At some point in the mid-80's I got the greatest hits album of English organist/singer Georgie Fame, who's now Van Morrison's bandleader, but in the early-mid 60's had a very commendable and unembarassing line in soul/R&B covers. My favorite though was a version of a song who's original version I didn't know at all--Billy Stewart's 1964 "Sitting in the Park"--here's Georgie's version. A while later I was able to find the pretty decent Chess compilation of Stewart, who immediately became one of my favorite singers. He deserves to be much better known. He died very young in a car accident in 1970. His over-the-top version of "Summertime" makes Jackie Wilson look like Leonard Cohen. Anyway here's Billy's magnificent original, which became a sing-along late night driving classic without equal. The song enjoyed a long life, I knew--70's ultra-smoothies GQ had a big hit with it--but until I started hunting around I never realised how strong its cultural grip has continued to be. The song's sweeping chords and narrative strategy--here I am, all alone in the park & thinking--turned out to be the basis of many, many raps, especially from hispanic rappers for whom the original was an established "lowrider classic" of their parents' generation--here's Mr. Junebug & Mr. Chino Grande's versions. But my favorite "version" (sadly not on Youtube) by the Alocranes (scorpions)
only had a hint of the chords in the background, but it bypassed both Billy & George's wounded tenderness & the rapper's bragadoccio to tell the dramatic story of the 1970 founding of Chicano Park at the foot of the Coronado Bridge in San Diego. (The story of Vancouver's Crab Park an interesting contrast.) But the democratic ideal of the "park"--a common space for romantic contemplation, recreation & cultural activity--bounces back from there to Billy Stewart on his bench--the places songs lead us...