No "pussy" jokes, please.
My modest eBay winning streak continues; I recently bid on and won a copy of Linda Lewis' 1972 LP Lark, which I received in the mail today.
Lewis first came to my attention years ago when I noticed her name in the credits of David Bowie's 1973 album Aladdin Sane, and on Cat Stevens' 1972 LP Catch Bull at Four. Her music on her own, though, never really caught on in the US and she was never mentioned in any of the music magazines I was buying , so I promptly forgot all about her, and her recording career kinda died out as the 80s wore on. A couple of years ago, I noticed her name somewhere, probably on one of the aforementioned albums, and began to wonder if she had any records on her own and how many; I was vaguely aware that she had pursued a solo career for a while. And besides, you know me- always on the lookout for obscure artists, especially with connections and records on Warner/Reprise in the early to mid-70s. I went to Limewire, the only Mac MP3 file downloading application, and actually found a handful of cuts– one being the title tune from the Lark album, which I fell stone cold in love with. It's a gospelly slow song with a beautiful melody, only Lewis and piano accompaniment. So of course, I thought "I gotta get that album"! Problem is, at the time very few, if any of Linda's albums were available on CD and the vinyl copies were pretty darn scarce. I did manage to find a couple of subsequent releases: Fathoms Deep and Not A Little Girl Anymore, which were fine records but a little bland and unremarkable, and being unable to find affordable copies of Lark (most were going for $25 and up!), I soon stopped looking.
A few weeks ago, on a whim, I looked for and found a copy of Lark, still in the shrinkwrap, or so the ad said and it was under $10...so I bid and won it. And even though the condition of the album didn't live up to its billing (it's in its shrinkwrap, true, but it's open and the vinyl has some pops and a skip on one track), the music is every bit as good as I'd hoped. The title cut's there, of course, but there are several other tracks that are almost as good. On Lark, Lewis's songs are in a more folk-ish style rather than the R&B stylings of her later efforts– more Joni Mitchell than Aretha Franklin, the result of having several of Cat Stevens' musicians playing on them, I suppose. The more organic settings work well with Linda's admittedly little-girlish voice. I'm into my third listen as I type.
Rhino recently released a two-disc compilation overview of Linda's career– probably the best place to start checking her music out, even though it unbelieveably omits Lark's title cut.
Credit where crdit is due dept: the above image was found at a tribute site to the late British record producer Ian Samwell, who worked with Linda in her early days. Go here to check it out.
