The Crying Shames - Over My Head/ Autumn In The City

Label: Logo

Year of Release: 1980

A total mystery, this one - a record which, according to most vinyl cataloguing sites online, doesn't even exist. Naturally, scarcity is no guarantee of value and I managed to pick it up for less than the price of a glossy magazine. 

As you might suspect, "Over My Head" is a cover of the Fleetwood Mac track, only given a particularly sultry Marshall Hain treatment. Electronic keyboards coo underneath a shuffling rhythm and a male and female duet, and it sounds slightly more date-stamped than the original. This kind of hushed, silky smooth, slightly dancefloor orientated MOR was all over the late-night FM airwaves during the late seventies and very early eighties, and brings to mind the sleeve (and occasionally music) of the K-Tel compilation "Night Moves". That it's stylistically firmly locked in that era doesn't render it irrelevant, however - I've a sneaking appreciation for this single, and if I'd ever been sleazy enough to have a bedroom seduction tape, I'm sure it might have made its way on. And I'm sure it would have improved my prospects with the opposite sex little.

The Crying Shames are also a mystery, and for reasons more intriguing than usual. They appear to have only had one other single out on Logo (although as this one was largely unaccounted for by the Internet, there may be others hidden away). Entitled "That's Rock 'n' Roll", it was credited as featuring Andy Taylor, who online auctioneers and record dealers alike have always assumed was occasional "Left and to the Back" reader Andy Taylor out of Duran Duran. However, he has consistently denied any involvement. As the single also pre-dates the release of their debut single "Planet Earth" by six months, it's also unlikely that a credit for his work would have given the record any particular advantages even if he had worked his way on to the track then subsequently forgotten the entire session.

Anyway, if you know more, drop me a comment. And Happy New Year! There are lots of interesting records coming up over the next few weeks, so please stick with us.

Head West - Victoria/ Changes

Label: Pop Music

Year of Release: 1969

Head West are a reasonably known name in two occasionally intertwining circles of music lovers - Fleetwood Mac fans and lovers of psychedelic pop. The former are familiar with the band due to them being Bob Welch's outfit prior to joining the post-Peter Green, pre-"Rumours" line-up of Mac, the latter are usually aware of their inclusion on a "Circus Days" compilation album with the brooding and eerie "Some Day".

Don't let that track fool you, though. In reality, Head West were yet another very late sixties group to combine the harder edges of soul with driving rock riffs, and "Victoria" and "Changes" leave you in no doubt as to their true leanings.  This is sledgehammer stuff, "Victoria" beginning with pounding drum patterns before settling - if "settling" is the right word - into a more laid-back arrangement with angsty, hollered vocals. The flip "Changes" struts its stuff and has more of a groove to it and would be more likely to get spins with certain kinds of backwards-looking DJs (like me).

While all members of the group - including Robert Hunt on organ and Henry Moore on drums - were American in origin, they shipped themselves over to Paris in 1969 to begin a career on the French live circuit. The reasons behind this decision are undocumented, but Welch later described this as being an impoverished existence of sleeping on floors and living off beans and rice.  While it seems likely to me that Head West would have packed a massive punch live, it's perhaps easy to understand how they never won over the French public enough to chart an album or single or even enjoy better quality cuisine while they were there.  Good though it was, none of their work was truly outstanding in an already crowded sub-genre, and after one flop eponymous album in 1970 and three years of getting nowhere fast, the band split and returned to base. This proved to be a fortunate decision for Welch at least, as he very quickly scored a job with Fleetwood Mac on return, though his time with that group was turbulent. 

After his stint with Mick Fleetwood and his cohorts was done, he went on to have a hugely successful solo career in America, scoring a platinum album in 1977 with "French Kiss". Sadly, tragedy struck in 2012 after complications from spinal surgery left him in serious pain with no prospect of improvements to his health. This directly lead to his unfortunate suicide in June of that year. I would like to think that the sound of "Changes" here will help enlighten people to the fact that this was a musician whose scope was incredibly wide - he took in soul, funk, blues, rock and disco music throughout his chequered career, and that's something which genuinely can't be said of most of the musicians we've discussed on this blog so far.