Free Joan Armatrading (EP)

Now here's a find worth celebrating a little! I'll bet a lot of music lovers missed out on discovering Joan Armatrading over the years, even though critics and pop music historians keep telling us we blew it by not showering her with more affection in her prime years. Even today, the iTunes music store packages a cyber-box set they call iTunes Essentials for Ms. Armatrading, which for $44.95 you can download practically her whole catalog. If you don't know this artist, it would be worthwhile to visit the Joan Armatradings iTunes Essentials package, just to get a feel for the breadth and depth of her musical genius.\r\n

One of the reasons Armatrading failed to catch on commercially is that she does cover so much ground musically, and so can't be pigeonholed into any one (or even two) genres. Plus, as a black woman, her music doesn't derive from the American gospel-soul tradition, so she was kind of ignored by the black market as well. I recall seeing her at least once in concert in the late 1970's, and she was absolutely mesmerizing in her talent as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter. That's when I heard her speak and realized she had a British accent, which I later learned reflects her upbringing in St. Kitts and subsequent emigration to the U.K. as a young girl.

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And so, this 1980 promo release is tongue-in-cheek, but half-seriously titled "Free Joan Armatrading." It's a well-done attempt by A&M to educate radio programmers on Armatrading's varied talent and accomplishments, going back to her second album, Back To The Night, from 1975. The "Mini-Sampler" has 7 songs, each between 1-2 minutes, but plenty long enough to get a feel for the song in question. The record itself is 7" wide, but spins at 33 1/3 rpm and has a small hole. The back of the picture sleeve is given over to even more critical raves from various newspapers and magazines. Here are tunes presented:

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1. Me Myself I
2. Tall in the Saddle
3. Show Some Emotion
4. Love and Affection
5. Rosie
6. Back To The Night
7. People

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