RPM Reissues Lost Album By David Bowie Favorite Tucker Zimmerman, Collects Australian "Dream Babes"

Today, we're turning the spotlight on two recent releases from Cherry Red's RPM Records imprint!

When David Bowie placed Tucker Zimmerman's 1969 album Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman on a list of his 25 favorite albums - alongside acknowledged classics by The Velvet Underground, James Brown, Little Richard and even Steve Reich - readers of the 2003 list could have been forgiven for wondering, "Who is Tucker Zimmerman?" It's taken some time, but the RPM label has finally unearthed Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman - in an expanded edition that could now be titled Seventeen Songs.

Zimmerman's collection of self-penned, forceful folk-rock was produced by Bowie's frequent collaborator Tony Visconti, who also played on the album. But the superstar artist's connections to Zimmerman didn't end there. The future Spiders from Mars - then known as Ronno after lead guitarist Mick Ronson - released Zimmerman's "Fourth Hour of My Sleep" on a Visconti-produced single. And Zimmerman had actually played Bowie's Beckenham Arts Lab, jokingly billed as cousin to Robert Zimmerman, a.k.a. Bob Dylan! (All kidding aside, Bob's influence on Tucker can be detected in the harmonica and guitar work throughout the album.)

Zimmerman came to Britain from America in 1968 with a degree in music theory and composition under his belt as well as a songwriting credit on a Butterfield Blues Band album. Gigging throughout Europe under various names, he attracted the attention of EMI's Regal Zonophone imprint. Regal Zonophone paired him with Visconti, who had been producing for the label, and the pair recorded a reported 80 demos. A single was initially released, "The Red Wind," featuring Zimmerman supported by future Beach Boy Ricky Fataar on drums, Visconti on bass and Rick Wakeman, later of Yes, on organ and piano. Though the single didn't make waves, the label proceeded with an album. Wakeman and Visconti joined another impressive cast of musicians including drummer Aynsley Dunbar and guitarist/sitar player Shawn Phillips for Ten Songs.

The atmospheric, haunting and edgy folk-rock of Ten Songs, like "The Red Wind," failed to catch on with the public. Tucker Zimmerman would make five more albums through 1983 even as Ten Songs gained collectable cachet. RPM's reissue adds seven bonus tracks including the mono and stereo versions of "The Red Wind," non-album B-side "Moondog," and four previously unreleased recordings from the period. Kieron Tyler has provided the excellent new liner notes and Simon Murphy has remastered from Rob Keyloch's transfers from the original analogue tapes.

RPM also has a new invitation to Come and See Me with its 2-CD collection of Dream Babes and Rock Chicks from Down Under. This compilation draws on the catalogues of labels and offshoots from Australia and New Zealand including Festival, Philips, Polydor, CBS, Epic, HMV, Decca, Clarion and Viking for tracks recorded between 1961 and 1971 encompassing pop, big beat, mod, soul and psychedelic sounds.

Even if the artists themselves aren't, many of the tracks here are familiar. The Chicks, a.k.a. sisters Judy and Sue Donaldson, toured with Sandie Shaw and The Pretty Things before Sue went on to establish herself as an in-demand background vocalists for artists like Cat Stevens. (She's prominently heard on Stevens' "Oh Very Young.") Their winsome blend is heard on five tracks here including Lee Hazlewood's hit for Dino, Desi and Billy, "The Rebel Kind," as well as P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri's "What Am I Doing Here with You," the Bobby Freeman/Beach Boys hit "Do You Want to Dance" and Jackie DeShannon's "You Won't Forget Me." DeShannon's "When You Walk in the Room" is another selection here as confidently performed by Sandy Edmonds, who toured with The Rolling Stones on their Australian tour in 1966.

Allison Durbin had a No. 1 in New Zealand with her rendition of the Morgana King hit "I Have Loved Me a Man," and that's here along with two other American-penned tracks - Joe South's "Yo Yo" and Neil Sedaka and Roger Atkins' "Workin' on a Groovy Thing," a Top 10 hit for the 5th Dimension. Judy Stone scored many popular hits in Australia throughout the 1960s, but Come and See Me spotlights one that didn't score on the charts: her potent reading of Janis Ian's "Society's Child." American expatriate Fia Karin became a television personality in Australia, and her brassy, rocking rendition of Paul Simon's "You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies" is another one of the many treats here. A handful of the artists on this compendium went on to record in the U.S. including Maria Dallas, who was spirited to Nashville to work with RCA's Felton Jarvis, and The Executives, who brought their harmony-pop sounds to the Buddah Records roster. Liverpool-born Lynne Durbin secured her contract with Epic in the U.S.A., recording a fine version of Scott English and Larry Weiss' "Stranger in My Arms" found here.

Come and See Me features a full-color 20-page booklet with track-by-track liner notes shedding light on every artist represented and in many cases bringing their stories up to date. Warren Barnett has remastered this delightfully eclectic look at the sixties' Australian pop scene. Both Come and See Me and Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman are available now from RPM Records at the links below!

Tucker Zimmerman, Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman (Regal Zonophone SLRZ 1010, 1969 - reissued RPM Retro 971, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)