🎵 AotW AOTW: Lambert & Nuttycombe AT HOME (A&M SP 4250)

[LPJim]

LAMBERT & NUTTYCOMBE
At Home
A&M SP 4250

Recorded by Dennis Lambert and Craig Nuttycombe at home in Sausalito, CA, this was a first in the A&M series for two reasons. First, the track lengths were not specified. Second, the "Stereo SP 4250" rectangular logo is on both the front and back of the gatefold cover.

Side One: Morning**/ Time*/ Bird Song* My Own Beat***/ Something on my Mind***/ Mouse*.
Side Two: Ode to Drugan****/ Putting Myself Together Again*/ Mr. Bojangles*****/ Country Song*/ Heaven Knows (Where I've Been)*/ Clover*.

Written by *Lambert/** Lambert & Nuttycombe/*** Nuttycombe/ **** Lambert, Nuttycombe and S. Drugan/ ***** J.J. Walker.

All songs published by Wolfhead Music Pub. Inc. ASCAP Except ***** Cottilion Music Inc/ Daniel Music BMI.

Production: Dave Anderle, Chad Stuart, Glyn Johns/ Engineer Glyn Johns/ Photography Ethan A. Russell/ Design John Kosh/ career direction Howard B. Wolf.

Visit:
www.craignuttycombe.com

JB

 

[snapcrotch]

While the L&N album sorta got lost in the haze of folk-rock duo LPs in my dorm room (Brewer & Shipley's "One Toke Over the Line", anyone?), I can recall it being quite listenable from a music composition standpoint.
In 1971, the head of ABC Records' pop music aggressively signed the brightest, edgy, young songwriting teams. These prescient moves paid off in '72. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen came thru with Steely Dan's "Can't Buy A Thrill". LA-based Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, delivered hit songs for two ABC/Dunhill artists, The Four Tops and Dusty Springfield. I'll keep their list of hits short: "Ain't No Woman like The One I've Got", "Keeper of the Castle", "Are You Man Enough", "I Just Can't get You Out of My Mind", and -- Sergio fans certainly know this one -- "Love Music". Lambert and Potter's writing was savvy, hip, smart, and smoothly arranged. Only Philly's Gamble & Huff and Thom Bell matched them in this regard. Dusty Springfield's 'Cameo' LP from 1973 had great songs, but suffered from poor promotion and a really terrible record cover -- a horrendous drawing of Dusty's face. (Ruby Mazur does some really crass stuff.)
Dennis Potter's midas touch was later called upon by Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra, among many others. Quite a career, stemming from this initial 'home-made' recording with Craig Nuttycombe.

 

[Mr Bill]

...In 1971, the head of ABC Records' pop music aggressively signed the brightest, edgy, young songwriting teams. These prescient moves paid off in '72. Walter Becker...Donald Fagen...Dennis Lambert...Brian Potter...

And let's not forget Emitt Rhodes, formerly of A&M's Merry-Go-Round. When ABC had success with Emitt's "Fresh As A Daisy" A&M scrambled together a bunch of unreleased Merry-Go-Round material and demos from an un-produced Emitt solo project to release Americn Dream (AOTW in a few weeks). Confused record buyers diluted the sales potential of the ABC LP featuring "Fresh As A Daisy" (supposedly) and Emitt's success from then on dwindled. (Personally, I prefer the A&M album over the ABC release)...

Here are the two covers from American Dream -- a revised edition was supposedly released replacing the Merry-Go-Round tune "You're A Very Lovely Woman" with "Saturday Night" after Emitt's former bandmates complained...

-Mr Bill
Emitt Rhodes fan from way back.

 

[LPJim]

Because postage isn't as cheap as it used to be, I only do the autograph-by-mail thing a couple of times a year. Today's delivery brought back a few LP sleeves I sent to Craig Nuttycombe after chatting back in forth online for a bit. One of my AT HOME sleeve is quite worn (but the record plays just fine) so I encouraged him to write any comments about the photo art or recording sessions he thought might be worth passing along.

Here's what he jotted down on the inner gatefold photo (the guys are shown playing guitar near a fireplace):

"This is our living room where we actually sat for five nights and recorded this album. Wally Heider Recording Studio in San Francisco had a mobile recording truck sent over and parked in front of our house for the duration of recording. We would communicate with (Producers) Dave (Anderle), Chad (Stuart) and Glyn (Johns) who were in the truck via a two-way speaker/microphone setup. I felt bad because the guys in the truck got cold at night while we were warm inside. The chords we are playing in this picture are for "Ode to Dugan" (Best wishes, CN)"

Another result of our correspondence was my obtaining a CDR containing AT HOME plus their second album, AS YOU WILL. A&M assigned that project the name WAIKIKI (after one of the tunes) and SP # 4285, but the album didn't get released until another label put it out in 1973. The cover art was shown on a Japanese site Mr. Bill located a few months back. Nice to add that to the collection.
JB

NP: Rod Stewart "Every Picture Tells a Story" -

 

[Mr Bill]

Just an update to add aotw image...

--Mr Bill