3 Mulligans

I doubt you’ll read anything about Davie Allan that doesn’t mention the sound of a fuzzed-out guitar, biker movies, or the ’60s.  With these three welded together his trademark was born.  This 2-CD anthology on the Sundazed label was a perfect starting point as it collects 40 instrumentals spanning the years 1964-1968.  There’s plenty of variety to keep the listening experience from going stale but as strong as this collection is, Devil’s Rumble is also a perfect stopping point, as I doubt I’d ever need more.

Allan carved his own sound that landed right where surf and psychedelic intersect, featuring equal parts fuzz effects, whammy bar, Farfisa organ, and revved up beats, but his playing deserves to be grouped with similar guitar kings like Dick Dale and Link Wray. It would be hard to imagine any other music accompanying the films for which he wrote theme songs and soundtracks, or a better music to represent this era’s biker subculture.

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When this promo arrived at the store I was pretty certain no other employees would be interested, so I nabbed it.  Aside from the main attraction of Aretha’s voice, which sounds impeccable on these two CDs of demos and outtakes, the loose and funky groove of “Mr. Big” grabbed me. Roger Hawkins, only 23 at the time, provided the drum track and he would go on to become a session drummer with one of the most impressive resumes, both with and without the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.

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Stephen Goethe and I were deciding upon which CDs to load for the store’s overhead play. “It’s surprising how many good Putumayo collections there are,” I commented. “I know,” he agreed, “I liked the one called Acoustic France.” “Yeah, and the Italian Café was-” I stopped myself and we looked at each other. After a slight pause we realized how silly we sounded. “Oh, man, listen to us. Are we really talking about which Putumayo collections we like?”

Dark Was The Night isn’t another bland compilation of world music. It’s a collection of newer artists I paid little attention to as they reached their peak in the mid- to late-2000s. But it’s also a snapshot of the great music Stephen chose to play in the store. With the exception of Kronos Quartet, Gillian Welch, David Byrne, and Yo La Tengo, Dark Was The Night allowed me to get caught up with several bands I had almost completely missed. Spoon was just one example. I hadn’t heard any of their music until I heard “Well-Alright” playing in the store. Knowing little or nothing about most of these artists allowed me the chance to hear them on equal ground and I wasn’t distracted by having already established favorites among them.

It was a rare occurrence when I heard new music playing in the store that I really liked, but one that happened regularly whenever Stephen picked the titles. Much like CDs paying tribute to a specific artist, compilations are something I generally avoid but this one became an immediate favorite. It reminded me that spending too much time on music from the past can have a downside and it was nice having my scale of interests tip in the other direction.

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