I'm a Writer, Not a Fighter | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 1973 | |||
Recorded | Early 1973 | |||
Studio | Audio International Studios, London | |||
Genre | Pop, rock | |||
Length | 32:18 | |||
Label | MAM | |||
Producer | Gordon Mills | |||
Gilbert O'Sullivan chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from I'm a Writer, Not a Fighter | ||||
I'm a Writer, Not a Fighter is the third studio album by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan, originally released by MAM Records in September 1973. After becoming one of the most successful performers worldwide in 1972, O'Sullivan pursued new directions with the album, taking influence from rock music and funk and incorporating an array of then-new electric keyboards, as well as emphasizing a new rhythmical focus. The album was recorded "on and off" with producer Gordon Mills at the latter's studio, and although several overdubs were recorded in the United States, O'Sullivan referred to the album as an ultimately "very ad hoc home-based" project.
Released months ahead of the album, "Get Down" was a number one single in the United Kingdom and also reached the top ten in the United States. In the ensuing months, O'Sullivan toured internationally for the first time. The release of the album in September coincided with a new rock-influenced image for the singer. The funk-influenced single "Ooh Baby" failed to make the UK top 10 and marked the start of the singer's decline in popularity, while the album itself reached number 2 on the UK Albums Chart, and although it spent 25 weeks on the chart, this was less than its predecessors. Critics are divided on the album's merits, but the response has been generally favourable over time. The Salvo record label released a remastered version of it in April 2012 as part of the Gilbert O'Sullivan – A Singer & His Songs collection.
Gilbert O'Sullivan became one of 1972's most successful musicians and, for a time, the biggest-selling British-based musician worldwide, [2] owing to the success of his second album Back to Front and internationally successful singles such as "Alone Again (Naturally)" and "Clair". [3] To support the album, O'Sullivan toured the United Kingdom for the first time, beginning in late 1972 and continuing into 1973. It was with these performances that he debuted his college-style sweaters with a "G" symbol. Critics applauded the shows, while female audiences turned O'Sullivan into a heartthrob, a position he felt uninterested in. [4] Many of the songs on I'm a Writer, Not a Fighter were written by O'Sullivan in his Weybridge home. [5] Between tours of the UK, O'Sullivan spent time in Spain, where he installed a piano and wrote further songs for the album. He had avoided touring worldwide until later that year because he felt the busy schedule would have made the album difficult to write, and the Britain-only touring ensured that the trip to Spain was possible. [6]
The recording of I'm a Writer, Not a Fighter departed from O'Sullivan's previous two albums, as instead of recording within several three hour sessions in various studios, O'Sullivan and his manager and producer Gordon Mills recorded the album "on and off" in early 1973 at Mills' recently built studio located beside his home, spending a total of several days in the studio. Mills would play keyboards and add backing vocals to tracks, while a rhythm section was also in place and Johnnie Spence returned to provide string arrangements. [6] Although several overdubs were recorded in the United States, O'Sullivan ultimately referred to the album as "a very ad hoc home-based project," which he felt gave the resulting album a "continuity running through it, unlike perhaps the previous two albums." [6] In August 1973, around the time of the album's completion, O'Sullivan moved house as he felt "too vulnerable." [7]
I'm a Writer, Not a Fighter was influenced by rock music, [5] and updates O'Sullivan's sound by incorporating a selection of electronic keyboards played by himself and Mills, reflecting the emergence of such instruments at the time, although the album also features the singer's signature acoustic piano playing. O'Sullivan explained: "It was the early days of synths and clavinets, these instruments were emerging, much to any keyboard players' pleasure led in no small part by Stevie Wonder, so me and Gordon had some of these and just played around with them." [6] Contemporary keyboard trends reflected on the album include the use of the electric piano and at one point a sound resembling a pipe organ. [8] The album also features more ambitious rhythms, with an emphasis on percussion and incorporation of instruments like the bongoes, maracas and tambourine, [8] while O'Sullivan's singing is more robust than on previous albums, the result of his voice improving over his live performances. [6]
The album breaks with an O'Sullivan tradition by not featuring a short, meta intro song, [6] instead opening with the album's title track, which fuses blues and soul music, [8] and features funk-styled guitar, reflecting the influence of Stevie Wonder. [9] It was the first time since Himself that O’Sullivan recorded a song with a single tracked dry lead vocal (Not counting “The Golden Rule” from Back to Front which was a single tracked vocal with an transistor radio styled effect on it). In the opinion of Tony Stewart, the following song "A Friend of Mine" returns O'Sullivan to the "gossipy writing" of Himself. [8] The song's eccentric narrative plots the singer greeting women and offering them advice and his friendship. [6] "They've Only Themselves to Blame" is one of several ballads on the album, [9] detailing a couple thwarting their young son's attempt to romance, while "Who Knows, Perhaps, Maybe" features a bluesy electric piano and a four on the floor bass drum, [6] again highlighting the album's Stevie Wonder influence. [9] Side one closer "Where the Peaceful Water Flows" is another ballad which alternates between 3
4 and 4
4 time, [6] and features a gospel-style ending. [9]
Similarly to the title track, "Ooh Baby" features a funk-inflected sound, [10] and is defined by a muscular rhythm and diminished chords, [6] while "I Have Never Loved You As Much As I Love You Today" sees the singer assume the position of a serviceman stationed abroad writing home to his partner. [8] "Not in a Million Years" is one of the album's experiments with different rhythms, fusing reggae with rhumba, [8] and has been described as a "left-field musical gem" with harmonic and melodic surprises. [6] "If You Love Me Like You Love Me" is loosely based on the theme of Dusty Springfield's hit "I Only Want to Be with You", [8] while the hit single "Get Down" is built on a chugging pop rock groove and features chiming piano hits during the chorus. [11] O'Sullivan explained the song's lyrics to Paul Gambaccini of Rolling Stone :
"I didn't know what 'get down' means in America, nor 'dog' for that matter, until Gordon came back from the States and told me. My lyrics are very British, and to me the girl in 'Get Down' is behaving like a dog - she's jumping up on him, so 'get down!' That's all. [...] If 'Get Down' really is interpreted as Gordon thought it might, we should sell ten million and put it on the soundtrack of Deep Throat . The whole point of it is to be a good disco record, just a nice rhyme, a simple story. I used to play it was a warm-up on the piano, then I heard the Faces' 'Cindy Incidentally' and that made me think of extending it into a song." [12]
Over half a year before the album's release, "Get Down" was released as a single by MAM Records; in March 1973, it became O'Sullivan's second and final number one hit on the UK Singles Chart, [13] while also reaching number 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100. [14] O'Sullivan's profile was high throughout 1973, aided not just by record sales but also by tours and television appearances. [6] It was also the first year he toured internationally, picking up his concert schedule again in late spring; after touring the UK and Europe in May and the first half of June, he played several shows in Ireland. He fainted at the end of the final show, and rested for a while in Rhodesia, [15] before touring the United States over six weeks, [16] backed by a 22-piece orchestra. [17] He made his New York City debut at the Avery Fisher Hall in early October, where he played some of the songs from the upcoming album to positive audience reception. [18]
"I’m going to present rock music, really tough rock that nobody ever would expect me to. I need some time to get over this pop sensation.."
—Gilbert O'Sullivan, June 1973 [5]
O'Sullivan announced in June that, after the completion of the American tour, he would change his image to coincide with the album's rock influences, reinventing himself to play "really tough rock". He was inspired by Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin and Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, who he felt could "hold a wild show flogging themselves as much as their fans whereas I always had to sit at the piano well-behaved." His stylistic change included wearing "fashionable suits" instead of "coloured sweaters." [5] To launch the promotion of I'm a Writer, Not a Fighter, the label released the single "Ooh Baby", [9] a song which fitted into the "funk-flected" trend of the era that also included T. Rex's "Teenage Dream" (1974) and Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets" (1974). [10] The song alienated O'Sullivan's fan base, [10] and in September, it became the singer's first single to miss the top ten of the UK Singles Chart since his first top ten hit two years earlier, instead peaking at number 18. [19] It also reached number 25 on the US Billboard Hot 100. [14]
I'm a Writer, Not a Fighter was released by MAM Records in September 1973. [5] Although peaking at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart, this was a relative disappointment compared to Back to Front, and by the time the album left the top 10 in February 1974, the singer appeared to have become "a spent force", according to writer Bob Stanley, and his success began to decline. [10] The album ultimately spent 25 weeks on the chart. [20] In the United States, the album peaked at number 101 on the Billboard Top LPs and Tape chart, and spent only ten weeks on the chart, becoming his last charting album. [21] In April 2012, the Union Square Music reissue label Salvo released a remastered version of I'm a Writer, Not a Fighter as part of their Gilbert O'Sullivan – A Singer & His Songs series. This edition features numerous bonus tracks; the album's B-sides "A Very Extraordinary Sort of Girl" and "Good Company", alongside the non-album single "Why, Oh Why, Oh Why" and its B-side "You Don't Have to Tell Me." [6]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [9] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [22] |
In a contemporary review, Tony Stewart of the NME , who did not enjoy Back to Front, felt that I'm a Writer, Not a Fighter re-established O'Sullivan, "in my eyes, as a writer-performer." He panned the two singles, but felt there was "little to criticise" elsewhere, praising the "well expressed" subject matters and lyrical substance, O'Sullivan's "originality in composing" and the instrumentation and arrangement, among other things. He concluded that "O'Sullivan has got back in part, if not wholly to some serious music." [8] The pop reviewer for the Reading Evening Post hailed the album as "another beauty" from O'Sullivan that proved he "goes from strength from strength," hailing the "clever and amusing" lyrics for continuing to bring a "down-to-earth" image to "humdrum, everyday incidents." [23] By contrast, a reviewer for the Buckinghamshire Examiner felt the album was "firmly cast" in the mould of derivative easy listening pop, with "the ever-present syncopated piano and bass-line" failing to distinguish individual songs. However, they praised O'Sulluvan's lyrics, which they felt were defined by "the threading of colloquialisms through a mesh of home-spun philosophy." [24] Bravo described the album as a collection of "hot rock songs." [5]
In a 1974 article on O'Sullivan, The Story of Pop magazine felt that the album was more sophisticated than O'Sullivan's previous albums, plotting him moving "gradually away from the fairly slushy efforts" that had defined Himself in 1971. [25] Sue James of Record Mirror listed it among her favourite albums of 1973. [26] Among retrospective reviews, Sharon Mawer of AllMusic also criticised "Ooh Baby," which she felt lacked "any sort of melody and lyrical ingenuity," and also felt the Stevie Wonder-influenced tracks were poor because "O'Sullivan did not have Wonder's voice, and this type of song really didn't suit him." She did however praise the record's ballads, and wrote that "Get Down" was the best track on the album, before noting "O'Sullivan would never again hit these heights." [9] Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger called "Get Down" a "rumbustious thing," praising the "chiming piano hits on the chorus" though deriding the "dog/girl metaphor which Sullivan doesn’t take anywhere." [11] The song has featured on Sean Rowley's Guilty Pleasures compilation series, which aims to play music that has been considered guilty pleasures over time but which he believes should be guilt-free. [11]
All songs written by Gilbert O'Sullivan.
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Tony Russell "Charles" Brown was an American singer and pianist whose soft-toned, slow-paced nightclub style influenced West Coast blues in the 1940s and 1950s. Between 1949 and 1952, Brown had seven Top 10 hits in the U.S. Billboard R&B chart. His best-selling recordings included "Driftin' Blues" and "Merry Christmas Baby".
William Everett Preston was an American keyboardist, singer and songwriter whose work encompassed R&B, rock, soul, funk, and gospel. Preston was a top session keyboardist in the 1960s, backing Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, the Everly Brothers, Reverend James Cleveland, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He gained attention as a solo artist with hit singles "That's the Way God Planned It", the Grammy-winning "Outa-Space", "Will It Go Round in Circles", "Space Race", "Nothing from Nothing", and "With You I'm Born Again". Additionally, Preston co-wrote "You Are So Beautiful", which became a No. 5 hit for Joe Cocker.
Ooh La La is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Faces, released in March 1973. It reached number one in the UK Albums Chart in the week of 28 April 1973. The album was most recently reissued on CD in a remastered and expanded form on 28 August 2015, including early rehearsal takes of three of its tracks, as part of the 1970–1975: You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything... box set. The box set's vinyl counterpart did not contain any bonus tracks, but it did replicate the original LP artwork and 'animated' cover.
Raymond Edward "Gilbert" O'Sullivan is an Irish singer-songwriter who achieved his most significant success during the early 1970s with hits such as "Alone Again (Naturally)", "Clair" and "Get Down". His songs are often marked by his distinctive, percussive piano playing style and observational lyrics using word play.
Richard Davies is an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as founder, vocalist and keyboardist of the rock band Supertramp. Davies was its only constant member, and composed some of the band's best-known songs, including "Rudy", "Bloody Well Right", "Crime of the Century", "Ain't Nobody But Me", "From Now On", "Gone Hollywood", "Goodbye Stranger", "Just Another Nervous Wreck", "My Kind of Lady", "Cannonball" and "I'm Beggin' You". He is generally noted for his rhythmic blues piano solos and jazz-tinged progressive rock compositions and cynical lyrics.
Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player is the sixth studio album by English musician Elton John. Released on 26 January 1973 by DJM Records, it was the first of two studio albums he released in 1973, and was his second straight No. 1 album in the US and first No. 1 album in the UK.
"Ooo Baby Baby" is a song written by Smokey Robinson and Pete Moore. It was a 1965 hit single by the Miracles for the Tamla (Motown) label.
Shawn Phillips is an American singer-songwriter and musician, primarily influential in the 1960s and 1970s. His work is rooted in folk rock but straddles other genres, including jazz fusion and funk. Phillips has recorded twenty-eight albums and worked with musicians including Donovan, Paul Buckmaster, J. Peter Robinson, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Bernie Taupin, Tim Hardin, Manos Hatzidakis and many others.
"Walking in Memphis" is a song written and originally recorded by American singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, for whom it remains his signature song. It received a Song of the Year nomination at the 34th Annual Grammy Awards in 1992, the same year that the 32-year-old Cohn won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Jesus Was a Capricorn is the fourth album by Kris Kristofferson, released in 1972 on Monument Records. The album cover pictures Kristofferson and his soon-to-be wife Rita Coolidge. "Why Me" reached #1 on the Country singles charts.
"Alone Again (Naturally)" is a song by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan. Recorded in 1971, it became a worldwide hit. The song did not originally appear on his 1972 studio album Back to Front, but has been included in reissues (often replacing "Clair").
The Berry Vest of Gilbert O'Sullivan is a compilation album by the Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan, released in 2004. The songs are composed and performed by Gilbert O'Sullivan.
"Rough Justice" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones that was released as a double A-side single with "Streets of Love" from their 2005 album A Bigger Bang. It is the opening track from the album. The single was released on 22 August 2005, prior to the album.
Back to Front is the second studio album by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan, released in October 1972 by MAM Records. The album follows the success of his 1971 debut album Himself and singles such as "Alone Again (Naturally)". Coinciding with the album, O'Sullivan abandoned his distinctive dress sense, which included a short cap and trousers, and instead presented himself as a more masculine, hairy-chested singer with a perm, wearing sweaters with the letter "G" emblazoned on them, which helped establish him as a sex symbol. O'Sullivan wrote the album's songs at home during night-time writing sessions, and recorded the album with his manager and producer Gordon Mills in London.
"Get Down" is a song by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan, from his 1973 album I'm a Writer, Not a Fighter. Released as a single, it spent two weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart in April 1973, was also a number-one hit in Ireland for three weeks and was a top-ten hit in the United States and Canada. The song was originally used by O'Sullivan as a piano warm-up tune, but was eventually extended into a full song and released as a single; O'Sullivan recorded and released the song as a change from his more melancholy pieces.
Himself is the debut album by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan, released in the United Kingdom by MAM Records in August 1971, following the top 10 success of its single "Nothing Rhymed". O'Sullivan originally intended the album to feature only his voice and piano playing, until his manager and the album's producer Gordon Mills persuaded him to use full instrumentation and arrangements by Johnnie Spence. Mills also aided O'Sullivan with his songwriting, which incorporates an observational style and word play, the usage of the latter being influenced by Spike Milligan.
A Stranger in My Own Back Yard is the fourth studio album by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan, originally released in October 1974 by MAM Records. Peaking at number 9 on the UK Albums Chart, it was O'Sullivan's fourth and, to date, final top ten album, although it received positive reviews from critics. After the funk-inflected I'm a Writer, Not a Fighter, A Stranger in My Own Back Yard marked a return to the style of O'Sullivan's first two albums. The album's only single, "A Woman's Place", was O'Sullivan's first since his breakthrough to miss the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. Union Square Music reissued the album on the Salvo label in 2012 as part of the Gilbert O'Sullivan - A Singer & His Songs collection.
Southpaw is the fifth studio album by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan, originally released in November 1977. This was the first album produced by Gilbert O'Sullivan. Union Square Music re-released it in June 2012 on Salvo label in part of the Gilbert O'Sullivan - A Singer & His Songs collection.
Off Centre is the sixth studio album by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan. It was produced by Gus Dudgeon and originally released in October 1980. Union Square Music re-released it August 2012 on Salvo label in part of the Gilbert O'Sullivan - A Singer & His Songs collection.
Oh Baby, O Baby, Ooh Baby, Ooh Baby Baby, or Ooh Ooh Baby may refer to:
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link){{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)