Five & Dime

Artist: David Ackles
Label: Raven [Australia]
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Original recording remastered
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 612657018828
EAN: 0612657018828
ASIN: B0002YCUWA

Release Date: 2004-10-14

Five & Dime

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Singer-Songwriters

| Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

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Tracks:

Everybody Has a Story
I've Been Loved
Jenna Saves
Surf's Down
Berry Tree
One Good Woman's Man
Run Pony Run
Aberfan
House Above the Strand
Photograph of You
Such a Woman
Postcards
Down River [*] - Spooky Tooth
Road to Cairo [*] - Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity
Blue Ribbons [*]
His Name Is Andrew [*] - Martin Carthy
Subway to the Country [*] - Harry Belafonte
Your Face, Your Smile [*] - Stacy Sullivan
Down River [*] - The Hollies

Similar Items:

Subway to the Country
David Ackles
American Gothic
My Mind Goes High: Psychedelic Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults
Ollabelle

Product Description

Five & Dime (1973):
1. Everybody Has A Story
2. I've Been Loved
3. Jenna Saves
4. Surf's Down
5. The Berry Tree
6. One Good Woman's Man
7. Run, Pony, Run
8. Aberfan
9. House Above The Strand
10. A Photograph Of You
11. Such A Good Woman
12. Postcards

Bonus Tracks - Ackles Rendered:
13. Down River - Spooky Tooth
14. Road To Cairo - Julie Driscoll, Brain Auger & the Trinity
15. Blue Ribbons - Louisa Jane White
16. His Name Is Andrew - Martin Cathy
17. Subway To The Country - Harry Belafonte
18. Your Face, Your Smile - Stacy Sullivan
19. Down River - The Hollies

Format: CD

Customer Reviews:

Another Gem Rescued By the Raven.......2005-08-02

I find Ackles's final dig, while none the less satisfying, to be the most uneven of his four recordings. The tenderness of his love songs have the compassion and breadth of vision that characterise his greatest pensmanship. 'I've Been Loved', 'Berry Tree', 'House Above The Strand','Photograph', and'One Good Woman's Man' testify to easier relationships and the lighter feel of the album might have made inroads to a broader,populist market.'Aberfan' is a fabulously ambitious piece about a Welsh mining incident, somewhat at odds with this intimate company. It would have worked better in the more operatically inclined masterpiece,'American Gothic'. The impending catastrophe builds suspensefully to its tragic conclusion; story-telling and musical painting I have only Ackles own work to measure against.(Think Bee Gees,'Mining Disaster', if you need to). The Brechtian flavoured,'Everybody Has a Story', the morality tales,'Run Pony Run' and'Jenna Saves' and the Brian Wilson spoof,'Surf's Down' replete with Jan and Dean falsettos, while not engaging me, all strike courageous new territory for Ackles. None of these moves galvanised a contract for the gruff, gravelly-voiced musician. He was in un-chartered zones where no one else would tread. Raven Record's archivist, Glenn Baker feretted some truly obscure renditions that largely confirm the difficulties of following Ackles. Spooky Tooth's,'Down River' is surprisingly spare, leaving little of Ackles flesh on the bones of this remarkable song. Check the original on its author's first album. Julie Driscoll is in brilliant charge of 'The Road To Cairo' in spite of battling against the appallingly mixed support of'The Trinity' which all but drown her. The pleasant surprises are Louise Jane White's,'Blue Ribbons', and of all people, Harry Belafonte's,'Subway to The Country'. Why the Hollies would want to cover,'Down River' completely escapes me. Mostly these versions, on parole from the vaults, reveal that(like Jimmy Webb & Bob Dylan) despite questionable purity of note-making, Ackles inflects his material with probity and nuance unreachable by interpreters.

Only the truth.......2005-06-06

The truth is that this album will never appeal to most people. It's simply too unusual, too idiosyncratic, too deceptively simple, and too deep. Songs like "Photograph Of You", "One Good Woman's Man" "I've Been Loved", and "Postcards" have a haunting magic and leave a lasting impression on the hearer, comparable with Robbie Burns poem "John Anderson My Jo John", while it's safe to say that there's never been a song written like "Everybody Has A Story" - brief and unbearably pungent. The wit of "Jenna Saves" and "Surf's Down" are equal to anything else in satire. "Berry Tree" has a poignant homeyness that will repell many while entrancing others, and "Aberfan" and "Run Pony Run" are as powerful protest/social-concern songs as one will ever hear. But the gentleness of that voice, and the understated masculinity, who else sang like that? Anyone? Conclusion: As good as it gets.

About time! Ackles' final LP available 1st time since 1974.......2004-10-31

Well, it's about time...This, David Ackles' fourth and final album, was originally issued in 1973 by Columbia Records in the US (and nowhere else) with no promotion. Predictably, it sank without a trace and has been out of print since 1974.

David Ackles only released four albums before retiring from the music business. The first three of those were on Elektra (and were reissued in the US last year). He then jumped labels for this final stab. Two of the four albums (the self titled debut and the 3rd album, "American Gothic") are among the best albums of the all time, and belong in any record collection of substance. "American Gothic" was, in fact, the subject of unmitigated critical raves upon its 1972 release. It made countless year-end "top 10" lists and got praised to the skies as groundbreaking and brilliant. [And yet, a few years later it was out of print and all but forgotten except among discerning record collectors, musicians and critics. (Such is the fickle nature of popular culture)].

Which brings us to "Five and Dime". In the wake of the waves of critial praise for "American Gothic", Ackles felt under incredible pressure to create another masterwork. Instead of rising to the challenge, however, he downsized his ambitions. So in place of the complex productions and uber conceptual high art of American Gothic, "Five and Dime" is essentially "just" a collection of songs. It includes good songs and some great songs, yes. But overall, this album was (and remains) something of a disappointment in the wake of the (perhaps unsurpassable) "American Gothic".

The best songs here do rank easily with the best that Ackles has ever written, the first in class among these being the devastatingly sad "One Good Woman's Man". There worst song here is probably the surf music parody "Surf's Down." Though it features help from authentic surf music veteran Dean Torrance (Jan & Dean), it's simply not that funny or that musically adept, and it hasn't worn well. But outside of that misstep, this a very solid album. In the short but striking Ackles discography, it would rate 3rd, behind "David Ackles" and "American Gothic", but ahead of "Subway to the Country."

As for the bonus tracks:
Well, I guess it would have been too much to hope for unreleased David Ackles tracks from the vaults, so instead we get a hodge-podge of David Ackles songs as covered by other artists. These are interesting, and surely a nice bonus to fans. However, what comes out very clearly from these covers is that Ackles was, in fact, his own best interpreter. It is worth noting that one bonus track, "Your Face, Your Smile" by Stacy Sullivan, is of a song that David Ackles never recorded for release and so this represents the closest thing to a "song from the vault".

Waited 30 years for this one! Well Worth It!.......2004-10-28

Well, okay, CDs haven't been around that long, but I've worn out two copies of this LP and feared this final piece in the David Ackles puzzle might never make it to CD. Bravo to Raven Records for getting the rights to place Ackles' final -- and arguably finest -- album on CD. It's been long overdue.

Admittedly we tend to view the quality of a CD through the blinders of our own personal taste. But I can't see how anybody could not be touched by the beauty of the music and lyrics of "House Above the Strand" -- the only song my wife of 20 years and I call "our song." It's both lyrical and melodic poetry of the highest order. "A Photograph of You" always touches me -- it really captured how I felt when my girlfriend left me for a guy at graduate school, way back in 1974. "Such a Woman" and "Postcards" offer two more tuneful, lyrical testimonies.

But Ackles, who died of lung cancer March 2, 1999 at age 62, had a cynical and mischievious side too. The Beach Boy's almost serious "Surf's Up" album was all the rage with critics in 1972-73 -- and Ackles brought them back to earth with "Surf's Down" ("How can you hang ten when you've lost your little toe?" he sings). "Everybody Has a Story" and "Jenna Saves" are hard to beat for caustic humor with a beat.

The CD features seven covers of Ackles tunes from his previous albums by the likes of Harry Belafonte, The Hollies, Spooky Tooth, Juliee Driscoll, and Brian Auger & The Trinity. Frankly, Ackles, despite regarding himself as a songwriter, sings them best. They're generally good cover versions, but Ackles was the master at interpreting his songs.

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