🎵 AotW AOTW: Mimi Farina and Tom Jans TAKE HEART (A&M SP 4310)

[LPJim]

Mimi Farina & Tom Jans
TAKE HEART
A&M SP 4310

Side One: Carolina 4:10/ Charlotte 3:29/ Kings and Queens 4:33/ The Great White Horse 4:03/ Reach Out (For Chris Ross) 3:33.

Side Two: Madman 4:00/ In The Quiet Morning (For Janis Joplin) 3:10/ Letter to Jesus 3:19/ After the Sugar Harvest 3:28/ No Need to be Lonely 4:58.

Produced by Michael Jackson/ Engineer Henry Lewy/ Art Direction Roland Young/ Album Design Chuck Beeson/ Photography Jim Marshall.

For more information, including a cover scan and other music credits, visit (and click on 'albums'):

www.richardandmimi.com

JB

 

[jimac51]

That website is interesting. Richard Farina's writings were going through a retrospective during my college days of the early 1970s. Strange that Richard Farina died in a motorcycle accident in 1966 and Tom Jans died in an auto accident in 1984. Mac

 

[Dave]

Mimi Fariña & Tom Jans
TAKE HEART
A&M SP 4310

And now we go from the Hippie Campfire Music of the previous A&M Album Of The Week (Seemon & Marijke A&M SP 4309) to something a bit more romantic, when the fire dies down, but still burns...


Side One:

Carolina -- Good harmonizing by the unlikely pairing of Tom Jans (a former L.A. area DJ), and Mimi Fariña, (widow of folk singer, the late Richard Fariña and the sister of Joan Baez), both singing and strumming their guitars through this good, jaunty, laid-back ballad.

Charlotte -- A naughty tale of two sisters--Charlotte being the jealous one.

Kings and Queens -- Sort of a story with a "moral", in rellation to a deck of cards and 'playing your cards right'. "...Don't let the deal go down, Darlin'..."

The Great White Horse -- A Buck Owens song. About the typical 'child's wish for his/her own horse'.

Reach Out (For Chris Ross) -- "...Reach Out, make a little contact, Reach Out, send a little love...This life may be trying, so make the best of it, 'cause for now, it's all you've got..." My favorite song on this album! And my favorite line in the song, here, says it all!

Side Two:

Madman -- Some Eastern Indian sounds presented here, with a tamboura and finger cymbals. Kind of an indication of how 'You have no idea of the modern madness (insanity) of man, behind this psychedelia'.

In The Quiet Morning (For Janis Joplin) -- Good tribute to "Pearl", in the form of a gentle ballad to the lady and her music, without either of the two resorting to the typical medium--ie. "Sounding Like Her".

Letter to Jesus -- Uh, well, even with a lot of "please's", I hope he can fulfill this "fondish wish". I'll see that he gets it.

After the Sugar Harvest -- The album's first and only instrumental. And coherent with the rest of the songs.


No Need to be Lonely -- And a good finale. Always "someone" there, in one form or another.

Produced by Michael Jackson/ Engineer Henry Lewy/ Art Direction Roland Young/ Album Design Chuck Beeson/ Photography Jim Marshall.

And the musicians include: Sneaky Pete, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel, Craig Doerge, Russ Kunkel, and even a small string section. A bit forgettable--I don't even have it anymore, but did a fair job of remembering. I'll see if I can find my back-cover. But the two, the late Mimi (who died in 2000) and the late Tom (who died in 1984) leave behind a most heavenly, musical legacy ever put on wax.

Dave

...Heart-felt, Heart-warming, Heart-breaking...

 

[W.B.]

In The Quiet Morning (For Janis Joplin) -- Good tribute to "Pearl", in the form of a gentle ballad to the lady and her music, without either of the two resorting to the typical medium--ie. "Sounding Like Her".

Alas, a year later, Joan Baez, upon her joining A&M, recorded this same song on her label debut LP, Come From The Shadows; it was also released as a single (c/w "To Bobby") on AM-1362.