Don't Count Me Out: Fame Recordings 1
Product ID: 6506008
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Product Description UK collection of previously unreleased tracks from the Soul/R&B songwriter and performer. Recorded at FAME's studios in Muscle Shoals and Memphis, here are his original takes on songs that he penned for Wilson Pickett, Willie Hightower, Candi Staton, Clarence Carter, Jimmy Hughes and more. Most are as good as and frequently are better than the familiar covers and any one could have made him a star of similar stature to his peers, if he'd not chosen to put writing above singing the songs in public. All titles are previously unissued Fame recordings, except the first track. Kent Records. Review Hot on the heels of the sensational The FAME Studios Story box comes Kent's first compilation of 1960s recordings by a man revered in soul circles for six decades. As talented as he was prolific - and this is the first of what could end up being as many as three compilations of George's Fame material - he wrote songs for just about every important artist to record at FAME from 1968-72. Recorded at FAME's studios in Muscle Shoals and Memphis, here are his original takes on songs that he penned for Wilson Pickett, Willie Hightower, Candi Staton, Clarence Carter, Jimmy Hughes and more. Most are as good as and frequently are better than the familiar covers and any one could have made him a star of similar stature to his peers, if he'd not chosen to put writing above singing the songs in public. Kent's 2009 CD of George's early and mid-70s recordings for Sounds Of Memphis was universally admired by fans of quality Southern Soul. It's highly unlikely that this CD will be any less admired. Watch out for more FAME releases throughout 2012 and 2013. --I'm still amazed that these amazing George Jackson CD compilations are not getting more notice. This is sublime 1970s southern soul. His "In Memphis" was outstanding and so is this CD, the first volume of his Fame Recordings. Volume 2 just came out and you can rest assured I'm going to snare that one too! George Jackson was primarily known as a songwriter for most of his career, and many artists scored big hits with his tunes. But what's impressive is how good --- no, how excellent --- a recording artist he was in his own right. He possessed a fine, expressive voice that garnished each tune with a succulent sheen of soul. His voice may not have the jaw-dropping power of a James Carr or O.V. Wright, but it's not far behind those guys. These recordings all appear to be from either the late 60s or early 70s, but there aren't exact recording dates listed. But there is a nice booklet with information about Jackson and these recordings. It says that while going through the archives of Fame Records, they came across over 100 unissued tracks from George Jackson. That's the count so far ... there could be more! Man, that's mind boggling, the fact that so many songs of high quality were sitting in a vault for so many years. Huge thanks to Kent Records for putting together this compilation. I'm looking forward to Volume 2. Any fan of the Otis Redding/James Carr school of expressive soul singers needs to hear this guy. --George Jackson issued just two singles for Fame Records, as he worked for them primarily as a songwriter. He did, however, record more than 100 tracks for the company, building up a stockpile of material that could be considered suitable for other artists. This collection of 24 cuts, all but one previously unreleased, is the first of several projected volumes intended to gleam recordings Jackson left behind for the Kent/Ace storehouse of. Precise dates for the tracks are not given in the otherwise comprehensive annotation, but at a guess, they were almost certainly done in the late 1960s, with some perhaps leaking over into the early '70s at the latest. Viewed clinically, listening to this disc you can understand both why Fame wanted Jackson as a songwriter, and why he wasn't particularly pushed as an artist in his own right. Jackson wrote well enough to keep around in case he came up with songs that could be hits, as indeed he did for Wilson Pickett, Clarence Carter, and the Osmonds. At times, the tunes slightly recall the late-'60s work of soul star Tyrone Davis. But most of these songs were on the rather ordinarily decent side than the outstanding one -- perhaps things that could adequately fill out albums, in many cases. Likewise, he was a decent singer, but not a great one. That makes this something of more interest to very serious Southern soul collectors than even the typical more-serious-than-average soul fan, but that doesn't mean it's without its strengths. Jackson takes a lighter vocal approach than many Southern soul singers, and perhaps because it was realized most of these efforts were demos of sorts, the arrangements are also a little more casual and stripped-down than the typical Fame product. The end results are less overwrought, in an interesting and pleasing way, than many late-'60s Southern soul records that try so hard to get their pleas over. To some listeners, the basic approach will have its drawbacks -- when he goes into sections that seem to call for urgent testifying, they can seem like guide vocals for a singer to draw from in preparation for really taking the song over the top. The informality of the arrangements and performances can sometimes seem imprecise compared to the slicker, official Southern soul recordings by others, particularly in the drumming department. So overall, Don't Count Me Out is one for Southern soul specialists, but of considerable interest to that crowd, including Jackson's versions of songs done by Pickett (including "Search Your Heart," the only track here previously released), Carter, Doris Duke, Candi Staton, and Willie Hightower. --Allmusic Guide
D**D
unheralded soul genius
I'm still amazed that these amazing George Jackson CD compilations are not getting more notice. This is sublime 1970s southern soul. His "In Memphis" was outstanding and so is this CD, the first volume of his Fame Recordings. Volume 2 just came out and you can rest assured I'm going to snare that one too! George Jackson was primarily known as a songwriter for most of his career, and many artists scored big hits with his tunes. But what's impressive is how good --- no, how excellent --- a recording artist he was in his own right. He possessed a fine, expressive voice that garnished each tune with a succulent sheen of soul. His voice may not have the jaw-dropping power of a James Carr or O.V. Wright, but it's not far behind those guys. These recordings all appear to be from either the late 60s or early 70s, but there aren't exact recording dates listed. But there is a nice booklet with information about Jackson and these recordings. It says that while going through the archives of Fame Records, they came across over 100 unissued tracks from George Jackson. That's the count so far ... there could be more! Man, that's mind boggling, the fact that so many songs of high quality were sitting in a vault for so many years. Huge thanks to Kent Records for putting together this compilation. I'm looking forward to Volume 2. Any fan of the Otis Redding/James Carr school of expressive soul singers needs to hear this guy.
A**T
If you liked Pusha T's "Come Back Baby", thank George Jackson
Can't lie - Pusha T's Daytona album led me to this CD. The sampling of George Jackson's "I Can't Do Without You" on one of the Daytona's songs - "Come Back Baby" - was so great that I had to check the sampled original myself. It was an amazing discovery, as I now became a fan of a highly overlooked songwriter and amazing singer of Soul music.George Jackson's "Don't Count Me Out" compilation is a set of simple recordings mostly spanning Soul ballads, R&B, and the Blues. Some of the highlights include the aforementioned "I Can't Do Without You" and his version of "The Feeling Is Right" (made famous Clarence Carter). Highly recommend this compilation CD!
S**R
Great songs!
Great voice, great tracks! Can't understand why these were not big hits! All are very worthy to be.
M**T
This guy was a genius! What a shame this ...
This guy was a genius! What a shame this phenomenal body of work sat so long before being released. Anyone who loves old school soul should jump on his catalog!
B**E
Muscle Shoals Southern Soul..
Love this album..
D**H
His neglect in the pantheon of music is crimminal
I bought this on a whim, not really aware of his work.This is SOOO good. Could only come out of Memphis.
A**R
Five Stars
more great music
M**Y
This needs to be discovered by as many people as possible.
George Jackson is famous for writing songs that were hits for others. Wilson Pickett, Clarence Carter, & Candi Staton among them. If you don't have the Kent Candi Staton anthology, Evidence, stop reading this and go get that immediately.But turns out the songwriter's recordings have aged better than his interpreters, Staton excepted. He does not have the conventionally bass-y and gritty vocal stylings of either Pickett or Carter, but there is, above everything, a genuine honesty in his voice that sell these songs as bona fide classics.The arrangements are for the most part simple and direct and featuring the 2nd and greatest of Fame Studios' rhythm sections as well as the Fame Gang. The sound on this cd (and it's companion, Let the Best Man Win) is wonderfully vibrant and gritty and real.You found this page because you know who this man is and you're wondering if these are necessary considering you likely have many of the tunes in different incarnations. The short answer is they absolutely are.
よ**ぃ
曲がいい！
何回もかい直してますが､やっぱりこの人最高ですね！曲はもちろんいいし､ヴォーカルも大好きです！このシリーズ全部ほしいよね。
A**R
Five Stars
Awesome!!
C**T
Don'T Count Me Out : The Fame Story /Vol.1
Un album/compilation parfait. Toutes les chansons sont d'une qualité incroyable.De la très bonne soul music.A se procurer les yeux fermés
T**H
Far from the best of the great FAME records.....
These 24 tracks are bascially a set of demos bar one track ('Search Your Heart') which was released as a single A-side. The recording dates not listed (probably because these are demos) but my guess is that they range from '68 to '71. There is very little 'sweetening' on the tracks so no strings and few horn overdubs but I haven't got an issue with that since for Southern Soul less is definitely more. However there are problems; firstly George Jackson was a pretty non-descript singer by the standards of the genre he was working in which lets face it had a surfeit of truly great vocalists (think James Carr, Otis Redding, Jimmy Hughes, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, Clarence Carter and so on.... the list is long). Secondly despite the liners stating what a great songwriter he was (and he DID write more than his fair share of classics however not many are here!) a good proportion of the tracks included are pretty generic mid-tempo work-outs with few hooks to distinguish them and his singing is not sufficiently stellar to elevate the more middling material.If you are a big fan of the southern soul genre then you'll probably gain some enjoyment from this CD but it simply isn't a patch on the recent FAME studio releases on KENT such as those by Etta James, Jimmy Hughes and especially Candi Staton, not to mention the generally excellent 'The FAME Studios Story' compilation. The best thing frankly about this release is simply the sound of the studio itself and the brilliant FAME studio players with the distinctive slightly 'draggy' rhythm section and lashings of reedy organ, which almost (but not quite) compensates for a majority of the tracks exhibiting anonymous songwriting with merely passable vocals.What particularly concerns me is that apparently this is the first of at LEAST three volumes! I really think that'll be really stretching things thin since Vol.1 is usually the best of a series and they are already reaching for the 12-bar blues tracks on this set (there are a couple) none of which are remotely distinctive and this is coming from a blues fan. I already detect the sound of a barrel being scraped. Perhaps KENT should have collated all the best tracks into a single volume rather than planning three or more and that way they'd have come up with something that might've approached the quality of the aforementioned artists above, as it is you'd have to be totally fanatical to pick up more than one volume of this series if the quality of Vol.1 is representative of the whole set.
A**E
驚きのクウォリティー
ラジヲで１、2曲聴いただけで、購入を決めたこのThe Fame Recording のVol.1、Vol.2ですが、すっかり愛聴盤になってしまいました。本当にどうしてこんな録音がいままで埋もれていたのか不思議でしょうがありません。さらにはこのGeorge Jacksonというシンガーのすばらしい歌唱力とミュージシャン達の演奏力のすばらしさは、筆舌に尽くしがたく、この人が、今まで（他人に書いた曲を除いて）数曲しかヒットがなかったという事実が信じられません。これからGeorge Jacksonの今まで持っていなかったCDを揃えていくつもりです。
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