| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Memphis |
Posted - 08/07/2008 : 20:37:03
'Dusty in Memphis' was not a hit at the time of release.
Can anyone here give any explanation for why the album failed. I don't believe her previous album 'Dusty Definitely' sold that well either. Had Dusty simply become irrelevant for some reason? Maybe because record buyers didn't understand what she was doing? Maybe young Americans didn't know who she was? Maybe because she broke her mould and left many of her UK fans wondering what was going on, that she'd abandoned them somehow? Was Dusty just out of style or mainly admired as a superstar cabaret artist (so the 'Memphis' album would be quite puzzling)? Maybe the album wasn't promoted properly.
It's hard to work it out from 2008. But if anybody here was there in 1969 it would be so great to hear your take.
Memphis
Ever since we met...
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| 20 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Janie |
Posted - 11/07/2008 : 23:06:24
quote:
Originally posted by reputation
I never wanted Dusty to leave our shores but I wished her well and hoped she would knock the socks off the Americans.
You and me both Karl  . The trouble was of course she had no more success over in the States than she had over here around that time but she didn't come back home to us for any significant period until the 80's. One can't help but wonder if things would have been any different ('better' I suppose I really mean)for her had she done so  . That's life though, we all make what we believe to be the right decision for ourselves at a given point in time in our lives - sometimes we are right, sometimes we are wrong.
Janie  x54 |
| reputation |
Posted - 11/07/2008 : 20:06:56
quote:
Originally posted by Janie
quote:
Originally posted by reputation
Janie what made you feel let down with Dusty, what did she do? Was it going off to the States?
The States was always Dusty's dream but I wish she had never stayed away for so long. OK she came back every so often but she was still resident there.
As a teenager, having hung on every note she sang, watched everything I possibly could of her, read everything I possibly could about her, I was most definitely miffed that she disappeared to the States! She wasn't like the Beatles and the other of the British acts I was aware of who 'invaded' the USA at the time, becaue to me they always were Brits abroad and would be coming home - I felt at the time that they were true to their fans. It struck me that Dusty wanted to be more American than British and as an ardent fan, one who had contributed to her success albeit it my own small way, I did feel she let us down. Well..............I DID say I was a teenager, didn't I? However, time has I hope proved that I did remain a true 'Superfan'  
]
Janie like you I hung on Dusyt's every note and read everything I could about her in the music press but I have to say this;-
As a teenager visiting the States for the first time in the 60's I can well understand why Dusty had the urge to go there - it was and still is a very exciting country and I still love visiting there.
As a singer in the 60's Dusty would see the signs with all the venues closing here making it harder for her to appear. Also I used to feel so sorry for Dusty recording such wonderful material and having flops with every other record.
I never wanted Dusty to leave our shores but I wished her well and hoped she would knock the socks off the Americans.
On closing I must tell you during my first trip to the States Dusyt's current hit was The Look Of Love and I remember two young American girls seeing it in the store and saying "Oh The Looka Love" we gotta get two copies of that - made my day!!!!! |
| reputation |
Posted - 11/07/2008 : 20:01:17
In reply to Noidea's comments about Dusty's false modesty.
Having met Dusty I can assure you it was not false modesty, Dusty got rather embarassed when praise was heaped upon her and she was a very genuine person. Dusty was never one to blow her own trumpet to coin a phrase!
As for her being livid regarding Son Of A Preacher Man, I don't know where you read this or perhaps you are reading things into it but it was in print back in the 60's that brass was added to the backing without Dusty's knowledge and the record released before she could do anything about it. Perhaps Dusty wanted a more basic sound, however I think the brass really enhances the record and probably Dusty realised that too. |
| reputation |
Posted - 11/07/2008 : 19:55:11
quote:
Originally posted by Earthbound Gypsy
Sadly I never knew Dusty was living in the States most of the years she did!
Karl I agree if I understand you correctly, ECUD is a better album that SOAPM, also AGCD.
There are many outstanding tracks on SOAPM. My favorite tracks are: So Much Love, I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore, Don't Forget About Me, Windmills of your Mind, I Can't Make It Alone, Just One Smile and like all the others on the original version.
The bonus track songs I like are: Make It With You, Have A Good Life Baby, and You've Got a Friend.
All this talk about DIM, just popped in to play it!
Marty
Marty I take it you are talking about Ev'rythings Coming Up Dusty & Dusty In Memphis as you called it SOAP which we all know was the hit single.
No I am not saying one album is better than the other, what I am saying is DIM is the one that is discussed the most and people tend to forget the other albums. I love the Memphis album but I also love ECUD, that was the first Dusty album I bought and it still remains my all time favourite album by any singer. |
| Janie |
Posted - 11/07/2008 : 10:41:33
quote:
Originally posted by reputation
Janie what made you feel let down with Dusty, what did she do? Was it going off to the States?
The States was always Dusty's dream but I wish she had never stayed away for so long. OK she came back every so often but she was still resident there.
As a teenager, having hung on every note she sang, watched everything I possibly could of her, read everything I possibly could about her, I was most definitely miffed that she disappeared to the States! She wasn't like the Beatles and the other of the British acts I was aware of who 'invaded' the USA at the time, becaue to me they always were Brits abroad and would be coming home - I felt at the time that they were true to their fans. It struck me that Dusty wanted to be more American than British and as an ardent fan, one who had contributed to her success albeit it my own small way, I did feel she let us down. Well..............I DID say I was a teenager, didn't I? However, time has I hope proved that I did remain a true 'Superfan' |
| Memphis |
Posted - 11/07/2008 : 01:41:36
John
Great points.
I believe Dusty knew this was her finest recording but she had an ambivalent relationship with it because it didn't sell. By the 1980s she could just about admit it was a great recording and it contained her finest singing. At the time of release she said thing's like 'people say this I my finest album'. I think that's Dusty saying 'this is my finest album'. After it's relative lack of sales you find her almost denigrating it with 'I don't know what people see in it' kind of lines; this is especially much later on when Dusty is sick of people boxing her into that time when she wants to move on and us to move on with her.
I do think Dusty was sales driven because sales were the public showing they liked her work. Dusty couldn't stand failure; she needed those sales to validate her worth. I guess at this time though there was still hope and there was still a next album. So if I freeze frame here I agree with you about there not being a dark side.
I've never come across that information about her being annoyed about the release of 'Son of a Preacher Man' (I don't recall the 'funny little voice' comments either). I would have thought she would have had much more control. I do know now that was one of her first recordings for DIM. I didn't know she wanted to do more work on it. Very interesting.
Memphis
Memphis
Ever since we met...
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| noidea1960 |
Posted - 10/07/2008 : 23:22:50
Memphis
I share your adoration of DIM but I do not share the dark side of what it did to Dusty. Firstly Dusty had a succession of failed albums in the early 70's but more to the point, her singles sales dried up. I don't beleive she looked back on DIM and shuddered.
I actually think Dusty often displayed false modesty about much of her work as it was just in her nature to do that. I have seen interviews with her when she talked about how Wexler and co managed to drive the very best out of her on DIM and reach heights she never reached before. That is why I say it was "false" modesty. Another example is she often talked about her "funny little voice" - well I refuse to beleive she really thought her voice was either "funny" or "little".
I beleive she was very proud of DIM and the critical acclaim that came with it (she was not profit driven but was perfectionist driven) ergo she was livid when they release SOAPM as a single even though it did make the charts because she never intended that performance to be the final cut.
Of course she would want all her records to sell as that was final proof that her audiance/fans loved her work but to think that she had a dim view of "DIM" is not how I see things. I never heard of her talking about DIM that way rather than express the false modesty that was habitual with her.
John
It's that voice...just listen to the voice |
| Memphis |
Posted - 10/07/2008 : 22:56:05
These are fantastic posts. Thanks very much. What I've learnt is that this was a difficult time for both fans and Dusty. Dusty was in transition and moving quite firmly away from her previous highly eclectic style. The title 'Dusty in Memphis' and the two cover pictures say it all for me. This was Dusty reconstructed in Memphis.
I can think of no comparable album in my collection (because of its subtle emotional intensity and musical intelligence); it stands alone, lonely and great waiting for others to catch up with it. I think Dusty broke a new path here. Others did follow more carefully and more successfully but Dusty couldn't reap the rewards in 1969 and this experience of greatness and failure, a sort of noble fall, didn't do Dusty much good and the album represented a breach, a break of bond with some of her original fans. I also think the album helped to put Dusty into a chaotic free fall and, as we know, it took years for her to recover her equilibrium.
I'd like to know more about why Atlantic deleted the album after 100,000 sales and whether Dusty had anything to do with that decision. The album was liked by some, as we can see here from these great posts, but it was not perceived by record buyers, at the time, as a greatest album of all time kind of effort - even though it received a critical thumbs up. And Dusty's image change was not that well received.
I've been thinking about Brian's comment that there weren't any ravers on DIM. As Reputation says, there is 'raving' on DIM but it's not as obvious as on previous albums and you usually have to wait until the end of some tracks. I love the controlled energy of DIM. But I love 'Ain't No Sun Since You've Been Gone' too and Brian's comment made me realise that she never (studio) recorded anything like this again. She should have done I think.
I love 'Dusty in Memphis'; it's one of the best albums I've ever heard and I never tire of it. But I don't think the cost to Dusty was worth it (she was too fragile to stand this kind of failure) and I guess this is why it's so difficult to find quotes from Dusty admitting this was a great album. The album now comes with retrospective sadness for me because it marks a break point and the beginning of a decline from the greatest heights.
I believe 'Dusty in Memphis' (and 'Ev'rythings Coming Up Dusty') stands alongside other greatest album of 'all time' and I'm talking Beatles and Beach Boys and equivalents here. Any more comments are very welcome. Thanks very much again for all the great comments so far. 
Memphis
Ever since we met...
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| Earthbound Gypsy |
Posted - 09/07/2008 : 22:06:28
I just flipped through the pages on the DIM album. I believe it was this forum where there was a Utube clip of Dusty singing in a green velvet suit/gown. Pretty sure it's the same gown on page 7 of the booklet, but in black and white.
Marty |
| Earthbound Gypsy |
Posted - 09/07/2008 : 22:03:43
Sadly I never knew Dusty was living in the States most of the years she did!
Karl I agree if I understand you correctly, ECUD is a better album that SOAPM, also AGCD.
There are many outstanding tracks on SOAPM. My favorite tracks are: So Much Love, I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore, Don't Forget About Me, Windmills of your Mind, I Can't Make It Alone, Just One Smile and like all the others on the original version.
The bonus track songs I like are: Make It With You, Have A Good Life Baby, and You've Got a Friend.
All this talk about DIM, just popped in to play it!
Marty |
| reputation |
Posted - 09/07/2008 : 11:03:09
Janie what made you feel let down with Dusty, what did she do? Was it going off to the States?
The States was always Dusty's dream but I wish she had never stayed away for so long. OK she came back every so often but she was still resident there. |
| Janie |
Posted - 09/07/2008 : 10:35:41
quote:
Originally posted by Memphis
I'm trying to put myself in the place of a fan that would have been with Dusty through her hey days. I would have missed those eclectic albums where you got a ballad, some soul, some classics. I would have wonedered why she wanted to spend so much time in the States and I would have been a bit hurt by her statements about the UK constraining her and that she needed a new challenge. Sweetbaby mentions the image change. The cover in the UK was different to the one in the States. Dusty looked different on TV too. Did you approve of the change?
Comments from anyone else are very welcome.
Memphis
Ever since we met...
What you have written here Memphis embraces my sentiments about Dusty - I was there through her hey days in the 60's and, at the time we are considering here I DID feel let down by her on any number of levels. Of course time 'heals' and I myself 'grew-up'a little and was able to adopt a more realistic perspective to it, after all in the words of one of her songs 'You don't own me'....I guess at the time I thought we did! Mind you, it took me many years to really come to grips with her music again - I realise that was entirely my loss. Ah well.......
Janie x54 |
| reputation |
Posted - 09/07/2008 : 08:40:48
Yes I liked the Memphis album whenever I heard it but not the sleeve, I think the British sleeve is awful and much prefer the American picture.
Brian there is a raver on Memphis she raves near the end of Don't Forget About Me. That was one thing I liked about the way Dusty sang, she could be very restrained and then she just let rip and never held back, she was a very exciting singer.
I especially liked the selection of songs on Memphis as I knew many of them - Just One Smile, So Much Love, Windmills Of Your Mind which she did SO much better than Noel Harrison, then of course there is I Can't Make It Alone which is worth the album price just for that song alone.
It must have been so hard for Dusty to record such a classy album and not have a huge hit with it, Dusty had many knocks in her life chart wise - perhaps she was just TOO GOOD for the British public.
Anyway it's good to know that Memphis has become such a favourite
but I'm with Brian here in saying that "Ev'rythings Coming Up Dusty" is one fantastic album, |
| Sweetbaby |
Posted - 09/07/2008 : 02:31:43
 Somehow I omitted Dionne Warwick from the list of pop vocalistes to record in Memphis in the wake of DIM: Dionne's Soulful album - which she produced herself in tandem with Chips Moman the founder of American Sound studios - was in fact a commercial success charting higher with its no#11 peak than any of Dionne's other albums except for Valley of the Dolls. Of course Dionne is a rare example of a 60s female singer who managed to score with both singles & albums. The downside to having been so ubiquitous in the 60s - unlike Dusty who at least in the US was always somewhat of a cult figure - is that Dionne's now considered somewhat of a relic & her albums are likely just considered settings for the one or two hits they featured. Since Soulful didn't produce any classic hits - Dionne's remake of You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' hit the Top 20 but remained in the shadow of the Righteous Brothers original - Soulful is perhaps the most obscure album release from Dionne's heyday. |
| Earthbound Gypsy |
Posted - 09/07/2008 : 01:06:58
I know it's been said, but I think DIM was truly ahead of it's time and ahead of my own taste as well. Of course I rushed out to buy the album when it came out, we are talking Dusty Springfield here, understand!!! I have to admit that it was far from one of my favorite albums when I first heard it. Don't ask me what I was thinking at the time. Today, I am shocked that I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore didn't blow me over the first time I heard it. It still is not my favorite album that she has done and I do not like the bonus tracks on the Rhino American version.
Bottom line, it still is a wonderful album and it's interesting that is someone has a small amount of Dusty knowledge there is a good chance that the album that they will know is DIM.
Marty
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| Memphis |
Posted - 09/07/2008 : 00:36:39
I can empathise with that Carole. I bought all my first records 2nd hand. I couldn't afford new records for a long time and even now I very rarely buy at full price. I guess I might have thought 'Dusty in Memphis'? what's that all about and just walked past.
Dusty's original fans would be growing up by 1969 too and maybe they had better things to spend their money on. That leaves the younger generation and I guess, in the UK, they'd have been buying rock, reggae, Motown and Stax type soul albums - if they could afford them.
Memphis
Ever since we met...
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| Carole R. |
Posted - 09/07/2008 : 00:24:00
Memphis... Its so hard to remember, and of course, around that time I hardly had any money, so hard decisions had to be made...
I vaguely remember not liking the title of the album, don't know why, but at the time I wondered why why she was recording in Memphis...and not here.
Memphis to me then, didn't have the same connotations as it does now.
I'd never heard of Jerry Wexler and Co, then... I just bought or didn't buy records, I didn't get involved with all the background stuff.
Carole R xx
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| Memphis |
Posted - 08/07/2008 : 23:56:37
Carole - I'm so intrigued by your response. What do you mean by disillusionment - in connection to Dusty. And 'selling out'? . I'm trying to put myself in the place of a fan that would have been with Dusty through her hey days. I would have missed those eclectic albums where you got a ballad, some soul, some classics. I would have wonedered why she wanted to spend so much time in the States and I would have been a bit hurt by her statements about the UK constraining her and that she needed a new challenge. Sweetbaby mentions the image change. The cover in the UK was different to the one in the States. Dusty looked different on TV too. Did you approve of the change? I know I'm putting you in the spot here but I'd so like to know the answers to my questions. Please. Comments from anyone else are very welcome.
And what records can you remember buying or liking around 1969?
Brian - You had the reaction Dusty craved (I know you're a soul man). But can you understand why other Dusty people wouldn't have 'got' DIM? DIM is rather downbeat and gloomy isn't it? I love it but that's from a retrospective point of view. I'd been educated to love it by the huge back catalogue of great music I had access to and the references to DIM in the music papers I read (NME and Sounds).
John - You're right. Led Zeppelin and other rock bands ruled in 1969. I think DIM was re-released in the early 1980s or maybe 1979 to tie in with Dusty's 'come back'. That's when I was finally able to get it. I couldn't get any of her other albums although I can't remember even looking for them. Times have changed. Now I have them all. Most of Dusty's albums were only released on CD in 2001.
Memphis
Ever since we met...
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| noidea1960 |
Posted - 08/07/2008 : 23:56:08
For my part I can only add a personal theory as I was only 9yrs old at the time and certainly not buying any albums at that time!
But I would think that at that time in the 60's, pop and rock bands were starting to really dominate youth culture and both the artist and album style were perhaps not "where it was at" with the younger generation at that time.
However perhaps someone could dig up an albums chart around the time of DIM's release to see what DID make it. That may blow my theory out the water.
Of course in the 21st century we can look back at 40 years of pop music and reappraise work along the way. That is what happened to DIM some time in tha early 80's if not before but lest we forget - DIM was a critical success from day 1 as far as I have read.
Now I shall shut up.
John
It's that voice...just listen to the voice |
| Brian |
Posted - 08/07/2008 : 23:31:03
[quote]Originally posted by Memphis
Great posts so far. Thanks because I really want to understand.
Brian and Reputation - What did you think of 'Dusty in Memphis' at the time you bought it - did you like it, think it was mediocre, think it was great?
OK - at the time I thought it was Dusty's best ever album (this happened with each release - so is not a good pointer!!)...however it struck me as the most 'soulful' album ever by a white singer. The production was superb, the songs were wonderful, although there was no sign of a 'Dusty raver'...something which I missed as it was expected. I never get tired of listening to this album and I love it...but not quite as much as 'Everything's coming up Dusty'! which for me at least is THE Dusty album of all time
Brian. |
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