On P.P Arnold -

A Love Letter for P.P. Arnold Superstar, the soul savior

P.P. Arnold sets the bar high.

She may not be as famous or her discography as vast as Aretha the Queen’s or as well-respected by Motown lovers as Gladys the Empress, and everyone who isn’t familiar with her work in a deeper sense is seriously missing out. In the press and media she’s often referred to as ”London’s First Lady Of Soul”, which to me gives a totally false, outdated, wrong and patronizing impression - as if she got the alias nickname through some form of ”marriage” (to be entitled the right to be called ”First Lady”). Like who exactly is her spouse? To whom she would have had to tie a knot with to, in order to be acknowledged? Her record producers or Tina Turner who discovered her? Mick Jagger (whom she dated), The President of United Kingdom (pun on ”KINGdom”) or let’s say the sacred Lennon? No.

Let me get this straight - P.P Arnold surely and utterly has earned a better ”prefix” when we are talking about music and in this context we definitely are. Survivor of an abusive teen marriage and pregnancy resulted by a rape with modern and eternal standards, she luckily found - and was was convinced to take - a way out of violence at home by becoming an Ikette for the Turner revue. No one is a prophet in the US except some cult leaders, so their UK hit flopped in the States  and P.P eventually moved to London with her kids after falling in love with the scene and liberty she found in the UK on their tour (as a black woman customed to segregation and KKK-bullshit). This was the 60s - rock’n’roll, sex on drugs and the mini skirts, Mary Quant pantyhose, the pill and The Beatles. For someone born during the peak of power shoulders and the Y-shape, the elegant revolution in music, arts and fashion is the holy grail of époques. Oh yes, and the hippies. A pile of new movements, ism’s and ”lines” (in fashion) got born simultaneously like a black hole would have collapsed and resulted the good stuff we now use as ”reference material”. Abbey Road was recorded with 16 separate tracks, on the other side of the pond Brian Wilson composed ”Pet Sounds”, Simone Beauvoir’s feminist activism was not anymore ”too academic to be useful”, Stanley Kubrick made a bunch of great films, Dior gave the couture-crown to late-Yves Saint Laurent in France… and P.P Arnold recorded ”First Cut Is The Deepest”. In my opinion, P.P. Arnold (Patricia Ann Cole) is the most under-appreciated, least known of the greatest vocalists throughout the history of recording artists. Her loyal fanbase is constantly finding new members for the ”tribe” - kids go through their grandpa’s LP collection and get their minds blown yet it is a mixture of the truth, symbolism, my own contempt and prejudice towards the humankind that literally only a teeny-tiny fragment of music lovers and well, members of our specie actually do know her work outside the previously mentioned song, most - considering about 99,9% of people ”love music” making it roughly 7 billion music lovers of Earth- are left in the shadow casted by the music industry’s marketing, branding, segregation, misogyny, racism and the fact that P.P Arnold actually was way ahead of her time as a vocalist. Not that I would expect a healer like her to be sorry for something like this, or feel pain about it - but I do.

Originally from LA, the unbelievably talented vocalist and later an artist of her own right, began her career in music by sheer accident, or fate. It was Tina (Turner) who took her on, insisted her to join the show until it became clear to P.P Arnold herself (who was working two jobs and looking after her two kids in the abusive teen marriage) that it was her given, perhaps even the only chance to get out from the domestic hell she had to live in. I watched tons of material for this article, and happen to know now for sure the thing I always felt through her voice and music, was right - she didn’t get into music industry to… well, get into the music industry for the fame glory fortune and everything that goes with it, she escaped and when she belts out a blast of her unique sound, I hear someone who’s still on the run.

It has made ”modern” (post Brahms, pre-new wave) music so much better that P.P Arnold transitioned from the Ikette-choir as a lead vocalist and began her own solo career mostly because of Ike’s nagging and the appalling way he treated Tina. That move eventually resulted an extensive amount of work as a session musician for the best and albums, in which the artist casts a shadow to most singers making them appear as casting extras because of her natural technical abilities - and a vision for music that was way ahead of her time. That combined with vocal delivery so powerful not only in terms of ”powerhouse” but also the lingering bang-on vulnerability in her sound, that allows listeners to both get engaged into her singing and through that to their own emotions as much as just getting knocked off their feet for the sheer joy of hearing something so ”authentic” that won’t ever be repeated as long as there are recording artists. Allow me to take a deeper dive into this; there will be another Celine Dion. No offense to Celine Dion, multi-millionaire white Canadian and there will be another Mariah Carey - both amazing singers - there will be autotuned pop stars a dozen within a dozen as long as the audience doesn’t actually require a singer to be able to sing anymore. But - in terms of the etymology relating to ”unique”, it literally means one-of-a-kind. One, of a kind.

She is not faking authenticity like Lady Gaga who seems to actually believe herself, P.P Arnold is. Also - having watched her performance in longish interviews - she’s so humble and in good terms with higher powers, intellectual, absolutely nailing jokes, making the audience laugh… and sob uncontrollably - all traits only a very small portion of our population possess. P.P has collaborated with numerous class-A names (like The Observer’s interviewer poignantly put it, it’d be much easier to point out those she hasn’t worked or had some kind of a professional relation with, as the name-dropping would be endless and extensive) such as Barry Gibb, Eric Clapton + Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young respectively, so her unique powerhouse voice, genuine talent and superb personality has not been neglected by her peers, although like earlier already stated, her work - especially as a session musician - is under appreciated.

Anyone reading this feature, please consider forgiving me that I make assumptions as a white caucasian woman - it is seriously, not my intention to claim to know better - but I truly cannot bypass segregation, misogyny or racism while talking about P.P Arnold’s impact and footprint on the industry. I believe every breath she has ever sung or recorded, comes from the broken heart and the beaten body. Her heavenly, burning sound and talent is all over the place in a very, very controlled way in every note, every syllable in her discography and that’s one of the reasons why her songs and albums have stood, and will keep on standing the test of time critically. Other one’s pain is the listener’s 24 karat emotional gold - she has saved at least one life through her music, mine. ”First Cut Is The Deepest” is her song per se, all other covers are bootlegs, even Rod Stewart’s version and he IS the king of rasp and emotion. I don’t think by now I would need to get into ”details”, if you are familiar with the lyrics or know them by heart like me.

To emphasize her ”talent”, that I have mentioned several times I would love to give a vocal analysis on one of my favorites as a rough example. Take a listen to her pitch-perfect performance on ”Eleanor Rigby”. It is so good and produced to perfection that it can take a Pepsi-challenge in authenticity with the original. First of all - she ”gets” it, what the song is about, how it is written and by whom, its essence and the story. She tells it with the kind of sincerity and impeccable technical artistic choices that make her sound like a suicide-bomber - P.P. Arnold sings like it would be the last thing she’d ever do, and that trait can be associated with all her vocal deliveries I have heard. Relating to pitch and stamina to carry the feeling throughout the song, this was way before autotune…! Just an almost non-existing number of views (of the official release on YouTube by P.P’s channel) 9,7k (in five years) means that people are really being left out of something absolutely fantastic - it is a travesty considering how famous and noted she could be. Iconic. Like she is though, but in a very, very small scale. The way P.P sings the very rhythmic part of the verse is so unique as she emphasizes it with her mouth shape while singing resulting a cool vibe and sound. Covering ”Eleanor Rigby” should have been scary even during the sixties, because it is a Beatles song, Paul McCartney song, Revolver-song and the original is of course, written sung and produced as flawless, so there must have been a reason why musician such as P.P Arnold made the artistic choice to cover it. Reasons remain unknown, perhaps they are private or even intimate, yet the result exists and keeps on hovering over true soul-music Hall of Fame like a shadow in another pretty famous McCartney song. Sound like hers, is something one cannot learn, it is internal. Her natural connection with music seems to be a passionate relationship. Talking about relationships… well, why would I?

There are good singers, better ones (and signed artists who a clueless). Then we have Marvin Gaye The Great (who couldn’t even read or write music sheets), Whitney Houston the Queen of Voice Control, Janis Joplin the Pacemaker Rockstar of All Rockstars, Elvis Costello The Epitome of Anti-Hero turned into one of the most touching male vocalists I know, Amy Winehouse (she’s too personal to me to give her a nickname), Billie Holiday… Stevie Nicks… and few others - you know, the kind of singers that are artists with their instrument, the voice - and whose artistry and professionalism relays on their mastership of technique. Like a drummer, who works 10 hours a day repeating the same patterns that are already in his system; in his command, before a concert - a great singer has worked endless hours and days, weeks… years… to achieve the desired result and doesn’t just sing, perform, finish a task, collect the trophies and go home but do give something extraordinary in a time-place situated environment creating always a different performance, a masterpiece. In other words, are great enough to improvise getting it right and different every time. The best singers - Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin are the climax, a small tiny minor fragment of a percent needed to adjust the comparison. There are no comparisons for the best. You get it, you know what I mean - but who always end up breaking a heart because you live their songs, their music, their art through a true love relationship? The ”best” for me can, but doesn’t have to be critically or academically claimed as the crème de la crème of vocalists (it helps though) and by all means it doesn’t even matter if the artist, performer differs from the original songwriter - we just love them, because they have something we either lack or need. They can trick us into believing it’s very real for them, what and how they sing about what they’re going through in life, or they have in fact lived it on some level exposing deep humanity within ourselves when we find love, compassion, healing, empowerment and heaven within our own personal best performers. For me, she’s like - the best. P.P’s tone is incredible, sultry and difficult to put a finger on; ranging from quiet expressive whisper to a tremendous full-blown belting with occasional, tastefully used rasp she has naturally. Her mix (voice) is as strong as lower and upper register and she shifts effortlessly between the head voice, mix and chest.

Not to mention her work on theater and musicals, such as Jesus Christ Superstar in which’s original soundtrack she performed as a session musician. Her ”CV” is remarkably extensive.

And still, only those who know, are familiar with her. I cannot understand why she didn’t reach the ultimate stardom she deserved during her peak. Perhaps producers and major labels discarded her as too ”niche”, avant garde (or black) but the truth is, voices like hers happen once in a blue moon and often not even then; she was way ahead of her time so maybe they just didn’t get it, or simply didn’t care. Like, you CAN sing about pain in real pain as a black woman in the 60s - P.P did it - an unspoken permission that was mainly granted for (black) male artists back then.

P.P. Arnold was born in a family of gospel singers, which is kinda neat and apparent, in a way. She has the kind of special aura and ”taste” when it comes to her work - for example ”Electric Dreams” (1984) starts with honey-kind of phrasing mixed and stirred with velvety belting that sounds like someone is being crucified for all the right reasons. Generally speaking, she does the crazy difficult technical stuff at ease while being able to deliver emotionally whatever she wants to, that’s a gift all great storytellers have in common. For example - a masterpiece on its own, Brian Wilson’s ”God Only Knows” on P.P’s album ”Kafunta”… man… If it hadn’t been over-produced with bells and whistles it would be even better - to me, the highlight of the song is the ending. She sings several, maybe a dozen repeats of the chorus towards the end of the song until it fades out. During the repetition P.P harmonizes herself a countless of ways and they all differ from one another.

I now, cordially invite you to dwell, dive in and explore P.P’s work which should - and hopefully will be - loved a generation after generation. She’s a heirloom. Comprehending by now, that she seriously didn’t need to climb up the stairs as any kind of ”avec” or ”plus one” to anyone else, is vital and I must emphasize this. - Perhaps I did.

Written by a writer-nobody who’s first musical crush was Paul McCartney at the tender age of four and who learned the joys of gibberish pretty soon afterwards by being a Finn.