Read my other entries for specific details on Rachel Sweet.
This is her first album.
And, despite it being on an English label and recorded in England it is the product of the (“next big thing’) Akron, Ohio new wave music boom of the late 1970s.
“The Akron Scene created an international buzz. Music critic Robert Christgau wrote A New Wave Rolls out of Akron for the Village Voice and Melody Maker, the influential English music mag, called Akron "the new Liverpool," a punk spawning ground for a distinctive sound, much as the Beatles' hometown had been a generation earlier. It's a hilariously inappropriate comparison now, looking back, but at the time it signalled the start of a white-hot music scene. By 1978, music talent scouts were flocking to The Bank (a niteclub venue) and signing up every band with promise. In London, music clubs put on Akron Nights and played the distinctive Rubber City Sound for appreciative audiences”. http://www.derfcity.com/thebank/thebank.html
Christgau went over the top and got it wrong (as he often does, especially when talking about the “new music” of the youngsters) but there was something punk, new wave and distinctive going on in Akron, as there was in Cleveland (Ohio), Detroit (Michigan) and other places outside of the conventionally assumed punk scene that is New York City.
In the mid-1970s, a group of local bands took over an old rubber workers' hang-out in downtown Akron called The Crypt and created a mix of punk and art rock that came to be known as "the Akron Sound."
The Waitresses, Devo, The Cramps, The Bizarros and others was the result.
By 1978, the Akron scene was attracting scouts from every adventurous record label, but none showed a keener interest than London based Stiff Records. The label was on the cutting edge of English new wave music, signing Elvis Costello, the Damned, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Madness and The Pogues. And, unlike many UK labels, they had international vision, signing The Sports from Australia as well as Dirty Looks and the Plasmatics from New York City. It was Stiff that put out the first single, by Ohio’s Devo, in England.
Cut to …
Rachel Sweet was a 4'10", sixteen year old from Akron's Firestone High playing the clubs. She had teenage jailbait persona and a big voice, both things Stiff exploited (or accentuated). Her music wasn’t strictly New Wave but it was off-kilter pop with all the retro influences that put her off side with contemporary music and on side with the New Wave: rockabilly, 60s rock n pop, old country, rock ‘n’ roll.
Stiff placed her with another Akron musician, Liam Sternberg, who was coordinating Stiff's planned Akron LP compilation.
He wrote the songs in her style and co-produced the album with American James Stroud and Australian producer David Mackay (he produced the Australian band The Twilights)
All the producers were specifically sympathetic to Rachel Sweet’s sound and, perhaps, some influence on it.
Liam Sternberg specifically was in tune with ballsy female pop and went on to work with and produce Jane Aire and the Belvederes (from Akron), Kirsty MacColl, and Fuzzbox as well as writing the Bangles hit "Walk like an Egyptian".
And Rachel was a ballsy singer who could be quite sweet as well … like a cross between Chrissie Hynde (another Akron native) and Connie Francis.
She always favoured country-ish and old school rock type songs and these suite here better that the more consciously obvious new wave songs but she gives all the songs her best.
There are a few styles attempted but Rachel's musical personality is quite forceful and keeps them from being schizophrenic.
Though this is pure punky attitude New Wave it has a definite slant towards the 60s with covers of Dusty Springfield and Carla Thomas but with a touch of country (especially notablke on Elvis Costello's "Stranger In The House" ).
The songs aren’t "punky" ragged,. They are finely crafted but with emphasis on “organic” sounds as if the album was recorded in the 50s or 60s (the 80s would ruin that).
The album featured a whose of up and coming British new wavers including some backing vocals by Lene Lovich, Mickey Gallagher of Ian Dury and the Blockheads on piano, Brinsley Schwarz on rhythm guitar on "B-A-B-Y" and "Stranger in the House", Norman Watt-Roy of Ian Dury and the Blockheads on bass and John "Irish" Earle, the Irishman who played with everyone including Graham Parker, Thin Lizzy, Boomtown Rats, and Ian Dury's first band Kilburn and the High Roads on baritone saxophone.
She deserved to be a lot better known and is more interesting than most of the new wave and pop singers of the time.
All tracks composed by Liam Sternberg; except where indicated.
Tracks (best in italics)
Side One
- Just My Style – a restrained opener for the start of a career though it is a nice mix of 60s and new wave quirkiness and quite strident a la later Cher. It's a grower.
- B-A-B-Y – (Isaac Hayes, David Porter) – First recorded in 1966 by Carla Thomas (#14 on the US pop chart and #3 on the R&B chart in the US). Co-written by black southern soul dude of “Shaft” fame, Isaac Hayes. Phil Spector pop well done. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-A-B-Y
- Who Does Lisa Like? – a new wave power pop type ditty. Fun, with references to growing up in Akron.
- Wildwood Saloon – a slow burn truck stop country song with a hard edge
- Stay Awhile – (Michael Hawker, Ivor Raymonde) – First release by Dusty Springfield in 1964 (#13UK, #27Australia, #38US) . Well done 60s pop cover.
- Suspended Animation – oddball novelty-ish dittiy.
Side Two
- It's So Different Here – folky world music meets pop. Weird but quite endearing.
- Cuckoo Clock – another oddball song though with a bit of punch.
- Pin a Medal on Mary – (Will Birch, John Wicks) – The writers were from English power pop group "The Records". They were hired to back Rachel on the "Be Stiff Tour '78"new wave. This is good English styled power pop with a little quirkiness.
- Girl With a Synthesizer – a country homage or send up. I say the former because Sweet loves country music. It certainly is unusual given the a country hoe down sound and the (unsympathetic) subject matter.
- Stranger in the House – (Elvis Costello) – A Costello single from 1978. Rachel may be too young to be convincing but she captures the country feel beautifully.
And …
Stylistically, a little all over the shop but Rachel's voice is a delight … I'm keeping it.
Chart Action
US
Singles
—
Album
1979 #97
England
Singles
1978 B-A-B-Y #35
Album
—
Australia
1978 B-A-B-Y #47
Sounds
B-A-B-Y
video clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7esRx-zF2tA
live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWBMQ0zL3PQ
I’m sure Rachel doesn’t know what is going on here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV_htJidivE
mp3 attached
Who Does Lisa Like?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AizpMQx3L4I
Wildwood Saloon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6oJob9aKYs
Stay Awhile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNz6UUHTYsI
Suspended Animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcQdTp1MjM4
It's So Different Here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh1J3mfimBc
Cuckoo Clock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzzPfwuTuyQ
Pin a Medal on Mary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA92UToFaos
Stranger in the House
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpkyoav4WM8
Others
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvg47M0HObI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovs4B-ETXlg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5Ad8Nxq1Tg
Review
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool_Around
Bio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Sweet
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/rachel-sweet-mn0000861372/biography
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/ohio-78.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liam_Sternberg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stroud
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mackay_(producer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXTTHMsERsg
Website
https://www.facebook.com/Rachel-Sweet-119557243757/
https://www.facebook.com/RachelSweetSpot/
http://www.bobbyshred.com/rachelsweet.html
http://rachelsweetspot.tumblr.com
Trivia
- Produced by Liam Sternberg apart from David Mackay and Barrie Guard on Tracks 2 and 7.
- The American version of the LP the American version replaced "Girl With a Synthesizer" with Sad Song by Ken Middler and Peter Mason (and also recorded by American Ellen Foley for her "Night Out" album from 1979)
- Stiff Records “fascination with Akron culminated with The Akron Compilation, printed in blue vinyl with a scratch-and-sniff cover that was supposed to smell like Akron's rubber-saturated air (but in reality smelled more like a wet sock). The Akron Comp, released in 1980, featured a dozen local acts, and represented, for many of these, their only nationally-distributed output. The Akron Comp tanked everywhere but in Akron and Stiff moved on, its interest in the Rubber City spent’. http://www.derfcity.com/thebank/thebank.html
