- The Persuasions: On The Good Ship Lollipop, Music For Little People, 1999
- The Persuasions: Frankly A Cappella, Earthbeat!, 2000
- The Persuasions: Sunday Morning Soul, Bullseye/Rounder, 2000
The Persuasions, hold a singular position in the vocal group pantheon. Now in their thirty-fifth year, they’ve worked with everyone from Frank Zappa to Joni Mitchell, sung doo-wop on street corners and recorded avante garde with Ned Sublette. Simply put, there’s nobody like ‘em. Barbershop it ain’t. Defying categorization, these three releases offer ample evidence of their versatility.
Lollipop includes some of the hippest versions of nursery rhymes ever waxed. The quintet makes everything sound good, so it’s no surprise that even the most rudimentary lyric ends up sounding like something bop monologist Lord Buckley would dig. Entirely a cappella, to quote an earlier album title, they still ain’t got no band. Time-tested tunes like ‘Teddy Bear’s Picnic,’ ‘Big Rock Candy Mountain,’ and ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,’ sit comfortably alongside a handful of originals, including ‘A Cappella Fellas,’ a theme song of sorts. Kids will enjoy this, but so should anyone who loves good music.
Frankly A Cappella is a whole other proposition. In 1969 the group was signed to Zappa’s fledgling Straight record label. The roster included Alice Cooper, Captain Beefheart and Tim Buckley – in hindsight, heady company, but at that time perceived as a laughable troupe of rejects, typical of Zappa’s eccentricities. An A cappella group fit right in. That he would undertake such a seemingly uncommercial endeavor, and turn it into a success, speaks volumes as to Zappa’s taste and foresight. While the Persuasions would go on to record for over a dozen other labels, they never forgot the fact that Zappa was the first.
The twelve tracks cover all phases of Zappa’s career, and while there’s not a stinker in the bunch, the earlier songs are highlights. ‘Theme from Lumpy Gravy,’ originally an instrumental opus, is particularly impressive. ‘Electric Aunt Jemima,’ ‘Tears Begin To Fall’ plus three songs from his underrated Ruben & The Jets (1968) showcase Zappa’s long-standing love affair with doo-wop.
The group performed ‘The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing’ as part of ‘Zappa’s Universe,’ a 1991 concert tribute marking the composer’s fiftieth birthday. Reprised here, the song is a typical example of Zappa’s intolerance for fundamentalists of all types. He was particularly vocal in his disdain for the religious right’s antics, and usually right on the money.
Spirituals have always been part of the group’s concert performances and recordings, but Sunday Morning Soul is their first all-gospel effort. According to the liner notes, the disc is “a tribute to their faith as well as their roots.” Not that they’ve strayed too far – lead vocalist Jerry Lawson retains active membership in the New Hope Baptist Church Choir of Apopka, Florida – the town he was born in. The group took it’s name as an oblique reference to Christ having to persuade the people to follow his teachings, figuring it would take a lot of persuasion to make a living as musicians without instruments.
For the most part made up of gospel standards, including ‘Did You Stop To Pray’ and ‘Dry Bones,’ this is the material they started with, and it fits like a glove. A take on T Texas Tyler’s ‘Deck Of Cards’ is reminiscent of ‘It’s Alright’ a highlight from the group’s debut disc.
© John Cody 2000