🎵 AotW AOTW: Priscilla GYPSY QUEEN (A&M SP 4297)

[LPJim]

PRISCILLA
Gypsy Queen
A&M SP 4297

This was the first release from Rita Coolidge's sister, Priscilla Coolidge-Jones, who also recorded on A&M with former husband Booker T. Jones as Booker T. & Priscilla. She composed all the songs on side one and the first on side two.

Side One: On the Road 3:55/ Let it Shine 3:08/ Gypsy King 3:39/ Come on Sweet 2:59/ Salty Haze 2:58/ "T" My "T" 2:07.

Side Two: Good Morning Freedom 4:02/ Now the Children Remind You (Weiss-Unobsky) 2:48/ Long Rivers Flow (Ray Stinnett) 3:18/ Spring Rain (Ray Stinnett) 2:26/ Hummingbird (Leon Russell) 6:00.

Producer and Arranger: Booker T. Jones for BTJ Productions, courtesy of Stax Records/ Remix Engineer Rik Pekkomen/ Recording Engineers Rik Pekkomen, Terry Manning, John Stachoviach/ Recorded at Studio III Sound Recorders (Hollywood) and Ardent (Memphis)/ Art Direction Roland Young/ Design Chuck Beeson/ Photography Norbert Jobst.

Special thanks to Ray Brown, Chris Ethridge, Sam Watson - bass/ Earl Palmer, Jim Gordon, David Cotten - drums/ Joel Scott Hill, Herb Ellis, Ray Stinnett - guitar/ Rita Coolidge and Donna Weiss - singers.

Reissued by Sussex Records (SXBS 7002)

JB

 

[W.B.]

Reissued by Sussex Records (SXBS 7002)

Interesting you should mention that . . . while Bill Withers (of "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Lean On Me" fame), during this same period, was contracted in the U.S. to Sussex Records, his work was issued in the U.K. on A&M. (And his first LP for Sussex, Just As I Am, was also produced by Booker T., who around this time left the M.G.'s.)

 

[chpoof]

I have this CD. It's...different. Rita definitely has the better voice of the two, but I can hear a similarity is their styles of singing.

Blessings,
Mickey

 

[Dave]

Saw a copy of this yesterday. And the Sussex reissue of it. Prefer Rita's stuff better--have ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, IT'S ONLY LOVE and FALL INTO SPRING, right now. I no longer have the HOMEMADE and the Booker T. & Priscilla Double LP, but at least still have CHRONICLES.

Someday, I'll see if I can pick this one up and give it a spin. Seems it would be much like the CHRONICLES album.

Dave

 

[W.B.]

Furthermore, this appears to be one of a few albums that came out on two different labels in a short time period. I can recall a few others: Lovin' Spoonful alumnus John Sebastian's 1970 debut LP John B. Sebastian, issued on both MGM (SE-4654) and Reprise (RS 6379); and a 1960 Bing Crosby album, Join Bing and Sing Along: 33 Great Songs, which was released on both Warner Bros. (W/WS 1363) and RCA Victor (LPM/LSP-2276).

And then there was the Rod Stewart / Faces' 1974 live album Coast To Coast: Overture And Beginners, here in the U.S. issued in vinyl form by Mercury (SRM-1-697) and on tape by Warner Bros., because of a dispute between the two labels (Stewart at the time recorded as a solo artist on Mercury and as part of the Faces on Warners, which also issued this LP on vinyl in Britain and some other countries).

 

[W.B.]

Apparently, the Sussex issue of this LP came first. The album yielded one 45 - "On The Road" / "Good Morning Freedom" - released in December 1970 on Sussex SUX 210:

But this LP wasn't in Sussex' catalogue for long, given how it - and she - not long after went over to A&M.

 

[W.B.]

Let's go to this link to see . . .