I probably shouldn’t like Delaney Bramlett as much as I do.
I don’t like white blues much (well, unless it is bastardised or taken on a flying carpet somewhere). The “faithful” stuff, when white, I find a little artificial.
I mean, white men (and women) can have the blues, but that’s what country music is an expression for.
Blues is a Afro-American expression and extension of their suffering, errr their “blues”.
God knows I’m not trying to be woke but straight white blues just doesn’t click with me. I know they are white but their suffering is different. I do concede though that there is a sliding scale of white blues singers.
They may all be white but not all white is the same.
White people can’t express the same blues vocal and lyrical emotion as Afro-Americans..
White people form the north of the US even less.
White people from England is just ridiculous.
White people from non English speaking nations is laughable.
That’s why it is easier to fake blues guitar than it is to fake blues vocals.
And, I think the Afro-American blues is not just an emotion but a time and place.
Even blacks singing the blues who come from other parts of the world and other eras I find a little off putting.
And, how Delaney fits into my narrowly (and perhaps unfairly) defined rules, is. well, he is a bloke from the “south” and grew up with this music in the air.
So his appropriation is only once removed.
Of course, like I said above , if the blues are bastardised or taken somewhere else then fine, because, music is meant to be built on.
Delaney Bramlett doesn’t do that in any great way but he does do that
Accordingly there is some “down home” blues emotion here, but, he, also, knows he is not black.
There are horns, rhythm, beat, groove, and country stylings which takes this music outside the “blues” and makes it (to me) palatable and a delight.
As his T-Shirt on the back sleeve declares, this is “rock n roll” or more accurately this is “roots” rock n roll.
And, like a lot of roots rock ‘n’ roll there is more “rhythm” than “blues”, more joy than despair, more white than black.
And so it works.
He isn’t trying to steal the blues away from the black man, just as Elvis wasn’t, or Jerry lee wasn’t, or Johnny Winter wasn’t, or Captain Beefheart wasn’t, or Jon Spencer wasn’t.
He is, like they are, a kindred soul, a fellow traveller.
This is his second of six solo albums, each playing to smaller, audiences.
Delaney hit his peak with his ex-wife Bonnie in Delaney and Bonnie. Together they hit many highs in blue eyes souls and rhythm.
Check our my other comments for background on Delaney, but …
“Bramlett was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi (1939). He began playing guitar when he was eight years old, but didn’t get serious about playing until he was a teenager. He started singing in school and at twelve he had a quartet. Bramlett joined the United States Navy before he was 17. He was in the Navy for two and half to three years before being discharged… After his stint in the Navy, he moved to Los Angeles, California in the early 1960s, where he worked as a bartender before he started performing in bars. He was performing at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood when he was asked to appear in a pilot for a new television show, Shindig!.By 1965, Bramlett was a regular member of the Shindogs, the house band of the television show Shindig!. He established himself as a singer-songwriter, writing with fellow musicians Joey Cooper, Mac Davis, and Jackie DeShannon. During this time, he worked with J.J. Cale and Leon Russell and released some unsuccessful solo singles. … In the late 1960s, British guitarist Eric Clapton joined Delaney & Bonnie & Friends on tour, after which Bramlett produced and co-wrote songs for Clapton’s debut solo album, Eric Clapton. Clapton has credited Bramlett for pushing him to sing and teaching him the art of rock vocals. Bramlett produced King Curtis’s last album … Bramlett taught George Harrison, who was then with the Beatles, to play slide guitar, which resulted in Harrison‘s hit “My Sweet Lord.” Bramlett wrote, recorded, or appeared on stage with many notable performers, including Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Billy Preston, John Lennon, the Everly Brothers, Spooner Oldham, Steve Cropper and Billy Burnette”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaney_Bramlett
Along the way he met Bonnie Bramlett, and married her (1967) and divorced (1972). He died in 2008.
This album came out the year after his divorce. It’s his second solo album and clearly divorce has had an effect on him. Then again, he is singing the “blues’. Otherwise, Delaney seems to have not missed a musical beat (sic). He is drawing on what he was doing with Delaney & Bonnie (I expect that as an accomplished guitarist, songwriter, and producer he would have been the prime mover) … country blues songs about people, love, life and moral decisions.
And, as for the album title .. perhaps it is a statement on Delaney’s roots … “In mathematics, a Möbius strip, band, or loop also spelled Mobius or Moebius, is a surface with only one side (when embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space) and only one boundary curve. The Möbius strip is the simplest non-orientable surface … An example of a Möbius strip can be created by taking a paper strip, giving one end a half-twist, and then joining the ends to form a loop; its boundary is a simple closed curve which can be traced by single unknotted string. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6bius_strip
This album he co-wrote (largely) with Doug Gilmore, a songwriter (he wrote with Mickey Newbury) and producer (he produced the underrated Lee Dresser) who he had worked with before (they co-wrote a song for the Delaney & Bonnie album “Accept No Substitute” in 1969.
Produced by Delaney Bramlett (naturally enough as he produced most of Delaney & Bonnie) and Doug Gilmore.
Delaney and Doug Gilmore also worked on, in 1973 on the intriguing John Ussery ?album “Ussery” who contributes some guitar here..
All songs written by Written-By – Delaney Bramlett, Doug Gilmore unless otherwise indicated.
Tracks (best in italics)
Side One
- Are You A Beatle Or A Rolling Stone – a hoot of a rock stomper about life on the road. A great track.
- What Am I Doin’ – a funky Muscle Shoals style horn and rhythm dominated song which works up quite a groove.
- A Young Girl – (Randy Sharp) – by country songwriter Sharp – later released by him on his “Just About Love” album from 1976. This is a country weeper (with southern soul stylings).
- Big Ol’ Piece Of Blues – just as the title says and a lot of fun.
- Circles – quite powerful with a rhythm that relects the title …. going in circels.
Side Two
- When A Man Is In Need Of A Woman – similar in mood to the Percy Sledge “When a man Loves a Woman”.
- I’m A M-A-N – screamed vocals competing with horns this is a tour de force in this style …
- B.B.’s Blues – (Billy Burnett, Delaney Bramlett, Doug Gilmore) – co-written by rockabilly legend Billy Burnette (son of Dorsey Burnette, nephew of Johnny Burnette, cousin of Rocky Burnette). “Everybody loves the blues” …. an honest comment or a cynical statement, I’m not sure.
- A Little Bit Of You In Me – with steel guitar by the legendary Red Rhodes this is a country come country rock mid-tempo lament with familiar country music tropes. Great fun.
- California Rain – the South goes to the west coast. California rain (or a request fro some) summed up, emotionally and musically, in Southern terms … horns, big chorus, gospel fervour and a crescendo of emotion. I like it.
And …
A great album in the genre and a lot of fun … I’m keeping it.
Chart Action
Nothing no where
Sounds
Are You A Beatle Or A Rolling Stone
mp3 attached
What Am I Doin’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-36gz0nbOLc
A Young Girl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxehVqvwi9c
Big Ol’ Piece Of Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JayUiULfqjs
Circles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDsy2Z1fThY
When A Man Is In Need Of A Woman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8X6MgxcgBI
I’m A M-A-N
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBwXkDtrEuw
B.B.’s Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnIQ9R6NkUA
A Little Bit Of You In Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYo-qGeTdy4
California Rain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybAePIkFT7k
Others
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2evuKqoAwc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sQ2jLgItkk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AatumCGNAM8
Review
https://bluesmatters.com/delaney-bramlett-some-things-coming-mobius-strip/
Bio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaney_Bramlett
http://badcatrecords.com/BadCat/DELANEYbonnie.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaney_%26_Bonnie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIQTLgyrLuY
Website
—
Trivia
- Personnel:
Arranged By [Horn Arrangements], Trumpet – Daryl Leonard
Arranged By [Track Arrangement] – Delaney Bramlett
Baritone Saxophone [Baritone Sax] – Jim Gordon
Bass – Robert Wilson
Drums – Ron Grayson
Guitar [Guitars], Vocals, Percussion – Delaney Bramlett
Horns [Horn Section] – Daryl Leonard*, Jerry Jumonville, Jim Gordon
Organ – Tim Hedding
Piano – Jim Hobson
Tenor Saxophone [Tenor Sax] – Jerry Jumonville
Trombone – Larry Savoie
- “The tunes where there are other backing vocals feature Venetta Fields and Chris Thomas King and some group called “the Hired Choir,” as well as a “mini-choir” comprising the children of Bramlett, and King (for Fleetwood Mac fanatics, this marks the very first recorded performance of Bekka Bramlett)” https://www.allmusic.com/album/mobius-strip-mw0000847828
- Delaney’s daughter (with Bonnie), Rebecca became a singer, professionally known as Bekka Bramlett. She joined Fleetwood Mac in 1993 after the departure of Stevie Nicks
- As a teen Delaney’s band played on the same bill as Elvis in Mississippi.
RIP: the great Trini Lopez 1937 – 2020
Elvis … 43 years ago today ….
