Songs for a Tailor is the 1969 debut solo album by the Scottish musician, composer and singer Jack Bruce, who was already famous at the time of its release for his work with the supergroup Cream. Originally released on the Polydor label in Europe and on Atco Records in the U.S., Songs for a Tailor was the second solo album that Bruce recorded, though he did not release the first, Things We Like, for another year.
The album, which was titled in tribute to Cream's recently deceased clothing designer, displayed more of the musician's diverse influences than his compositions for Cream, though it did not chart as highly as his work with that band. Nevertheless, it was successful, reaching No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 55 on the Billboard "Pop Albums" chart.
While it has not been universally critically well-received, with a negative review by Rolling Stone on its first release, it is considered by many writers to be among Bruce's best albums. The literary lyrics by poet and songwriter Pete Brown have been particularly divisive, with one critic singling them out for praise while others have been more generally critical. Songs on the album include "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune" and "Theme for an Imaginary Western", which was covered famously by Mountain, and is featured in 2006's 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them. Songs for a Tailor was voted number 955 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000).[1]
Background
After performing with various blues bands in his youth, Bruce rose to prominence in the rock world as a member of influential rock band Cream.[2][3] After the group disbanded in 1969, Bruce began releasing solo material. Songs for a Tailor, released in September 1969, was Bruce's debut solo release, but chronologically his second solo album; Things We Like, his first solo recording, was released a year later.[4]
The album was titled in tribute to Jeannie Franklyn ("Genie the Tailor"), a clothing designer who designed wardrobes for Cream and was also the girlfriend of Fairport Convention guitarist Richard Thompson[5] (and, according to Bruce's 2010 biography Composing Himself, an ex-lover of Bruce). In 1969, Franklyn wrote Bruce a letter requesting that he "[s]ing some high notes for me," a letter that reached him on 14 May 1969, two days after she was killed in a motor vehicle accident in Fairport Convention's touring van.[5] Bruce received the letter on his 26th birthday.[6]
A blues and jazz musician by background who had studied Bach and Scottish folk music as a child, Bruce produced a debut effort that was musically diverse.[2][7][8]Songs for a Tailor was described in Music Week on its 2003 reissue as "an impressive effort defying musical categorisation".[9] Two of the songs—"Weird of Hermiston" and "The Clearout"—had originally been penned for possible inclusion on the 1967 Cream album Disraeli Gears,[10] but were deemed too uncommercial by Cream's U.S. label Atlantic/Atco Records for release on that record. Bruce's dissatisfaction at this is noted in the liner notes for Cream's box set Those Were the Days: "I played them for Ahmet (Atlantic executive Ahmet Ertegun), Tommy (producer/engineer Tom Dowd), and whoever else was around... they thought it was rubbish, just psychedelic hogwash." Demo versions of the two songs, recorded by Cream in early 1967, are included on Those Were the Days. However, the album was not simply a continuation of Bruce's material for Cream, but displayed more of the musician's diversity.[11]
Pete Brown's lyrics for "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune" were inspired by a story told to him by Chris Spedding, who was the guitarist for Brown's band Pete Brown and his Battered Ornaments, and coincidentally played on most of the songs on Songs for a Tailor but not on "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune". Spedding's mother was a singer, and at one of her shows he complained that one of the string players was out of tune, which made his mother very upset.[12]
Recording
A majority of tracks on the album were centered around the trio of Jack Bruce, guitarist Chris Spedding, and drummer Jon Hiseman. According to Spedding, he and Hiseman were not provided with arrangements or direction on how to play; Bruce simply played them the piano part for each song and expected them to provide whatever accompaniment felt right without knowing what the vocals or other instrumental parts of the song were like.[13] By contrast, the horn players on "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune", "The Ministry of Bag", and "Boston Ball Game 1967" were given detailed charts with arrangements written by Bruce himself, who cited the works of Otis Redding as an influence on the horn parts.[14]
Despite his major role in the songwriting for the album, Pete Brown reportedly never appeared in the studio during the recording sessions.[15]
The album was generally successful, reaching No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 55 on the Billboard "Pop Albums" chart.[19][20] It did not reach the sales levels of Bruce's work with Cream,[7] the later albums of which consistently broke the top 10 of the Billboard "Pop Albums" charts before their dissolution,[21] but, as of 2002, it was the most successful album of his solo career.[22] Largely acclaimed,[7] particularly in the UK,[23] the album proved influential, described in 2001 by BBC as a "seminal" work.[24] However, reviews were not universally positive, with critical opinion particularly divided on the album's lyrics, penned by long-term Bruce collaborator Pete Brown.
Ed Leimbacher, reviewing the album in 1969 for Rolling Stone, called Songs for a Tailor a "disappointment", panning it overall as "a patchwork affair lacking in any unifying thread, a baggy misfit made up of a shopworn miscellany of jazz riffs, rock underpinnings, chamber music strings, boringly baroque lyrics and a Bruce bass that [leaves]... everything distinctly bottom heavy."[25] However, later writings in the same magazine characterized it very differently. In 1971, Loyd Grossman termed it "[a] stunning recording with more than an ample amount of beautiful songs and excellent singing and playing".[4] In 1975, he opined that "Bruce's first album, Songs for a Tailor, was so outstanding that his other albums almost always suffer by comparison."[26] In 1989, Rolling Stone writer David Fricke, though noting that Bruce could "flirt with self-indulgence in the pursuit of the unconventional", described the artist's solo output as "highly underrated".[27] In its review, AllMusic summarizes the album as "picture perfect in construction, performance, and presentation."[11]
Lyrics
Pete Brown's lyrics have been particularly divisive. Brown, a successful poet in the early 1960s,[28] had been collaborating with Bruce for some time, writing lyrics for such Cream hits as "White Room" and "Sunshine of Your Love". The lyrics he wrote for Songs for a Tailor are typically poetic and heavily inspired by literary themes, with the Shakespearean "He the Richmond" and the horror-infused "Weird of Hermiston".[25]
The first Rolling Stone review judged the lyrics as unsuccessful, dismissing them as "silly" and primarily burdened by an overabundance of literary references.[25] 2006's 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories and Secrets Behind Them also disparaged the lyricist, stating that his "pretentious lyrics fail to connect", an inaccessibility that the book suggests combined with the lack of "instrumental fireworks" to prevent the album from reaching better commercial success.[5] "The musicianship," that work says, particularly referencing "Bruce's soulful vocals", "remains timeless."[5] But in later review of Bruce's work, Fricke regarded the songwriting more highly, questioning whether "anybody, beside Bruce and Brown, write songs like that anymore" and suggesting the cd version of the Bruce compilation Willpower specifically so that the lyrics could be read.[27]
Notable songs
"Theme for an Imaginary Western," which Allmusic describes as "Bruce's greatest hit that never charted,"[11] is perhaps the album's best-known song. According to Allmusic, "Theme" has a "fresh, rootsy sound" reminiscent of The Band's Music from Big Pink, derived from the combination of "Bruce's overdubbed piano and organ parts" and "the country-tinged lope of the rhythm section".[29]1001 Songs profiles the number, describing it as an "elegant, masterfully-constructed piece of jazz-rock", though it suggests that Brown's lyrics for the song are "opaque at best".[5] Lyricist Pete Brown later explained that the song was about the members of Bruce's famously wild pre-Cream band, The Graham Bond Organisation: "I saw them as a bunch of cowboys and pioneers. I was always amazed at the camaraderie between the early groups, but ever now and then you'd get explosive situations between them, just like in the Westerns."[30] Leimbacher, though generally dismissive of the lyrics, found an exception for this song and "To Isengard",[25] while The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music finds the song "evocative", indicating that the album contains "[s]ome of" Bruce's "finest lyrics".[31] The song was famously covered by Mountain, whose bassist-singer Felix Pappalardi had previously worked with Bruce as Cream's record producer, and also produced and appeared on Tailor. (One of Mountain's earliest performances of "Theme," at the August 1969 Woodstock Festival, predated the song's release on Songs for a Tailor by several weeks.) Colosseum (whose drummer Jon Hiseman played on Tailor's rendition of the song), and the progressive rock group Greenslade[11] also recorded cover versions.
In 1989 Fricke described "Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune" as a "wacky, brassy" "enigmatic Bruce-Brown [delight]".[27]
Bruce continued to refine and re-record the tracks from Songs for a Tailor throughout his career, both in live and studio albums. Only "To Isengard" has not been revisited.
↑ Harrison's guitar part is deeply buried in the mix, and is uncredited in some versions of the album, including the original Polydor issue. However, secondary sources have confirmed that he did play on the track.
Related Research Articles
Cream were a British rock supergroup formed in London in 1966. The group consisted of bassist Jack Bruce, guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker. Bruce was the primary songwriter and vocalist, although Clapton and Baker contributed to songs. Formed by members of previously successful bands, they are widely considered the first supergroup. Cream were highly regarded for the instrumental proficiency of each of their members.
John Symon Asher Bruce was a Scottish musician. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and bassist of rock band Cream. After the group disbanded in 1968, he pursued a solo career and also played with several bands.
Christopher John Spedding is an English guitarist and record producer. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Spedding is best known for his studio session work. By the early 1970s, he had become one of the most sought-after session guitarists in England. Spedding has played on and produced many albums and singles. He has also been a member of eleven rock bands: the Battered Ornaments, Frank Ricotti Quartet, King Mob, Mike Batt and Friends, Necessaries, Nucleus, Ricky Norton, Sharks, Trigger, and the Wombles. In May 1976, Spedding also produced the first Sex Pistols recordings.
Fresh Cream is the debut studio album by the British rock band Cream, consisting of bassist Jack Bruce, guitarist Eric Clapton and drummer Ginger Baker. The album was released in the UK on 9 December 1966, as the first LP on the Reaction Records label, owned by producer Robert Stigwood. It was released in both mono and stereo versions, at the same time as the release of the single "I Feel Free". The album peaked at No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was released in a slightly different form in January 1967 by Atco Records in the US, also in mono and stereo versions.
Wheels of Fire is the third album by the British rock band Cream. It was released in the US in June 1968 as a two-disc vinyl LP, with one disc recorded in the studio and the other recorded live. It was released in the UK on August 9. It reached number three in the United Kingdom and number one in the United States, Canada and Australia, becoming the world's first platinum-selling double album. In May 2012, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it at number 205 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was voted number 757 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).
Disraeli Gears is the second studio album by the British rock band Cream. It was released on 2 November 1967 and reached No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart., and No. 1 on the Swedish and Finnish charts. The album was also No. 1 for two weeks on the Australian album chart and was listed as the No. 1 album of 1968 by Cash Box in the year-end album chart in the United States. The album features the singles "Strange Brew" and "Sunshine of Your Love", as well as their respective B-sides "Tales of Brave Ulysses" and "SWLABR".
"Sunshine of Your Love" is a 1967 song by the British rock band Cream. With elements of hard rock and psychedelia, it is one of Cream's best known and most popular songs. Cream bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce based it on a distinctive bass riff he developed after attending a Jimi Hendrix concert. Guitarist Eric Clapton and lyricist Pete Brown later contributed to the song and drummer Ginger Baker plays a distinctive tom-tom drum rhythm.
"White Room" is a song by British rock band Cream, composed by bassist Jack Bruce with lyrics by poet Pete Brown. They recorded it for the studio half of the 1968 double album Wheels of Fire. In September, a shorter US single edit was released for AM radio stations, although album-oriented FM radio stations played the full album version. The subsequent UK single release in January 1969 used the full-length album version of the track.
"I Feel Free" is a song first recorded by the British rock band Cream. The lyrics were written by Pete Brown, with the music by Jack Bruce. The song showcases the band's musical diversity, effectively combining blues rock with psychedelic pop.
Peter Ronald Brown was an English performance poet, lyricist, and singer best known for his collaborations with Cream and Jack Bruce. Brown formed the bands Pete Brown & His Battered Ornaments and Pete Brown & Piblokto! and worked with Graham Bond and Phil Ryan. Brown also wrote film scripts and formed a film production company.
Those Were the Days is a retrospective compilation of music recorded by the British rock band Cream, released on 23 September 1997. It comprises four compact discs and includes almost every studio track released during the band's active lifetime, with the exception of the original "Passing The Time" from Wheels of Fire, and all but three tracks from the live material recorded in 1968 and released on Wheels of Fire, Goodbye, and the two Live Cream volumes of 1970 and 1972. The title is taken from the song written by Ginger Baker and Mike Taylor, released on Wheels of Fire in 1968.
Michael Ronald Taylor was a British jazz composer, pianist, and co-songwriter for the band Cream.
"SWLABR" is a song recorded by the British rock band Cream in 1967. It first appeared on the album Disraeli Gears (1967). Later, the song was the B-side to Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" single.
Up From the Skies: The Polydor Years is a 1998 compilation album featuring the music of Ellen McIlwaine during her 1972–1973 recording years with Polydor Records. The first half of the album is made up of her debut solo album Honky Tonk Angel while the second half consists of her second album We the People.
"Wishful Sinful" is a song by American rock band the Doors. Group guitarist Robby Krieger wrote the tune, which was first released in March 1969 as a single, as well as on the band's fourth album, The Soft Parade, later in July. "Wishful Sinful" follows the general theme of the album by incorporating elements of classical music.
Best of Cream is a compilation album of material recorded from 1966 to 1968 by the rock band Cream, and released shortly after their disbanding. The album was originally released by Cream's U.S. label Atco (Atlantic) Records, and was available on that label during the years 1969–1972. The album was briefly reissued in the U.S. in 1977 by RSO/Polydor Records, to whom U.S. distribution rights for Cream's recordings had reverted by that time. A re-release was pressed in 2014 by Polydor on 180g vinyl.
How's Tricks is the fifth studio album by Scottish musician Jack Bruce, released in 1977 through RSO Records. It is credited to "The Jack Bruce Band".
Monkjack is the eleventh studio album by Scottish musician Jack Bruce, released on 10 October 1995 by CMP Records. The album is unique in his catalogue in that he only sings and plays piano, and is joined only by former P-Funk organist Bernie Worrell. It features a re-working of the song "Weird of Hermiston" from his 1969 debut solo album Songs for a Tailor.
"Doing That Scrapyard Thing" is a song from British group Cream's 1969 farewell album, Goodbye. Composed by the band's bassist, Jack Bruce, with lyrics by Pete Brown, the song, alongside Eric Clapton's "Badge" and Ginger Baker's "What a Bringdown," was one of Cream's final studio recordings.
Touch is an album released on Ruf Records in 2001 by Mike Harrison and the Hamburg Blues Band.
↑ Helander, Brock (1982). The Rock Who's who: A Biographical Dictionary and Critical Discography Including Rhythm-and-blues, Soul, Rockabilly, Folk, Country, Easy Listening, Punk, and New Wave. Schirmer Books. p.109. ISBN0-02-871250-1. Despite receiving much praise, particularly in the UK, Songs for a Tailor and Harmony Row were largely overlooked.
↑ Album review, "Jack Bruce: Songs For A Tailor", The Mojo Collection, 4th Edition (Canongate Books, London, 2007), p.177
↑ Larkin, Colin (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Guinness. p.346. ISBN0-85112-939-0. Some of his finest lyrics are to be found on Jack Bruce's solo debut Songs for a Tailor and How's Tricks, the former included the evocative 'Theme for an Imaginary Western'(sic)
↑ Winn, John (2009). That Magic Feeling: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Volume Two, 1966–1970. Three Rivers Press. p.289. ISBN978-0-307-45239-9. The song in question, 'Never Tell Your Mother She's Out of Tune', was a fairly simple slice of British soul. George's accompaniment, largely buried in the mix, was to vamp a series of low-register chords on his guitar, played through a 'fuzz' distortion pedal.
↑ Incorrectly credited as "Henry Lather" on original Atco Records pressings of the album (SD 33-306, released October 1969); corrected on Ampexreel-to-reel tape editions and later LP copies.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
