Fenella Fielding

2012

Savoy Records

CD06SAVOY

CD

1 Blue Monday
4:42 (Sumner/Hook/Morris/Gilbert)

2 Big In Japan
5:13 (Waits/Brennan)

3 Tale Of The Oyster
4:22 (Cole Porter)

4 The Beast In Me
5:25 (Nick Lowe)

5 Angels
4:25 (Guy Chambers/Robert Williams)

6 In The Cold, Cold Night
2:54 (Jack White)

7 Rusty Cage
5:16 (Chris Cornell)

8 May I Feel?
1:39 (e e cummins)

9 Passive Manipulation
2:02 (Jack White)

10 Can't Get You Out Of My Head
3:54 (Cathy Dennis/Rob Davis)

11 Rise
6:06 (Lydon/Laswell)

12 The Ovaltineys
3:29 (Harry Hemsley)

13 Black Market
4:43 (Friedrich Hollaender)

14 Rise Reprise
6:15 (Lydon/Laswell)

15 The Animal In Me
4:40 (Harry Revel/Mack Gordon)

16 What'd I Say / Blue Monday
8:32 (Ray Charles & Sumner/Hook/Morris/Gilbert)

Total time: 73.39

Recorded and mixed at Gracieland Studios, UK.

Mastered at Optimum, Bristol.

Casebound CD package with full colour 32-page insert.

Kim Fowley requires no introduction for music aficionados, being the eminence grise behind a host of rock’n’roll classics. He recorded the Rivingtons, who infected the world with their gibberish meisterwerk, ‘Papa Oom Mow Mow’, and produced ‘Alley Oop’ by the Hollywood Argyles; he has connections with Savoy faves Frank Zappa, and with that mercurial talent, PJ Proby. He’s credited with twenty-three Platinum and thirty-seven Gold Discs, but these account for only some of the many million-sellers produced all over the world during a fifty-year career. Anyone who’s looked over Fowley’s comprehensive website will recognise an astute man cultivating a potent rock’n’roll persona.

“One of the most colourful characters in the annals of rock and roll, Kim Fowley was, over the course of his decades-long career, a true jack-of-all-trades; a singer, songwriter, producer and manager—as well as a disc jockey and published poet—he was the catalyst behind much of the music to emerge from the Los Angeles area during the 1960’s and 1970’s, guiding his associates and protégés to fame and fortune while remaining himself a shadowy cult figure well outside the margins of the mainstream.”

Jason Ankeny, Allmusic.com

If his CV isn’t enough, Fowley is also a deft wielder of the pen, which makes him the perfect choice to deliver a suitably high-octane introduction for this album. A Gridley Wave transmission from the Dying Earth. Here’s a whip of his Excellent Prismatic Spray…

*

FENELLA FIELDING IS! A 21st Century Goddess of Audio Art and Noise Illusion!

Hollywood USA.... Hey folks, it’s an obvious fact, we’re at the End Of The World. Life as we KNEW it, is over. All we have are text messages—cell phones—and downloadable teardrops… Black is the New Mainstream… Gay is the New Black… Murder is the New Orgasm… Orgasm is the New Flaw.

So we need a Bit of Yesterday to get us through this Robotic-Time-Warp-Blip, that makes relaxing IMPOSSIBLE! This bit of Yesterday turns out to be…not a Legend of Yesterday, but a Prophet/Priestess of Tomorrow.

Her Succulent/Velvet-Blue-Saloon vocal tones made me believe I was having Naked Lunch in a Berlin bubble-bath, next to Marlene Dietrich… Somewhere in Berlin, circa 1928–1932.

Hence, we have a message in an aural bottle, from a 21st Century, Axis Sally/Tokyo Rose: Fenella Fielding.

Bring on the smelling salts! Then give me the Silver-Spoon and Golden Needle, so I can blend into the Wonder-Word Void, where Ms Fielding must surely reside.

Fenella’s delivery of the following titles places me squarely at the foot of her bed, on my knees, in a position of worship!

Blue Monday = Originally recorded by New Order, Fenella proves to us, once again, that she pioneered the ‘Smoky Voice Dulcet Tone’ vocal approach, later re-introduced by Marianne Faithfull during her ‘Working Class Heroes Purple Period’.

Big In Japan = Created by Tom Waits… Lady Fielding takes us down the Streets Of Broken Dreams… where Lotte Lenya once crawled hand-over-fist with her man, Kurt Weill… I know ‘Mack The Knife’ would approve.

Tale Of The Oyster = Sure, Cole Porter penned it… but FF makes it a High Society Statement in the middle of a Gertrude Stein, Slow-Motion Nightmare. Where is my maid, girlfriend?… I need a refill!

The Beast In Me = We all know that Johnny Cash made this popular… but somewhere in a Honky Tonk, down in a Hillbilly Hell, Mr Cash is telling his long-dead redneck friends about this Fenella Masterpiece Re-make. It sounds like Nöel Coward living in a Disco Sewer.

Angels = The Robbie Williams classic is rendered in a most Pan-Sexual way. Envision Amanda Lear having Continental Breakfast with Herbert Marshall… Somewhere in downtown Munich.

In The Cold, Cold Night = The Meg White anthem, often one of the highlights of The White Stripes’ stageshow, is handled immaculately by Fenella whose elegant hand fits the silk glove perfectly.

Rusty Cage = All great CDs require the great surprise bonus track… here it is! Seattle/Soundgarden, thru a monocle most dark!

May I Feel = Some genius set this ee cummings poem to music… it has a Weimar ring to it. Think Madam Kitty ring to it, on a jelly-roll.

Passive Manipulation = The White Stripes made it possible, but Fenella paints these Abstract Detroit Drawing Rooms aglow with a definitive Eugene O’Neill family conflict.

Can’t Get You Out Of My Head = Initially warbled by Kylie Minogue… this gem has now taken on an explicit Super-Human, Dance-A-Rama, groove-tone and perspective.

Rise = John Lydon’s tortured plea becomes a feminized Laurence Olivier take on the Post-Sex Pistols U.K.

The Ovaltineys = British hot chocolate jingle from the 1930’s. The Prisoner surrealistically encoded.

Black Market = Dietrich did Madonna BEFORE Madge learned her Diana Ross phrasing… Queen Fenella has upgraded Marlene’s vibe to the deity level… FF  = BOTH Fenella Fielding and Femme Fatale.

Rise Reprise = A Wagnerian/Phil Spector orchestral Fen-Fabulosa.

The Animal In Me = Recorded by Harry Roy and His RKOlians in 1934… this is Wolfbane/Sweet Meat for the tender-hearted… a new anthem for the 22nd Century.

What’d I Say/Blue Monday = The Eddie Cochran reading of the Ray Charles chestnut breeds with an ‘Off-Kilter’ Blue Monday… the child is a potential encore idea for the ultimate show-closer, when Fenella Fielding headlines a Royal Command Performance.

... So there it is, dear listener/reader/consumer/critic/?… A Fan Letter… written from the heart to Fenella Fielding and The Savoy Family… from a most grateful listener.

… Much love & respect,
Kim Fowley
Late Spring, ’09
Hollywood, U.S.A.

PS: View Kim Fowley’s History and Mystery @ www.kimfowley.net