U.F.O. (1969 reissued 2011)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DeAvcscc3Y
Jerome A+
Plain as Your Eyes Can See B+
Roll Back the Time B-
Whistle Stop A+
Rosey A-
Highways A+
U.F.O. A+
So Natural B+
Johnny B+
Sandman A-
I think this blog entry lists his complete discography. He might have played high school quarterback and worked mostly in Malibu. Trendy young actors liked him and bought some Wrecking Crew. I think he was originally from San Diego. It's sort of a boring story without more footage or any. The internet doesn't have everything. It just seemed that way.
Century Records edited a 2nd version of U.F.O. the album. It's the same songs but sliced and diced into a sort of unplugged copy and then reshuffled for order. Wikipedia says this version was released in 1970.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xtXUm6hX1A
The beginning to U.F.O. the song starts with cheesy lounge styled organ music. I like it. I like it a lot.
I won't grade this one. It shows what I meant by that he was scrambling. He was doing a lot of remodeling and tweaking with old school reboots. He was a Markelle Fultz of music. He was trying everything and going up walls with doubts. Fultz ended up having a real true medicinal situation like H.. He was not completely psychologically afflicted with so-called yips. Jim Sullivan apparently developed personal baggage and hit the bottle.
I didn't notice at YT any single versions of "Rosey" or "Roll Back the Time" from Century City, 1970. Jim seemed desperate to hit the music charts.
There were singles for "Highway" and "Lorelei Lee" via RCA in 1971.... This Highway is fun with background singers, while Lorelei Lee was miserable for a tune, imho. I'd give the latter a D-. Those two can be easily found on youtube.
That leaves the Playboy album from 1972. I am not a big fan of country but will not let that bias affect the grading. I also don't like commercialism but will sidestep that part of it also. Thus a song like Sonny Jim can't be given a grade lower than B+. It had the "right stuff." I see no reason for him not becoming famous. Maybe he was ahead of his time. Perhaps it was bad timing and he would have ruled the late 70's and then the 80's if he had just kept his shite together a little better. Lenny Bruce could be playing bridge with Harry Belafonte and Olivia de Havilland right now today if he could have gotten over himself. Nothing is worth dying over. Best case scenario has everyone as old, wise content codgers at peace with body and soul knowing the world will make it after all same as Mary Richards. No one should be close to ready to die the way things are today. There's too much that needs a-changing. We are all susceptible to ruts and need to be stronger at times.
Jim Sullivan (Playboy, 1972)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6uoLgJfWbs
Don't Let It Throw You A+
Sonny Jim A-
Tea Leaves A+
Biblical Boogie A-
Lonesome Picker A+
Sandman C+
(he put a bit too much cheese on that one.)
Side Two:
Tom Cat D-
(fricken pick a style and stay in the lane?)
You Show Me The Way To Go C-
(signature line saves it from total disaster.)
Amos D-
(you can't win them all?)
I'll Be Here A-
Plain To See A+
(This gets nutty. The grade is accurate or made out of sympathy.)
He didn't give his career enough time. He unnecessarily went all in when in general life is meant to be paced. As to his actual death, there's no way to know what happened. I think he was killed by cops or died in the desert deliberately or by accident. That's three choices. There is talk of a possible mafia connection, but it comes across as similar weak sauce to the alien abduction theory.
I think he might have been the body they ruled out as him. They didn't have DNA testing back then. He went for a walk and got lost? I doubt he left money to be taken by people finding his property if this was a death wish. I'm leaning towards killed by cops. I would like to see proof he was in Easy Rider. My overall conclusion is his music was good and the case should be reopened if it's merely gathering dust. It sounds fishy and there's no statute of limitation for murder.
Like they could go to the moon in 1969 but no longer have the technology to do it today? What's up with that? Or they have an answer for everything, so forget I mention it? Thank you Jim Sullivan, next? They. Them.
Maybe Jim sold pot to actors and was busted by local New Mexico police. Perhaps they killed him and as cops knew how to get rid of all evidence.
Maybe Jim walked out into the desert, got drunk and it all went wrong. Look up William Holden's death. Life is fragile. We need to be careful and play the long game.
It's awful it seems that we'll never know what happened. I wish Jim had flown to Nashville. To quote Ariana Grande, "Omg." I'm no relation to Sullivan, yet somehow this one has gotten to me. If he did that deliberately, that was an epic letdown and disappointment. Let's be heroes and role models. People have to stop doing that if that was suicide. Folks jumping off of bridges is crazy. It's better to live out life. They will give us morphine if needed for pain relief in old age. The goal should be to live long, noble lives. I want to see Assange live to 100!
I'm a little pissed off at Jim Sullivan, although perhaps it wasn't his fault.
Maybe Jim sold pot to actors and was busted by local New Mexico police. Perhaps they killed him and as cops knew how to get rid of all evidence.
Maybe Jim walked out into the desert, got drunk and it all went wrong. Look up William Holden's death. Life is fragile. We need to be careful and play the long game.
It's awful it seems that we'll never know what happened. I wish Jim had flown to Nashville. To quote Ariana Grande, "Omg." I'm no relation to Sullivan, yet somehow this one has gotten to me. If he did that deliberately, that was an epic letdown and disappointment. Let's be heroes and role models. People have to stop doing that if that was suicide. Folks jumping off of bridges is crazy. It's better to live out life. They will give us morphine if needed for pain relief in old age. The goal should be to live long, noble lives. I want to see Assange live to 100!
I'm a little pissed off at Jim Sullivan, although perhaps it wasn't his fault.
9 comments:
Thanks for this continuing series on Sullivan and the Wrecking Crew/Funk Bros phenomenon.
For me, Sullivan has a hint of Gordon Lightfoot's baritone in his singing style.
Baritone vocal range cannot as easily produce pop music "excitement" in the ear of the listener as well as the tenor range. And Lightfoot was a huge star in this same time period as well with a string of well-written hit songs. He was in essence his own genre on rock radio: folk music had long since given way to flat out rock n roll, with a few exceptions, Peter Paul and Mary, the Mamas and the Papas, etc also tending to inflect their hit songs with Wrecking Crew-style instrumentation and pop music melodies.
Maybe it was Lightfoot's success that brought about interest in Sullivan but also cast a shadow over him?
I read something about the Wrecking Crew that makes sense. Recording equipment was very basic in the 1960s and most bands recorded as ensembles, that is "live" in the studio playing together rather than the multitracked for each instrument.
We recall the Beatles and Beach Boys and other top selling bands as using multi track recording as innovators because the equipment was fairly new and required large amounts of very expensive studio time to layer separate tracks into a final cut.
Therefore, it was much less expensive to record the instrumental track together but this required exceptional musicianship to play in an ensemble format. Thus, studio musicians who could play well in a wide variety of styles were necessary financially for most bands, except for the uber wealthy such as the Beatles.
In fact, it is said Jmes Taylor was able to record his entire first album at Abbey Road studios (the most advanced and expesnive at the time) using blocks of studio time bought by the Beatles that they never got around to using.
I played baritone horn in high school. It never got the respect of a trumpet or trombone. Maybe this backs your point or is a stretch.
Saxophone was the easiest to cheat for improvising and that's where the perceived talent emerged. But that seemed fake to me. It's not like the sax player knew sheet music better than any of us. Brass was more difficult to find notes or fake note transitions. Saxophone seemed to have an in-built auto-tune. Brass was more complex or something. Trombone was difficult to keep in tune as the slide was basically changing the notes every movement.
Yes, Jim sounds just like Lightfoot compared to other names. James Taylor is up there. I've also heard some Midnight Cowboy theme song in Sullivan's voice. For So Natural, he sounds like Bob Dylan. Sometimes he sounds to me like Stevie Ray Vaughan. Other bands I can't remember the names might have been influenced by Sullivan. Sometimes I hear ZZ Top.
He was probably correct money wise to try Nashville, but it seemed a cynical move and against the style from the U.F.O. album.
There's an American who I met in Ireland. He is a musician living out the life Sullivan should have. He is not rich and famous but still alive living and breathing music.
Oh, I also hear Graham Parker and sometimes Dire Straits. And possibly Bob Seger.
Sullivan's sister or someone said Jim claimed his music was stolen. That part sounds interesting.
I have so many questions that won't be answered. Like how big was the Malibu night club? How much money did he make? Where is the Easy Rider clip? People talk it up so much, I'm surprised no one found it and added one of his songs.
Youtube banned me. I'm pretty much done. I'm not allowed into that fray anymore.
I liked Rage Against the Machine and SOAD because they tried to make an impact on society. It seems Sullivan got a bit too full of himself and it backfired.
You are on the right track. The medium has seemed more about the technology than greatness. The Beatles got into Freemasonry and the studio? Once the technology became accessible to everyone, the Wrecking Crew became obsolete. I read that part. The Boston band seems to have been the most absurd example. Auto-tune is the new farce. The Hollywood and music industries don't seem to try anymore to facilitate real art. I wash my hands of it.
All facets of life visible through the medium seem to have reached epic endgame levels of absurdity. James Harden is taking four steps to shoot illegal three pointers and gets away with it. Movies have become mostly remakes, sequels and computer generated content. Internet news doesn't even try to share anything relevant or not manipulated by government and military. The freemasonry crap continues to be thrown way too much into society's face to ignore.
Ignorance is bliss but Snowden and especially Assange have made that path obsolete.
Most people are twisting in the wind not because of right versus left but because the stuff folks used to lean on for escape provide no relief anymore. The entertainment value is gone. I've tried everything. Pewdie Pie is beyond stupid. The numbers must be fake. I can find things to waste time on, but they rarely provide decent escape.
I watched Wendy Williams for the first time last night. Everything is done. Jim Sullivan with his two albums is more interesting than anything new out there.
I watched a young person react to Larry Bird for the first time. That was fun. She was good and picked up on his greatness. People are searching for relief, yet it's becoming more difficult to find.
Your point about baritone is probably correct. Jim Croce had sweeter songs and a bit higher pitched voice. Baritone seems to be located on a sleepier frequency. Sorry for rambling. I get started and can't finish.
Excellent points all. Horns are another musical topic of fascination. The trumpet has always been my favorite horn sound but I never connected with why until reading your comment.
Baritone sax is almost entirely considered an R&B or rock 'n roll instrument while the postwar jazz saxophone greats seemed to play tenor, alto and even soprano sax (Parker, Coltrane, etc). Maybe because modern jazz has more nuances and notes that aren't captured by the ear in the lower sonic registers? I'm not expert enough musically to know but your perspective after having played a horn is helpful to my understanding.
I agree the only true inventiveness of the modern rock era is related to the improved technology, although the musicians still had to create these new sounds through innovative use of the technology. Thinking of Jimi Hendrix most obviously on guitar.
Unfortunately, I'm not as well rounded as you are culturally or into politics very much so can't really add much to your commentary regarding the internet, although I completely agree with you it is a dead zone for furthering human communication and human relationships....seems to accomplish the exact opposite in my experience, which has much more to say about humanity than the technology, I suspect.
The internet should have been greatness. I think humanity is fine and that what is going on reflects the power elite as defined by C. Wright Mills.
Thanks for the comments. You are inspiring me to give up on chasing after disinfo shadows. It says in the Snowden documents that "they" love to mimic us as one of their tactics. There is no way to get anywhere with cheaters. The best revenge after all is probably happiness. It's a cliche and easier said than done, but whac-a-mole if true tells me the only hope for humanity is to forge new paths.
I'm seeing a lot of fake social critique in that even the most sincere of it always leads one back to corrupted medium loops.
Our dialogue has had next to nothing to do with it. It is perhaps old-school liberating. There is no side to pick or if there is disagreement between us or lurkers, there is no tension in the decision.
I don't want to spoil Easy Rider for anyone who has yet to see it, but it relates to one theory. He must have been just too old to go to Vietnam. It's so sad he died and unfair to family and friends getting no closure. It's disgusting that people tried to turn it into a U.F.O. story. Yet that seems to explain the resurgence. I almost forgot to take heart meds thinking of this guy while editing this.
Perhaps by recognising the internet is a negative, life is back full circle to truth and wonder years. If the internet has truly become the new t.v., it must be treated as such.
The mosaic stream of consciousness methodology is both a blessing and curse.
The trumpet in Elvis Costello's Shipbuilding is pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuPrrdRzlxc
But Elvis' dad was a musician. He was born into it. Tiger Woods was golfing on t.v. at age four. Everyone has skills but Sullivan learned the hard way it's a lot about who we know and what we are forced to do to so-called move up food chains.
Education is so important because once one learns the rules to plagiarism, anyone can create.
I think the main goal of life is to recognise moments. Fakes are human and only experience them for fleeting seconds. Bukowski forced the medium to back the f off.
People mock Rondo but he was the starting point guard on a champion.
The world is starving for authenticity.
Hendrix spoke through the guitar. Frampton did that.
There is no more medium as life crutch.
I fear for people who stare into computer phones.
I am at least in a chair with total freedom of thought. There is no t.v. on. I used to watch and upload drama. Now that is done. I am free from the t.v.. Quitting cigarettes has been amazing. I tried it before but it's easier said than done for one to go back to a state before the addiction. That is the original self. Cigarettes were a crutch. People should definitely quit and not wait for a health scare to do so.
I am everywhere in an eccentric way yet having fun.
(continued)
Whistle Stop might be the best song. It has the organ similar to Elvis Costello songs. And staying in tune is there. It's voice as trumpet.
Sullivan could switch into new melodies within songs sort of Pink Floyd-ish. This part of Wrecking Crew I like. It's simple but sounds good. I hear some R.E.M. with changing guitar speeds.
Rosie is a weird tune. I do like it when he hits the diamond in the eyes line.
He's too much like dark coffee in places after going with creamer all the time.
U.F.O. is a great album. I think I gave every tune at least a B+.
His self-named album fell apart for the second side.
The redo for U.F.O. also fronted the best songs. That's not a good idea. He should have spread them out better.
Thin Lizzy had some great perfect tunes. They also had some terrible songs.
Maybe Sullivan's downfall was growing up in California. Everywhere else no one assumes they will make it as actors or entertainers no matter what the skill set. Real people adjust and become music teachers or otherwise keep it together.
I need to be nicer to Jim Sullivan. It's been 44 years since his disappearance.
I'm glad Jim is finally famous but it's unfortunate he didn't experience much of it. It's all about fifty to one hundred years later. Alan Watts must have known this. He was talented. Enlightenment is the biggest racket. His downfall was also booze. But he seemed to live a good honourable life. His skills were in figuring out buddhism and interpreting it for Americans.
Too bad Sullivan didn't stick to his original style. He'd be about Bernie's age with about ten albums. I think you nailed it quite a number of posts ago. He didn't have the range or commercial appeal for a voice. Elvis Costello made it because of his skills and was probably a fluke considering his unusual vocals.
I agree humanity must find a new path, the current one made for us by our forebears and eroding terribly under our watch leads straight to hell and we are forcing the next generations onto the same road while doing everything in our power it seems to worsen their trip.
I do hold out hope for our youth. I'm refreshed by the younger faces showing up in public. I note they seem to have a more honest relationship with social media, or perhaps a better ability to conextualize it within a real life. They were born coddling an ipad and also will have our history of social media tragedy to guide them in a better direction.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dancing on the rooftop of Boston University was the profoundest political moment of the new millenium for me so far, along with Rashida Tlaib just allowing her truth to spill out: impeach the MF'er.
The Gambino video "This is America" offers some small evidence for the possibility of still creating artistic moments in a deadening world. These are all excellent uses of social media IMHO. "This is Hollywood" still, but the heart, soul and the truth on display in that short video was amazing.
There will always be regeneration even under the most degrading circumstances of our lives and our civilization which allow positive connection with the universal life force if we can manage it all within ourselves. The internal must remake the external into the eternal and then, crucially we must allow eternity the means to reconnect us all peacefully with a full understanding that need not be communicated. It simply is.
And I totally agree with you happiness is the best revenge against the daily brutality visited upon our world by the power elite. I see the resurgence of nationalism in the world less as a media-enhanced misunderstood form of tribalism. These are not healthy directions in themselves but represent something new but not quite correctly focused. The world needs to slow down, our perspective of life needs to shrink in order for our awareness to expand. It will be left to a forthcoming, more enlightened generation to someday not only recognize the universal within the tribal but connect all the dots everywhere and nowhere.
Jim Sullivan did not live or die in vain. Through you he has found resurrection. Take care of yourself well for most of the road is yet to be traveled.
Impeaching Trump would change nothing.
I don't know enough about Rashida Tlaib or Ocasio-Cortez. If I had to guess, they are lesser of evils. I'm more of a George Carlin type person thinking there is no hope to change the world through the system. Bernie Sanders turned out to be just another criminal. He was the least of all evils, but if he represents revolutionary change, everything is doomed.
Trump deserved to win and did. Sanders was meant to be President but was cheated. Yet instead of saying enough is enough with election fraud, Bernie bent over further as Carlin would put it or Hicks would have had Bernie thanking Satan. I don't like those rape joke parts of Carlin and Hicks, but I believe the idea in general. Bernie Sanders is part and parcel of a fake world. He was the last straw. 2016 ended history. Everything else is bullshite.
The world's social structure is trash. Every government is corrupt garbage. I am okay focusing in on America because that is my country, but I will never accept a reboot.
There will never be a next generation to fix things. Lenny Bruce spoke of what is. That's all there ever is.
I am free because I don't give a fvck about Trump, the Democrats or the Republicans. I have pinpointed the criminals and they are basically the vast majority of the power players including many names no one has ever heard of.
So to be blunt, this is not the kind of blog that is eager to hear divide and conquer comments. Impeaching Trump would be a very bad thing. Julian Assange is all that matters at this point. I pity all people who think any of this is real.
Someday. Never. Comes.
There is only the possibility for Zen enlightenment on an individual basis.
I do not condone violence because it is illegal to do so. Tens of thousands deserve to be locked up in cages. Both sides suck. This is bread and circuses. Young people have nothing over older people. That is CIA propaganda. Round and round the ptb's attempt to circumscribe us into reboots. I bow to none of it.
Ocasio dancing on a roof as a college student doesn't mean much to me. The DNC is a pack of wild animals needing to be locked up with their GOP counterparts. THEY RIGGED THE ELECTION WITH 100% HELP FROM THE MEDIUM.
The ptb's are dog shite. Every last one of them. No one just gets elected. I hope the vest thing in France is legit. I know there are great Americans here too. Once nobodies from both sides of the aisle join forces, revolution can happen. But for now, all these fvckers need to go bankrupt. Bernie Sanders can go to hell for all I care. Same as Cortez, Trump, Bush, name the scvmturd representing why the world sucks and never improves. Zuckerberg. Guy spends millions on bodyguards. If he wasn't such a twisted arsewipe, he'd be saving some money on that. Tens of thousands in politics, military, corporations and judicial need to be locked up. I don't do reboots. I wash my hands of all of it. All of it. ALL OF IT. (channeling Carlin)
You get Trump because you cheated Bernie. You get Trump for not fighting for Assange. You get Trump for caring more about Jim Sullivan than that there is nothing salvageable to the social structure. Nothing. NOTHING.
Sorry if that came across as personal. I have no idea who you are and can only speak for myself. I am done with the medium and will never accept it at face value ever again. I am suspicious of anyone who is pro or con with politics and medium yet ultimately still accepting it. I suppose that makes me an anarchist as I age. I believe in extra-parliamentary activities. Unfortunately there is something called cointelpro, so that will need to end. But it never does. It never did.
Social reality needs a complete overhaul. Harry Belafonte said there might be nothing salvageable to the Democratic Party. That was well before Trump's presidency. It was on a panel including H. and Obama. The DNC represents neoliberalism with the GOP as neoconservatives. Both sides serve the rich and mayhem. I don't care about Schumer and Pelosi (new water cooler nonsense?) or anything else the medium has to offer.
Nothing personal taken. I enjoyed your rant very much. Excellent writing in these comments. Bitterly compelling like the best music and yet friendly somehow. It is a pleasurable combination when artfully balanced even in your most acidic moments. And I mean that in the best possible way. Nothing wrong with a little acid in the moment.
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