In rock and roll history, the name Wayne Perkins isn’t instantly recognizable. Unless, that is, you carefully read the credits in the liner notes of your albums.
Perkins recorded with high-profile artists, including the Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, and Joni Mitchell. He was almost invited to replace Mick Taylor when Taylor left the Stones but was ultimately passed over for their old friend Ron Wood. Yet, before that decision, he laid down remarkable tracks on the Stones’ Black and Blue (1976) album. His playing on “Hand of Fate” is epic!
For Marley, he overdubbed guitar on three tracks on the Catch a Fire (1973) album. (For those who collect vinyl, you may remember this album with the cover that depicted a Zippo lighter that opened at the top!) Perkins’ best contribution is the solo on “Concrete Jungle.”
Joni Mitchell’s breakthrough commercial success Court and Spark (1974) includes some fine guitar playing by Perkins on “Car on a Hill.” It has been said that the song is about an incident where Joni was waiting in vain for her then-boyfriend Jackson Browne to show up because he was out with his new partner Phyllis Majors – who he eventually married. Perkins’ crying guitar adds to the feeling of anxiety that Mitchell’s song conveys.
After discovering Perkins’ role in this set of songs, I’m confident you will agree he deserves recognition not just as a footnote in rock history, but as a pivotal figure in its development.
Today’s post is the next installment in my newest concept – the Contrast Series. Today I’ll cover Mavin Gaye’s “Trouble Man” and “Trouble Child” by Joni Mitchell.
Aside from the obvious fact that both songs have the word “trouble” in their titles, you might be surprised to find out they are connected far more intimately.
Marvin Gaye’s song was the title track for the soundtrack album to the Blaxploitation film directed by Ivan Dixon that was released in 1972. Dixon was best known for his acting roles in a couple of Twilight Zone episodes and as “Kinch” Kinchloe in the sitcom Hogan’s Heroes on CBS running 1965-1971.
“Trouble Man” describes the sticky situations the film’s lead, Mister T, encounters.
I come up hard baby, but now I’m cool I didn’t make it sugar, playin’ by the rules I come up hard baby, but now I’m fine I’m checkin’ trouble sugar, movin’ down the line I come up hard baby, but that’s okay ‘Cause Trouble Man, don’t get in my way I come up hard baby, I’ve been for real, baby Gonna keep movin’, gonna go to town I come up hard, I come up gettin’ down There’s only three things that’s for sure Taxes, death and trouble, oh This I know, baby, this I know, sugar Girl, ain’t gon’ let it sweat me, babe
That part about “taxes, death and trouble” might relate more to Gaye’s personal life.
Joni Mitchell was fond of this song. By 1998, she had added it to the set list for some of her concert performances. She once explained “In the process of learning [the song] for performance, I discovered how truly original and eccentric the form of it is.”
In the early 2000s, Starbucks released a series of exclusive CD albums called Artist’s Choice. For each, a famous musician was asked to curate an album’s worth of their favorite songs. The Joni Mitchell version that came out in 2005, had 18 selections, the 15th being “Trouble Man.” In the CD’s liner notes, Mitchell explained why she chose each of the songs on the disc. For “Trouble Man, she said “I had this song on an album and I kept the needle on this track—playing it over and over. It was so influential to my music and my singing. It excites me from the downbeat—the way the drums roll in – the suspense – the approaching storm of it.”
Mitchell’s 1974 classic, Court and Spark, included a song called “Trouble Child.”
There is speculation that Gaye’s “Trouble Man” influenced this song. While the lyrical theme isn’t the identical, there are similarities. Gaye’s subject is in trouble with the law and gangsters. Mitchell’s subject’s trouble is with inner conflicts and self-doubt.
Up in a sterilized room Where they let you be lazy Knowing your attitude’s all wrong And you got to change And that’s not easy Dragon shining with all values known Dazzling you, keeping you from your own Where is the lion in you to defy him When you’re this weak And this spacey
So what are you going to do about it You can’t live life and you can’t leave it Advice and religion, you can’t take it You can’t seem to believe it The peacock is afraid to parade You’re under the thumb of the maid You really can’t give love in this condition Still you know how you need it
Lyrics aside, the jazzy sophistication of the music is undeniably similar to the direction Gaye pursued.
These are both songs that are under the radar but deserve closer listening.
