🎵 AotW AOTW: Garland Jeffreys - ONE-EYED JACK (SP-4681)

[LPJim]

Garland Jeffreys
ONE-EYED JACK
A&M SP-4681

SIDE ONE

She Didn't Lie 3:25
Keep On Trying 3:14
Reelin' 3:14
Haunted House 2:53
One-Eyed Jack 5:01

SIDE TWO

Scream in the Night 3:50
No Woman, No Cry (by Vincent Ford) 4:42
Oh Me Soul 4:03
Desperation Drive 4:21
Been There and Back 4:24

All songs by Garland Jeffreys (vocals, guitar, percussion, arranger) except as indicated.

Bass - Anthony Jackson
Drums - Steve Gadd
Guitar - Jeff Miranov
Guitar & Harmonica - Hugh McCracken
Guitar, Keyboards, Arrangements - David Spinozza

Keyboards - Dr. John, Don Grolnick, Richard Trifan
Sax - David Sanborn & Michael Brecker
Trumpet - Randy Brecker
Vocals - Phoebe Snow, Luther Vandross, David Lasley

ONE-EYED JACK entered the Billboard Top 200 on April 15, 1978 and charted for ten weeks, peaking at Number 99, according to Whitburn's "Top Pop Albums."


JB

 

[Dave]

Soulful & Rockin' 2nd LP of Jeffreys, loosely based on a Jackie Robinson theme...

"She Didn't Lie" seems to udder that familiarity, having heard it shoot out of the radio on family drives, and at least one time arriving at the gas station to get gas (or maybe leaving after filling up) did my mom wonder "what that song was" as she never went for the radio being on when dad drove & me hunched over the seat to sometimes hear what was on (our car had just "AM" and also did NOT have a rear-seat speaker) but this was when it wasn't OK for kids to ride up front, but at least when nobody "had to" wear seat belts...

"Keep On Tryin'" also rings as something desperate for radio play, as that synthesizer rings out at the intro to the song (and I'm sure I'd also heard that one almost as frequently back in '78 as someone like Nick Gilder or Foreigner)...

"Reelin'" is catchy, visionary, cinematic fare, as is the haunting illusion of the spooky "Haunted House" and of course, the "dealing w/ racial tensions" in "One-Eyed Jack"--an account of the admired hero of Jeffrey's, Jackie Robinson, baseball great, back in his time, metaphorically merged, or moreover, taken into account along with the fear and apprehensions of social relations, today...

"Scream In The Night" runs rather forgettable, not delivering the impact such a title would evoke in keeping this mellow Pop/R&B radio fare, which explains how the reggae "original" "No Woman, No Cry" (by Vincent Ford) in Garland's cover guise also comes on relatively tame...

"Oh, My Soul", is fairly fragrant Jackie Wilson-type R&B keeping the authentic personal insight & emotional magnitude of Wilson's intact... "Desperation Drive" breaks into the thump of an an almost James Brown-like romp; a perfect climactic setting, to make way for the LP's "audiobiographical", autobiographic coda, "Been There And Back"...

Much deeper groove than Ghost Writer, Jeffreys' first, while in a conservative, no-nonsense, hard-edged New York-based sound (and recorded at NY's Hit Factory?) with David Spinozza's able arrangements & productions guiding this effort effortlessly at the helm, on which the stunning Black & White cover is just a hint of the "underground greatness", of this artist, who's little-known renown best is yet to come...



Dave





Dave