2 posts tagged “jay ferguson”
It didn't take me as long to get Jo Jo Gunne's "Run, Run, Run" as it did to get UK's Danger Money, but it did take me over twelve years to identify it. One night in 1994, driving home to Mt. Airy, Maryland, from Frederick, I had the radio on and heard a fantastic song that sounded like a combination of glam rock and electric blues, but I didn't catch what it was (because they probably didn't even announce it). It bugged me ever since, but I didn't remember any details about the song that would help me to find it. Then late last year, while sampling an oldies compilation on Amazon, there it was again! I finally knew what it was! And I got it! Hallelujah! I listened to it over and over for days.
Jo Jo Gunne formed in 1971 and featured Jay Ferguson as lead singer, heard recently here fronting Spirit. (Bassist Mark Andes had also defected from Spirit.) Jo Jo Gunne had a more down-to-earth sound than the psychedelic Spirit, using a lot of slide guitar for a Southern Rock sound, while incorporating the throbbing beats, handclaps, and shout-alongs of British glam rock. Pretty cool stuff that I somehow completely missed the first time around (though I think I remember seeing their records and passing them up because I thought the band name sounded stupid).
The band broke up in the mid-70s, with Jay Ferguson moving on to a solo career, for better or for worse. But since every band is required to reform after twenty or thirty years apart, Jo Jo Gunne is back together, with a new album and everything. Based on my experiences with other albums by reconstituted old bands, it may be a while before I get around to listening to it.
I was playing my "Odies" tape in the car with Mrs. Veneer one day a few years ago, and Spirit's "I Got a Line On You" came on. I kept up a running commentary during the song, pointing out all the bits I liked (the entry of the bass leading into the first chorus, the piano glissando after the second chorus, the perfect guitar solo in the bridge, the drop-out after the bridge and the entrance of the banging piano, the party atmosphere and runaway electric guitar in the final verses, etc.), when she remarked, "You don't like songs, you like arrangements." Bingo! That single statement proved to be the key to understanding my own music fandom. It explains why I like so much music of negligible consequence (for example, Andy Kim's "Rock Me Gently"-- fabulous Clavinet and backing vocals!). Lyrically "I Got a Line On You" is a cipher, it can be condensed down to "I sure do like you." But it sounds like everyone has a blast playing it, and I have a blast listening to it.
