Fame At Last: Georgie Fame

GEORGIE FAME (AND THE BLUE FLAMES)-"Fame At Last E.P.":Get On The Right Track Baby/Point Of No Return/I Love The Life I Live/Gimme That Wine U.K. Columbia SEG 8393 1965

Georgie Fame is one of my favorite 60's British artists ranking right up there with The Small Faces, The Kinks and Bowie's '65-'67 output.  And like The Small Faces and The Kinks you can find a variety of picture sleeve 45's and E.P.'s by him out there.  Fame released 6 E.P.s in the U.K. for the Columbia label, this was his fourth, released hot on the heels of his U.K. #1 "Yeh Yeh".  Oddly all four tracks on the E.P. had previously seen issue on his 2nd U.K. LP "Fame At Last" (Columbia 33SX 1638), which coincidentally featured the same cover shot as today's E.P. subject!  The Blue Flames line up at this time was considered by many to be their "classic" line up composing of Mick Eve (tenor sax), Johnny Marshall (baritone sax), Tex Makins (bass), Speedy Acquaye (congas) and Red Reece (drums). My copy, as scanned above was autographed by the man himself at a gig during a week long residency at the Blue Note in New York City, he made it a point to tell me that if you looked closely at the photograph on the LP you'd notice his fingernails were dirty!

Fame's treatment of  Ray Charles "Get On The Right Track, Baby" is well known and he adds his own bit of jazziness to the number but keeps it pretty faithful to Brother Ray's with the exception of a slight increase in the tempo (and sweetened by Speedy's congas and some nice sax work, a trademark of the '64 era Blue Flames). Gene McDaniel's "Point Of No Return" is no carbon copy either. Fame and Co. take the sharp punctuations of the original and turn into into a more swinging number by adding some tasty Hammond/sax action from the get go. In fact it ranks as one of my fave tracks by the band from this era, fattened up by a very smooth sax solo by Johnny Marshall and Speedy's incessantly pleasant conga drums. Mose Allison's "I Love the Life I Live" is next up, it is pretty faithful to the original but with Georgie replacing the stride piano with some tasty Hammond and his own laid back vocal mix style.  The always hysterical "Gimme That Wine" originally cut by Lambert Hendricks and Ross, closes the E.P.  Fame pulls out all the stops in cheekiness whilst sticking to the originals arrangement but adding some twists of his own c/o his trademark groovy "Hammond n' horns".

You can find "Get On The Right Track Baby" and "Point Of No Return" on two essential Fame CD's (both still in print) the famous "20 Beat Classics" and more recent "The Mod Classics '64-'68". "I Love The Live I Live" can be found on "20 Beat Classics" and the budget compilation "The Very Best of.." CD.  All of the tracks are also available on the essential Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames 5 CD box set "The Whole World's Shaking".

Hear "Get On The Right Track Baby":

http://youtu.be/6tXgiGw2FDY

Hear "The Point Of No Return":

https://youtu.be/F_xMmdVMUm0

Hear "Gimme That Wine":

https://youtu.be/eqYNTToDp-I

"Anorak Thing" wishes to thank Nick Rossi for his informational assistance in the composing of today's post.

Down at the Flamingo.....

GEORGIE FAME & THE BLUE FLAMES-"Rhythm & Blues" Night Train/Parchman Farm/Work Song/ Baby Please Don't Go U.K. Columbia SEG 8382 1964

Live records in the 60's by British artists are sometimes patchy affairs but none conveys the feeling of an intimate setting like Georgie Fame's debut LP recorded live at London's mod/jazz Mecca The Flamingo. No one else in the world is better associated with this famous London r&b night spot than Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames, so it should only seem fitting that Fame's debut 1964 LP should be recorded live at the club ("Rhythm & Blues at the Flamingo" Columbia 33SX 1599).  This was his second U.K. E.P. (his first was discussed over here:

http://anorakthing.blogspot.com/2009/02/more-uk-60s-ska-r-sounds.html

The E.P. titled "Rhythm & Blues", was released in November 1964, exactly two months before his "Yeh Yeh" single took him to the  #1 slot in the U.K. for several weeks. It contained four tracks from the LP recorded one sweaty night live onstage to an appreciative, lively crowd.

Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames 1964

The Flamingo audience was a curious mix of Soho figures, U.S. servicemen (they can be heard shouting in between tracks on the album), West Indians, mods and seedy underworld types.  The U.S. servicemen were allegedly eventually banned from the club by the U.S. military after a stabbing occurred on the premises. One of my favorite blogs discusses the incident here, but this was BEFORE the recording of the LP/EP so who knows:

http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/2009/06/the-flamingo-club-in-wardour-street-and-the-fight-between-johnny-edgecombe-and-lucky-gordon/

The E.P. opens with James Brown's "Night Train" (also the LP's opener) from the moment they're introduced and the band kick in you can almost feel the electricity just listening to the track as the band's horn section and Fame's Hammond put the number through the paces (and accented by Speedy Acquaye's conga drums).  It's followed by a reading of Mose Allison's "Parchman Farm" (punctuated with some excited shouts by Georgie's gang of U.S. fans present for the recording).  No one in the U.K. did Allison's work as well as Georgie Fame in my estimation and this track nails it.

Side Two opens with an interpretation of Oscar Brown Jr's reading of Nat Adderley's "Work Song" with full enthusiasm.  Mose Allison's "Baby Please Don't Go" closes the E.P. (it closed the L.P. as well) in all it's rawness and once again showcases Fame's adept skill at interpreting Allison's work masterfully adapting it with Hammond and horns. All four tracks are well executed, but sadly the recording quality sounds a bit muffled (not nearly as crisp as The Big Three's live E.P. from the Cavern a year earlier) with certain instruments sometimes being hard to hear as if the mics were far away from the stage, regardless it's a priceless piece of British r&B history that perfectly, no doubt, encapsulated a brilliant moment.

Georgie outside the Flamingo with his yoga mat.

The LP has never been officially released on CD but tracks from it appear on a host of Georgie Fame CD's in the U.K. "Parchman Farm" and "Work Song" were compiled on the essential Big Beat G.F. CD "Mod Classics 1964-1968"  whilst "Night Train" and "Baby Please Don't Go" appear of the CD "The Very Best Of..."

Hear "Night Train":

http://youtu.be/EnR8n5Nw0pw

Hear "Parchman Farm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa0D2tYZwhE&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLBA8F6D21B1B688A5

Hear "Baby Please Don't Go":

http://youtu.be/HoWkQfb0ZAQ

Getaway with Georgie Fame

GEORGIE FAME- Getaway E.P.: Getaway/See Saw/ Ride Your Pony/Sitting In The Park U.K. Columbia SEG 8518 1966

December 1966's "Getaway" E.P. was an odd move for Columbia as it coupled Georgie's June 1966 U.K. #1 "Getaway" with his very last single for the label, his version of Billy Stewart's "Sitting In The Park" (also released in December 1966 as Columbia DB 8096).  It was possibly also because he had already defected to CBS, broke up the Blue Flames and was about to ditch the band's mix of jazz, blues, soul, r&b and ska for a more straight forward approach that featured mostly jazz sandwiched in between ballads and the dreadful "all round entertainer" moniker.

"Getaway" was a jaunty number, originally written for a gasoline commercial (or so the story goes, though no one has come forth with the jingle, which would be amusing to hear). It was Georgie's first airing of an original composition of his, something of a rarity among his recorded 60's works.  Subsequent TV appearances to promote usually saw Georgie step from behind the Hammond to strum a guitar to promote it (see below). "See Saw", a Don Covay cover, utilizes the usual flair and panache associated with 1966 Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames (who were dissolved by the time this E.P. was released)of a solid and strong  horn section with some typical groovy Hammond work from Georgie.  "Ride Your Pony" follows the same template, though certainly not the band's best soul cover it is saved by the their "Hammond n' horns".  Rather than attempt a carbon copy of Billy Stewart's brilliant soul ballad "Sitting In The Park" Fame chose to rework it a bit starting with a lovely horn intro by trumpeter and long time Blue Flames side man Eddie "Tan Tan" Thorton.  And of course as usual the instrumentation is stellar and Fame instead of choosing to emulate Stewart's falsetto chooses his own tone for the lead vocals.

Promoting "Getaway" on the telly

"See Saw" was recently featured on the excellent Georgie Fame CD compilation "The Mod Years 1964-1966". "Getaway" and "Sitting In the Park" can be found on a budget CD compilation "The Very Best of Georgie Fame" as well as the starting point for many of us back in the day "20 Beat Classics" (which is still thankfully in print!)and also includes "Ride Your Pony".



Hear "Sitting in The Park":

http://youtu.be/eQBAwSrpZqE

Hear "Ride Your Pony":

http://youtu.be/Nt9_SfsghgY