Finding Dennis Lambert

My wife and I made sure we were at Limketkai Center’s Atrium Monday evening for the pre-valentine concert of American songwriting greats Paul Williams and Dennis Lambert. We’re both huge fans of both, and I got a kick earlier in the day when I got to meet them in person during the brief presscon hosted by Bigby’s at the Rosario Arcade and got Paul to sign three old LPs belonging to our manang Jazz, another huge fan.

However, the evening was still a revelation to even someone like me who’s pretty stepped in music lore, having interested myself early in the music of both gentlemen, especially Mr. Williams, who’s seminal “Phantom of the Paradise” original soundtrack album from the 1970’s movie of the same title continues to be one of my all-time favorites. Although we could only afford the P800 balcony tickets, still the two giant TV monitors provided by the producers of the show made it a vantage point perhaps even better than the seats below since we had a panoramic view of the whole stage overlooking the Atrium.

Most of my surprises for the evening came courtesy of Mr. Lambert, whom we’d previously known more for the only LP where he was both the singer and writer “Bags and Things” with the all-time Pinoy favorite “Of All The Things” which he sang as his finale.

First, it was only as he was going through his repertoire that I noted the “blue-eyed soul” in his music, being a native of New Yorker who later moved to LA to work for 20 years in the music industry mainly as a producer and song writer. He has since returned to his native city since the mid nineties where he continues to churn out hit after hit in a musical career that is now on its fourth decade with almost six hundred songs written to date and close to 100 full length albums produced and co-produced.

His opening number, “It Only Takes A Minute,” which the all-black R&B group Tavares took to No. 7 in the pop charts is typical of his blue-eyed soul with its funky ‘dating’, sensuous bass line and power chorus (by the way, that’s a pretty heavy all-Pinoy backing vocal group you got there, sir…yeah!).

Wonder of wonders, I never knew he also wrote the Commodores “Nightshift”, a tribute to black music legends Jackie Wilson and Marvin Gaye. With the soulful voice of the incomparable Lionel Richie, it was nominated as the R&B Song of the Year in the 1986 Grammy Awards. The song took on a whole new dimension for me when I realized it really was a tribute, and what a beautiful tribute it is!

But my favorite R&B hit of his (which nearly got ditched from his playlist, no thanks to a technical glitch) was “She’s Gone”, which Tavares first took to the chart in the 70s and with which Darryl Hall and John Oates revisited the charts in the middle 80s. For this evening, Mr. Lambert sang it in a medley of his songs which included “Baby Come Back” (Players One hit wonder) and Sara (also brought to the charts in the early 80s by Starship).

That’s the beautiful thing about having concerts with songwriters, the audience gets to know the stories behind the songs, and they become something more in the process than simply hits you heard on a radio when you were a young man. This was best said by David Gates when he wrote “Guitar Man” sang by the Bread during the early 70s:

Then you listen to the music and you’d like to sing along

You want to get a meaning out of each and every song

Then you find yourself a message and some words to call your own

And take them home…

Another facet to Mr. Lambert’s glittering music track record which many discovered that Monday evening was the versatility of his music, running across genres and crossing age lines like few contemporary songwriters could.

His songs range from R&B (Nightshift, Aint’ No Woman Like the One I Got, It Only Takes a Minute, She’s Gone), Country (Rhinestone Cowboy, Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.), Pop (I Didn’t Sing In the NY Subway, Somebody Found Her Before I Lost Her), to mention some included in his evening repertoire.

He also delved into hip-hop with TLC’s “Unpretty” remix in 2000, power pop or rock if you will with “Sara” and the anthemic “We Built This City” in 1986 (written as a tribute to the Starship, which evolved from the Jefferson Airplane, and later Jefferson Starship). As early as 1965, he was already writing hits with “Do the Freddie” and also does movie sountracks, among which Pinoys most familiar with are “The Moment of Truth” sang by Survivor in “The Karate Kid” (1984), the legendary “One Tin Soldier” from “The Legend of Billy Jack”(1970), “Are You Man Enough” sang by the Four Tops from Shaft in Africa (1973).

The multi-awarded songwriter, singer and producer has eleven Grammy nominations and won the coveted award in 1976 with Glen Campbell ( Record of the Year, Pop & Country) besides also being nominated as producer of the year for the LP of the same title and best vocal performance as well for Mr. Campbell for the song “Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.)” also from the same album.

During our brief time with him during the presscon at Bigby’s, Mr. Lambert said he’s now working on a new album which should be out in three months. There’s also a production team that’s working on a film biography of his life and works, though it remains unclear whether the final docu will be for the big or small screen.

This is getting to be too long and we haven’t even gotten to Paul Williams yet. We’ll have to reserve that for next issue to do justice to both gentlemen who came a long way from LA and New York just to be with us. Before we go, all who enjoyed their music Monday night should also know the Cagayan de Oro leg of the show was nearly scrapped but for Boy Gualberto and his group who dared pick it up with barely a week to go. We take our hats off to him and Renen de Guia for bringing Paul Williams and Dennis Lambert to our city. Hasta la vista!

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