Saturday, June 17, 2006

Danny O'Keefe - Breezy Stories [1973] @256 (American singer-songwriter)

The music business is littered with exceptional talent that never achieves due reconition. Years of graft just never pay off. Danny O'Keefe is one of these artists.

To be fair, he did have some success at the beginning of his career with"Goodtime Charlie's Got The Blues", a song covered by many at the turn of the '70's and had other songs covered by more mainstream artists. But it was fleeting and he became relegated to the ranks of those who put out constant flow of great albums to an ever diminishing level of interest.

However, he did have an advantage over many others in that he had major label support with Atco, Atlantic and Warner Bros. This reflects that those in the know did appreciate his talent.

In addition to being an excellent tunesmith, he also added his own incisive lyrics to the themes of love and relationships. In "Junkman" he directs his venom at the drug dealer, but for me the highpoint of this album is "Mad Ruth-The Babe". A song of love set againt the ball game and in particular, Babe Ruth. A truly great song.

On all his albums, O'Keefe lightens the mood with a few fun songs, usually to a rock 'n' roll beat or a bit of boogie. Here, "Steppin' Out Tonight" and"If Ya Can't Boogie, Woogie (You Sure Can't Rock And Roll)" fulfill this role. Great fun and titles the tell you exactly what the song is about.

One advantage of recording for a major is that you get to make well produced albums with top shelf musicians. No exception here, with a band that includes Donny Hathaway, drummer Burnard Purdie, percussionist Airto, jazz bassist Richard Davis, Dr John, the great guitarist David Bromberg and even the producer Arif Mardin.

This really is a terrific album showcasing O'Keefe's own idiosyncratic songwriting. Great tunes with meaningful lyrics make this a must get album. Its a pity that his career stalled after the wonderful"Global Blues" in 1979 and that he did not make another album until 1999's "Runnin' From The Devil". There is now a new album, "Don't Ask" about to be released.

Mad Ruth-The Babe

Keep listening !!!

Link in comments

9 comments:

micaus said...

The link is: http://rapidshare.de/files/23195393/music.rar

Anonymous said...

Ni-i-i-i-i-i-ice!

You should try to get hold of a really obscure album of his - The Seattle Tapes - his first recordings.

micaus said...

Thanks for that. I do have that so if anyone is interested, I could post it also

micaus said...

Link has changed to http://rapidshare.de/files/23454842/music.rar.html Apologies for having to change it.

Anonymous said...

Is it possible to repost this?

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Possible to repost?
// Markus

catastrophy said...

Please a so beautifful talent and work : buy it !
youll be extremely happy to have it !

Anonymous said...

I loved Breezy Stories right from the start and still do.... what I notice that the Breezy Stories album cover shown does not match the LP I had. Front cover same but back cover was a pic of Danny sitting in a way kool decorated room. I would love to see a pic of that back cover aka Danny's room ... anyone have any ideas...thanks fellow humans !!!

Anonymous said...

please repost link that works

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