METROGENE MYLES, "SUFFER" C/W "SOME TEARS FALL DRY," HERALD 591 (REL. 6/1964)

 

Little is known about the vocalist of today's recordings. She appears to have made two prior singles as Metrojean for small Northeastern labels before she hitched her wagon to white songwriter Clint Ballard Jr. and Herald records, a label in its death throes in mid-1964. Ballard produced these two sides and they epitomize the pop-soul sound of New York in the early 1960s.

This is the showiest of her three singles; she's double-tracked and gives gutsy, over-the-top performances on a a pair of anguished songs--each cluttered with Latin percussion and seeming to be items from a theoretical Broadway revue about extreme dating dos and don'ts.

Ms. Myles did star in a stage musical co-written by the great Langston Hughes. Jerico-Jim Crow, which premiered in January 1964 and was praised by The New York Times, back when it had journalistic integrity and didn't minimize wanna-be dictators' atrocities and failures of tact, grace and empathy. Folkways Records released an original cast LP, which was an apparent zenith of the singer's career.

Few who attended that musical had any inking of "Suffer," a bizarre waltz-time display of eye-for-an-eye sadism, as overblown as a John Waters movie and gripping despite the listener's initial reaction, perhaps, to run in the other direction.

Myles' wailing, multi-tracked voice is commanding; she inhabits with relish the role of a spurned lover who sneers at a desperate and deceitful ex. She's really not the forgiving sort, this big-city Cassandra, and Myles' fervor gives this crazed song its ideal performance. 

Less out-there vocalist Patti Drew recorded "Suffer" for Capitol Records in 1967. The record went out as "Sufferer," perhaps as a show of sympathy to the cad who gets lambasted at length in its lyrics. I hope the lesson was learned in both cases.

A Cash Box toss-off review: some great records ended up with these curt write-ups.

"Some Tears Fall Dry" was first recorded by The Chantels in 1963 for the luridly colored and short-lived Ludix label. Metrogene's version takes a similar rapid-transit tempo: in both cases a strange pace for its bleak, dark lyrics. The melody and almost march-tempo suggest something much more upbeat. Myles' double-tracked, husky take on the song retains the Latin tempo and percussion of the A-side; that sorta-bossa nova rhythm adds a lilt to this down-lifting ditty that's decorated with happy-sounding flute, as if no one involved understood how very sad it all is.

Myles doesn't seem to have made any subsequent recordings or done public performances after this record's release. She had a fine voice--if not distinctive, it is skilled and passionate. When a performer just drops out of the picture, one must wonder what happened (or didn't happen) but there are no evident answers. As swan-songs go, this is an unusual one.

Tomorrow: Garnet Mimms winds up our visit to 1964 with a fine United Artists single featuring the inspired mariachi-soul fusion of "Look Away" and a powerful deep-soul flip co-written by Jerome "Doc" Pomus.