LIVE! COAST TO COAST
US Philadelphia International 36294, 1979
CD reissue by US Capitol / UK Edsel
1) Life Is A Song Worth Singing 2) Only You 3) Medley 4) When Some Body Loves You Back 5) Get Up Get Down Get Funky Get Loose 6) LA Rap 7) Come Go With Me 8) Close The Door 9) Turn Off The Lights 10) Do Me 11) Interview 12) Where Did All The Lovin' Go 13) It's You I Love 14) Shout And Scream
Produced by Gamble & Huff; Gene McFadden, John Whitehead
& Jerry Cohen
Sides one and two on Teddy’s live set were recorded on home
turf in Philadelphia and side three in Los Angeles. The location doesn’t really
make any difference, because to these ears this is a quite lacklustre album. I
guess this would be the proper time to confess that I’m one of those people who
have never particularly enjoyed live recordings in soul music. Nothing wrong
with live performances, mind you, but somehow the magic created in situ rarely
makes it to the record. I like live jazz and funk recordings much better, so
apparently that means I appreciate the instrumental jamming and soloing most in
a live situation.
Here the sound quality is poor, and the Teddy Bear Orchestra,
headed by Samuel Reed and made up of local musicians, sounds like
adequate background support, and nothing more. It would seem that Teddy wanted
nothing to undermine his position as the one and only star of the show and
focus of attention. An understandable tactic, but in this case it doesn’t make
for particularly inspiring listening. The funky tracks are monotonous and
boring, and while the ballad favourites are delivered in a convincing enough
manner, there’s not one truly in-depth exploration of any particular tune. You
know, the kind that would actually surpass the studio version.
The medley of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes hits is
rushed through in the typically annoying manner that I guess is designed so all
the morons in the audience can whistle along to the melody. To conclude this
personal theme of “What aspects of live recordings I hate the most”, here we
also have members of the audience joining the artist onstage to sing for a
while. What bliss.
Side D features three new studio cuts along with excerpts
of a radio interview with Teddy. The first single Shout and Scream is
musically as interesting as you can surmise from the title, and while Teddy
sings Where Did All the Lovin’ Go in a decidedly rough and impressive
fashion, musically this McFadden-Whitehead-Cohen disco-funk loper sounds like a
routine effort. By far the best of these tracks is It’s You I Love, a
pleasant enough laid-back mid-ballad vigorously interpreted by Teddy. The short
interview excerpts feature Mimi Brown demonstrating razor-sharp
journalistic wit while inquiring about such all-important subjects as Teddy’s “sign”
and how he likes his eggs. Move over Woodward & Bernstein!
Recommendable only if you want a complete Pendergrass
collection.
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