Two articles on Dions Early Songs

by Stephen Islip.

These are two articles that I wrote back in 1994 and are now resurrected because of the new Sony compilation CD "Drip Drop".

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    Dions early 60's non-hit songs written by Dion

    by Stephen Islip

    From 1961 Dion started to write a series of songs which probably told us more about his personal state than any press release at the time .

    Anybody in any doubt has only to read his book The Wanderer where he talks about his crisis of self doubt, that only increased with his fame and fortune.

    Under the influence?

    A factor fuelling his problems was his heroine habit gained at the age of 14. He admits that he benefited from its highs in the early stages of his career, which gave him confidence in dealing with the record industry and possibly giving him a creative edge over competitors.

    Like most abusers as time went on ,despite increased drug intake diminishing returns set in and lows far outstripped highs.

    Who can say which of his more popular songs were written under the influence. What is now clear is that he in a number of his songs tried to express his feelings about the depth of his depression, despite efforts of his management to cover up. These tracks tended to end up as album tracks or B sides.

    Is it a pop song?

    The prominent format of the early 60's pop songs was boy meets girl and boy leaves girl. Personal views were not acceptable so they had to be dressed up to get through company 'quality control'.

    Songs therefore on first hearing can be accepted as simple lost love type songs, but closer listening reveals that the depths expressed are too low to describe shallow teenage relationships. John Lennon would employ the same technique a few years later with songs like "Help".

    Sometimes it's like sitting in Mr Dimucci's psychiatrists chair!

    Similarly Dimucci's claims that these songs were s just to get girls on his side seems to be stretching credibility too far.

    Dions mentor

    We mustn't forget that Dions musical mentor was Hank Williams, who from an early stage had hooked the young boy with his songs about his own personal crisis - marriage, drink etc. Dimucci's own fascination with these songs must be tied up with his own family problems whether real or imagined?

    role of collaborator

    Dions song writing might have been developed to give some independence from producers, but songs very quickly began to include consciously or unconsciously deep personal feelings. But were these his own feelings, because on nearly every one there was a collaborator. My view, given the consistency of ideas across all the songs suggests Dion was in driving seat.

    the songs

    Anyway lets have a look at the songs, although in fact the titles say it all :

    Lonely World

    This song features on the "Sue" album and is perhaps the earliest example. The theme of the song :

    'sending for my love in this lonely world '

    but continues to state that:

    ' I'm tied of being lonely....no matter whose beside me...no one will know the suffering I go through'.

    Lost for sure now

    The theme re-emerges in "Lovers who wander" with 2 tracks. The first song opens :

    'Knowing you are nowhere to find ... I know how lonely life can be ,emptiness is deep within me , I know I'm lost for sure now...this is no dream, it's for real now....could leave a guy in tears'.

    Born to Cry

    The theme of crying repeats itself in one of his more well known songs from the same album :

    ' I'd like to tell you something about the good and the bad...... I feel I could die, I was born to cry...... I can't remember one day of fun.... I think I had a friend but he kicked out my teeth.... things I like to have I can't buy' -

    Could these 2 lines be a reference to visiting a pusher?

    He continues :

    'I know someday the master will call, I won't cry at all ,until it happens I will sail the tide'

    Is this a reference to life being so bad he doesn't fear death?

    Will love ever come my way

    His next move was to the bigger record company but he quickly found he hadn't left his personal problems behind . Both his addiction and depressions increased . His first Columbia album, Ruby Baby in amongst the cabaret dross, contains 4 of his most personal tracks.

    'It seems the whole world wants to turn their backs on me'

    - hardly sounds like the statement of someone with the world at his feet at the time.

    'Waiting here alone will love ever come my way .... just like a lonely drifter I'm going on my way ..... hoping I'll find love one day ..... wanting someone to come'.

    Is lonely drifter a Hank Williams reference or a statement on regular visits to the back streets to buy essential supplies?

    Loneliest man in the world

    The theme continues:

    'Comes the night time I'm on my own .... all the walls when night time falls ... no one needs me , no one cares no-one wants to be there .... since you stopped loving me'

    A new theme then starts :

    'I'm just a shell of what used to be '

    - a reference to the conflict between his public and private persona ?

    'Come the daytime I pretend that this night time will end ... but the night time fills me with freight'

    Day and night seems to be more a reference to his moods than anything else.

    Unwanted me

    So we get to the final track on Ruby Baby. Did the company order something upbeat to finish with? If so then they got it - but the lyrics are another matter. There's no longer any pretence about the subject matter.

    'There's never been a guy in the shape I'm in, I try sometimes but never win ... I'm not the happy I guy I pretend to be '

    - a clear reference to his conflict with his on stage personality.

    'I clown around but deep down I'm torn apart, I swear my heart was made to hide a broken heart'

    - similar line Smoky Robinson would use more successfully in his 1970 hit.

    'Never felt so let down as I do tonight. I got no one to love me , now looks like the end, my good friend'

    No ones waiting for me and after

    All the themes raised in earlier come back again in this song , only bleaker. See YF 15 (now below) for a more detailed look at this track.

    No ones waiting for me seems to bring an end to these intensively introspective and personal songs - why? There's probably no one answer to this question. He probably had bottomed out on his crisis and found God . But might there be other explanations , either that large parts of his story are still locked up in Columbia's vaults, or that the hurt he was feeling could more easily be expressed through the blues?

    Next time he would plumb these depths would be to satisfy his Producers, rather than his own needs on "Born to be with you" . But even there he would not reach the levels of despair that can be found in these songs.

    Many of the lyrics to these songs can now be found on the sites lyric pages

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    No ones waiting for me

    by Stephen Islip

    On the B side of Dions last American Columbia top ten single lies a most obscure song usually ignored by fans and critics. For 1964 this song - No ones waiting for me - was a very brave and powerful song reflecting many of the artists dilemmas.

    Firstly lets look a the A side , Drip Drop. The end of the line of up tempo blues based hits . Dion was back to a Leibor and Stoller from his Drifters catalogue, delivering the hits his company expected.

    However turn the record over and we get a very different type of song and arrangement. Taken at face value this could be just a song about lost love , but if we put it in the context of 'The Wanderer - Dions Story' we get a different picture.

    The song starts off :

    "I walk alone ,I walk slowly , no ones waiting for me.

    Friends I have none cause I don't trust one

    , grey dark and deep is the sea.

    I gave my heart to my lover, but she's gone with my soul.

    Lips strange as wine, with eyes warm and kind,

    left me out here in the cold."

    The song in itself is unusual because the title which must also be the hook of the song, is stated once and only once. The song could be the ending of a long term relationship where the singer left without love walks along some sandy shore.

    But let us recall that Dions career was starting to go through some very traumatic times. His heroin addition had reached its peak. Its craving was at its greatest while its benefits to his life had sunk to less than zero. His record company wanted more hits like Drip Drop while he wanted to develop a more introspective style - like the B side.

    The song continues:

    "I walk alone by the dark sea , hear it calling my name.

    Come to my arms darling you'll be free, with me for eternity."

    The 'dark sea' is perhaps the key to this song. In the Wanderer he concentrates on his drug related problems of 1964, in a chapter titled 'The River'. He states"... I was alone. I didn't know where Susan was : I might as well have been the last man on the terrace, looking out across the river, high on acid with a bottle of scotch in my hand. With each belt I knocked back ,I became more convinced that there was nothing left for me and no way out but the grave. I decided to commit suicide....."

    So reference to water at this period are related to the ebbs and flows of his life

    The song concludes:

    "A world away went my lover, I'll soon be by her side .

    Gone with the waves our lives darkened days,

    my life goes out with the tide

    down, down, down spelled by the waves."

    So ends this harrowing song.

    So this song is about drugs and their after effects. Being 1964 no direct reference could be made to the subject. It would take another three years before Lou Reed (an admitted Dion fan so probably familiar with this song)could sing 'Heroine, well its my life and my wife'.

    True Dylan was singing about drugs with obscure references in Mr Tambourine Man, but like later Beatle references, the songs were about the up side of the experience.

    Only Dion was prepared to challenge the demands of his company and put out a song about his personal crisis. For once his producer Mersey didn't drown the song in inappropriate string arrangements. The two sides of this single sum up Dion at the cross roads of his life and career.

    While Dion would return to the subject of drugs and its effects on his life, all later songs are after the crisis when he is on the road to recovery. This is his only contemporary account of how his life was being bleed away.

    The cold lyrics cannot do justice to this song. Only by listening to the artists interpretation can the song fully be appreciated. Out of desperation has come a brilliant song.

    I would recommend all fans to pull out this record and play Drip Drop followed by No ones waiting for me. However scratchy the record, I am sure you can appreciate the stark contrast between the A and B sides and the brilliance of this song.

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    • 17/4/2000