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Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)

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"Ooh Baby"
Song

"Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released in 1975 on his album Extra Texture (Read All About It). It was the first of two Harrison compositions written in tribute to American singer Smokey Robinson, in this case, as a companion piece to Robinson's 1965 hit with the Miracles, "Ooo Baby Baby". Harrison frequently identified Robinson as one of his favourite vocalists and songwriters, and the inclusion of the song on Extra Texture contributed to that album's reputation among music writers as Harrison's soul music album. His impersonation of Robinson's celebrated singing style on the track, including portions sung in falsetto, contrasted with Harrison's laryngitis-affected vocal delivery on his 1974 North American tour and the critically maligned Dark Horse album.

Harrison recorded "Ooh Baby" at A&M Studios in Los Angeles with backing from musicians including Jesse Ed Davis and Gary Wright; in addition, the recording features an overdubbed horn section comprising Tom Scott and Chuck Findley. The sombre mood and funereal tempo of the song has led reviewers to dismiss the track in favour of "Pure Smokey", the second of Harrison's tributes to Robinson, released on his album Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976).

Background and composition

Smokey Robinson (centre) and the Miracles performing on an ABC Television special in 1970

George Harrison biographer Alan Clayson has written that, while all the Beatles were influenced by Tamla-Motown artists in the early and mid 1960s, Harrison "listened hardest" to the Miracles, and particularly the group's lead singer, Smokey Robinson.[1] In interviews during the 1970s, Harrison frequently praised Robinson as a vocalist and a songwriter,[2][3] and once described him as having an "effortless butterfly of a voice".[1] While the influence of soul music had been evident in Harrison's 1971 hit song "What Is Life", it was a genre that he began to embrace more obviously later in the decade, beginning with his 1974 collaboration with Faces guitarist Ron Wood, "Far East Man".[4] Harrison's version of that song appeared on his Dark Horse album,[5] a release that, like his concurrent North American tour with Ravi Shankar, was vilified by some sections of the music press, notably Rolling Stone magazine,[6] a publication that had traditionally championed his work.[7]

This critical backlash left Harrison emotionally battered,[8] and came as a further source of personal upheaval following his split with wife Pattie Boyd in July 1974.[9][10] Author Robert Rodriguez observes of Harrison's choice of musical direction for his next album, Extra Texture (Read All About It): "Since it developed into a discernible genre in the late '50s/early '60s, soul [music] – as an outgrowth of blues – was the medium of choice among the oppressed to express their interactions with a world (or a romantic partner) that often misunderstood or abused them. As such, it proved the perfect format for George in his efforts to work through his many issues."[11]

Harrison wrote the slow soul ballad "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)" in the spring of 1975, shortly before starting recording for Extra Texture.[12] In an interview held at his Los Angeles home that April, Harrison included Smokey Robinson among his preferred artists, along with Shankar, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton, and added: "Musically, he's so sweet ... he makes you feel nice – he makes me feel good."[13][14] "Ooh Baby" was Harrison's tribute to Robinson;[3][15] in the words of the ex-Beatle's musical biographer, Simon Leng, the song is a "spiritual brother" to the Miracles' 1965 hit "Ooo Baby Baby".[16]

In an example of what Clayson identifies as the sparse, "cursory" lyrics found on much of the parent album,[17] the chorus lyrics in "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)" repeat and improvise on the song title.[18] Author Ian Inglis describes Harrison's lyrical approach as "seek[ing] to create emotion through mere repetition".[19]

In the two verses, Harrison tells his lover – presumably Olivia Arias, Inglis suggests,[19] his girlfriend and constant companion since October 1974:[20]

I won't say it's forever
Right now while we're together ...

I will be who you want me
I wish I could keep you happy
If only ...

Inglis comments on Harrison's "unexpectedly mournful" melody and suggests that the song "betray[s] a continuing, pessimistic reflection on recent events and circumstances in his life".[19] Leng writes of Harrison employing "all manner of subtle chord voices" in the composition, including "elegant, jazzy thirteenths and major ninths".[16]

As with other songs of his that Leng terms "[obvious] pop cuts", such as "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" and "Can't Stop Thinking About You",[21] Harrison made no mention of "Ooh Baby" in his 1980 autobiography, I, Me, Mine.[22] While writing the song in 1975, Harrison began a second tribute to Robinson, titled "Pure Smokey".[23] The latter composition was released on Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976), a collection noted for Harrison's apparent rediscovery of his gift for creating accessible melodies.[24]

Recording

The Extra Texture album is "unique within the Harrison catalog", Rodriguez writes, "as essentially an LP-length excursion into soul".[25] While noting Harrison's apparently pragmatic, commercial approach to making the album, Leng suggests that "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)" was designed to create "crossover appeal to the R&B audience".[26] Harrison recorded the album in Los Angeles during the late spring and early summer of 1975, while working on business related to his A&M Records-distributed label, Dark Horse Records,[27] a recent signing to which was the soul group Stairsteps.[28]

Harrison's soul affectations on Extra Texture have been likened to the Philadelphia sound of the Stylistics

Harrison taped the basic track for "Ooh Baby" at A&M Studios in Hollywood on 25 April.[29] Despite his apparent intention to create a genuine soul recording, Harrison worked with the same musicians associated with his previous, UK-recorded albums:[30][31] Gary Wright (electric piano), Klaus Voormann (bass) and Jim Keltner (drums).[32][nb 1] In addition, Jesse Ed Davis – who performed with Harrison, Voormann, Keltner and others at the Concert for Bangladesh shows in August 1971[36] – played lead guitar, beside Harrison's electric rhythm guitar.[37] Authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter suggest that Wright may have overdubbed his contribution at a later date.[29] Two members of Harrison's 1974 tour band, Tom Scott and Chuck Findley, added horns at A&M Studios on 2–3 June,[38] each musician overdubbing two parts.[39]

Leng describes Harrison's vocal as "his best Smokey impersonation, almost going falsetto".[16] Harrison's singing on Dark Horse had been the focus of much critical scorn in America,[40] after he contracted laryngitis on the eve of the 1974 tour.[41] With his voice restored by early 1975,[42] his vocals were close-miked during recording but mixed low on songs such as "Ooh Baby".[43] Leng speculates of this effect that "the goal was to create a Harrison soul album for lovers",[44] while Clayson views it as "the backbone of Extra Texture", similar to "the feathery emanations from Philadelphia by the likes of the Stylistics and Jerry Butler".[45]

Release and reception

Extra Texture (Read All About It) was released in September 1975, just nine months after Dark Horse,[46] with "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)" appearing as track 4 on side one of the original LP format.[47] The back of the Roy Kohara-designed album cover carried a dedication to Smokey Robinson.[48] For the first time as a solo artist, Harrison undertook promotion for his album,[49] in the UK, which included a song-by-song discussion with BBC Radio 1 DJ Paul Gambaccini.[50] When discussing "Ooh Baby", Harrison conceded that he was "not anywhere in [Robinson]'s league" as a singer, but that the song "always reminds me of that Smokey type of mood".[51][52]

Among music critics, Nicholas Schaffner wrote in 1977, "even his disciples tended to find the music plodding and aimless".[53] In another unfavourable album review from Rolling Stone, Dave Marsh opined that "Too often, Harrison's affectingly feeble voice is buried in a muddy, post-Spector mix" on Extra Texture, and that "Ooh Baby" "fails simply because he isn't much of a melodist".[54] Author Chris Ingham pairs the song with "Can't Stop Thinking About You" as examples of Harrison's "threadbare" compositions for Extra Texture and the "slick playing" found on the album.[55]

Alone among Harrison's biographers, Elliot Huntley praises the track, calling it "a sincere pastiche of the Smokey Robinson gossamer" with a falsetto vocal "coated in velvet".[3] While similarly admiring Harrison's singing, Simon Leng writes of Gary Wright's "chiffon" keyboard part and Tom Scott's "balmy horns charts", but he dismisses "Ooh Baby" as commercially driven and designed to "not offend anyone".[56] Alan Clayson bemoans the "'Far East Man'-type lethargy" of this and other tracks on Extra Texture, an album he labels as Harrison's "artistic nadir".[57] Ian Inglis views the song as inferior to the Miracles' "Ooo Baby Baby", lacking the latter's "natural lightness of touch", and highlights Harrison's "wholly inappropriate choice of melody".[19] "Instead of creating a mood of happiness with what is," Inglis continues, "or excitement at what may be, the track produces an atmosphere of gloom and despondency that is quite removed from the positive emotions contained in the words."[19] Echoing Leng's admiration for "Pure Smokey",[58] Madinger and Easter write of "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)": "Not one of his more inspired efforts lyrically ... [Harrison] was to do a much better job of saluting Smokey on his next LP ..."[29]

Personnel

Notes

  1. ^ While Inglis cites the "familiar cast" on Extra Texture as exemplifying Harrison's ideal of ongoing musical collaboration,[31] Rodriguez notes the "tougher, funkier, and generally more upbeat" sound created by a change of personnel for Thirty Three & 1/3.[33] The backing provided on that album primarily by Richard Tee, Willie Weeks and Stairsteps drummer Alvin Taylor, along with Harrison sharing his production duties for the first time since 1971,[34] all contributed to "Pure Smokey" being, in Leng's words, "the most successful, and succinct, summation of [Harrison's] attachment" to the soul-music genre.[35]

Citations

  1. ^ a b Clayson, p. 84.
  2. ^ Harrison, p. 320.
  3. ^ a b c Huntley, p. 125.
  4. ^ Leng, pp. 88, 156.
  5. ^ Spizer, p. 263.
  6. ^ Rodriguez, pp. 59, 384.
  7. ^ Huntley, p. 112.
  8. ^ Greene, pp. 219–20.
  9. ^ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 46.
  10. ^ Tillery, pp. 115, 116.
  11. ^ Rodriguez, pp. 384–85.
  12. ^ Madinger & Easter, p. 451.
  13. ^ Badman, p. 158.
  14. ^ "No Clear Blue Skies", Contra Band Music, 2 November 2012 (retrieved 29 April 2013).
  15. ^ Clayson, p. 358.
  16. ^ a b c Leng, p. 182.
  17. ^ Clayson, p. 349.
  18. ^ "George Harrison – Ooh Baby", metrolyrics.com (retrieved 30 April 2013).
  19. ^ a b c d e Inglis, p. 52.
  20. ^ Tillery, pp. 115–16.
  21. ^ Leng, pp. 184, 186.
  22. ^ Harrison, pp. 383–86.
  23. ^ Madinger & Easter, pp. 452, 455.
  24. ^ Schaffner, p. 192.
  25. ^ Rodriguez, p. 385.
  26. ^ Leng, pp. 178, 182, 186.
  27. ^ Leng, pp. 178–79.
  28. ^ Clayson, pp. 345, 348.
  29. ^ a b c Madinger & Easter, p. 452.
  30. ^ Huntley, p. 122.
  31. ^ a b Inglis, p. 50.
  32. ^ Castleman & Podrazik, p. 376.
  33. ^ Rodriguez, p. 170.
  34. ^ Madinger & Easter, pp. 453–54.
  35. ^ Leng, p. 195.
  36. ^ Rodriguez, p. 50.
  37. ^ Spizer, p. 274.
  38. ^ Madinger & Easter, pp. 447, 452.
  39. ^ George Harrison interview, Rockweek, "George Harrison introduces Extra Texture and explains 'You'" (retrieved 30 April 2013).
  40. ^ Greene, pp. 213, 216.
  41. ^ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 44.
  42. ^ Huntley, p. 126.
  43. ^ Clayson, p. 348.
  44. ^ Leng, p. 180.
  45. ^ Clayson, pp. 348–49.
  46. ^ Schaffner, pp. 182, 212.
  47. ^ Castleman & Podrazik, p. 369.
  48. ^ Spizer, pp. 274, 275, 276.
  49. ^ Huntley, p. 123.
  50. ^ Badman, pp. 164–65.
  51. ^ Badman, pp. 164, 165.
  52. ^ George Harrison interview, Rockweek, "George Harrison explains 'Ooh Baby'" (retrieved 30 April 2013).
  53. ^ Schaffner, p. 182.
  54. ^ Dave Marsh, "George Harrison Extra Texture album review", Rolling Stone, 20 November 1975 (retrieved 30 April 2013).
  55. ^ Ingham, p. 134.
  56. ^ Leng, pp. 182, 186.
  57. ^ Clayson, pp. 348, 350.
  58. ^ Leng, pp. 195–96.

Sources

  • Keith Badman, The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the Break-Up 1970–2001, Omnibus Press (London, 2001; ISBN 0-7119-8307-0).
  • Harry Castleman & Walter J. Podrazik, All Together Now: The First Complete Beatles Discography 1961–1975, Ballantine Books (New York, NY, 1976; ISBN 0-345-25680-8).
  • Alan Clayson, George Harrison, Sanctuary (London, 2003; ISBN 1-86074-489-3).
  • The Editors of Rolling Stone, Harrison, Rolling Stone Press/Simon & Schuster (New York, NY, 2002; ISBN 0-7432-3581-9).
  • Joshua M. Greene, Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison, John Wiley & Sons (Hoboken, NJ, 2006; ISBN 978-0-470-12780-3).
  • George Harrison, I Me Mine, Chronicle Books (San Francisco, CA, 2002; ISBN 0-8118-3793-9).
  • Elliot J. Huntley, Mystical One: George Harrison – After the Break-up of the Beatles, Guernica Editions (Toronto, ON, 2006; ISBN 1-55071-197-0).
  • Chris Ingham, The Rough Guide to the Beatles, Rough Guides/Penguin (London, 2006; 2nd edn; ISBN 978-1-8483-6525-4).
  • Ian Inglis, The Words and Music of George Harrison, Praeger (Santa Barbara, CA, 2010; ISBN 978-0-313-37532-3).
  • Simon Leng, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison, Hal Leonard (Milwaukee, WI, 2006; ISBN 1-4234-0609-5).
  • Chip Madinger & Mark Easter, Eight Arms to Hold You: The Solo Beatles Compendium, 44.1 Productions (Chesterfield, MO, 2000; ISBN 0-615-11724-4).
  • Robert Rodriguez, Fab Four FAQ 2.0: The Beatles' Solo Years, 1970–1980, Backbeat Books (Milwaukee, WI, 2010; ISBN 978-1-4165-9093-4).
  • Nicholas Schaffner, The Beatles Forever, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY, 1978; ISBN 0-07-055087-5).
  • Bruce Spizer, The Beatles Solo on Apple Records, 498 Productions (New Orleans, LA, 2005; ISBN 0-9662649-5-9).
  • Gary Tillery, Working Class Mystic: A Spiritual Biography of George Harrison, Quest Books (Wheaton, IL, 2011; ISBN 978-0-8356-0900-5).
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