Through The Past Darkly – Ellen Foley – Night Out & Spirit Of St. Louis
Lemon Records
2CD/DL
In an irregular feature, we cast our minds back to the two albums former Bat Out Of Hell vocalist Ellen Foley cut in 1979 and 1981 respectively, with the latter finding her backed by The Clash. Ian Canty writes…
The Ellen Foley story really got started with one massive success. She was the featured vocalist on Paradise By The Dashboard Light and backed up Meatloaf elsewhere on the mega-selling Bat Out Of Hell album in 1977. In June 1979, she stepped out into the spotlight herself with the Night Out album.
Bearing in mind The Clash connection on Spirit Of St. Louis, it is easy to see the Night Out as a makeweight of the pair included on this set. But the fact that Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson were on hand to produce and play on the LP provides a sense of symmetry, with them both being vital in the pre-Punk musical adventures of one Mick Jones.
Night Out begins with the grandstanding opening track We Belong To The Night, a fine attempt to meld the bombastic sound of her recent past with something that tapped into stylish, big production 1960s Pop. In fact it could perhaps have been a better choice as a single than What’s A Matter Baby (Is It Hurting You), even though that number is a creditable effort and did reasonably well as a 45.
Phil Rambow’s Night Out is a tense beauty that finds Ellen on seductive form and his Young Lust is later allied to a sturdy Rock beat. The Graham Parker songbook is dipped into for Thunder And Rain, which comes complete with some sawing guitar heroics. Hideaway races on a pounding rhythm, the most “New Wave” item here and co-producer Ian Hunter’s emotional ballad Don’t Let Go finishes up proceedings.
I have to concede that most people interested in this set would be so because of The Clash connection on Spirit Of St Louis though. In some ways this album could be seen as the missing piece in the jigsaw between Sandinista! and Combat Rock. Mick Jones had become romantically involved with Ellen in 1979 and an artistic collaboration also ensued when she sang on and co-wrote The Clash single Hitsville UK. A year later, along with Joe Strummer’s pal Tymon Dogg and various Blockheads, The Clash and Foley returned to the studio together for the Spirit Of St. Louis LP.
Six Strummer/Jones composition feature, beginning with The Shuttered Palace, an excellent starter with maybe a little in common with Joe Strummer’s Walker soundtrack, The 101’ers’ Sweet Revenge and perhaps a tad of Spanish Bombs. Torchlight reveals itself as perhaps the most Clash-like thing on the whole record when the guitars slam in and Tymon Dogg’s Beautiful Waste Of Time, with some parping sax from the great Davey Payne, is given a lovely treatment.
One of the more obscure Strummer/Jones songs would have to be The Death Of The Psychoanalyst Of Salvador Dali. But Ellen is in her element here, teasing out the oddball imagery with a natural aptitude for dramatic tension and next M.P.H. comes flying out of the blocks with a ball of good-time energy.
My Legionnaire actual dates back to pre-war France when it was written as Mon Légionnaire by Raymond Asso and Edith Piaf songwriter Marguerite Monnot. This takes the sound towards musical theatre again admirably on a pared-down sonic landscape of just voice and Mickey Gallagher’s keys. Penultimate Joe and Mick tune Theatre Of Cruelty is led by up front percussion and Ellen’s own Phases Of Travel juggles great vim with touching vulnerability.
Tymon Dogg’s archive provides Game Of Man and Indestructable, which both show the depth and variety of his work. Foley gives a pitch perfect reading of the former and the choral build on the later is one to savour. In The Killing Fields, written by Joe and Mick, ends Spirit Of St. Louis in short but strident marching mode.
I think that Spirit Of St. Louis proves itself as of much more interest than just being a mere footnote in the career of The Clash. This is Ellen’s album above all and she shines on it and material and the cast of musicians fulfil their roles with aplomb too. Along with the decent showing on Night Out, this set represents a boon for not just long-term Clash addict, but also anyone who enjoys a good composition performed in stirring surroundings by a fine, clear voice.
You can still pick up Ellen Foley – Night Out & Spirit Of St. Louis here
slicing through the static 