I'm a Loser: The Swamp Dogg Sessions and More [Extra tracks, Import]

Doris Duke | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 7, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Import
• Label: Kent Records UK
• ASIN: B0007LZJ6M
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,673 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. He’S Gone

2. I Can’T Do Without You

3. Feet Start Walking

4. Ghost Of Myself

5. Your Best Friend

6. Feeling Is Right

7. I Don’T Care Anymore

8. Congratulations Baby

9. We’Re More Than Strangers

10. Divorce Decree

11. How Was I To Know You Cared

12. To The Other Woman (I’M The Other Woman)

13. I Wish I Could Sleep

14. It Sure Was Fun

15. I Don’T Know How (To Fall Out Of Love With You)

16. He’S Everything I Need

17. I’D Do It All Over You

18. If She’S Your Wife (Who Am I)

19. Since I Fell For You

20. Don’T Let The Green Grass Fool You

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where have You Gone Doris Duke?, April 17, 2005

By 

C. A. Moore "Goodbro" (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I'm a Loser: The Swamp Dogg Sessions and More (Audio CD)

The first time I heard Doris Duke's recording of "To the Other Woman (I'm the Other Woman)." I was living in Detroit listening to the radio, WCHB as a matter of fact, I can't remember the jock, but I do know he introduced Doris' record and played it like two consecutive times and then opened the phone lines for comments from his listeners. He wanted to know if he should keep playing it on his program or dump it.

I called in and told him to keep playing it, the song had blown me away.

Here was a female singer, who didn't have the most exceptional voice, but she was singing about a real life situation...one I'd seen many women going through in my neighborhood. But it was the first time, I'd ever heard someone sing so honestly about being involved in a compromising situation. I immediately went and bought the 45 single, which was released by Canyon Records, a black label with silver lettering. I read every piece of writing on the single, because I wanted some idea of who was this singer called Doris Duke. I learned the producer of this smoldering piece of soul was Jerry Williams AKA Swamp Dogg.

I added "To the Other Woman," to my own personal playlist and eventually flipped it over and played the B-Side "I Don't Care Anymore," which knocked me out even more. On this tune, Doris sang about being from "the deep south" and arriving in a big city for a chance at a better life.
But it seemed like nothing had gone right for the country girl and after a string of misfortunes and plain old bad luck, she got involved with a pimp who turned her out.

"Hotel rooms, west side, east side. Men Knocking at My Door...And I Don't care Anymore..."

To my teenage ears, Doris Duke was a great storyteller, not an exceptional singer, at least not like Aretha Franklin or Etta James, but she was singing about things those two soul sirens would never have dared...being the third party in an adulterous affair and prostitution.

I had to buy Doris Duke's album. It was titled I'M A LOSER and just reading those words alone made me eager to hear what other tales Doris Duke would share. I waited for the album to arrive at my favorite record store. I waited and waited some more, but I never did get a copy of that album. I found out that Doris Duke's record label had experienced financial difficulties and other setbacks includinf distribution problems and resistence from disc jockeys to play its records, particularlty those by Doris Duke. Eventually Canyon closed down. It seeemd as if the title of Doris' album applied to her record label as well.
The jocks at WCHB stopped playing "To The Other Woman."
I moved on to records by the Jackson 5 and Freda Payne in the early 1970s and I forgot abouu Doris Duke.
I eventually lost the single I had bought.

Now, all of these years later, I've rediscovered Doris Duke and finally got a chnnce to hear her album I"M A LOSER:THE SWAMP DOGG SESSIONS AND MORE, which has been reissued by ACE/Kent.
The album was produced by Williams (now renowned as a legendary soul music writer and producer), who collaborated with other talented songwriters like George Jackson and Gary "U.S." Bonds and came up with the majority of the 25 tracks that are collected on this long lost soul classic.

The late Dave Godin, who was a soul music connoisseur in the UK, reportedly called IM A LOSER one of the greatest deep soul albums of all time. Deep Soul, I've come to learn, refers to music often created by blacks in the northern region of America or the deep south. This music is often much "deeper" in emotion, topic and its very execution than the sounds coming out of Detroit (Motown) or Philadelphia (although some deep soul gems have come from these places as well).) Swamp Dogg was a master at producing deep soul records and Doris Duke was just one of the many artists he worked with over the eyars.
To be an effective deep soul singer, one need not have a pretty voice and Duke fit the bill. She didn't have the soaring vocal style of an Aretha Franklin. Doris had a strong, deep and soulful sounding contralto that she used to good effect on songs that told compelling stories like "To the Other Woman," and "I Don't care Anymore," which she performs with just the right touch of weariness and desperation.
Those two tunes are included on this set along with a whole batch of other classics like "Feet Start Walking," "Your Best Friend," "I Wish I Could Sleep," "Divorce Decree," and "I'd Do It All Over You," a cleverly titled number that sounds just as sly as its title.
The liner notes tell the story of how these songs came to be and gives some insight into what and who Doris Duke was. It seems she didn't fully believe in the material she recorded with Swamp Dogg over 30 years ago. Could the title have been some marketing attempt to convey something about Doris' attitude or state of mind at the time?
However, time and the good folks at Ace/Kent Records int he UK have brought this entertaining soul classic back for a new generation of soul music lovers to discover, and eventually judge for themselves, whether the hype about this being one of the greatest deep soul albums of all time is justified.
I say it is.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars no one compares with Doris Duke, March 17, 2006

By 

Troy K. Turner (Newport, KY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I'm a Loser: The Swamp Dogg Sessions and More (Audio CD)

I have never written a review for anything before, but I feel as if I have to encourage anyone who stumbles on this rerelease of Doris Duke's "I'm a Loser" to buy the bloody thing. You will not regret it.

I absolutely adore what Dave Godin referred to as Deep Soul. This might epitomize the genre. All of the tracks were produced by Swamp Dogg. The First twelve tracks are from the album "I'm a Loser" and the rest are from a follow-up album on the same label and maybe a few extras.

I travel for work quite a lot and people always end up in my car. Doris Duke is always in the player. People inevitably ask who she is. People might inquire because her voice has a raw quality quite unlike any of the other more polished sould singers of whom she was never quite a contemporary. It's that unpolished quality that draws me back to this disk time and time again. In Cleveland, a girl from Torrence, CA told me that the "I'm a Loser" part of this CD was her life story. I thought that was great.

There are four or five tracks (13 - 18) that are great. It does seem as if the second album lacked the cohesiveness of the first. Don't buy this because of the compilation aspects of it. Buy it because "I'm a Loser" may be one of the greatest Soul albums ever produced!

Kudos to Ace/Kent for making this music available. Keep 'em coming.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All Killer, Some Filler, May 13, 2006

By 

Arch Stanton (Bondurant, WY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I'm a Loser: The Swamp Dogg Sessions and More (Audio CD)

I am avid listener of Southern music and have to say that I would stack the first dozen tracks of this CD up against anything ever recorded at Stax or Muscle Shoals or Philly International. Duke borrowed her stage name from the tobacco heiress, figuring it might help her career, and went into the studio with Swamp Dogg to create some serious alchemy. The covers towards the end of the CD are victimized by poor arrangements (ex "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" is tough on the ears) but the stuff from her first album and side 1 of her second effort are top-shelf.

Hopefully someone will reissue Swamp Dogg's "Total Destruction to Your Mind" for another blast of Deep Soul.