Sock Free Hideaway

BEATS OF LOVE 

81. You're Gonna Need Me by Dionne Warwicke

MUST THANK Lawrence for not just turning me onto the mighty Peddlers but for inadvertently turning me onto the racks, I found their records in and charity shops. 

When Fat City opened up in Afflecks, many of the records I found in these racks and in charity shops appeared with inflated price tags in their breaks section. What was a cheap record shopping aside was becoming costlier in its own right.

Dionne Warwick was a staple growing up with mum. Her sunlit interpretation of What the World Needs Now was the song mum's partner chose as her final funeral song. Not that I recall it being played. I also managed to buy with ease her Bacharach and David catalogue from these racks and charity shops, but this has proven elusive until now. 

An acrimonious split with the duo resulted in a move to Detroit's finest writing/production team, Holland-Dozier-Holland. She added an E onto her name nd relinquished creative control on her album Just Being Myself.  A name that had been changed on the advice of an astrologer to realize the chart success that had been proving elusive also failed badly. She was losing heart after her move to Warners and the album sold poorly, which explains why it's hard to find. This B-side is an incredible track and should've been the lead track. Since the turn of the millennium, it has been sampled no fewer than 23 times in the fractious hip-hop community. 

I still find myself more drawn to the originals, and this is a case in point. What's not to love about the soothing, soulful delivery and Gene Page's dramatic arrangement? A more concentrated delivery with Holland-Dozier-Holland producing one of their rawest masterpieces which has more than stood the test of time. Many recordings have two lives. The life of unfulfilled artist's intent or harsh criticism at the time of its making. Or, the life of its re-appraisal by people unborn at the time of its making, which is often much more forgiving. Life is simply too short when there is so much brilliance to wax lyrical about stuff you don't like anymore.    

What is magical is that those who loved it the first time around, and those who love it today, more than likely felt and feel the same joy in the same passages, creating the sweetest harmony on some form of metaphysical level.