THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,255) Bobby Jameson — “Windows and Doors”
Supercatchy sunshine pop produced by Curt Boettcher, with two more catches: the lyrics are profound and the singer/songwriter’s life was tragic.
Richie Unterberger says of the song that it “bears an early Love influence” and of the LP Color Him In that:
[I]t’s much more a Californian-sounding, faintly psychedelic-speckled pop/rock record than a British Invasion one. Produced by Curt Boettcher, it’s an odd LP . . . [for] its strange juxtaposition of 1966-1967 rock styles. Jameson writes intense songs of soul-searching and questioning, yet the tunes are dressed up in rather normal good-time Southern California pop/rock arrangements, with cheerful female backing vocals that verge on the too-chipper, sometimes to the point of annoyance [not to me!] At times, his sly, mind-rushing-to-keep-pace-with-the-tongue lyrics recall early Arthur Lee . . . . It’s an interesting, but not terribly interesting [yes, terribly interesting!] mildly eccentric pop/rock album with a dash of flower power.
Tosh Berman adds:
The [LP] is co-produced by Boettcher, as well as Jim Bell and Steve Clark. All three producers part of the Los Angeles music scene along with Bobby. Color Him In conveys a sound of sweetness with Jameson’s soulful voice, but the songs also have slicked backup singing. There is tension between the backup singing and Jameson’s lead. It conveys a lightness but with an undercurrent of dread and anxiety. There are traces of Forever Changes by Love within the songs, and there are intense Arthur Lee-like vocalisms throughout the album. . . . [T]his record refuses to leave, and layers of meaning or sounds come through repeated listening.
https://tosh.substack.com/p/jameson-color-him-in-verve-records
Jameson himself recalled:
“Color Him In” was a psychedelic work of the times. Much of what is on the record was inspired by LSD, Vietnam, and the Peace Movement. The overall context was freedom from the establishment or so we thought. It was basically a concept album, but most of the music’s conceptual arrangements were Curt’s. Songs I wrote like “See Dawn” dealt with duality. “What goes up must come down.” The lyric “See dawn, see dawn the setting sun” attempts to look at things from opposite ends of a single spectrum simultaneously. These pairs of opposites run throughout the work. Curt Boettcher was delighted by this kind of lyric. My words and melodies, according to Curt at the time, were like a playground for his arrangements. He would take the demos I made of me and a guitar, and arrange vocal harmonies and instrumentation around them. He would come up with entire arrangements based on a specific lick or chord progression of mine. . . . Another problem we encountered in making Color Him In was that Curt Boettcher was trying to finish up an album with The Association at the same time. The Association wanted to produce themselves and argued with Boettcher all the time about who had the final say. So as you can imagine we were never just concentrating on one thing. We were always arranging time to suit numerous demands made by several different entities. This tended to make Curt crazy and unable to do what he wanted on some of our work. . . . Curt was surrounded by people who all became friends of mine, like Michele O’Malley, Jim Bell, and Lee Mallory. . . . At one point I moved into a house with all of these people and we tried living together but it proved too difficult in the long run. Too many dominant personalities in one place. Working together was one thing, living together was another. Curt and I were very close friends while we worked on “Color Him In.” We were never anymore or less than friends. Those of you who are familiar with Curt’s personal life can put your questions away. Curt and I were good friends. We liked working together and we inspired each other.
https://bobbyjameson.blogspot.com/2008/04/part-38-curt-boettcher-and-bobby.html
As to Bobby Jameson, Jason Ankeny tells us:
West Coast folk-rocker Bobby Jameson is best known — or, perhaps, not known at all — for Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest [see #219] the sought-after cult LP he recorded under the alias Chris Lucey. . . . Jameson cut his debut single, “I Wanna Love You,” for the Talamo label in early 1964. The record was a regional hit, and even earned him an appearance on American Bandstand. Although the follow-ups . . . went nowhere, Jameson nevertheless captured the attention of Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham, and in late 1964 he flew to London to record the Decca single “All I Want Is My Baby,” co-written by Oldham and . . . Keith Richards . . . . After a 1965 one-off for the Brit imprint, “I Wanna Know,” Jameson returned to Los Angeles, where he befriended producer Marshall Lieb. . . . [who] was in the midst of helming the debut Surrey Records release by folkie Chris Ducey, but with the album covers already printed and the disc ready to ship, contractual snafus forced the project into limbo. Lieb coerced Jameson into writing and recording a new batch of tunes based on Ducey’s existing song titles, and after some creative tinkering with the cover art, [the album] — now credited to Chris Lucey and, for reasons unknown, featuring a photo of Rolling Stone Brian Jones — finally hit retail. Promoted via what was then the most expensive and lavish Billboard advertising supplement ever printed, the album — a deeply idiosyncratic psych-folk opus . . . proved a commercial flop . . . . Jameson did not resurface until mid-1966, releasing “Gotta Find My Roogalator” — arranged by Frank Zappa . . . . He then signed to Verve, where the Our Productions team of Curt Boettcher, Jim Bell, and Steve Clark helmed his 1967 LP Color Him In. That same year, Jameson also appeared in the infamous American International Pictures documentary Mondo Hollywood . . . . A 1969 album for GRT, Working!, proved Jameson’s swan song. During the ’70s, his frustrations with the music industry manifested themselves in substance abuse and two suicide attempts. . . . After he left the music business in 1985, he lived so quietly with his mother in San Luis Obispo County, California that many thought he was dead. He didn’t resurface until 2003, when he learned that Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest had been reissued unbeknownst to him . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bobby-jameson-mn0001425046#biography
If you’d like to read Jameson recounting his life, and his overwhelming bitterness, see:
https://bobbyjameson.blogspot.com/?m=1, https://lifeandtimesofbobbyjameson.blogspot.com/
He also left this disturbing video monologue:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W59QqX8HwHU&pp=ygUWQm9iYnkgamFtZXNvbiBkaWF0cmliZQ%3D%3D
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