1967... Real soul for people who feel soul, Pt. 25 Ein Sänger, der schon als Kind mit außergewöhnlichem Talent aufwartet, ist noch lange kein Garant für Erfolg. So hat auch DARROW FLETCHER (* 1951) den großen Durchbruch nie geschafft, trotz seiner Gigs im renommierten Regal Theater (Chicago, IL), zusammen mit Größen wie z. B. STEVIE WONDER, JIMMY RUFFIN und B.B. KING... und obwohl RAY CHARLES ihn in seinem eigenen Label CROSSOVER RECORDS unter Vertrag nahm. Erhalten bleiben zum Glück einige zeitlose Soul-Klassiker wie dieser... ------ DARROW FLETCHER (Artist Biography by Andrew Hamilton) A child prodigy, Darrow Fletcher started singing when he was six years old. Everybody predicted stardom for the young crooner, who didnt have a shy bone in his body. He recorded his first record while still a student at Hirsch High School; he later attended South Shore. Ironically, the song turned out to be his most popular recording. The Pain Gets a Little Deeper was a rough song for a 14-year-old to get into, or so one would think, but Fletcher belted it out as if he had just gone through a knockdown, drag-out divorce. Travels took him to the celebrated chitlin circuit, where he shared billings with other hot acts. He appeared on many television shows, not big ones like Dick Clark, but smaller soul shows like Ken Hawkins World of Soul in Cleveland, OH, and Soul Train when it was Chicago-based. At least three more singles on Groovy Records didnt come close to equaling the minimal success of his debut; he switched labels again and again, but sales never amounted to much. He recorded some singles, though; Sitting There That Night was a monster in Chicago, but never got much further than the city limits, due to Jacklyn Records small budget. He cut What Good Am I Without You (1968) for the same label with the same results. Chicagos big city lifestyle, combined with his local success, got him flossy gigs at the Regal Theater with stars such as Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Ruffin, B.B. King, the Radiants, and others. His The Way of a Man made CKLWs (Detroit/Windsor) heavy rotation, notching well into the stations Top 20 survey. Pushed and managed by his father, Fletcher tried but never signed to a label with deep pockets. He had two releases on Revue Records that went totally unnoticed everywhere but at the Fletcher abode. In 1970, Dolly Baby b/w What Is This dropped on Uni Records, but made no noise. Now Is the Time for Love came out on Genna Records, another midget. After a while, Fletcher gave up the dream. A Darrow Fletcher compilation isnt on the market, and despite all his recordings, he never made an album. Some of his songs can be found from time to time on Northern soul websites playable via Real Audio. Some select cuts are on various Northern soul compilations, mostly imports, which can be hard to come by in the States. Other notable recordings include What Have I Got, Ive Gotta Know Why, My Judgement Day, Gotta Draw the Line, and My Young Misery, the follow-up to The Pain Gets a Little Deeper. (allmusic) ------ DARROW FLETCHTER (taken from soulandjazzandfunk) Michigans Darrow Fletcher is a cult hero on both the Northern and Modern soul scenes. His fame with the Northern brethren rests on the recordings he made as a young singer after hed relocated from the Detroit suburb of Inkster to Chicago. In the Windy City he recorded for labels like Revue, Congress and Uni and sides like I Think Im Gonna Write A Song are now eminently collectable. In 1974 Darrow came to the attention of the great Ray Charles who signed him to his L. A. based label, Crossover, and the singer moved across to the West Coast. Between 75 and 79 Crossover issued a clutch of singles on Fletcher (some licensed to Atlantic and its subsidiary, Atco). Those singles – along with tracks from a never-released album - form the core of this new Kent 17 tracker and its these songs, particularly the lovely The Rising Cost Of Love, which built Darrows reputation with the Modern soul crowd. The lazy, rolling The Rising Cost Of Love is undoubtedly the stand out – easy to hear why the tune enjoys such status on the scene. Interestingly, though recorded in Los Angeles, it was penned by two of Fletchers old Chicago buddies –Zane Grey and Len Ron Hanks (with a little help from Philly maestro, Bobby Martin). Indeed many of the tunes Fletcher recorded for Crossover were sourced from Chicago writers – chiefly because, for a time, the singer had been part of that citys writers workshop started and organized by Jerry Butler. Butler himself provides another of this sets great tunes – the expansive (Love Is My) Secret Weapon – the kind of song that Butler himself would have made a fine job of and the Jerry Butler sound is a good reference point for Darrow Fletchers music – smooth, sophisticated yet inherently soulful. Hear it defined on Try Something New – another Butler composition with input from Grey and Hanks or the ultra sweet Its No Mistake. Both those recordings are amongst the 15 cuts that have never seen the light of day before. Most of em were intended for an album that was pulled at the last minute and include an unusual version of Bobby Hebbs Sunny and a funky , social comment song Election Day (more Gil Scot-Heron than Jerry Butler!) The sleeve notes report that Darrow Fletcher is still going strong. Delighted that his music is being reissued, he even pitched up at 2005s Cleethorpes event where he mixed his Modern songs with some old Northern favourites... maybe a Northern collection on the man is in the pipeline? ------ DARROW FLETCHER - Crossover Records: 1975 - 1979 L.A. Soul Sessions (by Aday Croasdell, ACE Records) There was a dilemma with compiling a CD of Darrow Fletcher’s recorded output in that he had two very distinctive periods to his career. The first part was the records he made in Chicago between 1965 and 1970, and then the handful of singles cut in Los Angeles in the second half of the 70s. As he was only 14 when he started recording, the two eras had quite a different feel. In researching the 70s recordings Darrow made for Ray Charles’ Crossover label in Los Angeles, we turned up a cache of fully produced, previously unissued tracks. These included the complete tape of the unissued “Why Don’t We Try Something Brand New” album. Apart from longer versions of the four titles that came out on Crossover singles, there were five brand new songs. These were mainly from the pens of the Zane Grey and Len Ron Hanks team or Joel Webster; who had also provided the released songs. They were of a similar superb quality to the singles, the best dance track being ‘Secret Weapon’, written by Grey and Hanks with Jerry Butler. ‘(What Are We Gonna Do About) This Mess’ is another high quality groove, while ‘(And A) Love Song’ is a tender melodic ballad. ‘Together’ is a bluesier down-tempo tune and ‘(People Are Not) Wind-Up Toys’ is a pretty mid-paced number with a message, so prevalent in the mid-70s. I am sure Crossover saw Darrow as a similar artist to Stevie Wonder during his mid 70s pomp; the funkier Joel Webster numbers in particular were in this vein. Although his two career stages were clearly defined geographically and historically, there were similarities. Zane Grey had grown up with Darrow inChicagowhich was where he and his writing partner Len Ron Hanks hailed from. Their first composition was Darrow’s penultimate 45 cut in Chicago, ‘Changing By The Minute’. Several of the Grey and Hanks Crossover tracks were written in Chicago prior to the duo following Darrow out to LA where the songs were cut. Darrow’s 60s fans will find plenty to admire in his later output as the songs are well crafted and produced with no expense spared. Despite the five year hiatus they can be seen as a progression of his maturity since the 60s. Ray Charles seemed to take young Darrow under his wing and the notes describe a particularly poignant moment when the two appeared on stage together in Chicago. It is a mystery why the album never appeared as the label was quite adept at issuing music in this format, often on relatively little known acts such as Joel Webster himself. Darrow specifically mentioned versions of ‘Sunny’ and ‘Fever’ in recalling his time at Crossover. These tracks were actually cut after the LP and raise the possibility of a second album featuring them, the two Atlantic / Atco singles and other numbers such as the social commentary song ‘Election Day’ and the funky dancer ‘How Can You Live Without Love’. All of the cherished 70s singles are here. Together with the unissued gems they give more than an hour of top quality modern soul from an artist whose excellent body of work is at last being recognised. https://youtube/watch?v=cY9aAc-Z6qM
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 13:42:27 +0000
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