Sunday morning coming down

Dion — Dion DiMucci — turns 81 next month. This month he released a new set of recordings titled Blues With Friends. The friends range from Jeff Beck and Joe Bonamassa to Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen. I don’t think Dion sounds like he’s older than 45. He sounds like an artist in his prime.

When I saw that the new disc was going to be released on June 5, I thought it might serve as the occasion for another installment of the special life in lockdown edition of this series. We can take a look back at an artist with an amazing career just for the sheer pleasure of the thing.

Dion’s new disc gave Alan Paul something of the same idea. He seized on the recording to profile Dion for the Wall Street Journal yesterday in “Dion still sings of America.” Richie Unterberger provides the brief Allmusic overview of Dion’s career here.

Dion’s career is of such length and breadth that I can do no more than touch on a few of its moments here this morning. Dion’s love of the blues brought me back to him 15 years ago. This post leans on his most recent work for that reason.

Paul’s Wall Street Journal profile takes us back to Dion on tour at age 18:

In 1959, Dion was the fourth headliner on tour with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (the “Big Bopper”); Dion opted out of the plane ride that crashed and killed the other three because he couldn’t justify the ticket’s cost of $36, the very amount that his parents paid in rent on their Bronx apartment.

He was 18 when he returned home after “the day the music died.” Nobody much wanted to talk about it. “There were no grief counselors in the Bronx in 1959,” says Dion. “I lived by instinct, though a priest did comfort me by saying that relationships don’t end, that my friends were closer to the beatific vision and I should ask them to say a prayer for me. But the first way I dealt with that pain is I became a heroin addict.”

The addiction threw a monkey wrench into Dion’s career. Paul adds this Sunday morning element to Dion’s story:

In 1968, shaken by the death by overdose of his fellow teen sensation Frankie Lymon, Dion completely reimagined his life. “I got on my knees and said a prayer, and I haven’t had a drug or a drink since—52 years,” he says. “Unbelievable. I just changed, and the Thomas Aquinas and Merton pieces fit together. It went from my head to my heart. I had a conversion experience, and I saw myself as a child of God instead of a rock star.”

I think Dion’s “Runaround Sue” may be the first single I ever bought. It was a number 1 hit in 1961. Dion wrote the song with Ernie Maresca. Reading around, I see that Dion explains:

I recorded “Runaround Sue” with The Del-Satins and black musicians from the Apollo theater, Buddy Lucas on Sax, Sticks Evans on drums, Panama Francis on percussion, Teacho Wilshire on piano, Milt Hinton on bass, and Mickey “Guitar” Baker. ~ When Hollywood filmed [it] they use[d] all white actors playing musicians behind me, knowing the film wouldn’t get played in the South at that time [if they they didn’t do that].

Here’s his story, sad but (allegedly) true.

Dion was on his own road. Here is “The Road I’m On (Gloria)” from 1964, written by Dion. The album of that title took a look back at recordings on Columbia over the years 1962-1966. I place it here just to provide some idea of the range of his work.

Dion recorded Kickin’ Child with producer Tom Wilson at Columbia in 1965, but Columbia didn’t see fit to release it. It sat in the can until 2017. It’s nevertheless a great album, now with the tag The Lost Album 1965. I declared it the best album of 2017. I can’t imagine how Dion must have felt when Columbia locked it away. “Two Ton Feather” is a highlight.

“Abraham, Martin and John” marked the annus horribilis of 1968. The song was written by one Dick Holler and it wasn’t Dion’s idea to record the song, but it was Dion who put the song over, big time.

Dion looked back on his addictions in “Your Own Back Yard.” It’s one of my two favorite message songs. The other is “What the World Needs Now.” Anyway, here’s his story, sad but true.

Dion’s first hits were of course with the Belmonts. This was doo wop, Bronx style. They reunited for a show in 1972. It opened in thrilling fashion.

“Written on the Subway Wall/Little Star” turned up in 1989 on Dion’s album on Arista. It sounds like Mark Knopfler on the guitar fills and it’s definitely Paul Simon on the “Little Star” break.

I returned to Dion with 2005’s Bronx in Blue. I love the disc from beginning to end. “You Better Watch Yourself” sounds like a follow-up to “Your Own Back Yard,” and Dion I think Dion has personalized it with his own additions to the lyrics, but it goes back to Lightin’ Hopkins. Dion has recorded it several times, never better than this version.

Dion has recorded gospel songs and Christian rock confessing his faith. The title track of 2007’s Son of Skip James comes at it from a different direction.

Dion paid tribute to the era in which he came of age in 2008’s Heroes: Giants of Early Guitar Rock. Bobby “Crow” Richardson helped out on the guitar parts. This is Dion’s terrific cover of “Come On, Let’s Go” by Ritchie Valens.

Dion released Tank Full of Blues in 2011. I have lifted “Ride’s Blues (for Robert Johnson)” from that set.

Paul Simon joined Dion on the title track of 2016’s New York Is My Home.

Dion’s new disc, out this month, is Blues With Friends. Van Morrison and Joe Louis Walker are his friends on “I Got Nothin’.” Dion and Van trade phrases like Sam and Dave. If I have it right, this is a helluva come on song in the form of a blues lament.

“Song for Sam Cooke (Here in America)” is at the heart of the new disc. Paul Simon rejoined him on this one. This is Dion.

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