Leave a light on --- David Soul --- 1997
I'm not sure what the message is behind the opener, "I drink", but it starts off like a cross between Tom Waits and The Doors, then Soul's vocal is virtually acapella in a folk style, a troubador sitting in a night club pouring out his woes. It's a lot more mature and almost angry, a major shift from his first two albums, though whether this has been a gradual change over the previous two also I don't know, as I have no intention of listening to all of his albums. Can't imagine any children's songs on this one! Great horn work on this song, then we're into "Jazz man", sort of a rocky track with vibrant guitar and a nice bassline and a happy boppy piano. Seems like in a complete reversal from his second album Soul wrote all of this one, every song, though to be fair details on his music are damn hard to come by, even from his own website.
"Tearing the good things down" is a slow, laidback acoustic ballad, similar to much of his earlier material from the seventies, though the subject matter is far more bitter and angry than his previous, mostly starry-eyed, naive efforts. Seems our David has learned that the world is a cruel, tough, unforgiving place and wants to express that through his music, which is no bad thing. "Mean old woman" is all right but a bit boring, trying to evoke the spirit of the blues but I believe falling short, then "Sailor man" is a contender for standout, a great heartfelt ballad with acoustic guitar and mandolin. Until, that is, it for no apparent reason bursts into some sort of flamenco dance, with attendant
faux Spanish accent, and then goes back to how it began. Why? What in the name of sanity was the point of that, David? It was worse than when Lionel Ritchie's "Say you, say me" unaccountably bursts into an uptempo dancy bit right in the middle. Completely pointless and out of place. God damn you David, you ruined what could have been the best song on the album!
Jesus! He does it again at the end, going quite mad with Spanish guitar, castanets, mariachi trumpets and the whole damn thing. Complete mess. After that, the title of the next song must be taken with a grain of salt, though "Trust me" does start off like a nice lounge ballad, quite easy-listening in tone, and seems to feature a duet, though who the woman he's singing with is I don't know and haven't been able to find out. Again it's okay but nothing terribly special, in fact it's several levels down from his best. Sort of a sub-Christopher Cross vibe to it, and it's followed by "Simple life", whose opening line contains the title of the album, and is in fact a rather nice ballad, quite lives up to its name. I'll take a chance and assume
this isn't going to suddenly jump into some mad salsa rhythm. If not, then so far it's the standout for me. It has a guitar solo that's so close to Mark Knopfler's style that I would wonder if he guested on the track? Probably not.
His old interest in reggae from the first album comes back then in "To a heart that's true", which I must admit I would have expected to have been a piano or acoustic guitar ballad. Shows what I know. He also gets in all his Elvis references, throwing in song titles like "Heartache hotel", "Blue moon" and "Love me tender" and, uh, "Return to sender", even doing an impression of the King. Oh dear. Anyway, on we go. Not too far to go, thankfully. Nice piano intro to "Dance with life", sort of reminds me of a cross between The Divine Comedy and Barry Manilow. Yeah, I know. "Come to me" is a nice little ballad as is "Our lives" though a little more on the lounge/easy-listening side with some interesting flute work. Everything kicks back up then for "I'll be doggone", with some blazing piano work and a great fun vibe, excellent horns and Soul sort of sliding back into his (bad) Elvis impersonation. Still, it's pretty soul man (oh god did I really say that?) stuff.
The end of the album, and effectively the last songs David Soul recorded, bit strange to be honest. You have the song "Money" bookended by two short piano instrumentals, each thoughtfully titled "Piano bit". Hmm. Was he getting bored at this point and just wanted to finish the album? I never think it's a good idea not to put at least a little effort into naming your songs. Hell, even call them "Piano bit one and two"! ANyway, the first is a power-piano bash at the keys, real jam material but probably would have been better had it been left off the album. The aforementioned "Money" is another uptempo soul track, with the either really unfortunate or tongue-in-cheek opening line
"I'm only in it for the money"... more great horns and a cool funky bass line drive the songs. Still, to my mind it does sound a little like our David is getting bored and tired now, and perhaps knows this will be his last album. He has other fish to fry: TV is calling, as is the stage and many other offers. The final track, the one that brings to a close David Soul's music career, at least on record, is forty-three seconds of piano almost identical to the first "piano bit". Why, I ask? Why? "Money" would have been a pretty effective closer. Oh well, I guess if you're hanging up your mike for the last time and you've made your money, why not have a little fun before the curtain comes down?
TRACKLISTING
1. I drink
2. Jazz man
3. Tearing the good things down
4. Mean old woman
5. Sailor man
6. Trust me
7. Simple life
8. To a heart that's true
9. Dance with life
10. Come to me
11. Our lives
12. I'll be doggone
13. Piano bit
14. Money
15. Piano bit
Since calling time on his music career, David Soul has gone on to star in other TV programmes, some movies, has been involved in many projects in the West End, having relocated to London, and has also indulged his love of motor racing, appearing on the popular show "Top Gear". Although it would certainly seem music was a big part of his life, he seems to be managing all right without it, and although his popularity reached a peak in the late seventies, he's still in demand now, even appearing on Fosseytango's album as a guest as recently as 2012.
All of which is great for him. But what we're concerned with here is, do we categorise him as a bandwagon-jumper? Let me explain the criteria for such a label, as I see it:
1. The artiste needs to have come to music as a secondary career. Check, with a caveat. Although David Soul made his name in TV, and later moved to music, it was music that first gave him his break in the late sixties. So he was already acquainted with the business, if only in a small way. Therefore he gets a thumb up on this.
2. The artiste needs to have mostly or all covers on his or her album, and the hits they get should probably be covers too. As far as David Soul is concerned, though he had covers on his albums none of them were hits, so he gets a thumbs up on this, as his hit singles were all original material.
3. The artiste would generally be expected to recruit cronies, "guest stars" to play on his album, either people he or she has come to know through the world of TV and/or film, or his own personal friends who he calls in to help him out. David Soul never did that, not once, so another thumb up for him on this.
4. The artiste needs to exploit his "newfound musical fame" for all it's worth, signing sponsorship deals and doing advertising campaigns. Note: this does
not, in my opinion, include charity work or ads made to highlight worthy causes. Again, I see no evidence of Soul having participated in this sort of exploitation of his fame.
5. The artiste tries to score points off his previous fame, by things like titling his album as being "X from that show" or whatever. In fairness, Soul capitalised on his "Starsky and Hutch" image, even if he didn't refer to it specifically, so we'll give him a cautious thumb down on this one.
6. Once the hits dry up, the bandwagon-jumper will then abandon ship. Soul stayed at his music career, on and off, twenty years after the last hit, so give him a big thumb up on that.
7. The artiste will most likely only sing, and will write no songs. Thumb up for David Soul then, who played guitar and wrote songs, even if half of the time we wish he hadn't bothered! At least he tried.
So, all things taken into account, we have
Thumbs up: Six
Thumbs down: One
Result: David Soul, while primarily a TV and film personality, briefly dipped into the world of music and had hit singles, but being already a musician he stuck it out as long as he could. When it looked like nothing more would come of his music he put it to one side and concentrated on other things. He did not milk it for all it was worth, and though the hits are still occasionally played on radio and included on compilation albums, you'll find it very hard to locate and buy any of his albums, even the big chart successes.
Verdict:
