THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,259) Sandie Shaw — “Mama Roux”
Today, Sandie Shaw (see #324) proves that this mama was no puppet on a string! Shaw was seen “as epitomizing the ‘swinging Sixties’, and her trademark of performing barefoot endeared her to the public at large.” (https://www.vintag.es/2021/09/sandie-shaw.html). “Mama Roux” (see #177) is from Dr. John’s debut Gris-Gris (’68), “the spookiest album ever recorded”. (Gabe Soria, https://www.trunkworthy.com/dr-johns-gris-gris-spooks-us-the-hell-out/) A “co-composition with local New Orleans R&B star Jessie Hill” “Mama” is “spooky [and] snaky” and “[w]ith incantatory background vocals that seem composed to invoke a spirit . . . is deeply, funkily New Orleans . . . .” (Alison Fensterstock, https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/dr-john-essential-songs-845549/) I know this is sacrilege, but I like her version even more than Dr. John’s original. Shaw makes “Mama” both spooky and sexy, as if she was in a voodoo trance.
But what was Sandie Shaw doing singing “Mama Roux”?! On her last album of the ’60s [Reviewing the Situation] Shaw proved that she was hipper than a lot of people would have suspected.” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/reviewing-the-situation-mw0000477493) The LP was Shaw’s self-emancipation from her controlling manager, Eve Taylor, and from the Britgirl hit factory. Alexandra M. Apolloni writes:
Shaw assembled the track list herself, drawing together songs that she thought best exemplified the musical innovations of the past decade . . . . Critics expressed disbelief that Shaw would approach songs by groups like the Stones and Led Zeppelin . . . . Shaw was trying to move away from the path to middle-class family entertainment even as [manager] Eve Taylor was trying to push her into it. . . . Reviewing the Situation sounds like an act of rebellion on multiple fronts. It was a personal rebellion and manifestation of a desire for creative control (she and arranger Ken Woodman conspired to keep Taylor entirely out of the studio during the recording process) But beyond this personal rebellion, it was a rejection of the pipeline that the British music industry tried to push young women into. . . . Shaw’s rock covers offer a compelling example of gendered performance that appropriate the moves that white men had appropriated from black women to communicate sexuality in rock.
Freedom Girls: Voicing Femininity in 1960s British Pop
Patricia Juliana Smith adds that:
Shaw recorded and produced the adventurous Reviewing the Situation . . . without Taylor’s knowledge. Upon the album’s release, Taylor, incensed by Shaw’s rock ambitions, quashed its promotion, and the album completely vanished from the public eye and ear until 2004, when Shaw herself oversaw its reissue. Though unfocused in its attempt to do too much at one, the album nonetheless gives Shaw the rock credibility critics have denied her and stands as a sad relic of what might have been had Shaw been left to her own devices.
Brit Girls: Sandie Shaw and the Women of the British Invasion in She’s So Fine: Reflections on Whiteness, Femininity and Class in 1060s Music
Richie Unterberger is less enthusiastic:
Moving away from the usual light pop and MOR, [Shaw] chose a set of covers heavy on material by the likes of Bob Dylan, the Lovin’ Spoonful, the Rolling Stones (“Sympathy for the Devil”!), Led Zeppelin’s “Your Time Is Gonna Come” (double exclamation point!), Donovan, Dr. John, and the Bee Gees. Which doesn’t mean it’s a great album. It’s thoughtfully arranged and energetically delivered, but Shaw’s slight, wispy voice is as ill-suited for some of the material as a nun is for the mosh pit. Hearing her attempt even the slightest hint of funky menace, as on “Sympathy for the Devil” and Dr. John’s “Mama Roux,” is apt to induce snickers, however heartfelt the endeavor might have been.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/reviewing-the-situation-mw0000477493
As to Sandie Shaw, the Second Disc reminds us that:
Shaw was one of U.K. pop’s most notable female performers, thanks to her idiosyncratic performances (she was often seen on Top of the Pops and other British pop shows performing to her singles while barefoot) and reputation as an interpreter of other peoples’ songs. Between 1964 and 1969, Shaw had eight U.K. Top 10 hits . . . including No. 1 singles “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” (the first hit interpretation of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David classic, before Naked Eyes made it a U.S. hit in the ’80s), “Long Live Love” and “Puppet on a String” – the latter of which, although not a favorite of the performer’s, earned her wider acclaim when her performance won the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the first time a British act took home the prize.
https://theseconddisc.com/2013/06/04/sandie-shaw-reissues-are-at-your-feet-from-salvo/
Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes:
British singer Sandie Shaw had a string of girl group-styled singles in the mid-’60s before she retired in the early ’70s. Shaw was discovered by pop singer Adam Faith in 1963, who led her to his manager, Eve Taylor; she released her debut single, “As Long as You’re Happy,” the following year. It didn’t hit the charts, yet her next record, “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me,” hit number one in the U.K.; the single hit number 52 in the U.S., yet Shaw was never as big a star in the States as she was in the U.K. For the next three years, she had a string of hits — most of them written by her producer Chris Andrews — that kept her at the top of the charts. In 1967, Taylor began to move Shaw into cabaret territory; the approach proved a success when . . . “Puppet on a String” hit number one. . . . However, none of her further work with Andrews resulted in hit singles. Released in early 1969, her English version of the French “Monsieur Dupont” managed to crack the Top 20; it would turn out to be her last hit. In 1970, Shaw tried to become a family entertainer, yet those plans were scuttled by a failed marriage and scandalous rumors that circulated in the British newspapers. She subsequently retired for the rest of the ’70s.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/sandie-shaw-mn0000240081#biography
Here is Dr. John:
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