🎵 AotW AOTW: Ron Davies U.F.O. (A&M SP 4400)

[LPJim]

Ron Davies
U.F.O.
A&M SP-4400

SIDE ONE
I Wonder 3:41/ Long Hard Climb 3:11/ Flapjack 3:23/ *Misty Roses 2:58.

SIDE TWO
It's A Lie 3:50/ Can I Count on You 3:22/ It Ain't Easy 4:16/ Lay Down Your Burden 4:01/ Shadows 5:33.

All songs written by Ron Davies, Irving Music Inc. (BMI) except *Tim Hardin, Hudson Bay Music Co. (BMI).
Produced by Tommy Vicari and Ron Davies

Ron Davies - acoustic guitar, vocals, slide guitar, harmonica
David Spinozza - acoustic & electric guitar
Clarence McDonald - piano, electric guitar, clavinet
Andy Newkirk - drums
Wilton Felder - bass
Chuck Rainey - bass
Billy Preston - organ
Milt Holland - percussion

Jerome Richardson, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Don Menza, Jack Nimitz, Jules Chaikin ---- horns

Claudia Lennear, Maxayn Lewis, Carolyne Cook, D.J. Rogers, Vicki Davies ---background vocals

Engineered by Tommy Vicari, assisted by Linday Tyler & Milt Calice
Mastering: Frank DeLuna

Choir under direction of D.J. Rogers/ String & Horn arrangements by David Spinozza/ Special thanks to Chuck Kaye and Bud Dain/ Art Direction by Roland Young/ Album Design by Chuck Beeson/ Photography by Jim McCrary.

Reissued on CD by A&M of Japan as PCCY-10185

Visit Davies' official site at:

www.rondavies.info/


JB

 

[Dave]

The 4400-Series kicks of with the tepid Soft-Rock, Folk-Funk of the 2nd Album by the late-Singer/Songwriter, Ron Davies... An album that I wish I could have enjoyed a little more, but aside from a few moments and passable passages, it can get hard to grasp... Must have been written in or overlooking the Desert Lands of Death Valley, down in the Mojave, out by The Joshua Tree or up in the Calabassas, but repeated listenings can sure make you start seeing things... (Booker T. & Priscilla Jones' upcoming Chronicles is another LP, like this one...) And that "UFO" may be just a mirage or it's actually maybe MY copy...

SIDE ONE:

I Wonder -- Good kick-off rocker, supported by guitarist David Spinozza, bassist Chuck Rainey and drummer Andy Newmark flown out from their native New York, which right away gives you that impression that this is a Desert-Mood Music LP...

Long Hard Climb -- "Desert" becomes "Dessert" with this sweet ballad also done by Helen Reddy and María Muldaur... A Lovely, Lilting, Lazy Lullabye, complete with lots of acoustic and some electric slide-guitar...

Flapjack -- ...Flapjack gonna buy another Cadillac... ...'Bout some Big-Shot... A Pimpin' New-Jack song of its time... Enjoyable 'song from da' hood--bring on da' noise...!!'

Misty Roses -- Good interpretation of the Tim Hardin chestnut; done more as a ballad, like the original, as opposed to the more faster tempo you heard The Sandpipers do... Too bad more versions on A&M couldn't have been made, maybe as instrumentals...: ie. Herb, Baja Marimba Band, etc. or a Brasilian version by Sergio Mendes... It would'a been great!

SIDE TWO

It's A Lie -- ...It's a goddamn dirty lie...It's God's own Gospel Truth... Great fonky-jonky stuff...! Spinozza's slide guitar and Rainey's "dirty bass" propel this soulful strut right out into the open Desert-Plains...

Can I Count on You -- A Heart On-My Sleeve-Love Song --The Davies Way...

It Ain't Easy -- Originally done on Davies' debut album, and done in a more high-powered struttin' rockin' version... And cover versions put out by the bucket-ful: David Bowie, (even noted in A&E Biography of being an unusual "first big hit") John Kay of Steppenwolf and Three Dog Night...

Lay Down Your Burden -- Another "Long Hard Climb" sort of song... Fine Woodwind Arangements, which include another native-New Yorker, Jerome Richardson...

Shadows -- Forgot which line you hear a "hot breath" from one of the background singers in; must have been captured really perfectly on tape the first time or maybe after a few "rehearsals"... Song about Prostetution, Death and Doom in the Urban City Life, in which this "Escapist" sort of album is just the right 'getting away from...'

But put some distance between you and the troubles and terrors of your outside world, and you, too, have the "audio-equivalant" of an escape novel... Glad Ron was also able to put out some inspiring, though barely noticed and not completely memorable, but at least majestic and mesmerizing work for A&M the second time around!


Dave