I'm coming home - BRONZE 106

Timmy Norman

Sadly I don’t know anything about the man Timmy Norman, who released several sides in the 60s, but I do know that I like his music very much. All four of his tracks for Bronze are class southern soul, with the uptempo “Makin’ Love” the one most likely to appeal to the dancers. But the other cuts are all ballads – much more to my taste. ListenMemories Of Yesterday is perhaps the most accessible of them, and it’s full of good things, especially the fine guitarist, the big horns and Norman’s impassioned vocal. You gotta love those falsetto bursts at the end.

ListenI’m Coming Home is a powerful “Soul Of Vietnam” piece which reminds me of the feel of the Van Dykes’ superb “No Man Is An Island”. My favourite though is the gentle ListenI Owe My Loving To You with its almost minimalist setting, subtle guitar fills and slow and deliberate Norman vocal. Bobby Darnell, who had a splendid 45 on Bronze under his own name wrote all four of Norman’s Bronze sides. In view of the presence of a Louis Howard 45 on the label, could the label have been based in Fort Worth, TX?

I can't stand it - FAME 362Norman reappeared on Fame covering Joe L Carter’s excellent ListenI Can’t Stand It – and a very good job he made of it too. Not surprising really as he used the backing track that Carter cut at Hi, with only a couple of overdubs to distinguish it. Don’t believe the 45’s label which states “Recorded At Fame Recording Studios”. Overdubs and vocal maybe – rhythm track and horns certainly not.

 

Discography

As TIMMY NORMAN

ListenI’m coming home / ListenI owe my loving to you ~ BRONZE 106 (mid 60s)
Makin’ love / ListenMemories of yesterday ~ BRONZE 4841 (mid 60s)

As TIM NORMAN

ListenI can’t stand it / Heaven in my eyes ~ FAME 362 (1973)

 

Note ~ It’s possible, but I think very unlikely, that the spoken funk of “Let It All Hang Out” by Timmy Norman & The O’Jahs on Soulville and SS7 is the same artist.

 

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