By Bob Berry

I’m “..not too proud to shout it, tell the world about it..”, “This Old Heart of Mine” is one of the Motown copyrights I truly love.

Written by Holland-Dozier-Holland, with Sylvia Moy ( co-writer of Uptight, I Was Made To Love Her, It Takes Two and others), there’s just something about that song.

The original version, by The Isley Brothers, had me cranking up Keener while driving down 13 Mile Road. Two and a half decades later, driving around West Michigan, the car radio was just as loud for Rod Stewart’s “This Old Heart”!

But for the life of me, I can’t tell you which is my favorite. Thus a Keener Friday Song “Double Shot”.

Released in the January of 1966, “This Old Heart Of Mine” gave The Isleys their only major hit for Motown, going straight to the Top Ten. Give another listen to a stellar lead vocal by Ronnie Isley, backed by one of the classic tracks of The Funk Brothers (and the DSO strings!)

Some 23 years later, Rod Stewart released his second version (a previous single in ’75 got minor airplay) of “This Old Heart”, and this time he brought in the big gun, Ronnie Isley! The R&R duet, produced by Bernard Edwards of Chic and Trevor Horn (Yes, The Buggles), went Top Ten in the summer of 1989, and proved that Ronnie Isley had lost nothing ‘off his fastball”.

By Bob Berry

Tom Who?, you say.  Gimme a few minutes.

Tom Dowd was already an accomplished musician when, while studying and working in the physics lab at Columbia University, he worked on the Manhattan Project, helping to invent the atomic bomb.

It was perhaps his only bomb.

Because Tom Dowd left physics behind, and went to work as an audio engineer, joining a nascent Atlantic Records as that legendary label was exploding. It was Tom Dowd who captured the magic of some of the earliest hits in rock and roll, The Chords’ “Sh-Boom” and “Money Honey” by Clyde McFatter and The Drifter’s.

And the hits (and important jazz recordings) just kept on comin’! Ray Charles, Charlie Mingus, The Modern Jazz Quartet, LaVern Baker, and more. Including an all-time classic, #1 in 1959, #251 on the Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs list. Ladies and Gentlemen, Bobby Darin’s Grammy Award winning Record of the Year.

In the 60’s, Tom Dowd was there, as Ahmet Ertegun pushed Atlantic into the stratosphere. There was The Drifters with “Under The Boardwalk“. He traveled to Memphis and later Muscle Shoals, to supervise the recordings by Stax Records artists like Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett. He engineered Disraeli Gears by Cream. He engineered and produced The (Young) Rascals’ first album, and their first Number One song, “Good Lovin’“.

And, in 1967, Tom Dowd, Jerry Wexler and “The Swampers” from Muscle Shoals, Alabama captured the brilliance of Carole King and Gerry Goffin’s lyrics, with the singular, superlative voice  of Lady Soul, Aretha Franklin.

In the 70’s, Tom Dowd alternated between engineering and producing, making sound come alive and helping to shape the recording visions of artists who became legends. He produced The Allman Brothers” debut album, and later, their masterpiece “At Fillmore East“. He produced virtually the entire Rod Stewart album catalog of the 70’s, including Atlantic Crossing, A Night On The Town and Blondes Have More Fun.

Almost done.  Tom Dowd, in fall of 1970, while working at Criteria Studios in Miami, introduced Duane Allman to Eric Clapton, and the result was one of the greatest recordings, and albums of all-time. Here is Eric, with guitar wizard Mark Knopfler, capturing that magic at in 1988.

Tom Dowd continued his musical journey through the 80’s and 90’s, engineering, producing, supervising the digital re-releases of the Atlantic catalog. He passed away in 2002. Ten years later, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and given an Award for Musical Excellence. Rock and Roll has never been so understated.

If you wish to learn more, about this fascinating man, I recommend perhaps the best music documentary ever produced, Tom Dowd and The Language of Music.  Thanks for lingering over Sunday Brunch on Keener.

By Bob Berry

August 7, 1967. One of my “desert island” songs,  “Itchycoo Park” by The Small Faces, was released.

And not just any desert island song, but an “anytime, anywhere, can’t get enough of it, always fresh when I hear it, played it too loud in the car, let’s play it louder!” song.

Written by Small Faces Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, brilliantly engineered by Glyn Johns; “Itchycoo Park” was a sonic marvel of it’s time. Play it loud, and you’ll discover it still is.

And “all too beautiful”, indeed.

As you probably know, The Small Faces, Marriott on guitar and vocals, Lane backup vocals and bass, plus Kenny Jones on drums, and Ian McLagan in Hammond B-3, morphed into what became The Faces, when Steve Marriott left to form Humble Pie in 1969. Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood of the Jeff Beck Group joined the remaining “Smalls”, and over the course of the next 6 years, created a marvelous musical legacy.  All were inducted, and both groups honored, with induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Happy Friday from all of us who “groove about and feed the ducks” at Keener 13.com!