Customer Reviews

Take Another Little Piece of My Heart

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Outside of R&B circles, LaVette is something of an obscurity. Her singles, released on a variety of independent labels, each with varying degrees of distribution competence, often stalled out mid-chart or failed to build on her earlier success. The result is a string of much sought after collector's items that never built the sort of overall legacy these works should have wrought. Varese's compilation goes part of the way to rectifying this, pulling together material from 1969 and 1970 sessions that LaVette recorded with producer Lelan ("Brother of Kenny") Rogers for his Silver Fox label. Waxed in Memphis with a crack set of soul musicians (the core of whom would soon become The Dixie Flyers), these are hard-soul sides that frame the awesome rawness of LaVette's voice with sizzling horns up-top and funky, deep bass down below.

LaVette's material comes from a variety of southern writers (including fellow performers Allen Toussaint and Joe South), and she nails each one. Her cover of Erma Franklin's 1967 "Piece of My Heart" (released on Shelby Singleton's SSS after the collapse of Silver Fox) is more controlled than Janis Joplin's rendition, but equally as powerful. Two duets with Hank Ballard -- a funky remake of the Midnighters "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go" and a moodier cover of King Curtis' "Hello Sunshine" -- are also very strong, as are previously unissued (or unissued in the U.S.) tracks "Easier to Say Than Do" and "We Got to Slip Around." LaVette has continued to record regularly over the decades, but this CD is by far the most solid shot of her classic soul sides currently on the market. Time for someone to pull all the earlier singles together! 4-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2006 hyperbolium dot com]

Man oh man is this lady raw. This is soul music at it's finest. The money for the CD is worth the first track alone. The only two tracks I didn't care for were the two duets and that was just because someone else was takeing away from LaVette's awsome voice. Bettye LaVette is over looked in the soul world and it looks like she might get some long over due credit due to her latest release I've Got My Own Hell to Raise. To tell you the truth I think this is a much better CD than I've Got My Own Hell to Raise because Take Another Little Piece of My Heart is a raw piece of emotion. Due yourself and your music collection a favor and buy this CD and LaVette's CD Soul Survivors.

Much as I've tried, I find this long lost CD from Bettye LaVette's Silver Fox days hard to listen to. It lacks sparkle and "Piece of My Heart" does not compare with the original Erma Franklin version on Bang. With Ms. LaVette and the Dixie Flyers being known entities - the blame can be squarely laid to the producer, Lelan Rogers whose production efforts pale in contrast to the magnificent work of Arif Mardin on Dee Dee Warwick with the Dixie Flyers ("To The Other Woman") at Criteria that was released on Atco. Betty's latest CD re-release (5/08) on Reel, the long out of print Motown album, like her Atco album with Brad Shapiro on Atlantic/Rhino are far superior to this album.