Tom Jones playing with CSN&Y... I think they might be laughing at Tom...

monte merrick

monte merrick

Most Honored Senior Member
Apr 18, 2021
7,932
east of the sun, west of the moon
stratocarlster said:
I think they are just having fun. Tom was a force of nature back then. I must admit I don't remember him ever being the butt of jokes. In the context of 2023 She's a Lady sounds cheesy but in the early 70s it fit right in.
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i dont mean any slight to him... i grew up with his records blasting across my house... my mom was a devotee - she saw him multiple times in New Jersey at a place called the Latin Casino (pre-casino gambling) in the early 70s... she also loved Englebert Humperdink, Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, and her number one forever, Elvis...

I mean, I know most of TJ's early songs by heart - i heard them many times a day, as well as the above mentioned others - not dissing any of them as skilled and generous performers, but all of them were also the butt of jokes on a regular basis, all were basically Vegas-style lounge acts - by definition not "cool" - except the Rat Pack, but the rat pack was certainly not cool to the hippies... the culture war between squares and hippies, long haired freaky people and clean cut new recruits, was still raging in the US in the early 70s... he certainly wasnt "cool" the same way Crosby was, or Sly Stone, or Carly Simon or Curtis Mayfield.

He had a ton of top 40 records, sure, but by the early 70s top 40 in the US was getting ridiculed too - the rise of FM was getting all the cool kids like Steely Dan and Yes... and then he disappeared from our music landscape (made some country records, i hear, but i've never heard them) - the album i mentioned in my earlier post, from the early nineties, was one of his first real comebacks (other than the brief resurgence in popularity when he covered Prince's Kiss with Art of Noise - which i loved by the way...) In a lot of ways it's a shame, because he's always had great pipes and soul, - if he'd been promoted in America differently, instead of as a lounge act of the sort that Bill Murray made comedy gold from he could've been the Welsh Otis Redding here.

But regarding the ridiculousness of She's a Lady, by the early 70s in the US, songs that celebrate a woman who "knows her place" we're definitely getting some push back and only 'fit right in" with the lunkheads who had so far refused to read the memo ... I mean my mom's sister was subscribing to Ms magazine by 1974 (and she's a hillbilly!). I was reading it at her house when i was 11. so no excuses there - it aint the cheese in that tune that's objectionable on that one, it's the misogyny.

but really i love Tom Jones and enjoy knowing his voice as well as i do... he's a hell of a singer and his song choices these days are impeccably delicious.

thanks for coming to my ted talk, as they say.
 
stratocarlster

stratocarlster

Most Honored Senior Member
Jan 6, 2012
9,588
Telephone Road
monte merrick said:
i dont mean any slight to him... i grew up with his records blasting across my house... my mom was a devotee - she saw him multiple times in New Jersey at a place called the Latin Casino (pre-casino gambling) in the early 70s... she also loved Englebert Humperdink, Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, and her number one forever, Elvis...

I mean, I know most of TJ's early songs by heart - i heard them many times a day, as well as the above mentioned others - not dissing any of them as skilled and generous performers, but all of them were also the butt of jokes on a regular basis, all were basically Vegas-style lounge acts - by definition not "cool" - except the Rat Pack, but the rat pack was certainly not cool to the hippies... the culture war between squares and hippies, long haired freaky people and clean cut new recruits, was still raging in the US in the early 70s... he certainly wasnt "cool" the same way Crosby was, or Sly Stone, or Carly Simon or Curtis Mayfield.

He had a ton of top 40 records, sure, but by the early 70s top 40 in the US was getting ridiculed too - the rise of FM was getting all the cool kids like Steely Dan and Yes... and then he disappeared from our music landscape (made some country records, i hear, but i've never heard them) - the album i mentioned in my earlier post, from the early nineties, was one of his first real comebacks (other than the brief resurgence in popularity when he covered Prince's Kiss with Art of Noise - which i loved by the way...) In a lot of ways it's a shame, because he's always had great pipes and soul, - if he'd been promoted in America differently, instead of as a lounge act of the sort that Bill Murray made comedy gold from he could've been the Welsh Otis Redding here.

But regarding the ridiculousness of She's a Lady, by the early 70s in the US, songs that celebrate a woman who "knows her place" we're definitely getting some push back and only 'fit right in" with the lunkheads who had so far refused to read the memo ... I mean my mom's sister was subscribing to Ms magazine by 1974 (and she's a hillbilly!). I was reading it at her house when i was 11. so no excuses there - it aint the cheese in that tune that's objectionable on that one, it's the misogyny.

but really i love Tom Jones and enjoy knowing his voice as well as i do... he's a hell of a singer and his song choices these days are impeccably delicious.

thanks for coming to my ted talk, as they say.
Click to expand...
Haha I guess it fit right in in Bunbury, Western Australia where I grew up. The counter culture don't arrive there until the 90s 😆

Interestingly that song was written by Paul Anka who 3 years later gave us You're Having My Baby! Paul clearly enjoyed thumbing his nose at the cool kids.

My dad was a huge Tom Jones fan. I know every note of the Talk of the Town and Flamingo live albums backwards. He was a sensation in Vegas. Elvis took note.
 
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