Dusty Springfield – Dusty In Memphis

Avoid buying the 4 Men With Beards issue. Mine is sibilant as hell and the surface looks like a vinyl tablecloth that was put through a dryer cycle on the highest temperature possible. It was one of my first Amazon purchases and I wasn't sure about their return policy until it was too late.

It is a sad fact that nostalgia and hype has caused many an album to be given greater praise than it really deserves. Some albums are esteemed not by virtue of their actual quality, but what they represent in terms of the packaging and image, how they and their material captured the zeitgeist or simply due to the artist's status and how their music was interpreted and valued by the masses. In the case of "Dusty in Memphis", it is an album underrated by the consensus, with primarily music journalists and other artists citing it as an influential classic. It is considered her most consistent album, but one track has been praised over all other cuts: "Son of a Preacher Man", which hit the Top Ten back in 1969 only to re-enter the public domain in 1994 due to its playful inclusion in Quentin Tarantino's cult film "Pulp Fiction". To overlook the album as being including one standout among several deeper cuts is to ignore its majesty simply because it does not contain a song as sharp, contemporary and seminal as "Son of a Preacher Man". "Dusty In Memphis" should be heard in its entirety so that one can appreciate its richness and depth as a cohesive collection of masterfully arranged, engineered and assembled smooth soul pieces.

Dusty Springfield had not reached her zenith, and with her fifth studio album, she did so, albeit backed by a perfect production team and instrumentalists to enhance her dreamy, lush vocals. It was these sublime orchestrations, imbued with melancholy and oozing with sensuality, that, for a British pop starlet, were so revolutionary. Not until Dusty Springfield moved beyond her limitations and the trappings of pop music did she begin to mature as an artist, developing an intensity and sophistication she had previously lacked. She had to modify her vocal technique in order to take on the role of a soul siren, and her cool contributions to the distinct fusion of R&B and pop performed by the Memphis Cats informed the 1970s Philly soul sound. Recorded at the American Sound Studio alongside the Sweet Inspirations and the A team of producers at Atlantic Records, the album comprises several blue-eyed soul interpretations and Brill-building numbers written by Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Carole King et al, with all selections highlighting different areas of her vocal talents. From the uplifting "Just A Little Lovin", soothing "Don't Forget About Me", silky "Breakfast In Bed", eerie "The Windmills of Your Mind" and sexy "Son of a Preacher Man", the generated mood is undeniably sultry and sedate, pervasively so.

Dusty's campy yet glamorous appearance and bold personality boosted her relevancy as the beat boom declined, but it was her versatility and intuitive ability to emote that distinguished her from other beat girls of the era. Dusty could effortlessly articulate the yearning and wistful nature of a ballad as much as belt out a dramatic bossa nova classic with ease. Ostensibly though, akin to Karen Carpenter, Dusty was a performer of emotional resonance who could communicate her feelings vicariously and move audiences with a mere chord change. By 1968, though, Dusty's commercial viability was dwindling in the wake of psychedelia, and 1969's "Dusty In Memphis", despite featuring earthy and gritty soul numbers as much as smooth, intimate offerings, failed to make an impact within such a constantly changing musical landscape.

Dusty could embrace folk, R&B, and pop, and revise it for a new audience. As with most badly managed artists from the '60s, she struggled to use this malleability to her advantage. It is more likely perhaps that 1960s Britain was not quite ready for a white woman singing black music so defiantly and unapologetically. "Dusty In Memphis" is sequenced to brilliant effect and executed so impressively and elegantly, producing an immersive, hypnotic and seductive tour de force. As one hears each composition successively, what unfolds is a plaintive and powerful experience that warms as much as it arouses.

Rating: 4.5/5

January 2020 follow-up:
Some of you may have already heard/read that Rhino’s boutique imprint, Run Out Groove, recently announced yet another reissue of DIM. This time it’ll be a 2-LP version, basically the same as Rhino’s 1999 Deluxe edition CD with bonus tracks. Anxious to learn who was mastering and how, I asked Rhino, and they replied with the following. Yep, this time it will be from a high rez file. But, as their archivists claim, the master tape suffers from damage, I’m curious about the the extensive restoration results as alluded to in their response. I’ll likely bite - ROG titles still cost less than an AP 2 x 45 rpm, and the Stoughton tip-on details just sweeten the deal.

“ Hello _______,
To answer your Run Out Groove question:
No, we are not using the Bellman lacquer. We decided to go with our own vinyl re-mastering to address some issues in past versions of this release. We could not use the quarter inch analog reel for this album as there is damage to the quarter inch tape. We used a 24 bit flat master file that was transferred from the analog reel many years ago when the tape was intact and provided our engineers with the highest quality audio to work with and cut lacquers from. We think the results speak for themselves, but a fan needs to actually “hear” the record before making judgements as all of this is subjective.
Here is our mastering engineer, Pete Weiss, explaining his process that he posted on his FB page:

A major highlight of my 2019 was getting the chance to work on one of my absolute favorite records...
Last summer I logged a substantial number of hours at Verdant Studio (property still for sale, fwiw) working on the complete, from-the-ground-up restoration and re-mastering of this 1969 pop masterpiece, one of my top favorite albums of all time. A true labor of love, and I am very proud of how it now sounds.
This historic album has been issued and reissued a number of times over the years, and I obtained copies of each version in order to carefully A-B my work with previous iterations. My goal was to make this the definitive version.
Some things that were addressed: Audible drop outs on the master tape have finally been meticulously corrected. Same for some electrical buzzes that have appeared on all previous versions. The exaggerated low and high end featured on 90's reissues has been changed to an overall EQ curve more true to the original master tape. And Dusty's exquisite vocals now match up sonically with the instrumental backing (in past versions, her voice has been too bright and "ess-y" while the instrumental backing has been comparitively dull-sounding. With some judicious M-S processing, the vocals, instruments, and lush reverb all sit in the same sonic spectrum and, to me, sound "more whole" than previous versions.)
That said ^^^ I was super-careful to use "small brush strokes" -- I really wanted this landmark album to sound "as originally intended" and "not tinkered with."
Lacquers were cut -- IN MEMPHIS -- beautifully by Jeff Powell at Sam Phillips Recording. The test pressings floored me: quiet (ie, low-noise), dynamic, with a clear top end -- Cheers, Jeff!
I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to work on this, and I hope I did Dusty proud. Thanks Run Out Groove Vinyl, Matt Block for your musical trust!”

Could anyone give me a good advise which vinyl version of Dusty in Memphis sounds nice? I own the version 4 Men With Beards and it sounds so bale, dynamicless. Thanks!