The last track on side two of Dusty in Memphis is the song “I Can’t Make It Alone.” Like three other songs on the album (“So Much Love,” “Don’t Forget About Me,” and “No Easy Way Down“), this one was written by the legendary Brill Building songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King. It was produced by Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin, engineered by Tom Dowd at American Sound Studios in Memphis, and sung by the inimitable Dusty Springfield.
Those are all the facts, but they don’t tell you why this song and the album it was on are so good. We’ve been working through the whole album this week and, if you’ve been paying attention, you know that the secret to Dusty in Memphis was a combination of stellar songwriting, superb Memphis-based backing musicians (the Memphis Boys studio cats and the Sweet Inspirations vocal group), and Dusty’s sultry yet vulnerable vocals. It was everything coming together in one groundbreaking package.
By now you also know that all those factors working together didn’t guarantee a hit. Dusty in Memphis was generally considered a dud on its initial release, with only one hit single (“Son of a Preacher Man”). It didn’t sell well and wasn’t well reviewed. It more or less stalled Dusty’s career instead of being the career-making album it was intended to be. That just shows how little people knew back then.
In reality, Dusty in Memphis is one of the top albums of 1969, of that decade, and of the rock era. I personally put it in my top 10 albums of all time, and maybe even in the top five. It’s that good. I can listen to it anytime and anywhere, skip to any track (except maybe the out-of-place “The Windmills of My Mind”), and find myself enveloped in its sweet Memphis soul sounds. It’s a showcase for the best songwriters of that era and for Dusty herself, one of the top vocalists of her generation. It never gets old—in fact, as the public and critics have recognized, it gets better with time.
The closing track, “I Can’t Make It Alone,” is one of Goffin and King’s least well-known compositions but also one of their best. It’s in the key of G and the chords in the verse are a solemn repeating D – G – D – A (I – IV -I -V). It’s a simple but powerful progression, especially in this key, evoking strong emotions from the chords alone.
Lyrically, Mr. Goffin writes about a woman who’s left her true love, discovered she can’t make it on her own, and begs to be taken back. It’s a sad song, really, admitting that you need that other partner and will do anything it takes to be taken back. Let these lyrics soak in:
What can I say now?
Sorry is just not good enough
I couldn’t blame you if you hurt me now
The way I hurt you then
But who else can I turn to?
Oh, baby, I’m begging you
Won’t you reach out for my dying soul and make me live again
Oh, baby, it’s so hard
Damn, this is good stuff—and Dusty sings her heart out on it. It’s the perfect cap for what ends up being a somewhat somber album. More songs than not involve heartbreak of some kind, although there’s always a little hope at the end. I don’t know any singer who could sell this collection of songs any better than Ms. Springfield. It’s a bravura performance, full of emotional tension, fragility, and melancholy. It is superb.
The eleven songs on Dusty in Memphis (six on side one, five on side two) also reflect Dusty’s exceptional musical taste. Here they are, in order:
SIDE 1:
1. “Just a Little Lovin‘” (Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil)
2. “So Much Love” (Gerry Goffin, Carole King)
3. “Son of a Preacher Man” (John Hurley, Ronnie Wilkins)
4. “I Don’t Want to Hear It Anymore” (Randy Newman)
5. “Don’t Forget About Me” Gerry Goffin, Carole King)
6. “Breakfast in Bed” (Eddie Hinton, Donnie Fritts)
SIDE 2:
1. “Just One Smile” (Randy Newman)
2. “The Windmills of Your Mind” (Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Michel Legrand)
3. “In the Land of Make Believe” (Burt Bacharach, Hal David)
4. “No Easy Way Down” (Gerry Goffin, Carole King)
5. “I Can’t Make It Alone” (Gerry Goffin, Carole King)
Six months after the release of Dusty in Memphis, Dusty recorded a follow-up album in Philadelphia, enlisting producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, the creators of the Philly Soul sound. What should have been called Dusty in Philly was instead named after the one big single on the album, “A Brand New Me.” The album, A Brand New Me, was good but it didn’t have the Memphis magic of its predecessor. It also didn’t sell particularly well and essentially marked the end of Dusty’s chart career—until, that is, it was revived with the help of the Pet Shop Boys in 1987 with the single “What Have I Done to Deserve This.”
Even with that late-career comeback, Dusty never revisited the heights of her 1960s hits. She moved to Los Angeles for awhile, sunk into alcoholism and drug addiction, entered into a series of emotionally and physically abusive gay relationships, and dropped from pubic view. She tried to pull it all together near the end but fell victim to breast cancer in 1994 and passed away five years later in 1999, a month before her 60th birthday. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two weeks after her passing.
That leaves us with Dusty in Memphis itself. One should not use the word lightly, but Dusty in Memphis is truly a masterpiece. It influenced countless other vocalists throughout the decades and holds its place among the best musical works released in our lifetime. I can’t add anything to that, other than if you don’t own a copy (vinyl, CD, or digital) of Dusty in Memphis, you need to. It is essential.
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