“We all talk of kindness
but it's only a word”
You can listen to an audio version of the main body of the post here (and audio, just read by me, of Carleen’s answers to questions about the song here).
Today’s song is Piece of Clay written by Gloria Jones and Pam Sawyer. This is the first of the songs I’m writing about this month that isn’t connected to my trips to Montrose Folk Club between 2004 and 2018. I first heard a version of this song by all-round musical wonder Carleen Anderson on her 1998 album Blessed Burden (you can hear her version here). I suppose this is a song that you would find in the soul section of a record shop (the most well-known version came out of Motown and was recorded by Marvin Gaye in the 1970s) but folk and soul are not such distant relatives, in my mind at least (isn’t What’s Going On a classic of the protest or political genre?). As I said in an earlier post, I knew very little music most people would call folk until quite late in life but I pretty much always knew (and loved) soul music (and Motown in particular).
The song Piece of Clay was written by two significant figures in twentieth century music, Gloria Jones and Pam Sawyer (though sometimes it’s credited to just Jones and sometimes to just Sawyer). Gloria was an American who had her first big successes as a singer in the UK. She didn’t write, but recorded, Tainted Love in 1964 (and again in 1976) (that song was written by Ed Cobb). Before that she was a Motown songwriter – I’m just going to give you the next bit straight from Wikipedia and not pretend I found it all out myself.
“Eventually, she was to meet Pam Sawyer, who asked her to write for Motown Records. Jones and Sawyer were amongst the second string of writers at Motown, but still wrote for such artists as Gladys Knight & the Pips, Commodores, The Four Tops and The Jackson 5. As Jones was also initially a singer for the label, protocol demanded a pseudonym, so for some of her co-writes she used the name LaVerne Ware (not to be confused with another Motown songwriter/producer, Leon Ware).
Songs that Jones worked on during this period include The Supremes' Have I Lost You (writer), Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross's My Mistake (Was to Love You) (writer), Junior Walker's I Ain't Goin' Nowhere (writer/producer) and the Four Tops' Just Seven Numbers (Can Straighten Out My Life) (writer). In 1970 she provided backing vocals on Ry Cooder's eponymous first album. The most remembered song that Jones penned was Gladys Knight and the Pips' If I Were Your Woman, which was nominated for a Grammy in 1971. Jones left Motown at the end of 1973, following the release of her album Share My Love.”
[If I Were Your Woman is credited to Pam Sawyer, Clay McMurray and Gloria Jones. Alicia Keys did a great version of it on her fabulous 2003 album The Diary of Alicia Keys.]
Pam Sawyer was born in London but moved to New York in 1961 (in her early 20s). She worked solidly as a songwriter (as a lyricist) in various partnerships, at Motown from the 1960s to the early 1980s and was one of the writers on huge hits like Diana Ross and the Supremes’ Love Child and Ross’s Love Hangover. She set up her own companies when she left Motown. You can read some of her Motown story here.
Pam Sawyer
The song Piece of Clay isn’t one of Marvin Gaye’s better known recordings and this seems to be because it was released posthumously on The Complete Collection (1995) and You’re the Man (2019). You can hear a Marvin version here and there’s a fascinating piece about why the album You’re the Man came out so long after its 1972 recording here. Marvin Gaye (1939-84) is a performer and writer whose icon status grows, rightly, every year and certainly I had a phase of listening to cassette albums of I Heard It through the Grapevine (1968) and What’s Going On (1971) pretty much non-stop at some point in the 1980s. I didn’t come across Piece of Clay until the 1990s via Carleen Anderson’s version however.
I first knew of Carleen, like many of us, from her involvement with the band Young Disciples (best known perhaps for their song Apparently Nothin). Carleen is a hugely talented musician and writer as well as a giant of a singer (she co-wrote Apparently Nothin and several other tracks on the Young Disciples 1991 album Road to Freedom).) Born in Texas, but resident in England for some years now, I loved her voice from first listen and kept up with her solo work. She had solo success with singles like Nervous Breakdown (from her True Spirit album in 1994) and I was working as part of a club and pirate radio DJ duo in Leeds at this point and certainly we played that track. Then in 1998 she put out quite a different album – Blessed Burden. Seven of the songs are solo compositions and, as well as Piece of Clay, the album features covers of Maybe I’m Amazed by Paul McCartney, Who Was That Masked Man by Van Morrison, and a couple of co-writes with Paul Weller (who also plays on the album and co-produced several of its tracks too). I was writing for the Manchester Big Issue at the time and I interviewed Carleen over the phone as she promoted the album. She was an absolute delight to interview, interesting and funny, and it was probably one of the most enjoyable phone interviews I did around that period. Phone interviews are a tricky business on both sides of the line and there were some stinkers back then. I had to hang up on Eddie Izzard in about the same period because the conversation was so awkward. That ‘interview’ didn’t make it to print.
Blessed Burden is an album I’ve never stopped listening to and that’s why it seemed an obvious place to find one of this month’s 31 songs. The album has a depth and, for me, all the varied genres/styles that probably stopped it being a huge hit are one of the aspects that I really like about it (it also makes it timeless, you could listen to it now and think it was a new release). Like many of us, I have enjoyed music from many genres in my life and I salute Carleen’s devotion to music and experimentation and developing as a writer, musician and artist (something she and Weller share perhaps, he’s never been afraid to step out of line). Carleen has a voice that could have made her a Whitney-sized star but that’s just not the way she went. Instead, she lives in Devon and is writing a futuristic opera. She is one of those artists that I just love – love that she exists, love that she’s done her own thing (and she’s on social media - Twitter and Insta – go and see what she’s up to!).
I could have picked any of the songs from this album and in a way I am picking the whole album (it is a great ‘whole’) but I said I’d pick a song a day so in the end I went with Piece of Clay. Maybe it’s the pandemic (so much family time for some) but it has seemed more relevant than ever of late. The lyrics are simple but so effective (who hasn’t felt themselves trying to mould their child, or partner or friend, to better fit the life we think we – and they – should be living?). Both the versions I know are tremendous, and it’s a song that could be better known. I see the Marvin Gaye version was used on the recent TV series Little Fires Everywhere (though online it refers to a version by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell ... I’m not sure about that). Give Carleen’s version (and the rest of the Blessed Burden album) a listen. Total quality guaranteed.
Finally, here is Carleen answering questions about Piece of Clay.
Why did you choose to cover this song?
Paul Weller who co-produced my “Blessed Burden” album with me suggested I cover the song, “Piece of Clay”. I hadn’t heard of the song before then.
How much do you know about the writing/background of this song? On Wikipedia only Gloria Jones is credited as the writer, but on “Blessed Burden” sleeve notes only Pam Sawyer is credited… *
The details listed on my “Blessed Burden” album were sourced from PW as he was informed on the tune and I wasn’t. Musically it’s a departure from any of the other music Marvin Gaye recorded but the style does speak to his cultural roots in Gospel music stylings.
Do you know who performed and/or recorded it first?
Never heard “Piece of Clay” sung by anybody else but Marvin Gaye.
Any other versions of it you know of?
I am unaware of any other versions of “Piece of Clay” other than Marvin Gaye’s.
Is your version a recording you particularly like/have good feelings about now (or the opposite)?
“Piece of Clay” was a recording landmark for me as PW gave me the reins to lead the band and play piano for the recording. It was the first time I was encouraged to take on those duties in the studio. This led to PW further encouraging me to play piano for my live performances on tour as well. I only ever sung “Piece of Clay” live when I guested on PW’s concerts and my association to it is for the artistic development that PW encouraged me to have in my performances.
Have your feelings about the song changed over the years?
“Piece of Clay” registers as the beginning of me as an independent performer having full control of my musical direction which PW encouraged.
What is the song you’ve written and/or recorded that you are most proud of?
Every song I’ve written is favoured until the next one following it is conceived and first delivered. I file songs away after I record and perform them to make room for new inspirations.
Could you name me one song by someone else that you wish you’d written?
There are far too many moments in a multitude of songs that I favour and have fond memories of, and/or learned from compositionally as a songwriter to name any single one. It is a blessing to know that there is such wonderfulness in abundance existing in the world of music.
Huge thanks to Carleen for answering these questions about the song. We'll be heading back to Scotland for tomorrow’s song. See you there!
*As we heard from Boo Hewerdine in yesterday’s post, sleeve notes are often mistaken!
This post is part of my Songs That Stick project for 2022's Fun A Day Dundee (a community arts project that takes place every January). Anyone can take part (you don’t even have to be local to Dundee) and much of the work can be found on Instagram during January (use #FADD2022). There is usually a real-life exhibition later in the year (though this has been online for the past 2 years). The full list of songs I am writing about this year is here. My first post about why I picked this project this time is here.
If you are interested in my Fun A Day Dundee projects for 2020 and 2021 you can start here and here. They are quite different to this one (a short poem and drawings in 2020 and lots of poems and writing in 2021).
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