Arthur Russell - I Take This Time/Calling All Kids/Answers Me/Soon-To-Be Innocent Fun (Rare Footage)

Footage taken from the film “Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell.” It is a brilliant documentary, and can be viewed here: http://www.arthurrussellmovie.com/ I often introduce Arthur Russell to my friends as “the Forrest Gump” of music. Reason being that in Arthur’s lifetime, he lived in the corn fields of rural Iowa, then ran off to San Francisco, and later downtown New York City, where he settled. In this time, Arthur befriended the poet Allen Ginsberg, collaborating with him in various art forms. When Arthur moved to New York, he lived in the same building as Steve Reich, Phillip Glass, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Hell, etc. Soon after migrating to the city, he expressed interest in joining the Modern Lovers. Although he never managed this, he gained close connections with two of it’s members, Ernie Brooks and Jerry Harrison, working with them for many years after and even briefly working with an up-and-coming band that Harrison formed, called the Talking Heads. (Yes, the Talking Heads. The timeless classic “Psycho Killer” was originally meant to include Arthur’s cello playing as part of the arrangement. This dub was pressed on the B side of the single, and is available on YouTube.) Arthur became enthralled with the emerging dance club scene in the city, and created some of the most influential dance/disco records of the late 70’s (“Go Bang,” “Is It All Over My Face,” “(Tell You) Today,”) allegedly selling hundreds of thousands of copies. Arthur continued to record dance music, even at one point collaborating with singer Jennifer Warnes (“Time Of My Life,”) though his sound became much more quiet and solitary throughout the years. Arthur’s only solo studio record released in his lifetime, World Of Echo, featured bare-bones versions of his dance tracks, along with other compositions, via a distorted cello and reverberated vocals. It was around this time when Arthur was diagnosed with AIDS and throat cancer. He died at the age of 40 in 1992, but his legacy lives on through the recordings he left behind, released largely in part by Audika Records. Suggested listening: World of Echo (1986) Another Thought (1994) Love is Overtaking Me (2004) Calling Out of Context (2004)