much sadder than that, if you ask me. No studio schmaltz; just (young) man and guitar. So sad.
(On my way to our summer place to spend a few days - in the rain, looks like... Got to finish tearing down the boat house so we can build a new one... Wherever I go, work is there waiting for me.)
e
Whoa, good call there E! And now you've unknowingly completed the Pitney sad town connection! The backing vocals on "Poor Side of Town" were the Blossoms, which included Darlene Love. The Blossoms were also the uncredited singers of the Phil Spector produced "He's A Rebel". (The record ended up being credited to the Crystals.) Gene Pitney, who was pals with Spector, wrote "He's a Rebel". Know what else he wrote? "Hello Mary Lou", as in Ricky Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou". Sad town trilogy complete.
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