DENNIS LAMBERT – Bags & Things – (Probe) – 1972

I hate records where the track listing on the back doesn’t match the running order.

I had no knowledge about Lambert and maybe you don’t either, unless you are a Filipino. The guy is a bona fide pop superstar in the Philippines where this album was a best seller.

Though surprising, “foreign success” is not that unusual. Rodriguez has a substantial following in Australia and South Africa whilst he is unknown in the US. Likewise John Cougar had hits in Australia his pre Mellencamp days. Sometimes a artist just lucks out with a country.

Lambert had always been involved in music. From Allmusic: Songwriter and producer Dennis Lambert enjoyed a successful run working for the ABC-Dunhill label during the ’70s, where he and partner Brian Potter helmed hit records for the Four Tops, Dusty Springfield, and Glen Campbell, among others. Lambert began his career as something of a folkie, forming a poppy folk-rock duo with fellow singer/guitarist Craig Nuttycombe in Los Angeles in 1968. The first Lambert & Nuttycombe album, At Home, was released on A&M in 1970, and actually was recorded in the duo’s Sausalito, CA, living room. In the meantime, Lambert had formed a songwriting partnership with Brian Potter, with whom he signed a publishing deal with ABC-Dunhill in 1969. Lambert cut a solo album, Bags and Things, in 1972, and returned for a second and final Lambert & Nuttycombe album, As You Will, in 1973.

Given his background, I would like to think that this is a great, long lost singer songwriter album.

It’s not.

This is pure MOR pop. But it is superior MOR pop, if there is such a thing.

Everything is lush, controlled and clean. The songs, though, have hooks and in their own way almost create a mood of romantic dislocation. Who knows, if Lambchop were more MOR and less indie (and were recording in the 70s) they may sound something like this.

I’d probably go and see Lambert is he was playing in the pub down the road.

The album was produced by the great Steve Barri with strings by Jimmie Haskell. All the songs were written by Lambert and Potter. Most of the songs on the LP were eventually covered by other artists: "Ashes to Ashes" (Fifth Dimension), "Somebody Found Her" (Adrissi Brothers), "Of All The Things" (Dusty Springfield), "I Didn’t Sing (In The New York Subway)" (Blue Swede), "Dream On" (Righteous Brothers, Oak Ridge Boys (#1 Country)). So, clearly, the album was a critical success if not a commercial one.

Tracks (best in italics)

• Bags & Things   – a big romantic ballad. Dramatic, with typically silly lyrics, and with any number of visual metaphors.
• Ashes to Ashes   – a slightly jazzy (though MOR pop) lament about the passing of time through pop cultural references ….
• Of All the Things   – a big schmaltzy romantic ballad ….with typically syrupy lyrics …

Of all the things I’ve ever done

Finding you will prove to be

The most important one

I would never trade the tears

The conversations no one hears

The learning how to walk

Before we run

…

So in this world of odds and ends

I’d rather have a part of you

Than all of my so-called friends

You have taught me how to feel

What is false and what is real

Of all the things I ever want to do

I think I’ll start and end with loving you

• Somebody Found Her (Before I Lost Her)   – schmaltz
• I Didn’t Sing (In the New York Subway)   – not to bad … there’s a little (late era) Blood Sweat & Tears in the sound. And that’s not a bad thing, and a welcome reprieve from the MOR ballads.
• Cross My Mind   – big ballad schmaltz
• Something to Remember You By   – schmaltz
• So Little Time   – schmaltz …this makes Andy Williams look edgy ….
• Rock & Roll Mood   – why are most songs that reference rock & roll in their titles, in themselves, not “rock & roll” songs?
• Dream On   – another big mid tempo ballad ….catchy schmaltz.

And …

Hmm …. It’s not awful but it’s not for me (and I like a lot of schmaltz). Tape some and sell.

Chart Action

US

England

—

Sounds

Bags & Things  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-OQqhgJcnE

Ashes to Ashes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pixZKagsuQU&feature=related

Of All the Things   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFqSJSSlsN4&feature=related

live

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnSGnWab17I

Somebody Found Her (Before I Lost Her) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rxkf_n_uJ3w

I Didn’t Sing (In the New York Subway)   

Attached

Dennis Lambert – I Didn’t Sing (in the New York subway)

So Little Time   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZVlCB-v4TQ

Dream On  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv2YN45b2TY

Others

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zysF8uMxzNo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwJdhajmJ8U

http://artiewayne.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/the-dennis-lambert-video-jukebox/

Review

—

Bio

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dennis-lambert-p96153/biography

http://www.bignoisenow.com/dennislambert.html

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/20740

Website

http://www.bignoisenow.com/dennislambert.html

Documentary

http://www.ofallthethingsmovie.com/

Trivia

• Lambert is big in the Phillipines …after retireing from music and selling real estate in Flordia a Phillipino promoter convinced him to tour – a documentary was made: “Today, he’s a 60-year-old family man selling real estate in Florida. But it turns out his obscure 1972 solo album is huge – in the Philippines. A Filipino concert promoter has been begging Dennis to tour for decades, and in 2007 (35 years after the release of his album) he finally agreed. "Of All The Things" is a hilarious and touching pop/rock/country/R&B documentary that follows Dennis on his whirlwind tour as he rediscovers his passion for music – a two-week adventure that takes him from the comforts of Boca Raton, through the remote outer islands of the Philippines, to a sold-out show at Manila’s famous Araneta Coliseum for thousands of fans he never knew he had. Some lives deserve an encore.”  http://www.bignoisenow.com/dennislambert.html

• Dennis Lambert co-wrote and/or co-produced the following hit songs:
  • – ‘Ain’t No Woman (Like The One I’ve Got)’ — The Four Tops   (ABC/Dunhill)
  • – ‘Are You Man Enough’ — The Four Tops (ABC/Dunhill)
  • – ‘Baby Come Back’ — Player (RSO)
  • – ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ — Glen Campbell (Capitol)
  • – ‘One Tin Soldier’ — Coven (WB)
  • – ‘It Only Takes A Minute’ — Tavares (Capitol)
  • – ‘Nightshift’ — Commodores (Motown)
  • – ‘Don’t Pull Your Love’ — Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds   (ABC/Dunhill)
  • – ‘We Built This City’ — Starship (Grunt/RCA)
  • – ‘Keeper of the Castle’ — The Four Tops (ABC/Dunhill)
  • – ‘Country Boy (You Got Your Feet In L.A.)’ — Glen Campbell   (Capitol)
  • – ‘Don’t Look Any Further’ — Dennis Edwards & Siedah Garrett   (Motown)
  • – ‘Do The Freddie’ — Freddie & the Dreamers (Mercury)
  • – ‘Remember What I Told You to Forget’ — Tavares (Capitol)
  • – ‘Dream On’ — Oak Ridge Boys (RCA)
  • – ‘Give A Little Love’ — Ziggy Marley (EMI)
  • – ‘Hit ‘Em Up’ — 2Pac (Deathrow/Interscope)
  • – ‘One Chain (Don’t Make No Prison)’ — The Four Tops  (ABC/Dunhill)
  • – ‘She’s Gone’ — Tavares (Capitol)
  • – ‘Two Divided By Love’ — Grassroots (ABC/Dunhill)
  • – ‘Pink Cadillac’ — Natalie Cole (EMI)

• Steve Carell as Dennis Lambert in the Philippines?

http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/05/27/steve-carell-in-talks-to-play-pop-songwriter-dennis-lambert/

http://www.slashfilm.com/steve-carell-may-play-we-built-this-city-songwriter-dennis-lambert/