Cabbage Alley

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Cabbage Alley
Studio album by
The Meters
ReleasedMay 11, 1972
GenreFunk
Length47:10
LabelReprise
Producer
The Meters chronology
Struttin'
(1970) 		Cabbage Alley
(1972) 		Rejuvenation
(1974)
Singles from Cabbage Alley
  1. "Cabbage Alley"
    Released: 1972
  2. "Do the Dirt"
    Released: 1972

Cabbage Alley is the fourth studio album by the funk group the Meters, produced by Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn and released in May 1972 by Reprise Records. It was the band's first album for the label, following the demise of Josie Records a year earlier, and the signing afforded the group a higher recording budget and re-introduced organist and keyboardist Art Neville to the lineup, having briefly left the band some time earlier.

The Meters used the album to explore a variety of musical styles, including

surrealist album sleeve was inspired by the art of René Magritte

The title track and "Do the Dirt" were issued as singles. On release, Cabbage Alley received wide acclaim from music critics, some of whom deemed it the group's best album yet. Despite the reviews and the album's smoother sound, it was a commercial disappointment, which was partly attributed to Reprise's poor marketing. The album has been re-released several times, including by Sundazed Records in 2000.

Background and recording

Active since the 1960s, the Meters were regarded as leaders in authentic

riff-oriented guitarist Leo Nocentelli.[2] By 1972, the group had achieved several R&B hits in the United States with danceable instrumentals,[4] but spent much of their time as the house band for Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn's production company Sansu Enterprises.[4][5] As the group's single "Chicken Strut" (1970) was rising in popularity, Neville acrimoniously exited the band due to an inter-band dispute regarding whether to sign with Otis Redding's manager, Phil Walden.[6]

In 1971, the Meters' label

Warner Bros. Records.[8] The deal necessitated that Neville return to the group.[6] Porter Jr later reflected: "For the band, it was a good move [for Neville to rejoin]. We’re getting ready to go to a better label, get a better budget for recording and stuff."[8] The move from Josie to Reprise did not compromise the Meters' relationship with Sansu, as they retained Toussaint as producer and Sehon as manager.[4]

The group's first album for Reprise,[9] Cabbage Alley was produced by Toussaint and Sehorn,[10] and unlike their earlier albums, the band recorded it in their own sessions, "instead of on the tail end of somebody else's," as described by Cliff White of Blues & Soul.[11] According to Let It Rock writer Pete Wingfield, Toussaint approached Cabbage Alley as a companion project to his own album Life, Love and Faith (1972), further noting that the musician hoped the release of both records through Warner labels would revive interest in soul music in New Orleans and attract a white audience to the city's musicians, as well as "putting an identifiable N.O. sound back in the charts."[12] However, in a 1974 NME interview with Roger St. Pierre, Neville said that while Toussaint and Sehorn are credited for producing their albums, the production work was taken by the Meters themselves, adding: "Toussaint and Sehorn don't even come into the studio while we're recording but they do get involved in the final mix and so on."[13]

Composition

The title track is based on "Hey Now Baby" by Professor Longhair (pictured).

While rooted in dance-oriented funk music with second line syncopation,

delay.[19]

The change in direction is immediately evident with the distorted guitar riff that begins the opening song "You’ve Got to Change (You’ve Got to Reform)",

the Mighty Sparrow,[21] and was considered by Palmer to be the group's most reggae-like song to that point, citing the "chunk-a-chunk bass and guitar unisons and basic organ lead" for melodically and texturally evoking "the music of the Islands."[14] Idris Walter of Sounds deemed it a "New Orleans reggae" song with similarities to Unit 4 + 2's hit "Concrete and Clay" (1965).[22]

A "chunky dance

Dixieland heritage, the second line feeling, even more than anything else we've written. If you born here, you just gonna have it, that's all."[5]

Release and reception

Cabbage Alley was released in the US by Reprise in May 1972,

Surrealist in the incongruous, claustrophobic propinquity of two equally convincing, yet texturally antithetical realities."[30]

Cabbage Alley received wide acclaimed by

The Montreal Star deemed it "a good dancing record, if you play it real loud and, as James Brown says, con-cen-trate." They wrote that the sound is thick and funky and the group can be forgiven for "[overdoing] it sometimes", while praising the combination of the band and Toussaint's production for resulting in "some unique product".[3]

Commercial response

Despite the album's strong reviews,[11] smoother sound,[18] and the move to a major label,[32] Cabbage Alley and its two singles were commercial disappointments.[11][13][28] The album reached number 48 on the Billboard Top Soul LPs chart, but unlike the group's first two albums, it missed the Billboard Top LPs and Tape chart.[33] Arthur Neville told an interviewer for Blues & Soul that he believed the album should have had stronger exposure, "because everyone agrees that the material is the strongest we have ever done."[32]

While the group blamed the poor sales on lack of promotion, St. Pierre believed they were also because "it was somewhat devoid of memorable melodic content – relying simply on basic riffs", believing this to be a stylistic change which "happened a bit too quickly for their fans."

CMJ New Music Monthly believed the wider public "didn't click" with Cabbage Alley or the Meters' later album Fire on the Bayou (1975) because "they were peppered with so many obscure references to local New Orleans culture that folks who didn't know about Mardi Gras or red beans and rice just couldn't pick up on it."[34] Chaligne wrote that the failure was partly attributed to "Reprise's inability to market a band that had few similarities with the rest of its roster."[18] Despite the disappointment, Cabbage Alley led to the Meters working on Dr. John's popular "Right Place, Wrong Time" (1973) and taking a European tour in mid-1973 with Dr. John and Professor Longhair.[21]

Legacy and retrospective reviews

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
[31]
Funk (Dave Thompson)8/10[19]

Cabbage Alley was re-released in the UK in 1975 by Warner.

bonus tracks.[16]

Reviewing the 1975 reissue, Peter Harvey of

Caribbean flavor from a trip to Trinidad and Tobago". He also noted that while the Meters tentatively incorporated pop elements into the album's jams, they "perfected" the pop aspect on Rejuvenation.[6]

Less impressed,

Colin Larkin notes that Cabbage Alley began a series of "critically acclaimed albums" for the Meters that "reinforced their distinctive, sinewy rhythms."[31] Terry Perkins of St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote that Cabbage Alley and its two follow-ups "clearly mark the band's high point as a unit", and further highlighted "Gettin' Funkier All the Time",[2] while Steve MacQueen of Tallahassee Democrat recommended them alongside "Cissy Strut" (1969) for defining the group's "stripped-down, choppy, syncopated funk style of the early 70s".[38] In a 2015 interview, Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys called Cabbage Alley the "maddest" find in his record collection.[39]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."You've Got to Change (You've Got to Reform)"Ziggy Modeliste, Leo Nocentelli5:15
2."Stay Away"Nocentelli5:22
3."Birds"Neil Young4:23
4."The Flower Song"Nocentelli4:51
5."Soul Island"Modeliste, Art Neville, Nocentelli, George Porter Jr.3:10
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
6."Do the Dirt"Nocentelli2:36
7."Smiling"Neville3:09
8."Lonesome and Unwanted People"Nocentelli4:39
9."Gettin' Funkier All the Time"Modeliste, Nocentelli, Porter3:19
10."Cabbage Alley"Neville3:30
2001 CD bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
11."Chug Chug Chug-A-Lug (Push and Shove) Part I"Modeliste, Nocentelli3:30
12."Chug Chug Chug-A-Lug (Push and Shove) Part II"Modeliste, Nocentelli3:26

Personnel

Credits adapted from AllMusic.[40]

Production
  • Tim Livingston – project manager
  • Bunny Matthews – liner notes
  • Barry Hansen
    – liner notes
  • Bob Irwin – mastering
  • Al Quaglieri – mastering
  • Rich Russell – design
  • Ed Thrasher – art direction
  • David Willardson – cover art

References

  1. ^ Heller, Jason (March 5, 2014). "The Meters remain the measure of New Orleans funk". A.V. Club. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e Perkins, Terry (August 20, 2000). "CDs: Pop". St. Louis Post-Dispatch: F5. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d Rodriguez, Juan (August 26, 1972). "Pop Music". The Montreal Star: C-7. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "The Meters Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine". AllMusic. Retrieved February 4, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d Crouse, Timothy (May 11, 1972). "Resurrecting New Orleans". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  6. ^ a b c Terry, Josh (November 23, 2021). "The Meters' Resilient New Orleans Funk". Vinyl Me, Please. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  7. ^ Steve Leggett (2011). "AllMusic: Here Comes the Meter Man: The Complete Josie Recordings, 1968–1970 – review". Allmusic.com. Archived from the original on January 9, 2017. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  8. ^ a b c O'Brien, Andrew (January 20, 2020). "George Porter Jr. Talks Art Neville, Allen Toussaint, & The Hindsight Of The Meters [Interview]". Live for Live Music. Retrieved February 4, 2023.
  9. ^ "Album of the Day". Rhino. October 29, 2019. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  10. ^ Cabbage Alley (liner). The Meters. Reprise. 1972.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h White, Cliff (February 1977). "The Meters: Twenty Years on the Funk Meter #2". Blues & Soul. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  12. ^ Wingfield, Pete (October 1972). "Toussaint: Life, Love And Faith". Let It Rock. Retrieved February 3, 2023.
  13. ^ a b c d St. Pierre, Roger (November 26, 1974). "The Meters: Funk From The Crescent City". NME. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  14. ^
    ISSN 0035-791X. Archived from the original
    on November 18, 2007.
  15. ^ a b Laycock, John (July 27, 1972). "Pop". The Windsor Star: 24. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  16. ^ a b c d e Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Allmusic: Cabbage Alley – review". allmusic.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
  17. ISBN 0807859087
    . Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  18. ^ a b c d e Chaligne, Craig (January 29, 2020). "The Meters: Gettin' Funkier All The Time – album review". Louder Than War. Retrieved February 4, 2023.
  19. ^
    ISBN 9780879306298
    .
  20. ^
    ISBN 089919026X
    . Retrieved March 7, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  21. ^
    ISBN 9781887366915
    . Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  22. ^ Walters, Idris (May 31, 1975). "They All Tried to Play Reggae". Sounds. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  23. ^ a b c d Harvey, Peter (August 16, 1975). "Album Pick" (PDF). Record Mirror: 15. Retrieved February 3, 2023.
  24. ISBN 0879306297
    . Retrieved August 6, 2016.
  25. ^ a b McEwen, Joe (October 2, 1974). "Allen Toussaint: Introspective Funk". The Real Paper. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  26. ^ Cabbage Alley (liner). The Meters. Reprise. 2001.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  27. ^ "New and Action LP's". Billboard. Vol. 84, no. 27. July 1, 1972. p. 40. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  28. ^ a b c White, Cliff (June 5, 1976). "The Meters: The Battle of New Orleans Re-visited..." NME. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  29. ISBN 9780807133330
    . Retrieved August 6, 2016.
  30. ISBN 0706409159
    .
  31. ^
    ISBN 1-85227 745 9
    .
  32. ^ a b Abbey, John (August 31, 1973). "The Mighty Meters". Blues & Soul. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  33. ^ "The Meters - Awards". AllMusic. Archived from the original on September 22, 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
  34. ^ Lien, James (March 1995). "Flashback". CMJ New Music Monthly. 19: 45. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  35. ^ Swenson, John (May 1, 2005). "The Meters Are Right On Time". Offbeat. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  36. ^ "Cabbage Alley - The Meters - Releases". AllMusic. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  37. ^ "Vital Reissues". Billboard. Vol. 112, no. 39. September 23, 2000. p. 35. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  38. ^ MacQueen, Steve (May 10, 1991). "The Brothers blend". Tallahassee Democrat: 3E. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
  39. ^ Blistein, Jon (April 14, 2015). "Watch Jon Stewart Fawn Over Ad-Rock on 'Daily Show'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
  40. ^ "Allmusic: Cabbage Alley – credits". allmusic.com. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 20, 2015.

External links

  • Stewart, Jon (14 May 2015), "Adam Horovitz",
    The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
    , New York: Comedy Central    .
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