Dion and the Belmonts- classic or dud?

Huh, I thought I posted on this thread earlier. I love Dion. Pretty much all of it solo or otherwise.

dion once complimented his wife in an interview by saying she has a 'high tolerance for unacceptable behaviour'. amazing.

looks like he's a bit of a nutjob: http://www.diondimucci.com/journey.html

hope his book has more about his pre-68 badass days than the born again zzz

I just heard Your Own Back Yard for the first time ever. What a great tune. I loved his old stuff already, but this is as amazing as the old stuff.

My Girl, the Month of May

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

Best thing ever.

Absolute genius

The song "Now", from the 1969 album "Wonder Where I'm Bound" is a real gem. Tom Wilson production, kind of Simon & Garfunkley folk rock. One of my favourite songs ever.

What's with that picture of Robert Johnson et al. in his living room?

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Now/21311475

Looks like he painted that picture of Robert Johnson himself.

I just heard Your Own Back Yard for the first time ever. What a great tune. I loved his old stuff already, but this is as amazing as the old stuff.

that whole album is fantastic

Okay, I forget cause I only have that one song: is taht King Of The Streets, right? I should give it a try. The song is just so bloody great. Absolutely love it. Makes me want to cry and smile at the same time.

^^^album is "Born to Be With You" (prod by Phil Spector)

Kinda went on a binge this morning; have a couple questions/thoughts:

1) Actually my wife noticed this first: In songs like "I Was Born To Cry" (probably his most blatant blues song with the Belmonts) and "Little Diane" and even to some extent "Runaround Sue," Dion goes into what sounds like some distinctly Middle-Eastern wailing. Curious where that comes from. Obviously it could just be coincidental, or he could have picked it up directly from the source, but I'm guessing it maybe comes via some kind of traditional Italian singing I don't know much about -- Middle Eastern and Mediterranean musics frequently seem to cross sonic boundaries, and on the live '72 Madison Square Garden reunion album the horns in "Little Diane" sound as much like Spanish music as jazz. Or maybe he picked it up from jazz, I don't know.

2) On that version of "Little Diane" on the '72 live album, again, Dion goes into a scat part that sounds a lot like Cab Calloway. So I'm guessing that must have been one big influence, too. (In fact, in general, "I Was Born To Cry" included, I'd say his "blues" influence is what I'd call "show blues" -- stuff he probably heard in movies.)

3) On the back of the Belmonts' 72 studio reunion album without Dion, Cigars Acapella Candy, who are the other three guys standing in the bodega with the Belmonts on the back cover? Could be their instrumentalists, I guess, except this album sounds way closer to actual acapella than the hits (or that MSG reunion) did -- stomping feet instead of drums, little or no piano, maybe an occasional tambourine or kazoo or something at most. Really cool btw how, in the middle of their cover of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," they turn it back into the Chiffons' "He's So Fine." (Also wondering if the non-Dion Belmonts had day jobs by then, or got together occasionally to sing through the late '60s; guess I need to track down a biography.)

4) There's a sign being held up inside the gatefold of that MSG album saying "Brooklyn Loves the Belmonts," and one disc of Dion's King Of the New York Streets CD box set is called "Brooklyn Dodger," after his solo song from 1978, "(I Used To Be A) Brooklyn Dodger." And they definitely seem more Dodgers than Yankees to me. But they obviously came from the Bronx, which makes me think they were conflicted, somehow.

5) Most blatantly Catholic Dion song? I'm picking "The Truth Will Set You Free" (solo from 1980), but maybe I missed one that's more so.

Also, I get that Dion probably also learned about the blues through Hank Williams, through blues bands he saw live, and through earlier black doo-wop itself, and that he became a big Robert Johnson fan at some point. I'm just saying his blues incorporations sound to me more like Hollywood (or urban nightclub) blues than, say, rawer Delta Blues. (Not that that's a value judgement, or that those are unrelated, obviously. Thinking Jackie Wilson might fit in here somewhere, too.)

re: Dion's Middle-Eastern influence: watched "Dion In Concert" on Netflix last night and he said that he picked up that singing style from passing by the synagogue in his neighborhood. Dion had open ears.

That's fascinating. Dude really was a sponge.

he's still alive, no need to refer to him in the past tense fwiw

He likes to roam around.

Well, when he walks past a club playing a little dubstep and starts incorating it into his modern jams then I'll consider him a sponge in the present tense. But from the pop acoustic blues albums I've heard over the last couple years, he no longer has that thirst to soak up all kinds of different sounds and styles. I love the guy, but he's taking it easy in Florida these days.

That synogogue story is amazing. Thanks, sexydancer! Adding that disc to my Netflix queue now...

was gonna post the youtube for "my girl the month of may" but someone already did that upthread. amazing song.

The song "Now", from the 1969 album "Wonder Where I'm Bound" is a real gem. Tom Wilson production, kind of Simon & Garfunkley folk rock. One of my favourite songs ever.

― Brio

ya, otm!

Sounds promising. Will have to check that out.

Haven't even got to that song yet, but the album itself is pretty awesome so far. So apparently this was just stuff the label sat on for two years and than put together in an odds and sods album after "Abraham, Martin and John" was a hit.

He changed his website! I don't know where the big painting of Robert Johnson went.

I like how his version of "Seventh Son" ends up sounding something like "Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat"

Time for new screenname. Never knew he was such a Hank Williams fan when he was a lad.

A long time ago, I used "I Wonder Why" in an art-splatter student film.

Wow. In his recent memoir, an excerpt of which appears on his web page, he claims that he, and not Tommy Allsup was the key figure in the famous coin toss to decide who would fly on the ill-fated plane that went down The Day The Music Died. Upom hearing about this Tommy immediately demanded a polygraph test and threatened to sue.

http://www.buddyhollyandthecrickets.com/WDPphotos/cointoss.html

Just relistened to and enjoyed Wonder Where I'm Bound and now moved on to Heroes: Giants of Early Guitar Rock, an album of covers of well-known rock and rockabilly songs, which might seem a dubious prospect, but the vocals are convincing and he's backed by a nice little rhythm section along with an unknown rockabilly ringer on guitar a la Dave Edmunds or Chris Spedding by the name of Bobby "Crow" Richardson who apparently passed away last year.

Here is a playlist he created called NY Is My Home: https://open.spotify.com/user/diondimucci/playlist/20vADENchke4pZwducmtjB

Named after a song he did with Paul Simon which I suppose I should listen to.

Intrigued by the fact that he made an album called Son of Skip James

http://savagelost.com/a-1968-miami-acetate-that-sold-a-million-copies-via-the-bronx

Named after a song he did with Paul Simon which I suppose I should listen to

The one with Van Morrison is pretty good too. Duet album called Blues With Friends which is trickling out track by track, week by week.

So this whole thing sounds pretty good. Hesitate to be the one recommending a blues-based star-turn duet record, but I came here for the voice, which does not disappoint.

Oh man ... this guy. Just started listening to everything by him I can get a hold of. I was familiar with the oldies radio standbys but he is mindblowingly Classic pretty much across the board, eh? Just great.

Yeah, he seems to be in the class of singer that can sing anything and make it his own. He has some weird personality quirks that take some getting used to, mainly a Robbie Robertson-like tendency to take too much credit - “I told Tom Wilson to overdub electric guitars on a Dylan song and invented folk rock!,” “It was actually me who gave up my seat on the crop duster to Buddy Holly after the Winter Dance Party!” - but none of that seems to creep into his music in any deleterious way.

Also, feel like I always heard much more about Bobby Darin’s folk rock move than Dion’s but seem to be more drawn to the latter now that I know it exists.

Here is an article about that which I haven’t read properly yet but seems of interest: https://web.musicaficionado.com/main/article/was_folk_rock_a_mistake_for_dion_and_bobby_darin_by_jimallen

Thanks for the link! Latest MOJO has a big piece/new interview with him as well.

https://www.npr.org/2017/05/29/530199966/doo-wop-singer-dion-pays-homage-to-his-musical-influences

Dig his new Xmas song with Amy Grant. Haven’t listened to the one with Joe Bonamassa yet.

Also, feel like I always heard much more about Bobby Darin’s folk rock move than Dion’s but seem to be more drawn to the latter now that I know it exists.

― Barry "Fatha" Hines (James Redd and the Blecchs)

Which is the one where he performs in a big public square in Germany or somewhere with the audience clapping along in rhythm? I heard a story about the filming of this scene, where they kept doing take after take because something felt 'off', but they couldn't identify what... And eventually they figured out the German extras were clapping in 3/1

Dion or Bobby Darin?

It's actually a good time to get that 3-CD box set King Of The New York Streets. Originally released in 2000, it fell out-of-print and became a pricey collector's item, but with the deflation of the CD market, it's not hard to find bargain used copies that go for far less than the original retail price. There are some Columbia-era gems that I wish had been included, but it collects pretty much all of the hits and best-known tracks. The bulk of disc three isn't quite as good, but even in the '90s, his voice was still in excellent form. (The doo wop re-arrangement of Springsteen's "If I Should Fall Behind" is marvelous.)

Used to have that, and yeah, your review is accurate.

Also seek his doo-wop version of “Book of Dreams”!