Itll Take a Miracle. In 1971, the late recording artist Jimmie Spheeris (1949-1984) released his first record album, Isle of View (Columbia Records 30988). Success might be what new musicians hope for; Spheeris record company Columbia Records, however, had their hands full with some major players in the recording industry. At the time, Columbia handled, among others, future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer inductees Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Laura Nyro, Santana and Paul Simon. Reviews of the day pointed to a future of hopes and promises. Isle of View provides a unique emotional exchange between artist and listener, wrote Billboard magazine in their 1972 review. His lyrics, Billboard continued, are quietly mystical and his images intensely personal. The whole album is suffused in an atmosphere of becalming mellowness. In a voice that carresses, Spheeris delivers.[1] More recently, Alex Henderson of All Music wrote, Acoustic-oriented selections like I Am The Mercury and The Nest are superb - when you arent admiring Spheeris for being such an expressive, charismatic vocalist, youre loving his way with words. Spheeris lyrics had a very poetic quality, and the more you listen to these songs, the more you get out of them. Anyone with a taste for introspective singer/songwriters would have a hard time not cherishing Isle of View.[2] For his 2008 book, 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, author Tom Moon scribes, The contemplative Isle of View has much to recommend it - stirring little songs about nature and assorted phantasmagoria like I Am the Mercury, and the gorgeous and unconventional string writing from Becks dad David Campbell (legend has it that Beck, age eleven months, was a regular at these sessions).[3] When Isle Of View arrived at record stores nationwide in late February 1971, Spheeris introspective, poetic and mystic qualities echoed pre-New Age yet didnt necessarily reflect the music of the day - and what buyers would shell money out for. The American record buyers have kept Columbia Records busy juggling their juggernauts including: Chicago (with over 100 million records sold, the rock group lead the U.S. singles chart in the 1970s); Miles Davis (in 2008, the jazz musicians 1959 Kind of Blue album achieved its fourth platinum certification; Davis influenced 1960s rock artists as well as the funky style of Sly and the Family Stone, and he took big pay cuts in performing fees so the Miles Davis group could open for Santana, among others); Bob Dylan (with sales of over 100 million records, some of the pop artists songs became anthems during the radical and war-torn 1960s); Johnny Mathis (the pop musician turned his early career of standard pop singles into record sales that far surpassed 350 million); Laura Nyro (her own records, a fusion of jazz, folk, soul and gospel, were often more of a wealth of material for other artists including: The 5th Dimension; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Peter, Paul & Mary; Three Dog Night; Maynard Ferguson; Barbra Streisand). When 1971 came to a close, record companies and magazines such as Billboard tallied score to see what singles would make it into the Top Rock and Roll Hits for the year, including: #1: Three Dog Nights Joy to the World (from 1969 to the mid-1970s, this Dunhill Records act had over three dozen Top 40 Billboard hits, including three number ones); #2: Rod Stewarts Maggie May (this Mercury Records future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer would go on to sell over 100 million albums worldwide, with over sixty hit singles in the UK and over a dozen hit singles in America); #3: The Osmonds One Bad Apple (in 1971, this MGM recording group scored big with the record-buying public and have gone on to sell in excess of 101 million units); #4: Sly and the Family Stones Family Affair (instrumental in the development of psychedelic, funk and soul music, this future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer pleased CBS Records when their 1971 album Theres a Riot Goin On debuted at the top of the album charts); #5: Tony Orlando and Dawns Knock Three Times; #6: Chers Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves (charting success found Sonny Bono, Cher and MCA Records, their recording company, in February 1971 with Chers self-titled album [#59] and Sonny & Chers full-length album, All I Ever Need Is You [#96]; all-in-all, Cher has sold in excess of 100 million albums while Sonny & Cher scored sales of over 40 million units). Through her partnership with Tuna Fish Music executive David Geffen, recording artist Laura Nyro signed a recording contract with Columbia Records Clive Davis. The sale of Tuna Fish Music to CBS in 1969 made both David and Laura millionaires. Jimmie Spheeris, in fact, once shared an apartment with Laura; during the recording of Isle of View, as told by musician Lee Calvin Nicolai (who handled the albums flute, bass and backing vocal tasks and wrote Long Way Down, an album cut), When we recorded that song, Laura sat on the floor of the studio - directly in front of Jimmie as he sang it. Magic.[4] Lauras influence, however, couldnt stoke the fire needed to burn Isle of View up the music charts, or the three albums that followed it: The Original Tap Dancing Kid (1973); The Dragon is Dancing (1975); Ports of the Heart (1976). Those four albums satisfied his contract with Columbia/Epic Records. The title of Lauras fifth album, 1971s Gonna Take a Miracle (Columbia 30987), may have foretold Spheeris future in an industry with such a rock-solid foundation, what with the talents of Sly, Santana and Stewart, among others. In 1984, he recorded his last album, Spheeris, a venture that wouldnt see the light of day until some sixteen years later, because all the hope and promise in that record album blew out like a candle in a storm when at 2:00 A.M. on July 4, a drunk driver hit and killed motorcyclist Spheeris in Venice, California. Spheeris had just wrapped up the final recording session for Spheeris, and thats the last we heard of him. That is, until Rain Records breathed life into his recordings as well as An Evening with Jimmie Spheeris (1999), a live recording. When Rain Records went by the wayside (caused when K-Tel, Rain Records record distributor, went bankrupt), little hope remained for any more Jimmie Spheeris until recently. In 2008, BGO (Beat Goes On) label released their first Spheeris two-fer, one compact disc that pairs his first two albums, Isle of View and The Original Tap Dancing Kid. In 2014, BGO released another two-fer, two more albums on one compact disc, containing the albums The Dragon Is Dancing and Ports of the Heart. Links: 1. Jimmie Spheeris Tribute Part 2 (listen to The Nest and I Am The Mercury): https://youtube/watch?v=Whaeyl9FpIM 2. Jimmie Spheeris Facebook Page: https://facebook/pages/Jimmie-Spheeris/112245552123951 3. Jimmie Spheeris Lives On: https://facebook/groups/jimmie.spheeris.lives.on/ 4. Jimmie Spheeris Memorial Galley (read the lyrics to these songs, and more): jimmiespheeris/disc.html 5. Jimmie Spheeris Memorial Facebook Group: https://facebook/groups/254053884612726/ Notes: [1] Album Reviews - Special Merit Picks, Billboard, Feb 26, 1972, Vol. 84, No. 9, page 50. (books.google/books?id=yygEAAAAMBAJ&dq=jimmie+spheeris+isle+of+view&source=gbs_navlinks_s) [2] (allmusic/album/isle-of-view-mw0000069640) [3] 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, by Tom Moon (New York: Workman Publishing Company, 2008), page 732. (books.google/books?id=zk0Z0bD2DGcC&dq=jimmie+spheeris+isle+of+view&source=gbs_navlinks_s) [4] (jimmiespheeris/photos/lee/) © Copyright 2014 by Fred G. Haseney
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 03:49:51 +0000
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