Searching for the Dolphins

by Al Wilson

Overview

Kent's 2008 CD Searching for the Dolphins is the first reissue of Al Wilson's earliest recordings, containing all of his 1968 debut for Soul City records, Searching for the Dolphins, along with a bunch of singles he had for that label, Bell, and Carousel in the early '70s. Wilson's "Show and Tell" is not on this disc -- for that and his other '70s singles, turn to the 2004 Fuel 2000 set Show & Tell: The Best of Al Wilson -- but its absence is in a way a blessing, as it forces the focus on Wilson's depth as a singer and how these recordings are quite unlike a lot of soul of the time. Part of the reason for that is the presence of Johnny Rivers, the L.A. blue-eyed soul singer who signed Wilson to his own Soul City imprint and produced Searching for the Dolphins, encouraging Wilson to pursue a lush sound that encompassed mellow Californian pop, folk, jazz, rock & roll, and soul, something that was sonically closer to what Rivers was cutting at the time, but hardly a pop sellout. After all, one of the highlights here is Wilson's first single (and only U.K. hit), a hip, swinging version of Oscar Brown, Jr.'s "The Snake," a groovy dance number that deservedly became a Northern soul staple, and it's not the only funky moment here, as it has a rival in a version of Holland-Dozier-Holland's "Shake Me Wake Me (When It's Over)." Also on this album is a slow-burning, late-night reading of Jerry Butler/William Butler/Curtis Mayfield's "I Stand Accused" and the terrific "Who Could Be Lovin' You (Other Than Me)," an early Willie Hutch song that strikes a precise balance between the aforementioned funky moments and the luxurious singer/songwriter material that comprises the rest of the record. The title song is an allusion to the Fred Neil '60s standard "The Dolphins," and Wilson also sings two Jimmy Webb songs ("By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Do What You Gotta Do") and a pair of Johnny Rivers hits ("Summer Rain," "Poor Side of Town"), all of which have a smooth, rolling feel as reminiscent of folk-pop as it is of soul. All taken together, Searching for the Dolphins is a unique record, a place where many divergent strands in '60s pop converge in a way that is perhaps easier to appreciate now than it was then. As good as this album proper is, the Kent/Ace CD gets really interesting on the bonus tracks, almost all of which are considerably less soft than the LP itself. Sometimes this does mean harder, funkier sides, as on a pair of Willie Hutch tunes from 1967, "When You Love (You're Loved Too)" and "Now I Know What Love Is" (Hutch is also responsible for folkier, poppier "Getting' Ready for Tomorrow," a 1968 single with nearly baroque harpsichords that's closer in feel to Searching for the Dolphins than anything else here). Sometimes, this hardness means that Wilson dips into down-n-dirty rock & roll, as on a phenomenal version of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Lodi" from 1969 that has a thicker groove than CCR's original, filled with greasy slide guitars and horns. That isn't the only time Wilson rocks it hard: he bizarrely replicates Dave Edmunds' version of "I Hear You Knockin'," right down to the phased vocals, slide guitars, piano punctuations, and exultations of '50s rockers in the solo section (funnily enough, he leaves out Smiley Lewis, who had the original hit with this), and even more bizarrely, it works, as Wilson invests this blatant steal with down-home soul. A better example of his daring is "Sugar Cane Girl," a Daniel Cohen song that rocks as hard as CCR, while being funkier. It's a hell of a long lost gem of a song, but it's also clear why this and "Lodi" didn't click at the time -- they're fully rock and fully soul, so they didn't fit comfortably in either format. More of the time they were dirty fuzz funk, like in "Falling in Love with You" and "Bachelor Man," the latter a quite wonderful evocation of swinging singledom in the early '70s, thanks to its cascade of strings and harpsichords, all adding up to a loungey vibe scaled toward television. These didn't sell either, but hearing them next to the driving rock & roll, the jazzy Northern soul, the deep soul, and the sun-bleached folk-pop found elsewhere on this disc, it becomes clear that Al Wilson was capable of singing anything, he just didn't catch the right breaks that would bring him to the top with these singles. Once he did, just a couple years later, he didn't stay at the top long enough to truly show his versatility, but Searching for the Dolphins stands as a testament to Al Wilson's enormous gifts. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	05/30/2008
Label:	Kent Soul
UPC:	0029667229029

Tracks

1. The Dolphins
2. By the Time I Get to Phoenix
3. I Stand Accused
4. Summer Rain
5. Do What You Gotta Do
6. The Snake
7. Who Could Be Lovin' You (Other Than Me)
8. Poor Side of Town
9. Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)
10. This Guy's in Love With You
11. Brother, Where Are You
12. When You Love (You're Loved Too)
13. Now I Know What Love Is
14. Gettin' Ready for Tomorrow
15. Lodi
16. Sometimes a Man Must Cry
17. Mississippi Woman
18. You Do the Right Things
19. Bachelor Man
20. I Hear You Knocking
21. Sugar Cane Girl
22. Falling (In Love With You)

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Al Wilson   Primary Artist,Drums,Guitar,Vocals
Gene Page   Strings
Marty Paich   Strings

Technical Credits

Burt Bacharach   Composer
Hal David   Composer
Gene Page   Horn Arrangements
Willie Hutchison   Composer
Ugene Dozier   Composer
Jim Webb   Composer
Norman Curtis   Composer
Neale Clark   Composer
Pearl King   Composer
Billy Page   Composer
Lamont Dozier   Composer
James Alexander   Composer
William Butler   Composer
Curtis Mayfield   Composer
Marc Gordon   Composer
Eddie Holland   Composer
Fred Neil   Composer
Johnny Rivers   Composer
Lou Adler   Composer
John Fogerty   Composer
Leon Ware   Composer
Jerry Butler   Composer
Phil Hurtt   Composer
Brian Holland   Composer
Daniel Cohen   Composer
Dave Bartholomew   Composer
Scott Barnes   Composer
Marty Paich   Horn Arrangements
Oscar Brown, Jr.   Composer
James Hendricks   Composer