Back to Cher ATCO Home Page Billboard HANDMADE GOES RETAIL: Rhino Handmade, Rhino Records' collector-oriented, limited-edition imprint, is being distributed to retail stores for the first time by Alternative Distribution Alliance. The label, which has issued rare and unreleased material from the Warner Music Group catalog in editions of 2,000-10,000 copies, had previously made its wares available only through its Web site at rhinohandmade.com. The Handmade packages go out of print once pressings are sold out. ADA's initial Handmade offerings, which will hit the streets Nov. 4, include collections by Cher, Captain Beefheart, Loudon Wainwright III, Tiny Tim, Tim Buckley, the Fugs and Fanny.
Transistornet.com/Cher_3614.htm: 3614 Jackson Highway is easily the best and most ambitious recorded work of Cher's career, and demonstrated early on the potential she had as a performer when separated from the questionable talents of sidekick Sonny. The duo hadn't managed a major hit since 1967's "The Beat Goes On", which reached #8 on the Billboard charts. Sonny had been concentrating on his own solo album, Inner Views, and sex, drugs, and rock were in. That meant the hippy-vaudeville cuteness of Sonny and Cher, as well as their pop sound, were pretty much out. Atlantic's Executive Vice President Jerry Wexler sought to revitalize Cher's career by utilizing a formula similar to that employed on the classic Dusty In Memphis. Wexler selected the tunes for the album, including no less than three songs from Bob Dylan's alt-country Nashville Skyline album. He didn't do any work at the controls, though, as a bout of pneumonia put him in the hospital before any vocal tracks were cut. Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin did the actual production work. Over the course of ten days in late April 1969 and one session in mid-May, the tracks for 3614 Jackson Highway were recorded at the Muscle Shoals Sound studio whose address was to be the album's title. Supposedly the location had been a funeral home or casket factory (sources vary) before it was converted into a studio. Sonny had no real role in the making of the album, though he is credited as "spiritual advisor" by Cher in the original notes. As Sonny recounted in his autobiography The Beat Goes On, "Not only did I lose my role as producer, my credibility went out the window too." Sonny had been working with L.A. producer Phil Spector and had grand aspirations as a songwriter and producer. According to Dr. John, who worked as a keyboard player for Spector and toured with Sonny & Cher, Sonny had a limited number of chords at his disposal and relied on arrangers and studio musicians to create a decent song out of his ideas. No doubt he felt fairly insecure at the idea of Cher working with one of the top production teams in the country, one who would give her a new sound. The songs chosen for the album are a melange of pop and rock hits of the day, or in some cases a bit before the time this album was recorded. The arrangements are smooth southern soul, and instantly recognizable as the sound heard on Dusty In Memphis, a couple of Aretha Franklin albums, and the recent My Name Is Shelby Lynne, which paid tribute to this classic sound. Perhaps the first thing that can be said is that Cher is not nearly as good a singer as any of the others mentioned in the last sentence, but she does have a disctinctive voice, and that seems to help make the whole thing work. Her vocal delivery works best on "For What It's Worth", the Dylan numbers, the Dr. John-penned "I Walk on Guilded Splinters", and "Cry Like a Baby". "For What It's Worth" opens the album with a surging drum and tambourine beat, followed by percussive acoustic guitar punctuated by electric piano trills until the chorus, where Cher is joined by male and female backup vocalists and some slide guitar work. While soulful, the whole thing has a country-blues feel that certainly isn't present on the original Buffalo Springfield recording. Unfortunately, the song was already a little dated by the time this record was cut. The Dylan songs include "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You", "I Threw It All Away", and "Lay Baby Lay". "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You" opens with a horn section riff and the familiar blue jean sound of drum, strummed acoustic guitar, and electric piano. Cher leans nicely on the blue notes of the song, giving a bluesier feel than she could manage by sheer delivery alone. "I Threw It All Away" is a bit less successful in the arrangement department, waffling between soul and country rock in a way that makes the song's overall structure unclear. Still, Cher's vocal is made for a song like this. She is a sympathetic Dylan interpreter because his songs utilize a limited vocal range, yet demand strength within that range-a textbook definition of Cher's vocal abilities. "Lay Baby Lay" is very much like Dylan's recording of the song, with some bongos and gospel organ added. None of the Dylan songs are a revelation, but they are all credible performances that keep the album moving along nicely. "I Walk On Guilded Splinters" is an odd number by any standards, coming from Dr. John's very first album Gris-Gris, which was also released by the Atco label. Dr. John recorded the album, a strange and powerful mix of incantation, percussive swamp dance music, and adaptations of a couple New Orleans staples, with leftover Sonny & Cher studio time. When Jerry Wexler first heard the album, which he did not know was being recorded, he flipped out, saying he couldn't release it. But he changed his mind, and Gris-Gris gained a cult following among the hippies drawn by its strange brew. While Dr. John's version is menacing and atmospheric, Cher's is powerful and gritty, prefacing the sound and delivery she would use on records like "Half Breed", "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves" and "Dark Lady". "Please Don't Tell Me" is a country-influenced track on which Cher turns in one of the best vocals of her career. It helps that the song's lyrics could be the life story of one of Cher's hard luck film heroine characters. Still, the arrangement and her excellent rendition remind us just of how closely this album fits the Dusty In Memphis mold. Some of the other tracks are less impressive, but overall this is an album you can play from beginning to end and be well entertained. One can only imagine the direction Cher's singing career might have taken had this album been a huge success. Unfortunately, such was not the case, as it was pretty much ignored and peaked at #160 on the Billboard charts, disappearing after only three weeks. Nonetheless, recordings were made for a follow up Atco Cher solo album, and they are available on this Rhino Handmade disc. A few were released as non-charting singles, but many have never before been available. In addition Rhino has included "Chastity's Song (Band of Thieves)" from the Chastity film project, which was supposed to establish Cher as an actress (even as 3614 Jackson Highway was supposed to have established her as a contemporary recording artist), and Cher's recording of Leon Russell's Superstar. Superstar was Cher's last Atco single, released in 1970. It might have been a hit if the arrangement and production had been a bit more opulent, but instead it is rather flat despite a good vocal. As a result Karen Carpenter walked away with the hit single of the song in 1971, though Cher let it rip with a hot performance on Sonny & Cher's Live In Las Vegas 2 album. Of the tracks recorded for the follow up to 3614, the best performances are "Easy to Be Hard" (from the rock musical Hair), a souped-up gospel-infused "I Believe", and the anti-war song "Momma Look Sharp" from the Broadway musical 1776 (!) There is some of the same Muscle Shoals production work here as on 3614, including horns and funky beats, but there is a lot less focus, which probably is why the new album was never released. In the confusion that no doubt followed the release of 3614 Jackson Highway, there were probably many different ideas about which way Cher should be going. Sonny was livid at the album's failure, which he blamed in no small part to his lack of input in the project, and basically refused to deliver any more Sonny & Cher records to the label despite the duo's contract. There was no lawsuit, though, and the contract was allowed to lapse. The movie Chastity was a colossal flop, and Sonny and Cher were left with a lagging career and huge debts. They solved that problem by becoming one of the 1970s most popular and glamorous Vegas and television acts. Cher's brief solo Atco period was all but forgotten as she moved on to later fame as a solo recording artist and Academy Award-winning actress. Thankfully, you can now hear once again the best recording of this pop diva's career thanks to Rhino's Handmade program. Don't wait too long, though--these are limited editions, and once they're gone, who knows when they'll be back? --Marshall Bowden-- ICE #171, June 2001
Cher's '3614 Jackson Highway' CD
CHER's Rhino Handmade Illinois Entertainer
Feber Ja, jag erkänner. Jag är en av de där Rhino-missbrukarna Andres skrev om i en krönika häromveckan. Jag är en av de där tretusen personerna (en kvalificerad gissning är att de alla är män) världen över som har ruinerat sig på "1979: The Complete Funhouse Sessions"; sju cd med varenda andetag som drogs under inspelningen av The Stooges andra album. Jag betalade utan att blinka några tusenlappar för den. Jag har till och med spelat mig igenom boxen. Och tyckte att det var rätt kul. Fick inte det minsta ångest. Inte ens efter 28 alternativa tagningar av "Loose". I rad. Så här är det. Det amerikanska återutgivningsbolaget Rhino har kommit på en briljant liten idé. För att iscensätta den har man startat underetiketten Rhino Handmade. Idén uppstod förmodligen när Rhino häromåret köptes upp av den stora Warner-koncernen, vilket Rhino-folket direkt insåg de musikaliska fördelarna med. Plötsligt fick de tillgång till allt som ligger i Warners arkiv; och tro mig, det är i dag en rejäl skatt. Tänk bara på allt som spelats in för etiketter som Reprise, Warner, Elektra, Sire, Asylum, alla Atlantic-bolagen, tidiga Stax... Efter ett tag insåg man nog att vissa projekt kanske inte var så kommersiellt gångbara, speciellt inte när man sökte sig bortom det material som redan en gång bevisat sin dragningskraft. När man började gräva i inte bara det som en gång varit ute utan även i det som av någon anledning aldrig lämnat arkivskåpen. Då bestämde man sig för att skapa en exklusiv etikett för utgåvor i små, numrerade upplagor. (Upplagorna brukar hamna kring fem tusen exemplar, vissa så lite som två och ett halvt tusen.) "Handgjorda" Rhino-utgåvor, riktade mot skivsamlare och andra galningar. Som man i skydd av exklusiviteten kan ta ut ett betydligt högre pris för. Man var säkert helt medvetna om att en alldeles vanlig utgåva av totalt okända countryrockgruppen The Sky Kings outgivna inspelningar kanske skulle sälja i några hundra exemplar. Förmodligen skulle få upptäcka att den överhuvudtaget var utgiven. En sådan platta skulle aldrig ens ha lämnat planeringsbordet på skivbolaget. Men om man istället gör en så här exklusiv utgåva säljer man kanske tre-fyra tusen exemplar, möjligen hela upplagan på fem tusen exemplar, dessutom till ett pris som är högre än för "vanliga" skivor. Och ekvationen går plötsligt ihop; det blir ekonomi i även de mest udda utgåvor. Man kan göra en stor och egentligen helt omöjlig box med sex cd av allt det ratade material som låg kvar på studiogolvet när The Stooges hade gjort färdigt albumet "Funhouse". Och man kan sälja tre tusen exemplar av en sådan box. Jag har nummer 2024. För att understryka känslan av exklusivitet kan skivorna endast köpas över nätet. Ni hittar dem på adressen www.rhinohandmade.com och om du lämnar din e-mailadress underrättar bolaget dig i god tid om varje kommande release. Dessa aviseras ibland månader i förväg och skickas iväg till dig i samma stund de är färdiga för leverans. Och det faktum att till exempel Stooges-boxen nu är helt och ohjälpligt slutsåld ökar naturligtvis pressen på skivsamlarna. Tänk om de blir utan en gång till. Själv har jag sett mig tvungen att också köpa Tim Buckleys "Work In Progress", den nämnda cd:n med The Sky Kings, samlingen med den obskyra singer/songwritern Essra Mohawk, en live-dubbel med Captain Beefheart, tidigare bara cirkulerad bland sjuttiotalets amerikanska musikskribenter och radiofolk. Nu senast damp det ner en fullmatad cd med The Stalk-Forest Group, som var förstadiet till Blue Öyster Cult. Den innehåller bland mycket annat hela det album gruppen spelade in, men som deras skivbolag inte ville ge ut. Jag förstår nu varför. Just nu väntar jag på en cd med Sly Stones inspelningar för Warner Brothers; två LP som jag ratade redan när de kom ut. Men allt är ju så snyggt förpackat, så kärleksfullt och in i minsta detalj dokumenterat, så himla intressant. Jag tycker faktiskt att det är väldigt kul att få höra allt det här, att läsa historierna bakom misstagen och felsatsningarna, slagsmålen och skitsnacket och att lära mig ännu lite mer om musiken och skivbolagen, de förhoppningsfulla musikerna och deras kapsejsade drömmar. Man lär sig definitivt mer om hur den här cirkusen fungerar via de här fiaskona än genom att skärskåda hur de förhållandevis få miljonsäljarna skapades. Andres sitter där med en Monkees-box med totalt olyssningsbara liveinspelningar, men han har å andra sidan lärt sig varför det bandet aldrig lyckades åstadkomma något utan hjälp av Hollywoods bästa studiomusiker och den tidens amerikanska låtskrivarelit. Och nu sitter jag själv här med en Cher-cd. Som innehåller utgivna och outgivna inspelningar från hennes tid som soloartist på Atlantic, några år innan hon på allvar tog de första stegen mot den superstjärneroll hon nu så smart och självklart har cementerat. Jag är inte säker på vad jag har lärt mig om henne, mer än att hon i slutet av sextiotalet var en rätt medioker, rakt igenom genomskinlig sångerska som övertalades att åka till Muscle Shoals-studion i Alabama för att göra albumet "3614 Jackson Highway". Övertalades är egentligen inte ordet, hon kommenderades dit, för att rädda vad som kunde räddas av hennes kollapsande karriär. Hon och maken Sonny Bono var i princip bankrutta och deras gemensamma karriär hade gått i stå så att det stänkte om det; paret hade inte haft någon hyfsad hit sedan "The Beat Goes On", två och ett halvt år tidigare. Atlantic-producenten Jerry Wexler tog kommandot, precis som han gjort vid inspelningen av "Dusty In Memphis" året innan. Han valde enväldigt låtar, musiker och studio. Problemet var bara att han den här gången inte hade en sångerska av tillnärmelsevis samma kaliber som Dusty Springfield. Men han hade annat att luta sig emot. Muscle Shoals-musikerna hade precis lämnat Rick Halls framgångsrika Fame-studio i Florence, deras nya studio hade fortfarande inte producerat någon hit, och de spelade verkligen som om de ville placera Cher i topp på alla världens listor. Tungt, självsäkert, lyhört. På tårna. Och det är en ren fröjd att höra dem; varenda ton, varenda markering, varje smakfullt litet steg för att lyfta fram låtarna och dess innehåll. Och Cher antog förvisso utmaningen. Hon förflyttade inga berg med sin röst, men det är än i dag svårt att missa att hon sjöng för sitt liv i versionerna av Dr John "I Walk On Guilded Splinters", Buffalo Springfields "For What It's Worth", Arethas "Do Right Woman", Otis "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" och en handfull låtar från Dylans då just utgivna "Nashville Skyline". Men det räckte inte. Trots att det är väldigt tydligt att Wexlers goda smak och omdöme lyfte Cher till en musikalisk nivå hon aldrig tidigare eller efter nått upp till. Att lyssna på den här cd:ns extramaterial, det mesta inspelat direkt efter "3614 Jackson Highway", är att höra ett korthus falla ihop. Wexler och hans kompanjoner försökte köpa henne lite ny cred, ge henne en ny publik; som tydligen inte existerade mer än i deras egna tankar. Och den riktiga publiken ville alldeles uppenbart ha något helt annat. Exakt vad tog det Cher ytterligare några år att komma på.
Så vad har jag lärt mig?
Att "good taste is timeless", men att det sällan är den goda smaken som skapar hitsen. Eller superstjärnorna.
Fråga Cher.
Hon visste, till sist, bäst själv.
GOLDMINE #541 If The Way Of Love: The Cher Collection nearly all hits compilation (reviewed in Goldmine #537, Feb. 23, 2001) isn’t enough to keep you satisfied, the expanded version of Cher’s 1969 solo album 3614 Jackson Highway will do the trick nicely. It’s been more than 35 years since Cher’s debut solo recording has been released. This long-awaited CD contains every surviving Cher solo Atco recording. All of the 23 tracks have been digitally remastered from the original tapes – five tracks are previously unreleased. Sonny And Cher, the couple, became famous as a result of the recordings they made for Atco Records in the 1960’s. However, five of her solo albums for Imperial, which additionally released a compilation of tracks drawn from those albums, were being released during the same time an equal number of Sonny And Cher albums were being released by Atco. In 1969 Cher recorded what would be her only solo album to be released on Atco Records, 3614 Jackson Highway, an 11- track collection of mostly covers that were [recorded] at the legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama with the equally legendary Muscle shoals session players. Plus, unlike her previous solo efforts, this one would not be produced by Sonny Bono. Instead, this album, aptly named after the street address of the studio, was produced by Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd, and Arif Mardin. This expanded 3614 Jackson Highway contains interpretations of the great Buffalo Springfield tune "For What It’s Worth," three Bob Dylan classics including "Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You," Otis Redding’s "(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay," a standard, spooky Dr. John composition as well as songs originally recorded by The Box Tops and Aretha Franklin. The year after 3614 Jackson Highway was released, Cher (as both a solo performer and half of Sonny And Cher) signed with Kapp Records and released another series of solo albums containing singles that would help to define her solo performing persona for her entire career. The 23-track CD expanded part features plenty of pleasant surprises such as 1969’s "Chastity’s Song (Band Of Thieves)," from the Bono-produced movie (starring Cher), Three Dog Night’s smash hit "Easy To Be Hard" and ends with the final recording Cher made for Atco Records, the wonderful Bonnie Bramlett and Leon Russell composition "Superstar." The 20-page booklet shouldn’t be overlooked either. It explains in detail the origins of Cher’s '60's solo records, which were initially made for and released on Imperial Records. The expanded 3614 Jackson Highway and The Way Of Love: The Cher Collection are undoubtedly a must-have for serious Cher music collectors. --- Mary Ann Cassata '3614 Jackson Highway'
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