Format Details: Jewel Case
Release Date: 30 April 2001
Label: Ace Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 029667179126
Description
Given the constrictions that bind most artists to their public persona, Dion's reinvention of himself in the early years of the 70s in both his music and his message, is a remarkable achievement. Over the course of four albums, Sit Down Old Friend, You're Not Alone, Sanctuary and Suite For Late Summer, released between 1970 and 1972, the singer and songwriter completely redefined the expressive potential of his own music. Sit Down Old Friend and You're Not Alone receive their first-ever compact disc reissue here. As with the virtuosity of his early doo wop persona, Dion's new musical identity was the result of an extensive period of experimentation and assimilation. In 1965, during his last year with Columbia, he recorded a wealth of material that mirrored his new-found enthusiasm for the blues. Always an artist of wide-ranging tastes - from the Italian lullabies of his Bronx neighbourhood to the country laments of Hank Williams - Dion's discovery of Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and the other towering legends of the idiom, was nothing less than a revelation. He would go on to record an entire album of classic blues material that year, an album that Columbia, frustrated in its attempts to polish and package the young singer, refused to release. Undeterred, Dion continued to listen and learn, haunting the Greenwich Village clubs where bluesmen mingled freely with folk-rock's troubadours and any number of the era's more assiduous innovators. The result of this crash course in Sixties eclecticism was a developing style that melded his rich tenor tones with spare arrangements accentuating the intent and intonation of each note. It was a style personified in the 1968 hit Abraham, Martin And John, a song that not only clinched Dion's comeback status after a four year absence from the charts but, more importantly, signalled a clean break with the past and was a clear indicator of what was to follow. Over the course of the next twelve months, he would go on to cut versions of Purple Haze and Both Sides Now, as well as release Dion, a new album whose title seemed to sum up the singer's reassertion of his own creative identity. In June of 1970, he would sign with Warner Bros. Records, a company whose reputation for artistic leeway proved an irresistible draw to a performer whose appreciation for liberation had, by then, extended far beyond his music. On the credits of Sit Down Old Friend, Dion's Warner Bros. Records debut album, an enigmatic thanks for "spiritual guidance" is given to one "Jack Butterfield". The story behind that acknowledgement is as significant to Dion's transformation as any musical influence reflected on the album's eleven solo acoustic guitar and vocal tracks. The artist's addiction to heroin, which began in the back alleys and pool halls of his Bronx neighbourhood, had become a life-long struggle to reclaim his self-esteem and spiritual integrity. During his heyday at Columbia he would often park cars in the company lot so that t
Tracklisting
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Dion
Dion
Dion
Dion
Dion
Dion
Dion
