gypsy tail wind:: Try Me a Fair Deal – JB Out of Sight! ::
Die ganzen Publishing und Distributions-Deals jener Jahre sind etwas verworren, aber Brown hatte nach Try Me einen Deal mit Mercury/Smash, hat unter dem Namen Fair Deal Records Corp. eine eigenen Produktions- und unter dem Namen Try Me Music eine Publishing-Gesellschaft gegründet und suchte nach Möglichkeiten, unabhängig Aufnahmen zu produzieren. King klagte gegen Smash/Mercury nach der Veröffentlichung der ersten Single im April 1964, bis im Oktober durfte Brown weiter ausserhalb von King aufnehmen danach war Brown aufgrund eines Schlupfloches im Vertrag mit King lediglich das Veröffentlichen von Stücken mit Gesang bei anderen Labels untersagt. Die erste Smash-Single bestand aus „Caldonia“ (mit einer instrumentalen B-Side namens „Evil“ – sie ist im Gegensatz zu wohl den meisten erwähnten Instrumentals nicht in der Compilation „Soul Pride: The Instrumentals“ zu finden). Die zweite Single bestand aus „The Things I Used to Do“ b/w Out of the Blue (letzteres ist in „Star Time“ zu finden), die dritte (Pop #24 und international erfolgreich) aus Out of Sight b/w Maybe the Last Time. Die A-Seite ist in der „Star Time“-Box, die B-Seite auch, und eine ein wenig kürzere aber vermutlich identische Version steht am Ende von „Roots of a Revolution“. Die Stereo-Version von „Out of Sight findet sich auf der „CD of JB“.
Zur Geschichte des Streits, den Brown von 1962-64 mit King und dessen Präsident Syd Nathan ausfocht, finden sich in der Smash Records Story von By Mike Callahan, David Edwards, Patrice Eyries und Randy Watts einige erhellende Ausführungen:
In April, 1964, came the first of a long list of material by James Brown and his band. As early as 1961, Brown and King owner Syd Nathan had been having disagreements over Brown’s King releases – primarily a control issue – as Brown wanted to release a „live“ album and Nathan was dead set against it. Finally, they reached a compromise: if Brown financed the recording out of his own pocket, Nathan would release the album. The result was the successful 1962 album Live at the Apollo, which even today stands as an incredible recording. But the arguments continued, and it had reached the point that Brown refused to do any new recordings for King. During this period, Nathan released various songs as King singles that came from recordings prior to 1962. By late 1963, this had been going on for over a year when James Brown unilaterally announced that his King contract only covered his vocal recordings as James Brown, and that he was free to record his own instrumentals as „The James Brown Orchestra“ or produce other members of his band. He signed a contract with Smash to do just that. The first single was „Baby, Baby, Baby“ [Smash 1884], pairing Bobby Byrd, the leader of the Famous Flames, his backing vocal group, with Anna King, another member of his touring band. The song reached #52 on the pop charts and #15 on the R&B charts. Syd Nathan probably felt that this was a contract violation, but didn’t press it. Next was an instrumental with James Brown at the organ playing „Caledonia“ [Smash 1898], which just barely made the top-40 on the R&B charts, and stiffed on the pop side (#95). Irritating, as Nathan still felt this was a contract violation, but he bided his time. Solo singles by Bobby Byrd and Anna King, and another instrumental by James Brown weren’t big sellers when released in the summer of 1964. Then like the teenager who just has to push the envelope to see what he can get away with, Brown issued a vocal, „Out of Sight“ [Smash 1919, credited to „James Brown and His Orchestra“], which jumped to #24 pop and #5 R&B when issued in August. That was the last straw for Nathan; James Brown was now openly defying his King contract. Nathan sued, and eventually won an injunction against Smash releasing vocal records by James Brown. When a Smash album of the same title [Smash 2/67058] followed in early 1965, legal action forced Smash to withdraw it quickly. Some sort of settlement followed, with Brown going back to King and recording some of the strongest singles of his career (starting with „Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag“), while Smash was able to retain their masters and release them. Eventually, the Out of Sight album was reissued in 1968 as Smash 67109.
James Brown only recorded for Smash for about three years, but made the most of that time, releasing nine different albums from 1964-1968, most of them instrumentals (or vocals by other members of his road show band), and most of them making the album charts. In addition, Anna King had an album Back to Soul [Smash 2/60759], which also contained her hit duet with Bobby Byrd, „Baby Baby Baby.“ After that duet, Byrd had seven singles released on Smash, but no albums, despite the duet and „We Are In Love“ [Smash 1964, #14 R&B, #120 pop] being hits. Brown himself had seven additional Smash singles, including an abortive attempt by Smash to cash in on his King hit of „I Got You (I Feel Good)“ [King 6015] by issuing the earlier (and inferior) Smash version as Smash 1989. This was about the same time as the Out of Sight album came out and was withdrawn; the single was withdrawn, also. Other than that, the rest of the singles were instrumentals and were not big sellers (the instrumental version of „Try Me“ on Smash 2008 in December, 1965, was the last Smash chart single, making #34 R&B and #63 pop). Brown’s last session for Smash was in New York City on April 4-6, 1967, when he recorded the James Brown Plays the Real Thing album [Smash 2/67093].
Quelle:
The Smash Records Story
By Mike Callahan, David Edwards, Patrice Eyries, and Randy Watts
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #153: Enja Records - Entdeckungen – 11.06., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba