This is the first in a series of three 7" singles that Dick Jensen recorded for Loma Records in 1965-1966. Active during the 1964-1968 period, Loma was a Los Angeles based subsidiary of Warner Brothers for Soul, Blues, Rhythm & Blues, etc. Attempting to cash in on the success of labels like Motown and Stax, it focused on releasing 45 RPM records aimed at the younger generations.
Credited to "Dick Jensen and The Imports" and bearing catalogue number 2021, "Tom Dooley / Since I Fell For You" was released in November 1965 in a Warner Bros. company sleeve; apparently this was available only as a promotional item. Although I'm not 100% sure about this, I never saw a copy for sale clearly advertised as a proper release and having the "official" Loma yellow labels instead of the promo white labels.
Side A offers "Tom Dooley", which, although credited to Russ Regan (...I'm not sure if he's the same guy, but probably yes...), is a R&B stomp take on an old North Carolina folk song best known in the version brought to success by The Kingston Trio in 1958.
Side B features "Since I Fell For You", a Blues ballad written by Buddy Johnson in 1945 which has become a Jazz and Pop standard. On this song it seems that Jensen's input is limited to a few vocalisms only...
Here's the track list for this 7" single:
01. Tom Dooley (2:40)
02. Since I Fell For You (2:38)
Both tracks were remastered from vinyl in November 2011 and are available in FLAC lossless format or high-quality 320 Kbps MP3 files, both formats include scans of the original item in PDF format. Please have a look at the comments for the download links.
More information about Loma Records and Dick Jensen is available here:
I'm currently compiling a Dick Jensen biography, the first part of this work-in-progress covers the period 1942-1972 and is available here.
I'm also trying to compile a Dick Jensen exhaustive discography, my work-in-progress is available here.
Last but not least, I'm also trying to build a collection of Dick Jensen pictures and memorabilia, my work-in-progress is available here.
All my posts dedicated to Dick Jensen on this blog are available here.
I will post more Dick Jensen stuff in the next weeks, if you have any other useful information about him and his releases or if you spot any dead links, just get in touch with me at stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!
Every night I go to sleep and begin to dream The story of my dream has got the same old theme It’s you, baby, it’s you Turn off the light, sit down on the couch, pour me a whiskey too Take off your dress, I’ll help you with that I fantasize of you The scent of your skin gets to my head, as the smoke from your cigarette do With Monk in the speakers and love in your eyes I fantasize of you
[excerpt from the lyrics of "I Fantasize of You" by Jay-Jay Johanson]
With his debut album entitled "Whiskey" published in August 1996, swedish musician and singer-songwriter Jay-Jay Johanson (born Jäje Johanson) made crooning fashionable again at the end of the 20th century.
"I Fantasize of You", whose lyrics introduce this post and whose musical performance is the opening number on the bootleg recording of "The Black Sessions #104", is a fine example of his original style and genuinely affecting warm voice.
Originally published on Commando! / BMG (Sweden), and probably aimed at the Swedish market only, "Whiskey" was soon reprinted in a larger scale and made quite a sensation in France. Jay-Jay was elected "revelation of the year" by Les Inrockuptibles magazine and featured as cover-star on issue #124 in October 1997.
The Black Sessions are concerts performed for the
French radio station France Inter as part of the C'est Lenoir Show. They were created in 1992 by Bernard Lenoir ("le noir" = "the black" in English) with the collaboration of Michèle
Soulier. Often compared to the legendary Peel Sessions hosted by John Peel for BBC Radio 1, they are recorded in front of an
audience and broadcasted live.
Also known as the "French John Peel", Lenoir has a strong reputation and is highly regarded as a radio pioneer, talent scout and prime mover of independent Rock music.
The Black Sessions are usually exploited by Sangatte Records, a bootleg label specialized in French radio shows. Marked as promotional releases, and resembling a connection with both Radio France and Bernard Lenoir, althought advertised as CDs they are CD-Rs "limited" to 2.500 individually numbered copies.
"The Black Session #104" by Jay-Jay Johanson was recorded live at Studio 105 in Paris on April the 30th 1997 and features the following songs:
01. I Fantasize of You (5:26)
02. The Girl I Love Is Gone (3:56)
03. It Hurts Me So (4:44)
04. So Tell the Girls That I'm Back In Town (5:25)
05. Mana Mana Mana Mana (5:50)
06. Tell Me Like It Is (3:19)
07. Suicide Is Painless (3:52)
All tracks were remastered from the original CD-R bootleg in November 2011 and are available in FLAC lossless format or high-quality 320 Kbps MP3 files, both formats include complete PDF artwork. Please have a look at the comments for the download links.
Jay-Jay Johanson performing live at The Black Sessions #104, picture by Maxime Lévrier
Technically speaking, the recordings on the original bootleg in my possession are not in the best shape. They have probably been recorded on cassette and present quite a lot of hiss and radio static.
Furthermore, one of the songs ("So tell the Girls That I'm Back In Town") has a ten seconds cut during the first refrain. Luckily, I was able to fix most of these problems and the performance is quite more than just enjoyable in the fully remastered version that I'm offering for download here.
I must add that "Tell Me Like It Is" doesn't seem to come from the same source as the other tracks. It has a completely different ambience and it looks like it simply is a low-bitrate version of the original studio version that appears on "Whiskey".
I can't understand the reason for this, maybe the recording of this track was completely unusable for some reason, or maybe the bootleggers failed to record the song during the broadcast. As an alternative explanation, maybe the track was added just to increase playing time, who knows... Anyway, since it is part of the original bootleg I decided to keep it together with the other numbers.
Jay-Jay Johanson performing live at The Black Sessions #104, picture by Maxime Lévrier
Most of the tracks presented on this Black Sessions were originally released on "Whiskey" about one year earlier. Musically speaking, these songs are in strong debt with the Bristol trip-hop scene and especially with "Dummy", Portishead's debut album released back in 1994.
The cool arrangements are fed with hints of Jazz, Noir soundtracks and Bossanova, and Jay-Jay's voice stands out against the cinematic and lush backgrounds of Rhodes piano (courtesy of Erik Jansson, a precious and constant presence throughout Jay-Jay's entire career) and samples.
And about samples: althought the sleeve notes of "Whiskey" only credits Michael Nyman's "Fish Beach" as a sample source for "I'm Older Now" (...unfortunately a version of this track performed and recorded during this Black Session was not included on the Sangatte Records bootleg CD-R, but it available on the second edition of the rare "So Tell the Girls That I'm Back In Town" CD-single released by BMG (Sweden) in 1997...), there are other uncredited samples that you can hear in some of the tracks presented here that are worth mentioning.
First of all, the masterpiece "It Hurts Me So" is completely revolved around an orchestral loop taken straight from Francis Lai's "Plus fort que nous" (or "Stronger Than Us" in the English version) which is part of the soundtrack to Claude Lelouch's "Un homme et une femme" ("A Man and a Woman").
"So Tell the Girls That I'm Back In Town" features a small sample from Lalo Schifrin's "Danube Incident" (from an episode of "Mission: Impossible", which also consists the core of Portishead's "Sour Times") and a basic drum loop from Al Green's "I'm Glad You're Mine" (from the 1972 album "I'm Still In Love With You", also used by Massive Attack on their "Five Man Army" included on "Blue Lines").
The original music videos of "It Hurts Me So" and "So Tell the Girls That I'm Back In Town" are available here below courtesy of YouTube.
"Suicide Is Painless", the closing number on "The Black Session #104", is a cover of the theme song from the famous American TV series "M.A.S.H." written by Johnny Mandel and Mike Altman. According to Jay-Jay's own spoken introduction, this is his favourite TV series of all times.
The song was included on "Un automne 97", a special CD sampler released as a supplement to Les Inrockuptibles in October 1997 (...I'm not sure if this was a subscribers-only gift, or not...), and has been regularly performed live by Johanson through the years.
Since at last it has been properly recorded and included on his latest studio offering entitled "Spellbound" in 2011, it seems that Jay-Jay is still fond of M.A.S.H. and hasn't changed his mind about it.
By the way, just like all the previous Jay-Jay Johanson's releases, "Spellbound" is a great album. A double CD limited edition that includes new acoustic versions of older tracks is also available, I strongly encourage you to buy a copy and check for yourself how good it is.
Jay-Jay is often touring, if he happens to be in a city somewhere near you don't forget to pay him a visit, you will be rewarded and touched by his great artistry and his lovely persona.
Les Inrockuptibles #124, 29.10.1997
[last update: 31.01.2012]
More information about Jay-Jay Johanson and The Black Sessions is available here:
I will hopefully post more Jay-Jay Johanson live recordings in the future. If you have any other useful information about him and this Black Session - especially corrections and improvements to what I wrote above - or if you spot any dead links, please get in touch with me at stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!
Here's a discography of the sadly missed Hawaiian singer, dancer, actor and performer Dick "The Giant" Jensen that I compiled gathering together different sources. I guess that it's far to be complete but I'll try to add more pictures and info at a later date... All releases were published in the U.S. except where noted.
If you have any useful information about Dick Jensen - especially
corrections and improvements to this discography - please get in touch with me at stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!
Renegade / Malaguena
(7", United Southern Artists, Inc., 5-104, 1961) [as part of "The Uniques"] [this record is still under investigation, the band could be "The Uniques" from Lousiana, not the one from Hawaii...]
Renegade / Malaguena
(7", Strand Records, PRS-422, 1961) [as part of "The Uniques", Australian release] [this record is still under investigation, the band could be "The Uniques" from Lousiana, not the one from Hawaii...]
I'm Good For You / Jealous Feeling
(7", EMI/Stateside, 2C006-91030M, January 1970) [French release coming in a picture sleeve, released shortly after the U.S. edition]
White Hot Soul
(LP, Command/Probe Records, CPLP-4512, 1969) [also released in Canada on Command / Probe Records as CPLP-4512] [also released in Argentina on Prodisa / ABC with a slightly different cover as PRODISA 612] [also released in United Kingdom on Command / Probe Records as SPB 1010 in October 1970]
Dick Jensen
(LP, Philadelphia International Records, KZ31794, February 1973) [also released in United Kingdom on Epic Records as EPC 65591 in 1973] [re-released on CD in Japan by Sony Music Japan International with catalogue number "EICP 1381" in 2010] [re-released on CD in U.K. by Big Break Records with catalogue number "CDBBR 0202" in 2013] [more information about the album are available here and here]
Going Up On the Mountain / Three Cheers For Love
(7", Epic, EPC 1395, 1973) [Dutch edition in picture cover]
Cloudy Mornin' (Mono version) / Love Shack
(7", Record Club of Honolulu, no catalogue number, 197?) [exact release date unknown, probably mid/late 1976, my copy comes in a plain white sleeve]
Giant of Hawaii
(LP, Record Club of Honolulu, RCH-1001, 197?) [release date unknown, probably mid/late 1976]
Honolulu Girls / On the Beach
(7", Bluewater Records, BW 1840, 198?) [exact release date unknown, probably circa 1982-84]
True Spirit of Aloha
(LP or cassette, 1985) [a religious album which is mentioned on a couple of Hawaiian websites, unfortunately I never had a chance to see a copy, this is probably Jensen's most rare release]
An instrumental hip-hop track by Raw Foodz contains samples from "32nd Street" (from the 1973 Philadelphia International Records album "Dick Jensen") and is available here]
More information about Dick Jensen is available here:
I'm currently compiling a Dick Jensen biography, the first part of this work-in-progress covers the period 1942-1972 and is available here.
I'm also trying to build a collection of Dick Jensen pictures and memorabilia, my work-in-progress is available here.
All my posts dedicated to Dick Jensen on this blog are available here.
If you have any useful information about Dick Jensen - especially corrections and improvements to the above discography - or if you spot any dead links, just get in touch with me at stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!
+Riders+in+the+Sky+++Taboo+-+Side+A.png)
+Riders+in+the+Sky+++Taboo+-+Side+B.png)
.png)
.png)
%2B%5BPromo%2BVersion%5D%2B-%2BSleeve%2BFront.png)
%2B%5BPromo%2BVersion%5D%2B-%2BSide%2BA.png)
%2B%5BPromo%2BVersion%5D%2B-%2BSide%2BB.png)
%2B-%2BSleeve%2BFront.png)
%2B-%2BSide%2BA.png)
%2B-%2BSide%2BB.png)
