There can be no doubt that whichever anonymous person (or
people) put together the post-mortem compilation Songs By Sue did it out of love. There can also be no doubt that
they were less that au fait with
some of the song titles: La Bamba is rendered La Bomba, Hava Nagila as Hava Nagaela. Add to that the fact that something has clearly gone
wrong in the mastering process, and that one of Sue’s well-meaning friends has
added their own basic synthesiser overdubs to several of her tunes and what you
have is an album with a uniquely ethereal, otherworldly quality that is at
times maddening and at others naively beautiful.
So who
exactly was Sue? Well, that I can’t tell you, as the compilers of this
collection sadly forgot to include any details at all on the cover or label of
the disc: no surname, no songwriter credits, no publisher details, no
information on where any of the songs were recorded and no date either. My best
guess is that the album was put out in the mid 70s… but that is nothing but a
guess. The whole album lasts for less than 20 minutes: I assume, because
of the varying quality, that the ten tracks presented here are the only songs
Sue ever recorded.
Most of
what I can tell you about Sue is contained in the scant sleeve notes: ‘Sue,
always full of joy and laughter, in love with life. She started to sing before
she could walk, then on to dancing. She was struck with polio in her second
year. She could not dance again but she kept singing. Even though Sue was in a
wheelchair twenty-seven years she worked weekends to get through college and
went on to become an activities director at the St. Therese Nursing Home and an
art teacher at Good Shepherd School.
She left us recently’ My assumption is that the author is referring to
St. Theresa’s nursing home the Good Shepherd Catholic School, both of which are
in St Louis Park, Minnesota.
After Sue
passed away this album was pressed by her family and/or friends to celebrate
her life. Originally posted on the Swan Fungus blog last year, the copy I
pilfered this image from (the same copy; maybe the only one still in
existence?) is now up for grabs on eBay.
For the record I do feel a little mean about featuring it
here, but if I did not how would the majority of you fine people ever discover
it? Here are a couple of tracks from Songs By Sue, the opener If I Had A Hammer, and Hava Nagaela.
Love everything you post, many thanks. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteThose synthesisers sound like a cassette tape that has been left out in the sun for too long!
ReplyDelete