Listening to Bobbie Gentry... part 6

Fancy (1970)
Side One
1."Fancy" (Gentry)
2."I'll Never Fall in Love Again" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David)
3."Delta Man" (Leon Russell)
4."Something in the Way He Moves" (James Taylor)
5."Find 'Em, Fool 'Em and Forget" (George Jackson)

Side Two
1."He Made a Woman Out of Me" (Fred Burch, Don Hill)
2."Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David)
3."If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody" (Rudy Clark)
4."Rainmaker" (Harry Nilsson)
5."Wedding Bell Blues" (Laura Nyro)

Took me a long time to come round to this one, title track (which I've always loved) aside. It's only recently that I've realized how great the best songs on it are.
It's another mixed bag, but like 'Local gentry' it's worth it for the good bits, and like 'Local Gentry' it could have been so much better given a couple of better decisions in the song selection.

The backbone of this album is a 7-song session recorded at Muscle Shoals with Rick Hall (side one tracks 1, 3, 4 and 5, side two tracks 1, 3 and 4). Fame studios + Bobbie Gentry: the potential is clear, and everyone delivers. One of the songs, 'If you gotta make a fool of somebody', is merely adequate and should have been left unused, but the rest is great. The titletrack is one of those amazing tracks that could only have been done by Bobbie Gentry - Fancy taught by her mother to be 'nice to the gentlemen and they'll be nice to you', finally getting out of poverty. The tone of the session is set and continues on titles like 'Find 'em, fool 'em and forget 'em' and 'He made a woman out of me'. All set to amazing country-soul grooves. 'Delta man' and 'Something in the way he moves' slow the pace, beautiful slowburning ballads. And Nilsson's 'Rainmaker' is something else altogether.

But that didn't fill the album, so they repeat the previous album's hit single 'I'll never fall in love again' (just to be on the safe side of the public, I guess), but the track sticks out here and pulls down the record. The remaining two tracks come from a self produced session and handily show the conflicting forces that pull at her. One is 'Raindrops keep falling...', an obvious attempt at a follow up for her hit single, that despite a couple nice touches (a percussion intro, solo flute on the outro) never gets off the ground. The second track is a superb cover of Nyro's 'Wedding bell blues', that shows where her heart's at. An amazing track that points the way to her last album 'Patchwork'.

So, a mixed bag that could've been better with inclusion of the great contemporary single 'Apartment 21' (one of her best songs), and two outtakes 'In the ghetto' and 'Show off' which surfaced on the 'Ode...' comp.

Btw, 1970 also saw her most succesfull single with Glen Cambell, 'All I have to do is dream/Walk right back', more bland professionalism.