Charlie Rich - Behind Closed Doors

anyway, went back and listened to those Sherrill/Rich records, and they're certainly a cut above the usual '70s Nashville gloppy shit. Rich's voice almost always makes it all really interesting. Just think what could have happened had Rich gotten on Blue Note or some jazz label; just think about him backed by Duke Ellington...he wouldn't have made as much money but I bet he would have been far less melancholy, and maybe still alive today...

Not so sure Charlie would've benefited from straight jazz/Blue Note kinda treatment, he was a true fusion artist intuitively blending styles, his easy listening tendencies figure as imporantly as his jazz and blues leanings (along w/the realism/sentimentality schism in wife Margaret's lyrics). Though an album of Charlie Sings Standards w/a big band sounds enticing on paper in practice it could turn out like his "legendary" Stax sessions which left me kinda cold. Long story short, I think CR's Billy Sherrill period is better than credited, arguably his peak esp. those initial 3 albums: Big Boss Man, Set Me Free, The Fabulous Charlie Rich.

I've never heard SILVER LININGS (a post-'74 gospel album that Guralnick thinks is great), but in general anything Sherrill produced on him from that year onward - BEWARE, BROTHER, BEWARE!!!

The Feel Like Going Home demo can be bought from iTunes or Amazon. It's on an out-of-print comp called FLGH, The Essential Charlie Rich. No better way to spend 99 cents.

Silver Linings is awesome.

There's also some great stuff on that older Bear Family comp of his Sun Records recordings. A lot of it is just plain nuts, especially stuff like "Popcorn Polly." It seems like whenever Rich tries to write a straight forward teen hit, he can't help but take it some oddball directions. One of those guys who sound nice and conventional on the surface, but when you peel it back is profoundly weird.

at the end of the day, it's really all about that slow walkin', fast talkin', good lookin' Mohair Sam...

Nice 'N' Easy, damn, that's a sexy tune.

That CMA clip is on youtube now...Charlie was Fuuuuuuuuuuuucccckkkked Up...the cut to Glen Campbell after it's over is priceless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krZmHCQ3l9o

The whole show is up as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDyPmBlon0Y

that clip is awesome. but poor dude who had to keep that timpani roll going for 25 seconds.

thnaks for posting is all i can type thru tears of laughter

kanye rich

The man is so desperate, he's casual: Music Sounds Better With Two talks about Charlie Rich (and musical isolation) - http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/endless-quest-charlie-rich-most.html

It Ain't Gonna Be That Way the Complete Smash sessions is pretty essential methinks.
Some of his early 70s stuff had me wondering if he was a conscious influence on Nick Cave, Tindersticks and a few others.

The most recent Oxford American music issuue has a great Rich piece:

http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2014/jan/07/issue-83-dear-charlie/

That Oxford American article is fantastic. Mind-blowing to think he didn't start singing until he was 22. Would be on my short list for favorite singers.

In 1966, when Charlie Rich was at a nadir in his career, Sy moved him to Hi Records, a small-time local studio, and Natalie brought Isaac Hayes in so Charlie could take a shot at one of his songs, “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby.” As Natalie recalls, the backing band was composed of legendary session players from Stax and Hi—the Memphis Horns, Andrew Love and Wayne Jackson, along with Tommy Cogbill on bass and Willie Hall on drums. Hayes sat next to Charlie at the piano and taught him the song before they recorded it in one take. For “Pass on By,” Sy Rosenberg himself blew a meandering trumpet solo in the background.

The Hayes track was never released

As I said way up thread, one of the most versatile pop musicians ever. Him and Ray Charles, anyway. Going to hunt down that Oxford American issue today.

I need to see that too

You can read online, I think.

Yup, that link right above. Maybe Jazzbo just wanted the hard copy of the magazine

Is it in the latest print issue or it in the Music issue from end of last year? I have a physical copy of that but keep misplacing it.

Dan says its the music issue above, and I have also misplaced mine...

Found it

Charlie Rich, country & western singer ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xXFqEjcuXg

Is the RCA & Groove stuff as good as the Smash recordings? There was a 2cd put out by Ace at the start of the year which was called
Too Many Teardrops: The Complete Groove & RCA Recordings. So I wonder if i need that as much as the Smash stuff.

I don't see a big difference in terms of quality between the two; if you like the Smash stud even half as much as I do then I strongly recommend that new CD (apparently there are a few bits on the new edition that I haven't heard so there may be a few duffers on it but I know most of it and it's gold IMO.)

Thanks for mentioning Too Many Teardrops! Hadn't heard of it. After a couple of listens, I've found it surprisingly easy to get used to the strings and choirs, although some Disc 2 incidents are still annoying, and maybe scale-tipping on the more dubious material---that's okay though; that's what he and/or the suits get for turdpolishing .like Elvis, Sinatra, Willie etc. he's found that he can effectively apply his signature sound to inferior imitations of his top-shelf line of goods, and so he does, and I admit there are at least partially redeeming moments in most(?) of the worse, though not worst, tracks. Not many of this last category though!
A good number of the rolling piano jazz-blues-rock tracks I always favor, starting right off with "Big Boss Man," soon followed by "River Stay Away From My Door," later a very sassy "Ol' Man River," such as Jerry Lee might approve, then a more respectful vocal on "The Twelth of Never," though that beloved tearjerker now goes thunkin' along. Mercy!
Also a couple of intriguing ballads written by Freddie Hart:"Too Many Teardrops" starts out feeling for a fella who lost his love to the narrator, yet"I did what any man would do"---emphasis on "man" because the cry guy wasn't "strong enough to play the losing hand"--crying and drinking yourself to death doesn't count as a well-played losing hand, so what does? Revenge, mebbe? Doesn't say.
The other Hart-written track, "There Won't Be Any More, " has a terse lilt that somehow reminds me of some British Invasion tracks, like uhhh covers like "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying"? But with more attitude.
The Riches-written (lots of originals here) "The Grass Is Always Greener" advises that, "You may think you're rollin' in clover/But you better think it over." Shaddup with that, I must not think bad thoughts!
The Complete Smash Sessions is the one to start with, but this is def worth checking out.

40 tracks, and I like at least---28? Love at least an LP's-worth.

Was just listening to "Behind Closed Doors" today, the first half of this album is glorious, tails off a bit though.

Silver Linings is awesome.

― The Wild Shirtless Lyrics of Mark Farner (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, May 8, 2009 3:22 PM (ten years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just got another vinyl of this, and 10 years ago me OTM.

https://i.imgur.com/ai9WUg6.jpg

ILX shall now be split into three warring factions.

Never forget that one time a decade or so ago when the only working thread was for a Canadian Zeppelin clone.

I don't remember that

but lol

Can't open it now but wonder if it will link? https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=20850

Nope.

In any case found cached version and no evidence therein. Believe we lost seventeen days of history at the time.

Well at least a few people might discover Charlie Rich, that's a plus.

Well I make it alright.

Who Will The Next Poxy Fule Be?

Behind Closed Threads

I'm listening to The Essential Charlie Rich as we speak :O

the titular song of this album was used in an advert by the scottish executive raising awareness regarding domestic abuse and has been forever ruined for me due to the association

Wait they used “behind closed doors” rather than “have a heart” for an abused dog campaign?

Ugh sorry not abused dog. I think I did I mistaken that for a US commercial

Ugh sorry not abused dog. I think I did I mistaken that for a US commercial.

avoid the final dud, "pictures and paintings," a horribly misguided attempt at respectability.

― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, September 23, 2003 1:38 PM (eighteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

holy shit was i wrong about this album 19 years ago. it's a stone cold masterpiece.

this on the p&p version of "feel like going home" is dead on:

The failure is still there in his voice, but by the end, when the choir comes in, it's almost like he's being borne aloft. Like he's been forgiven for all the failure and he's on his way to the Lord despite it all. It's a song that never fails to move me, and it moves me all the more because it stirs contradictory emotions.

his last song on his last album, damn.