Omaha Rainbow : Issue 14
What's the latest news on John Stewart's new album? I must have been asked this question a hundred times since the last issue of OR. Well, earlier today I talked to John on the telephone, so the information that follows is as accurate as this column is ever likely to get.
John Stewart's new album, "FIRE IN THE WIND", is released by RSO in America on Monday 3 October 1977. Half the album has been produced by Mentor Williams, the other half by John himself. I'm told John had a total of 43 songs to choose from when he began recording, more were written after that, and ten of them have found their way onto the album.
I don't have the running order, but the titles are as follows:- Fire in the Wind/Boston Lady/On You Like the Wind/Morning Thunder/The Runner/Rock It In My Own Sweet Time/18 Wheels/Promise the Wind/Wild Side of You/The Last Hurrah.
At least three tracks are under consideration for release as a single, but no firm decision will be made until after the album has been released. This will be the only album released by RSO in America during October, so it should receive the promotion it deserves. John's part in this has not been finalised, but he will naturally be doing a lot of live work in key areas. RSO's Al Coury is keen that John should come to Europe to promote the album with a series of concerts. At the moment, no UK release date for the album has been set, and it would be realistic not to expect to see John over here before the early part of 1978.
Recording was done variously in Nashville and Los Angeles. Among the musicians who played on the sessions were John's band members, Pete Thomas, Chris Whaelan and Joey Harris, Kenneth Buttrey, Reggie Young, David Briggs, Mickey Raphael plus Denny Brooks, Herb Pedersen and John's wife, Buffy Ford, on harmony vocals.
Previous to all this, John had spent a month working on the album with Henry Lewy, well respected for his production of albums by Joni Mitchell. Sadly, with all the preliminary work completed, and three tracks at the final mix stage, Henry Lewy was taken ill with rheumatoid arthritis, and the whole project was aborted.
If everything goes according to plan, we shall have a full interview with John in OR15. Meanwhile, the first issue of 'Mother Trucker News', an American truckers' newspaper that was published in June1977, carried an interview by their music editor, LarryButler. John began by discussing the relative merits of recording the album in Nashville or Los Angeles..... "We know what kind of sound we'll get in Nashville - a great one. But there are a lot of advantages to Los Angeles. I've got many musician friends here and I live here. I could come home every night and listen to the tapes on my own system - living room objectivity. Either way, it'll be fine."
Later John touched upon the Johnny Cash comparisons his vocals have often attracted..... "People used to tell me I sounded just like Johnny Cash with a low slung voice and a nervous vibrato. I don't think anyone sounds like Cash - he's one-of-a-kind. Actually I sounded like that because I had what's known as a closed bite. So after the "Cannons in the Rain" album, I had my bite opened. The result is that I sing higher and have control over my vocal chords now. I could still affect that vibrato, but who would want to?"
Then on to his boyhood days..... "I grew up on a race track because my father was a trainer. I'm not a good horseman but I spent a lot of time as a kid walking 'hots' - after you walk a horse you have to walk it to cool it off. Since my dad was training four or five horses, I had to walk nine hours a day in a circle that got deeper - digging your own trench. So I did a lot of daydreaming. That's when I started writing songs - out of boredom. But horses still remain magical to me; they're freedom, they're America....."
This led into talk about John's song, 'Spirit', from the "Cannons in the Rain" album..... "America is the most magical of countries in the world, I believe. The names and drama are inexhaustible. You don't find it anywhere else. Even in Europe they sing songs about America. But that magic may be gone. Go to the Lincoln Memorial. What do you see? Guys in Bermuda shorts, women with their hair in rollers, kids with beer can hats; all looking at Lincoln like they're the same now as he was then. America has become homogenized tube watchers. I like to relive the adventure of those past times through my music. They were terrible times with yellow fever and people all dying at forty; but things were simpler then and I want to revisit those times through my imagination. No one is using their imaginations anymore. Radio dramas used to let you do that, but TV does it all for you. Other than books, records and music is the only imaginative stimulus we have left. I try to make my songs to come out like audio movies.''
As this interview was being done for a trucking paper, the topic of life on the road was a natural..... "Yeah, I'm a loner and I love the road - the road of life and life on the road. I've got one good trucking song on the album, better than anything I've ever heard. It's called '18 Wheels'. The title comes from a couple of years ago during the gasoline shortage. The truckers had lined their rigs up and down the Pennsylvania Turnpike in protest. Dan Rather came up to this trucker. I guess he was about 45, with a neck about a foot long and skin like beef jerky. Dan asked him why he was protesting, what did he expect to gain from it. And the guy looked square into the camera and said, 'If you want that flag to wave, these eighteen wheels must roll.' I said, 'Jesus, what a quote!' I could work ten years and never come up with something that good. So I made that the basis of '18 Wheels'. It's a real gutsy truckers' song and one of the strongest things on the album.''
On writing songs..... "I'll always be writing songs. Writing is something I have to do. And if there's a label that's willing, I'll always be recording." And on performing live..... "It pays the rent. A lot of times I'll be on stage and I'll say to myself, 'Why am I up here?' Performing is the sickest thing a human being can do. But then people come up to me and tell me how much my music has meant to them, and I'll say, 'Well, I don't see it, but thanks a lot,' and that makes it worthwhile. Besides, just because I'm not famous doesn't mean I'm not successful or living a full life. We live in a People Magazine consciousness. If you're not in People Magazine, you are nobody. Well, that's crazy. There are plenty of musicians and writers who make a good living who aren't famous. And a lot of them are happier not being famous. Dave Guard has told me that his life has been great since he left the Kingston Trio and I believe him."
Given a hit single and album, what direction would he like to go in his career? ..... "I'd love to do what every singer/songwriter wants to do, be a movie director. To me the ultimate high would be to say, 'All right, put the truck over there, and you walk over here, and you say to her, what are you doing here?' To be able to put a movie together is the next level beyond my songs which, again, I try to make like 'audio movies.' That would be great! But I can see myself at sixty in an apartment inVentura, reading old yellowed copies of Omaha Rainbow, pulling photos out of my wallet like Rocky. 'I lost the fight, but it's a good picture of me, doncha think? Great picture. God, I identified with that movie. 'I don't want to be just another bum from the neighbourhood. I just wanna go the distance.' Isn't that what it's all about?"
As I say, Omaha Rainbow should be carrying its own interview with John in the next issue. Meanwhile, here are a few quick points to round off this column. To begin with, "Signals Through the Glass." I'm regularly asked where this may still be available, and since it was reissued on Capitol's mid-price label in America it has become less hard to find. At the last count it was definitely available by sending 2-90 pounds to GI Records, 30b Raeburn Place, Edinburgh EH4 lHN, Scotland. If you want t check with Gordon Inglis first, his number is 031-332-5863.
All three RCA John Stewart albums are due to be deleted in the UK. If you still haven't got the "Phoenix Concerts Songbook", send 3-45 pounds to Nick Kimberley, Compendium, 234 Camden High Street, London NWl. Telephone numbers are 0l-485-8944 or 01-267-1525.
Pete Thomas is now back in England and drumming behind Elvis Costello. Did you see himon Top of the Pops?
Omaha Rainbow is four years old with the next issue, and John Stewart
will be celebrating with a hit album, "FIRE IN THE WIND". You
better believe it! Does this column ever tell you lies? See
you all in December.