Waiting: The Van Duren Story (Original Documentary Soundtrack)

Album review

Among obsessive power pop fans (is there any other kind?), Van Duren is one of the revered cult heroes of the underground Memphis pop scene of the '70s, that handful of Anglophiles in the great R&B town best represented by Big Star. Duren had a much closer connection to Big Star than most -- he recorded demos at Ardent Studios with Jody Stephens on drums, played in a band with Chris Bell, and even auditioned to play in a latter-day version of the band. But while Duren's music shared Big Star's unabashed love for the Beatles and Badfinger, he favored the Raspberries nearly as much (his voice sometimes recalls Eric Carmen), and where Alex Chilton's songs were full of melodic angles and quirky guitar figures that kept them spicy, Duren's material was more melodic and had a smoother, sweeter attack. But as an instrumentalist, Duren was one of the best on the scene, and his debut album, 1978's Are You Serious?, is regarded as a classic of its form for good reason, thanks to its abundant hooks, clear but impassioned vocals, and the snap of the performances. Duren may be a hero to record collectors and rock critics, but mainstream music fans never had much of a chance to hear his music. Wade Jackson and Greg Carey have made a documentary about Duren that chronicles his life and career while also pondering how someone so talented could fail to grab the brass ring in the music business. Waiting: The Van Duren Story collects 12 songs that appear in the film, and also serves as a near-perfect introduction to Duren's body of work. It features four songs from Are You Serious?, two from its ill-fated follow-up Idiot Optimism, some rare live material, a pair of unreleased numbers, and two mid-'80s tracks from Duren's Memphis-based band Good Question. While these songs were cut over more than a ten-year period, the musical thinking behind them is commendably consistent, even when some all-too-'80s production choices mar the Good Question tunes -- and these tunes are deliciously tuneful from start to finish. If Van Duren's music had a flaw, it was that it lacked the spiky personality that set apart the best power pop artists (and it's worth noting the most memorable song here is a cover of Chris Bell's "Make a Scene"). But pretty much anything here would have improved an hour of radio listening in the '70s and '80s, and if there was ever a musician whose sales figures were inversely proportional to their talent and potential, it was Van Duren. Van Duren fans will welcome the Waiting soundtrack for its rarities, while those who have never been introduced to his catalog could hardly ask for a better way to study this overlooked prodigy of Memphis power pop.

© Mark Deming /TiVo