Terry Manning: Home Sweet Home

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

My entrance into the world of Terry Manning is from the Alex Chilton world, which means Big Star, Box Tops, and Chris Bell. I picked up Manning’s album Home Sweet Home because it was recorded at Ardent, the home of Alex and his gang, and seeing the credits, Chris Bell plays lead guitar on some of the cuts. The drummer Richard Rosebrough is also on the album, and he too is also part of the Alex planet and, like Manning, an engineer at Ardent. As one can gather, when I follow an artist like Alex Chilton, I get his albums and everyone he worked with throughout his long career. But especially the golden years of Alex at Ardent, roughly from 1972 to 1979. From the scene around Max’s Kansas City in NYC during the height of the punk era to the landscape of Boris Vian in Post-War Paris, I find Memphis, as well, in the 70s, a fascinating culture. Everything from the imagery from William Eggleston to Elvis to Sun and Stax Records, and then the under-the-radar boho of the Big Star world. Memphis, to me, and since I have never been there, is a mystical land not far off from Disneyland.

I thought of Terry Manning being a Memphis music figure, and that was it, but alas, not accurate. At the very least, Led Zeppelin or Jimmy Page worked with Manning on Zeppelin 3 album. And Manning has a long streak of working with ZZ Top on all of their influential albums, so he has an impressive career as a recording engineer and mixer. But for me, it is the relationship with Big Star people that’s important. Home Sweet Home shows a sensitive portrait of a handsome man looking down at the camera. He doesn’t have that Alex danger look, but now hearing Terry’s solo album, I can see that there are traces of abandonment and rock n’ roll insanity.

The album opens with a ten-minute version of George Harrison’s Savoy Truffle that starts with a Moog solo. Then it kicks in with an electric slide guitar, solid bass, drums, and harmonica, which takes it into a swampy psych landscape, and Manning’s Southern boy rock voice singing ‘nice apple tart” as if it was the dirtiest song ever. This song and album remind me of Roy Wood’s The Move, especially during their Looking On period, which was also released in 1970. Like Wood, Manning likes experimenting with the pop/rock frame and adding other ingredients to the mix.

There are traces of Alex’s Like Flies on Sherbert (1979) touches here and there, but also a straight-ahead instrumental that is total Booker T and the MGs, Sour Mash. Home Sweet Home is challenging, with touches of recklessness but lots of fun. Alex Chilton’s work has emotional pulls that take you to the edge, and one recognizes that Manning may lead on the same path, but he pulls you back before you get to the edge. I would recommend this album thoroughly for fans of Alex and The Move. But like Chilton, Terry Manning is the product of his background, foreground, and every side of him. The more I listen to this album, the more nuances I hear, and it is masterful. I Ain’t Got You is perfection as practiced and performed.

Manning is a good architect. He knows how to build a recording that can stand up against the wind and sounds as if it were in his immediate family. The music twists and turns, but you’re in the hands of a master who knows his craft and art.