News

An upcoming trio of releases from Light in the Attic turns the label’s spotlight on two of popular song’s most enduring writers and one maverick producer/label impresario (who also happened to be one heckuva songwriter!) – namely Carole King, Spooner Oldham, and Lee Hazlewood.   LITA is bringing King’s one remarkable album with her band The City back to CD and LP, and premiering on official CD and vinyl a reissue of Oldham’s 1972 solo LP Pot Luck.  Then the label continues to dig deep into the archives of Lee Hazlewood Industries for a definitive anthology dedicated to the group The Kitchen Cinq!

Freshly relocated to Laurel Canyon and with nearly a decade of hit songs already behind her, Carole King joined bassist (and her future husband) Charles Larkey and guitarist Danny Kortchmar in the band The City.  The City only recorded one album before King went solo with Writer and then, seminally, Tapestry.  But what an album it is!  Now That Everything’s Been Said included some of King’s most evocative compositions, many co-written with her ex-husband Gerry Goffin.  Now That Everything’s Been Said – named after the title track also recorded by artists including American Spring and Peggy Lipton – includes definitive recordings of such familiar titles as “I Wasn’t Born to Follow,” “A Man Without a Dream” and “That Old Sweet Roll (Hi-De-Ho)” as well as incredibly worthy gems like the haunting “Snow Queen” and “Victim of Circumstance.”  Nodding at folk, rock and pop, and pointing the way towards the singer-songwriter boom epitomized on Tapestry, Now That Everything’s Been Said is a lost classic.  Light in the Attic’s newly-remastered reissue features liner notes from Steve Hochman drawing on new interviews with producer Lou Adler and the band members.  It will be released on both CD and vinyl (standard and limited edition gold and “haze wax” versions) on September 25.

Pianist-composer Dewey Lindon “Spooner” Oldham earned immortality with his string of hit R&B songs, many in collaboration with Dan Penn, such as “Cry Like a Baby” and “I’m Your Puppet.”  In 1972, the veteran Muscle Shoals session man and songwriter struck out on his own to record Pot Luck for the Family Productions label.  The first side of the LP featured songs written with Penn and Paul Revere and the Raiders’ Freddy Weller, while the second side addressed his string of hits – both those he wrote and those he played on, including “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” “Respect” and “Cry Like a Baby” – via a lengthy, conceptual medley.   Pot Luck disappeared without a trace after its initial release, however, and Oldham returned to his successful career as one of R&B’s top musicians.  LITA’s release marks the first official vinyl and CD reissues; the vinyl will be pressed in standard black and limited “Lucky Green” and “Galaxy Blue” colors.  Andria Lisle has penned new liner notes based on a fresh interview with Oldham himself.  All editions are due on September 1.

Originally The Illusions (and, for a time, The Y’alls), Amarillo, Texas’ The Kitchen Cinq attracted the attention of Lee Hazlewood’s LHI label in Los Angeles.  A hybrid garage/harmony group, The Cinq was placed under the aegis of LHI’s Suzi Jane Hokom.   At LHI, the band issued a total of five singles and one album, Everything But. However, more was left on the shelf.  All of the music recorded by the group before it broke up in 1968, including sides by The Illusions and The Y’alls, is included on When the Rainbow Disappears – An Anthology 1965-1968.  Among the many treasures here, you’ll hear the band’s takes on such familiar songs as Neil Diamond’s “Solitary Man,” Evie Sands and The Hollies’ “I Can’t Let Go,” and The Beau Brummels’ “Still in Love with You, Baby.”  The Kitchen Cinq didn’t last long, but did help launch the careers of musicians including fill-in member J.D. Souther!  Alec Palao has compiled and annotated this long-overdue collection which features three previously unreleased songs.  It arrives August 28 on CD as well as black vinyl and limited blue and marbled vinyl.

You can pre-order all three titles below!

The City, Now That Everything’s Been Said (Ode Z 12 44 012, 1968 – reissued LITA, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1. Snow Queen
2. I Wasn’t Born To Follow
3. Now That Everything’s Been Said
4. Paradise Alley
5. Man Without A Dream
6. Victim Of Circumstance
7. Why Are You Leaving
8. Lady
9. My Sweet Home
10. I Don’t Believe It
11. That Old Sweet Roll (Hi-De-Ho)
12. All The Time

Spooner Oldham, Pot Luck (Family Productions FPS 2703, 1972 – reissued LITA, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1. The Lord Loves A Rolling Stone
2. 1980 (Keep On Smiling)
3. Life’s Package Of Puzzles
4. Julie Brown’s Forest
5. Easy Listening
6. When A Man Loves A Woman (The Way That I Love You)
7. I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)
8. Kentucky Grass
9. Cry Like A Baby
10. Respect
11. The New World
12. My Friend
13. Will The Circle Be Unbroken

The Kitchen Cinq, When the Rainbow Disappears – An Anthology 1965-1968 (LITA, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

1. You’ll Be Sorry Someday
2. Solitary Man
3. Determination
4. Please Come Back To Me
5. Codine
6. Young Boy
7. Last Chance To Turn Around
8. Still In Love With You Baby
9. If You Think…
10. I Can’t Let Go
11. Need All The Help I Can Get
12. Young Boy
13. Searchin’
14. Figareux Figareux
15. Try
16. Gloria
17. Run For Your Life
18. Please Come Back
19. (Ellen’s Fancies) Ride The Wind
20. When The Rainbow Disappears
21. The Street Song
22. I Want You
23. Wasn’t It You
24. I Am You
25. Dying Daffodil Incident
26. Does Anybody Know
27. Good Lovin’ (So Hard To Find)
28. For Never We Meet