Arthur Alexander Expanded
08/21/07
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(PR) Arthur Alexander was the only songwriter to be covered by the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. The Beatles and Stones both modeled their early sound after him. “When the Beatles and The Rolling Stones got their first chance to record,” says Keith Richards, “one did ‘Anna’ and the other did ‘You Better Move On.’ That should tell you enough.” Yet by 1980 he had mysteriously vanished. Alexander was driving a bus in Cleveland when he was rediscovered in the early ’90s, and was convinced to make a new album following his long absence. The resultant Lonely Just Like Me on Nonesuch Records received some of the highest critical praise given to a pop music album in the year 1993.
And now with HackTone Records’ expanded reissue, Lonely Just Like Me: The Final Chapter, set for September 25, 2007 release, Arthur Alexander appears headed for similar media citations. Sadly, however, he died shortly after the release of the 1993 Nonesuch volume, just as critics were filing their appraisals. With the reissue set to break shortly, now might be a good time to reflect on some of those 1993 reviews.The core of the album’s new incarnation on HackTone Records is the original Nonesuch album Lonely Just Like Me, A&R-ed by Elektra executive Danny Kahn and produced by Ben Vaughn. Musicians included a number of Alexander’s accompanists from the ‘60s — Dan Penn, Donnie Fritts, Reggie Young, Thomas Cain and Mike Leech, augmented by session stalwarts Gary Nicholson, Tommy Spurlock, Ashley Cleveland and Jim Spake. Additional material includes the interview and live set from Alexander’s “Fresh Air” appearance, along with album demos cut in a Cleveland hotel room with Vaughn (boasting a lonesome cover of Neil Diamond’s “Solitary Man” a full decade before Johnny Cash would revive the song) and a 1991 performance of “Anna” recorded at New York’s Bottom Line during the very performance that Danny Kahn saw Arthur perform for the first time and was inspired to sign him to Elektra/Nonesuch. The album boasts innovative packaging, exploding the very idea of a CD booklet in favor of a collection of separate pieces that combine to tell the story of this remarkable album: The portfolio contains reproductions of Elektra’s original press release, press photo, a page from Vaughn’s session notes, several photos from the sessions and even Alexander’s funeral program. In addition, the set contains pamphlets with new liner notes from Vaughn, full credits and the original liner notes from by Ben Sandmel. All of this is packed in to a heavy cardboard sleeve with a hole cut out in front to display the original cover photo through the front like a picture in a frame.
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