Olivia Newton-John: Let Me Be There

In 1973, Olivia Newton-John won the "Best Country Vocal Performance, Female" Grammy award for the title track of this Lp, "Let Me Be There." To say that the CMA was pissed would be an understatement. For this 25-year-old Australian to go up against Tammy Wynette and Dottie West, both of whom were nominated in the same category, and win... well, that was too much.

To be fair, "Let Me Be There" was a much better song than Tammy's ("Kids Say The Darndest Things") or Dottie's ("Country Sunshine"), but there was a feeling that the crossover nature of the song, which hit huge with Top 40 audiences and signalled Olivia's breakthrough hit, tainted the jury pool, so to speak. It might be possible.

I put this album on thinking that, as with so many "light rock" artists I disdained during the 70s (Gordon Lightfoot, Dan Fogelberg, Karla Bonoff), I would feel a rush of appreciation -- Good Lord! How could I have been so blind to the obvious musical talent, the mastery of the material? But sometimes, a stone is just a stone, no matter how many years of wind and wave polish it. "Let Me Be There" compiles almost a side's worth of tracks from Olivia's Uni debut Lp ("If Not For You," 1972), including the hit Dylan cover, and throws in another side's worth of MOR covers from the early 70s.

I made the mistake of listening to Side 2 first, and let me tell you, hearing Olivia warble her way through John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" was like eating uncooked Jell-O. This is followed by a cover of the old Merrilee Rush hit, "Angel Of The Morning," but there's nothing new to add, and it's crunchy-sweet too. Then there's a Lightfoot cover. Urrrgh.

Flipping over to Side 1 was a bit better, with the title track at the top and "If Not For You" at the end, but then there's Olivia trying her best to interpret "Me And Bobby McGee" -- just imagine that, if you will. Janis she ain't and try as she might, she sounds like she was smiling the whole way through. And to add insult to injury, MCA chose another clinker from her first Lp, a horrid syrupy rendition of "Banks Of The Ohio" that is enough to put a zombie off his brain souffle.

The only surprise here is a truly stunning cover of Lesley Duncan's "Love Song", off of Elton John's "Tumbleweed Connection" album. It's so good, in fact, that I'm convinced it would have been a radio hit if the bonehead A&R doofuses at MCA had had the smarts to release it. (There's a reason MCA is referred to in the industry as "Music Cemetary of America".)

So, yeah, some things don't get better with age. Lightfoot has. Wendy Waldman has. Even, God help me, Johnny Mathis has (or at least I've finally learned to appreciate him). But not this album -- sorry. (Although the photo on the cover is stunning.)

Linda Ronstadt's Silk Purse

"Not all pigs are your enemies," read the Capitol Records advertisement for Linda Ronstadt's "Silk Purse", which came out in 1970, with the Country-Rock explosion in full swing. Although Linda hadn't hooked up with Peter Asher yet to formulate the method of her biggest 70s successes, she was already in the groove of picking amazing songs to cover, by writers with heart and soul. This record was produced by the legendary Elliot Mazer and includes one Top 40 hit, "Long, Long Time", but there are even better songs here, like "Lovesick Blues" which opens the Lp, Gary White's "Louise" (about the lonely death of a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold), and the medley that occupies most of the second side and closes with the hillbilly folk song "Love Is Like A Mountain Railway". There's also a stunning country-rock adaptation of Carole King's "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" that shoulda been a hit. Linda at her finest.

Video links:

• Linda sings "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" on the Johnny Cash Show, 1970. This appears to be sung live to the record's backing track.
• Duetting with the great Bobby Darin on "Long, Long Time". Bobby plays acoustic guitar. Her vocals are such a note-for-note match to the record that I thought this was lip-synced at first, but after the first verse, it's obvious that Bobby's backing crew is playing live.

Just a little more Poco...

Poco is one of those bands I've always loved. That country-rock thing that started with Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers, Buffalo Springfield and, to an extent, the Lovin' Spoonful, found its perfection with Paul, Richie, George, Rusty and Tim (IMHO). Rose of Cimmaron was released in '76, just after their switch from Epic to ABC, and it was the launching ground for two of their best records ever, Indian Summer and Legend. (Trivia: "Legend" was the last Lp released on ABC Records prior to their absorption by MCA, and "Heart Of The Night" has the distinction of being the first single released on MCA from any ABC Lp.)

This is a fantastic record with some really great Timothy B. Schmitt songs. It holds up well after all this time... Worth seeking out.

• "Just Like Me" audio track
• "Rose of Cimmaron" synced to performance video on YouTube

Pure Prairie League Busts Out.

These days, when anyone thinks about the Pure Prairie League, they usually hear the Vince Gill-era "Let Me Love You Tonight" hit from '77 playing in their head. But the group's history goes back much further than that, and is much richer than that.

The original version of Pure Prairie League, from 1972, was a country-rock band much more in the mold of the Buffalo Springfield / Poco mold. The group's driving force was Craig Fuller, a singer, songwriter and guitarist who was the heart and soul of the original League (named, by the way, for a Temperance group in the old Errol Flynn movie "Dodge City"). Fuller was a really talented songwriter, penning almost all of the songs on the band's first two Lps for RCA.

The first Lp, self-titled, didn't make many waves, but "Bustin' Out" had the huge hit "Amie." That song is just the tip of the iceberg, though - every song on this album is a wonder. The opening cut, "Jazzman", tells the tale of an itinerant musician trying to find a little love in his off-time, with beautiful harmonies and wrenching pedal steel courtesy of Al Brisco, a legendary Canadian steel player who shows up on many of the '70s country-rock classics. "Early Morning Riser", another of my favorites, is a sweet second-chance offer to a lady who's been dumped, with the awesome lyric:

There's not much more I can do to try and make things right
If you need another sunshine brother
I can be right there beside you by the early morning light

There's also the incredibly tender "Boulder Skies", and a soaring big-production closer, "Call Me, Tell Me." I've been spending a lot of time with this record lately, and I can tell you that each and every song is now embedded in my brain like an electrode from a science experiment.

Bonus: David Bowie's protege, Mick Ronson, is all over this record as a session guitar player and string arranger. Go figure!

Fuller would leave the Pure Prairie League in '74, teaming up with Eric Justin Kaz for a short while before becoming a member of Little Feat and founding the country-rock band American Flyer, another underrated group whose two Lps on United Artists are overlooked classics in their own right, and well worth finding.

For further research:

• Al Brisco plays pedal steel in his home studio
• Craig Fuller with a reunited PPL does "Amie" at the 2009 Del Mar Fair
  (cuts off before the end, but great performance)
• Craig Fuller's website