PF Sloan preview

PF Sloan
FitzGerald’s, Berwyn
Thursday, September 14, 2006

Meet PF Sloan, one of the most important figures in music you don’t know.

No need to be ashamed, though. After all, Sloan hasn’t exactly made himself accessible to music lovers recently. *Sailover*, released August 22nd via Hightone, is his first release in more than 30 years! You see, Sloan had the balls to do what so many musicians threaten, but never follow through with: He quit the music business cold turkey. His name may not instantly ring a bell, but the countless hits he penned or co-penned in the ’60s, including “You Baby”(The Turtles), “Take Me For What I’m Worth”(The Searchers), and “Secret Agent Man”(Johnny Rivers), probably do. As a staff writer for Dunhill, Sloan helped the upstart record company become a major player. But after his song “Eve Of Destruction”– one of the great protest rock tunes — became a hit for Barry McGuire Sloan decided to pursue a recording career of his own. As the story goes, Dunhill did little to promote that effort, *Songs Of Our Times*, hoping to keep Sloan shackled to the writer’s table.

After another solo flop (’66’s Twelve More Times) Sloan demanded to be released from Dunhill (where he was also a producer and A&R man). His wish was granted but with a steep price: all songwriting royalties — past, present, and future — signed over to the company. He recorded two more records on other labels, but more or less vanished after 1972’s Raised On Records. He occasionally played a live gig in the ’80s but released nothing. That brings us to Sailover, which features new Sloan compositions as well as fresh recordings of some of the oldies, including “Eve Of Destruction”and “Sins Of A Family”and special guests Lucinda Williams, Buddy Miller, and Pixies frontman Frank Black. Thursday’s FitzGerald’s stop is part of Sloan’s first ever U.S. tour.

— Trevor Fisher

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly