Artist: Jameson
This 1967 release by Bobby Jameson is a thing of beauty. I first discovered it at Daybreak Records a little over a week ago, but their copy was pretty scratched up and was selling for $20. I loved what I could hear through the snaps, crackles and pops, and knew if I bought that LP, I'd only wish I had a better copy...so instead I got a better copy. I paid just a little more than what it was going for at Daybreak.
Bobby Jameson evidently has quite a following, stemming primarily from his psych-rock "Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest" LP, released under the name Chris Lucey in 1965. Good copies of that one are going for hundred$ on Discogs. Also, Ariel Pink released an album a couple of years ago that was dedicated to Jameson. This incredibly talented fellow had mostly a strange and unfortunate time in the business of music. He was first promoted as "the next big pop sensation" in the early 1960s, but when that failed to pan out, he became a fixture in the LA underground music scene, working with Frank Zappa and others. It was during this period that he released "Color Him In" on the Verve label. Verve wouldn't release any more of Jameson's recordings for some reason, so he left the label and ultimately made only one other album, on a smaller label, in 1969.
The '70s were reportedly spent by Jameson mostly in a haze of drugs and alcohol, in and out of institutions and homelessness, with multiple overdoses, arrests, and suicide attempts. By the end of the decade many people believed Jameson was dead. He suddenly resurfaced in 2007 though, via YouTube, in an effort to tell his story and reclaim some credit as the man behind the music so many had since discovered and had come to love. Bobby Jameson died four years ago, in May of 2015. You can read more details on Wikipedia here.
I was delighted that my not-scratchy copy of "Color Him In" was coming to me from Bay Sound in Daphne, Alabama! It's one of the shops I stopped at on my Southern Road Trip of 2014 through Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. I found lots of great records at Bay Sound, so was thrilled to now find yet another!
Bobby Jameson evidently has quite a following, stemming primarily from his psych-rock "Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest" LP, released under the name Chris Lucey in 1965. Good copies of that one are going for hundred$ on Discogs. Also, Ariel Pink released an album a couple of years ago that was dedicated to Jameson. This incredibly talented fellow had mostly a strange and unfortunate time in the business of music. He was first promoted as "the next big pop sensation" in the early 1960s, but when that failed to pan out, he became a fixture in the LA underground music scene, working with Frank Zappa and others. It was during this period that he released "Color Him In" on the Verve label. Verve wouldn't release any more of Jameson's recordings for some reason, so he left the label and ultimately made only one other album, on a smaller label, in 1969.
The '70s were reportedly spent by Jameson mostly in a haze of drugs and alcohol, in and out of institutions and homelessness, with multiple overdoses, arrests, and suicide attempts. By the end of the decade many people believed Jameson was dead. He suddenly resurfaced in 2007 though, via YouTube, in an effort to tell his story and reclaim some credit as the man behind the music so many had since discovered and had come to love. Bobby Jameson died four years ago, in May of 2015. You can read more details on Wikipedia here.
I was delighted that my not-scratchy copy of "Color Him In" was coming to me from Bay Sound in Daphne, Alabama! It's one of the shops I stopped at on my Southern Road Trip of 2014 through Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. I found lots of great records at Bay Sound, so was thrilled to now find yet another!
[ Bobby Jameson: April 20, 1945 — May 12, 2015 ]
No comments:
Post a Comment