Search - Jackie Deshannon :: Me About You/ To Be Free

DeShannon Masterpiece...Bravo Jackie!

Bradly Briggs | TOLUCA LAKE, CALIFORNIA | 08/26/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Finally on CD in it's full glory, the Jackie DeShannon "To Be Free" masterwork with nine original songs by the first great female Singer/Songwriter from the baby-boomer generation, this tremendous release is long overdue...should have been a huge success and came out shortly before "Tapestry" but no promotion or airplay resulted in this great work going unnoticed except by connoisseurs of the best in great artists music has to offer. Jackie DeShannon is such a great singer with many gorgeous & diverse chart-hits like "You Won't Forget Me", "Needles And Pins", "When You Walk In The Room", "She Don't Understand Him (Like I Do)", "I Can Make It With You", "A Lifetime Of Loneliness", "Come And Get Me", "The Weight" throughout the sixties yet is also an accomplished songwriter but her shortsighted record company insisted on doing covers & with mega-hits such as the sixties anthem "What The World Needs Now Is Love" not too hard to understand this stance as this magnificent vocal is mesmerizing & incredibly great resulting in this timeless classic being honored with a Lifetime Grammy Salute in 2008. Yet right before the close of the great musical sixties came the other sixties and beyond anthem being her own "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" and this timeless classic should have focused everyone on the arrival of "To Be Free"...looking back it is hard to understand why this didn't happen & had Ms. DeShannon a super force behind her like Lou Adler, the outcome of her career would have been dramatically different...aside from that unfortunate circumstance, thankfully "To Be Free" happened which led to other great works by this legendary lady in the 70's such as "Jackie", "Songs", "Your Baby Is A Lady" & the grossly overlooked "New Arrangement" which features the original "Bette Davis Eyes" and other remarkable songs and memorable performances! "To Be Free" is a great work and one to sit down & give a close listen and follow the words...great songs, soulful vocals and terrific arrangements make for a wondrous musical journey to be enjoyed over and over...cover songs "Set Me Free/You Keep Me Hanging On" & "Bird On A Wire" feature awesome vocals that are raw & riveting making Jackie DeShannon one of the all-time greatest. "Me About You" is a fine collection of soulful songs that fill out another stunning collection from this great artist who is the finest from her generation and beyond...Bravo Jackie!!!"

Sophisticated DeShannon albums from '68 and '70

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 10/31/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Jackie DeShannon is a singer-songwriter whose songs generally overshadowed her singing. Her version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "What the World Needs Now is Love" etched her name on the upper reaches of the charts in 1965, and her own "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" notched a second commercial favorite in 1969. But other than these two worldwide hits, her albums and singles typically languished in the lower regions of the U.S. pop charts. Her albums for Imperial ranged from early teen-oriented pop to adult contemporary, and 1968's Me About You marked a step toward the latter. DeShannon mixed personal originals with delicate, intimately interpreted covers of songs from John Sebastian, Tim Hardin, Jimmy Webb and Van Dyke Parks. The arrangements (by Jack Nitzsche, Nick De Caro, Kirby Johnson and Arthur Wright) are inventive and moving, but the West Coast production occasionally leaves DeShannon's voice sticking out from the instrumentation.



Even as DeShannon found a more sophisticated sound, her lyrics often looked back, as on the original "Splendor in the Grass," and her choice of pop covers, such as the Lovin' Spoonful's "Didn't Want to Have to Do It" and the Turtles' "Me About You," tied in to her earlier period of songwriting and hit making. What's really interesting, though, is how DeShannon contemporized this material, and how her growing maturity led to the bigger reach of 1969's Laurel Canyon and Put a Little Love in Your Heart (each available separately), and this disc's second feature, 1970's To Be Free, her last for Imperial. To Be Free was the album that followed the massive success of "Put a Little Love in Your Heart," and it used the same production team. The songs, however, are mostly DeShannon's, and the arrangements largely by Rene Hall. Hall's work with Marvin Gaye and Ray Charles, and backing vocals by Vanetta Fields (Ikettes) and Clydie King (Raelettes) are the foundation of the album's soul-meets-adult-contemporary sound.



The album opens with the funky bass, sharp horns and sweet strings of "Livin' on the Easy Side," and the sly "It's So Nice" is sung like an early Prince song. The introspective and observational lyrics anticipate the singer-songwriter breakthrough of 1971's Tapestry, though the slick production hasn't the earthiness delivered by Lou Adler for Carole King. DeShannon's eight originals are complemented by a medley of the Supremes "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and Little Anthony and the Imperials' "Hurt So Bad," and there's a deeply felt, gospel-flavored cover of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on the Wire." The album's single, "Brighton Hill" reached #10 on the adult contemporary chart with its warm lyric of satisfaction. This two-fer CD's lone bonus is an over-orchestrated cover of Tim Hardin's "Reason to Believe" that won't make you forget Rod Stewart's 1971 hit (nor Hardin's 1965 original); but it's largely superfluous amid these two fine albums. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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