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Ooh Baby Baby I Think I'm in Love

1975 vocal by George Harrison

"Ooh Baby (You Know That I Dearest Y'all)"
Song by George Harrison
from the album Extra Texture (Read All About It)
Released 22 September 1975
Genre Soul
Length 3:59
Label Apple tree
Songwriter(s) George Harrison
Producer(s) George Harrison

"Ooh Infant (You lot Know That I Love Y'all)" is a song by English language musician George Harrison, released in 1975 on his anthology Actress Texture (Read All About It). Harrison wrote the composition as a tribute to American singer Smokey Robinson, whom he often identified as i of his favourite vocalists and songwriters. The vocal was intended equally a companion slice to Robinson'southward 1965 hit with the Miracles, "Ooo Baby Infant", and its inclusion on Extra Texture contributed to that album's continuing as Harrison's soul music album. His impersonation of Robinson's historic vocal style on the rails, including portions sung in falsetto, assorted with Harrison'south hoarse, laryngitis-marred singing on his 1974 Due north American tour and the poorly received Night Horse anthology.

Harrison recorded "Ooh Baby" at A&M Studios in Los Angeles between April and June 1975, with backing from rock musicians Jesse Ed Davis, Gary Wright, Klaus Voormann and Jim Keltner. In add-on, the recording features an overdubbed horn section comprising Tom Scott and Chuck Findley. The song's sombre tone and slow tempo reflect Harrison's down-hearted mood following the criticism of his bout the previous year. Partly every bit a result of these solemn qualities, the track is held in low regard by several music critics. Some commentators instead highlight "Pure Smokey", released on Harrison's 1976 album Thirty Iii & one/3, equally the more effective of his tributes to Robinson.

Background [edit]

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

George Harrison biographer Alan Clayson has written that, while all of the Beatles were influenced by Tamla-Motown artists in the early on and mid 1960s, Harrison "listened hardest" to the Miracles, and especially the group's lead singer, Smokey Robinson.[1] In interviews during the 1970s, Harrison frequently praised Robinson equally a vocalizer and a songwriter,[ii] [3] [4] and once described him every bit 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 manifestly after in the decade, beginning with his 1974 collaboration with Faces guitarist Ron Wood, "Far E Man".[v] Harrison's version of that vocal appeared on his Night Horse anthology,[6] a release that, similar his concurrent Northward American tour with Ravi Shankar, was vilified past some sections of the music press, notably Rolling Stone magazine,[vii] a publication that had traditionally championed his piece of work.[8]

This disquisitional backlash left Harrison emotionally battered,[nine] and came every bit a further source of personal upheaval following his split with wife Pattie Boyd in July 1974.[ten] [11] Author Robert Rodriguez remarks on Harrison's choice of musical direction for his adjacent album, Extra Texture (Read All Most It): "Since it developed into a discernible genre in the tardily '50s/early '60s, soul [music] – equally 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."[12]

Harrison wrote the slow soul ballad "Ooh Baby (You lot Know That I Dearest You)" in the spring of 1975, presently earlier starting recording for Extra Texture.[13] The song was Harrison'southward musical tribute to Robinson.[three] [fourteen] In an interview held at his Los Angeles habitation that April, with disc jockey Dave Herman,[15] Harrison included Smokey Robinson among his preferred artists, along with Shankar, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton, and added: "Musically, he's then sweet ... he makes you feel nice – he makes me experience good."[16] [17]

Composition [edit]

In his musical biography of George Harrison, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Simon Leng describes the song every bit a "spiritual blood brother" to the Miracles' 1965 hitting "Ooo Baby Infant".[xviii] Leng writes that Harrison employs "all manner of subtle chord voices" in the composition, including "elegant, jazzy thirteenths and major ninths".[18] Author Ian Inglis comments on Harrison'south "unexpectedly mournful" melody and suggests that the vocal "betray[s] a standing, pessimistic reflection on contempo events and circumstances in his life".[19]

In an example of what Clayson identifies as the sparse, "cursory" lyrics plant on much of Extra Texture,[20] the words to the chorus in "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)" repeat and improvise on the vocal championship.[21] Inglis describes this lyrical approach as "simplistic" and "seek[ing] to create emotion through mere repetition".[22]

In the two verses,[21] Harrison tells his lover – presumably Olivia Arias, Inglis suggests,[xix] his girlfriend and constant companion since October 1974:[23]

I won't say it's forever
Correct now, nosotros're together ...

I volition be where you desire me
I will try to go on y'all happy ...

Equally with other songs of his that Leng terms "[obvious] pop cuts", such every bit "Don't Let Me Expect Too Long" and "Tin can't Stop Thinking About You",[24] Harrison makes no mention of "Ooh Baby" in his 1980 autobiography, I, Me, Mine.[25] While writing the vocal in 1975, Harrison began a 2nd tribute to Robinson, titled "Pure Smokey".[26] The latter composition was released on Thirty 3 & ane/iii (1976), a collection noted for Harrison'due south apparent rediscovery of his gift for creating accessible melodies.[27]

Recording [edit]

The Actress Texture album is "unique within the Harrison catalog", Rodriguez writes, "as essentially an LP-length excursion into soul".[28] While noting a pragmatic, commercial approach on Harrison's office with regard to making Extra Texture, Leng suggests that "Ooh Babe (You Know That I Dear You)" was designed to create "crossover appeal to the R&B audience".[29] Harrison recorded the anthology in Los Angeles during the late jump and early on summertime of 1975, while working on business related to his A&M Records-distributed characterization, Dark Horse Records,[30] a contempo signing to which was the soul group Stairsteps.[31] Among several concerts the couple attended during their time in Los Angeles,[four] [32] Arias recalls that she and Harrison watched Robinson perform at the Roxy and that the singer was "really flattered" by Harrison's enthusiasm for his music.[33] [nb 1]

Harrison taped the bones rails for "Ooh Infant" at A&Chiliad Studios in Hollywood on 25 April.[34] Despite his credible intention to create a genuine soul recording, Harrison worked with the aforementioned musicians associated with his previous, UK-recorded albums:[35] [36] Gary Wright (Fender Rhodes[37] electric piano), Klaus Voormann (bass) and Jim Keltner (drums).[38] [nb 2] In improver, Jesse Ed Davis – who performed with Harrison, Voormann, Keltner and others at the Concert for Bangladesh shows in Baronial 1971[42] – joined Harrison on electric guitar.[43] Harrison's two guitar parts were treated with a Leslie rotary effect.[37] Authors Fleck Madinger and Mark Easter propose that Wright may have overdubbed his contribution at a afterward engagement.[34] Two members of Harrison'due south 1974 tour band, Tom Scott and Chuck Findley, added horns at A&Chiliad Studios on 2–3 June,[44] with each musician overdubbing two parts.

Leng describes Harrison'southward song equally "his all-time Smokey impersonation, about going falsetto".[18] Harrison'southward singing on Dark Equus caballus had been the focus of critical contemptuousness in America,[46] later he contracted laryngitis on the eve of the 1974 tour.[47] With his voice restored past early 1975,[48] his vocals were close-miked during recording but mixed low on songs such every bit "Ooh Baby".[49] Leng speculates of this event that "the goal was to create a Harrison soul anthology for lovers",[50] while Clayson views it as "the courage of Extra Texture", similar to "the feathery emanations from Philadelphia by the likes of the Stylistics and Jerry Butler".[51]

Release and reception [edit]

Extra Texture (Read All About It) was released in September 1975, just nine months after Nighttime Equus caballus,[52] with "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)" appearing equally track 4 on side one in the LP format.[53] The back of the Roy Kohara-designed anthology cover carried a dedication to Smokey Robinson.[54] For the start time as a solo artist, Harrison undertook promotion for his anthology,[iv] [55] in the Uk, which included a song-by-vocal discussion with BBC Radio ane DJ Paul Gambaccini.[56] When discussing "Ooh Baby", Harrison said that he was "not anywhere in [Robinson]'s league" as a vocalizer, but the song "always reminds me of that Smokey type of mood".[57] [58]

Amongst music critics, Nicholas Schaffner wrote in 1977, "even his disciples tended to find the music plodding and aimless".[59] In another unfavourable album review from Rolling Stone,[threescore] Dave Marsh opined that "Too often, Harrison's affectingly feeble voice is buried in a muddy, mail-Spector mix" on Actress Texture, and that "Ooh Infant" "fails only because he isn't much of a melodist".[61] Neil Spencer of the NME wrote of "Ooh Baby": "the vocals try unsuccessfully to capture some kind of intimacy of soft soul. All form, no content, and you can't whistle it."[62] [63] Writing more recently, for Rough Guides, Chris Ingham pairs the song with "Can't Stop Thinking Well-nigh You" equally two examples of Harrison'due south "threadbare" compositions on Actress Texture and the "slick playing" found throughout the album.[64] In a 2002 article on Harrison's solo career, for Goldmine magazine, Dave Thompson described the drove as "patchy" but listed "the contemplative (if somewhat Wings-ish) 'Ooh Babe'" equally one of the few tracks that should not be "overlook[ed]".[65]

Alone among Harrison's biographers, Elliot Huntley praises the vocal, calling it "a sincere pastiche of the Smokey Robinson gossamer" with a falsetto vocal "coated in velvet".[iii] While similarly admiring Harrison'southward singing, Simon Leng writes of Gary Wright'south "chiffon" keyboard function and Tom Scott's "balmy horns charts", but he dismisses "Ooh Baby" as commercially driven and designed to "not offend anyone".[66] Alan Clayson bemoans the "'Far Eastward Man'-type sluggishness" of this and other tracks on Extra Texture, an album he labels "[Harrison'due south] artistic nadir".[67] Ian Inglis views the song as inferior to the Miracles' "Ooo Baby Baby", lacking the latter's "natural lightness of affect", and bemoans 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 exist, the track produces an atmosphere of gloom and despondency that is quite removed from the positive emotions contained in the words."[xix]

Echoing Leng's admiration for "Pure Smokey",[68] Madinger and Easter write of "Ooh Infant": "Not one of his more inspired efforts lyrically ... [Harrison] was to do a much amend task of saluting Smokey on his adjacent LP ..."[34] Writing for Blogcritics in 2014, Seattle-based critic[69] Chaz Lipp similarly opines: "Vocally he just wasn't up to the Smokey Robinson pastiche 'Ooh Infant (You Know That I Love You)' ('Pure Smokey' on 1976'due south Thirty-Three & 1/3 is far better)."[seventy]

In another review of the 2014 Apple tree Years Harrison reissues, for Mojo, Tom Doyle says of Actress Texture: "Here George sounds depressed, if R&B-soulful, with Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You) sharing its DNA with Bowie's Immature Americans ..."[71] In his feature on Harrison in the same issue of Mojo, Mat Snow admires the runway equally "a sincere synth-soul tribute" and "perhaps the best song" on the anthology.[72] Joe Marchese of The Second Disc describes it and "Can't Stop Thinking About You" every bit two tracks that "happily reflected [Harrison's] newfound elation with Olivia".[73]

Personnel [edit]

  • George Harrison – vocals, electric guitar
  • Jesse Ed Davis – electric guitar
  • Gary Wright – electric piano
  • Klaus Voormann – bass
  • Jim Keltner – drums
  • Tom Scott – saxophones, horn arrangement
  • Chuck Findley – trumpet, trombone

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ Arias adds that her and Harrison's shared honey of Robinson's songs "kind of sealed our relationship".[33]
  2. ^ While Inglis cites the "familiar cast" on Extra Texture as exemplifying Harrison'south ideal of ongoing musical collaboration,[36] Rodriguez notes the "tougher, funkier, and more often than not more upbeat" sound created by a change of personnel for Xxx Three & 1/three.[39] The backing provided on that album primarily by Richard Tee, Willie Weeks and Stairsteps drummer Alvin Taylor, forth with Harrison sharing his product duties for the first time since 1971,[40] all contributed to "Pure Smokey" beingness, in Leng's words, "the about successful, and succinct, summation of [Harrison'due south] zipper" to the soul-music genre.[41]

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b Clayson, p. 84.
  2. ^ Harrison, p. 320.
  3. ^ a b c Huntley, p. 125.
  4. ^ a b c Hunt, p. 101.
  5. ^ Leng, pp. 88, 156.
  6. ^ Spizer, p. 263.
  7. ^ Rodriguez, pp. 59, 384.
  8. ^ Huntley, p. 112.
  9. ^ Greene, pp. 219–twenty.
  10. ^ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 46.
  11. ^ Tillery, pp. 115, 116.
  12. ^ Rodriguez, pp. 384–85.
  13. ^ Madinger & Easter, p. 451.
  14. ^ Clayson, p. 358.
  15. ^ Badman, p. 158.
  16. ^ "No Clear Blue Skies", Contra Band Music, ii November 2012 (retrieved 29 April 2013).
  17. ^ "George Harrison – Interview (1975)", Paste (retrieved 12 November 2016); event occurs between 53:20 and 53:34.
  18. ^ a b c Leng, p. 182.
  19. ^ a b c d Inglis, p. 52.
  20. ^ Clayson, p. 349.
  21. ^ a b Vocal lyrics, booklet with Extra Texture (Read All About It) CD (Apple Records, 2014; produced by George Harrison), p. thirteen.
  22. ^ Inglis, pp. 52, 53.
  23. ^ Tillery, pp. 115–xvi.
  24. ^ Leng, pp. 184, 186.
  25. ^ Harrison, pp. 383–86.
  26. ^ Madinger & Easter, pp. 452, 455.
  27. ^ Schaffner, p. 192.
  28. ^ Rodriguez, p. 385.
  29. ^ Leng, pp. 178, 182, 186.
  30. ^ Leng, pp. 178–79.
  31. ^ Clayson, pp. 345, 348.
  32. ^ Badman, pp. 163, 164.
  33. ^ a b Kevin Howlett's liner notes, booklet with Extra Texture (Read All About Information technology) CD (Apple Records, 2014; produced by George Harrison), p. 6.
  34. ^ a b c Madinger & Easter, p. 452.
  35. ^ Huntley, p. 122.
  36. ^ a b Inglis, p. 50.
  37. ^ a b 24-rails master reel information, booklet with Extra Texture (Read All About It) CD (Apple Records, 2014; produced by George Harrison), p. 5.
  38. ^ Castleman & Podrazik, p. 376.
  39. ^ Rodriguez, p. 170.
  40. ^ Madinger & Easter, pp. 453–54.
  41. ^ Leng, p. 195.
  42. ^ Rodriguez, p. 50.
  43. ^ Spizer, p. 274.
  44. ^ Madinger & Easter, pp. 447, 452.
  45. ^ Greene, pp. 213, 216.
  46. ^ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 44.
  47. ^ Huntley, p. 126.
  48. ^ Clayson, p. 348.
  49. ^ Leng, p. 180.
  50. ^ Clayson, pp. 348–49.
  51. ^ Schaffner, pp. 182, 212.
  52. ^ Castleman & Podrazik, p. 369.
  53. ^ Spizer, pp. 274, 275, 276.
  54. ^ Huntley, p. 123.
  55. ^ Badman, pp. 164–65.
  56. ^ Badman, pp. 164, 165.
  57. ^ George Harrison interview, Rockweek, "George Harrison explains 'Ooh Baby'" on YouTube (retrieved 30 April 2013).
  58. ^ Schaffner, p. 182.
  59. ^ Huntley, pp. 126, 128–29.
  60. ^ Dave Marsh, "George Harrison Extra Texture", Rolling Stone, 20 November 1975 (retrieved 30 April 2013).
  61. ^ Neil Spencer, "George Harrison Extra Texture (Apple)", NME, twenty September 1975, p. 23.
  62. ^ Chase, p. 103.
  63. ^ Ingham, p. 134.
  64. ^ Dave Thompson, "The Music of George Harrison: An anthology-by-album guide", Goldmine, 25 January 2002, p. 17.
  65. ^ Leng, pp. 182, 186.
  66. ^ Clayson, pp. 348, 350.
  67. ^ Leng, pp. 195–96.
  68. ^ "Chaz Lipp", The Morton Study (retrieved 7 October 2014).
  69. ^ Chaz Lipp, "Music Review: George Harrison's Apple tree Albums Remastered", Blogcritics, 5 October 2014 (retrieved 7 October 2014).
  70. ^ Tom Doyle, "Hari Styles: George Harrison The Apple Years 1968–1975", Mojo, November 2014, p. 109.
  71. ^ Mat Snowfall, "George Harrison: Tranquillity Storm", Mojo, November 2014, p. 73.
  72. ^ Joe Marchese, "Review: The George Harrison Remasters – 'The Apple tree Years 1968–1975'", The 2d Disc, 23 September 2014 (retrieved ten October 2014).

Sources [edit]

  • Keith Badman, The Beatles Diary Volume 2: Afterwards the Pause-Upwards 1970–2001, Charabanc 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-eight).
  • Alan Clayson, George Harrison, Sanctuary (London, 2003; ISBN 1-86074-489-3).
  • The Editors of Rolling Stone, Harrison, Rolling Rock Press/Simon & Schuster (New York, NY, 2002; ISBN 0-7432-3581-nine).
  • Joshua G. Greene, Here Comes the Dominicus: The Spiritual and Musical Journeying 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).
  • Chris Hunt (ed.), NME Originals: Beatles – The Solo Years 1970–1980, IPC Ignite! (London, 2005).
  • Elliot J. Huntley, Mystical One: George Harrison – After the Break-up of the Beatles, Guernica Editions (Toronto, ON, 2006; ISBN ane-55071-197-0).
  • Chris Ingham, The Rough Guide to the Beatles, Rough Guides/Penguin (London, 2006; 2d edn; ISBN 978-ane-84836-525-4).
  • 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).
  • Bit Madinger & Mark Easter, Eight Arms to Agree You: The Solo Beatles Compendium, 44.ane Productions (Chesterfield, MO, 2000; ISBN 0-615-11724-4).
  • Robert Rodriguez, Fab Iv FAQ 2.0: The Beatles' Solo Years, 1970–1980, Backbeat Books (Milwaukee, WI, 2010; ISBN 978-1-4165-9093-four).
  • 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-v-9).
  • Gary Tillery, Working Class Mystic: A Spiritual Biography of George Harrison, Quest Books (Wheaton, IL, 2011; ISBN 978-0-8356-0900-5).

Ooh Baby Baby I Think I'm in Love

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ooh_Baby_(You_Know_That_I_Love_You)