Album Review: Dusty in Memphis

I want to take a short look at what might be one of the oddest entries in the annuls of great rock albums. Upon first listen it doesn't sound in the least like a rock album, it's soulful at times (think Aretha Franklin) at other times poppy and always incredibly lush. It hardly fits a general conception of what a rock album is, and even after multiple listens it still doesn't sound like a record your typical rock fan would even want to have in their collection. Yet nonetheless VH1 and Rolling Stone both list the album as one of the top 100 rock and roll albums of all time so apparently there is consensus amongst claimed rock authority that "Dusty in Memphis" is a rock album, and a significant one at that. In lieu of my normal album review I want to investigate this phenomenon and hopefully this will lead into some insight as to what makes it a great work of music.
I'll admit that one of the reasons I am trying to review the album this ways is that I have only recently discovered the album and as such can not claim to have the listening time put into the album to go song by song, but in the last week I have been listening to it over and over again because I have become absolutely enamored with it so I wanted to bring some of that new found excitement into this review. It really wouldn't be a review of "Dusty in Memphis" without a look at the big song on the album, "Son of a Preacher Man." This was the big hit and its not very hard to see why, it slinks and grooves with the opening keyboard and then Dusty begins singing the song. Dusty's vocals carry this song and throughout the whole album. She manages to give the right tone to fit the character in the song she is singing, naive, insecure and yet jubilant. Even so she never belies her confidence that she knows she is in complete control of the song. She owns the music and as you listen to both "Preacher Man" and everything else on the album you are intimately aware that you are in the presence of a master.
But the voice alone can not carry the album. A weak choice of songs or flat arrangements could easily derail an album and diminish the power but "Dusty in Memphis" is full of gems from professional songwriters and the arrangements are all top notch. What is so amazing is that the producers and Dusty wisely use a wide range of musical styles resulting in an album that span the gamut from traditional and sixties pop to southern soul and bluesy rock. After "Preacher Man" her version of "The Windmills of Your Mind" is perhaps my favorite song on the album (so far) and in many ways I feel that the arrangement is what truly seals the deal. Starting at a crawl with a nightmarish swirl of strings "Windmills" slowly builds up to a quick paced guitar strum (almost Spanish or Greek sounding) and then the drums start up and the songs ascends into rock territory with an arrangement that sizzles. In some ways it encapsulates the sheer musical variety as the album as a whole.
So what makes this album a rock classic, in many ways I think it more closely fits the aesthetics of a rock album then the surface implies. Dusty's impassioned vocals, full of spirit and feeling, could be the match of Little Richard or Robert Plant. Wexler, Dowd and Mardin, the producers/engineers, daring arrangements and freewheeling style make one think of Beatles and the Beach Boys with their embrace of a myriad of genres all blended into a seamless and beautiful fit. So in a overarching sense, "Dusty in Memphis" can sit comfortably with "London Calling" and "Abbey Road" amongst rocks pantheon and its reserved place speaks to the inclusiveness of rock music in general. (Interestingly that brings up another discussion as to what sort of genre of music, if any, rock actually is, but that is for another post.) So as it seems "Dusty in Memphis" does deserve its accolades and hopefully this post will inspire you to look into this wonderful work of rock music!