Words & Music. Margo Guryan

Margo Guryan was an American singer and songwriter who died a few years ago. To be exact in 2021 at the age of 84. She was a singer I had never heard of until this spring, when I received a link to a three cd box set containing all her recordings. I reviewed the single, her very first recording from 1958, 'Moon Ride', which was, well, different. That is the right word for a jazzy pop song like this from 1958. I listened to a few more songs but had heard enough quite soon. And that seemed to be it.

That was almost missing her great work from the second half of the 1960s. Oh, yes, she will have heard Nancy Sinatra and some French sigh girls. The question is what she did with these influences? I can only agree with the review (in Oor, NRC?) pointing to her fantastic album from the era.

Reading Wikipedia, Guryan had a sort of epiphany when listening to 'God Only Knows', one of The Beach Boys' finest if not the band's best song. She left jazz behind and started to write another kind of songs that were soon recorded by a host of artists from the U.S. and France. This brings me to her album 'Take A Picture'. An album that caught the ear of critics but did not go anywhere because Guryan refused to tour, which ended the label support and thus her singing career. We still have the record though, thanks to this reissue.

For this review, I follow the second cd/album of the box. It starts with the song 'Sunday Morning'. Listen to that guitar and then think of "Little Beaver", the guitarist on Joss Stone's debut album. This sound is a match I would say. The pop feel of 'Sunday Morning' is fantastic. It has a Nancy Sinatra pop voice, a soulful vibe and mixes psychedelia with The Beatles arrangements, French sigh girls and pure pop. Yes, the song sounds dated but that is fully overcome by the fact the song is totally new to me and, more importantly, there are a host of female singers who would who knows do what to have a song like this today.

To think that Margo Guryan was working as a professional songwriter, with a few hits to her name for artists like Billie Jo Gentry and Glenn Campbell, Mama Cass and Spanky & Our Gang, that scored with 'Sunday Morning' first. Before her fall for The Beach Boys, she already wrote songs for Anita Kerr, Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte.

The decision to record her own songs, although it did not come to much at the time, was a just one. As a genre record, this album should have been an icon and perhaps can still become one because of this posthumous release. Simply because the music and arrangements are so mature. A lot is happening here. There's even an instrumental that was influenced by Frank Zappa, I'd say.

Of course, some of the songs are so sweet they are sticky. They make my fillings jump out even before contact. And yet. That sweetness of 'Take A Picture' is just that, it's sweet and kind. And with that, what is it, an oboe? solo it sets the song apart as well. And, no, I do not need to hear this every day, but when I want to, I know I'm going to enjoy myself tremendously, wallowing in 1960s girl pop music at its best.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

You can listen to and order Words & Music here:

https://numeromargoguryan.bandcamp.com/album/words-and-music