by Stephen Islip

Musical Artists throughout history have reflected the sounds of the area where they were born, or where they received their formative musical experience. One thinks of Louis Armstrong and Fats Domino from New Orleans or The Grateful Dead from San Francisco. The same can also be said for Dion, who has had a love / hate relationship with his home town of New York.

Formed in the Bronx, the early sounds of Dion and The Belmonts records ("I wonder why" and "That’s my desire") reflect the sounds of young white guys taking a black art form of doo-wop and making it their own, by bouncing their rough harmonised vocal sounds off of tenement halls and subways.

It was through New York that Dion got his early break and then came to international attention, by accepting songs from NEW York’s professional song writers ("Teenager in Love").

On the streets of his neighbourhood he also picked up the habit which gave him the courage to take on the music industry, but nearly killed him by the mid sixties. Songs like the Wanderer boosted his wise guy street image, at the expense of the wimp inside, who was crying to get out.

Through the coffee houses and folk clubs of NEW York’s Greenwich village Dion was introduced to the sounds of folk, blues and gospel which broadened his musical tastes and lead to the widening of his musical output heard on the LP’s Donna Prima Donna and Wonder Where I’m Bound.

After years of success, living, writing and recording in NEW YORK, by 1966 he realised that to survive he needed to get out. The desires to move on - get away , were heard most strongly in "Together Again" . While the album sings the praises of "New York Town" - "Movin Man" and "Loserville " express the opposite. While the Belmonts remained behind, Dion fled to Miami to preserve his marriage and life.

The albums that follow show a calmer more relaxed approach, demonstrating that he no longer needed the extremes of his home area to create his new sound.

Despite his desire to run away, his original fans were not prepared to forget him. Their constant pressure lead to his reunion with The Belmonts in 1972, for The Madison Square Reunion concert. It was however the NEW YORK fans strong desire to only remember the early 1960’s Dion and ignore his later work, that made him once again walk away from the area and their fixed expectations.

His disillusionment can be heard in his 1974 Single "New York City Song" :

"That’s the year my dream died in New York City

That’s the year I had to leave that town

That’s the year people my dream died in NEW YORK city

That’s the year I left without a sound"

The contradiction is again heard in his best album of 1970’s , Return of The Wanderer. Is it a return to mainstream rock music or his return to NEW YORK ? Certainly the album describes his roots in "Mid Town Main Street Gang" and "(I Used to be a ) Brooklyn Dodger". Was his return to street sounds influenced to listening to another NEW YORK boy - Bruce Springstein, who himself was influenced by a NEW YORK Italian American from an earlier age ?

When his new direction didn’t get the wide support he hoped, he once again changed course and pointed his destination towards the lord. While most of his output was spiritual he did on his first gospel album address his remarks to a "New Jersey Wife".

After nearly a decade of singing to the converted, Dion once again listened to the call - from his loyal NEW YORK fans - and returned to do the WCBS concert . As a more mature artist, with his 60’s personal problems under control, he could afford to balance the expectations of his fans with some of his newer material.

Now back from the dead, he once again came to the attention of mainstream recording companies. The result was the 1989 album Yo Frankie , whose artistic and commercial success rested on his love of the area of his youth, heard through tracks like "King of The NEW YORK streets " and "Written on the Subway Wall" .

For the 1992 album Dream on Fire he was back to his more relaxed Miami style, but the album was dominated by New York in the shape of his Doo Wop interpretation of Springsteins "If I should fall behind".

Today he wears a New York cabbies hat but is it to identify with the streets he came from, or is it more to hide what isn’t underneath?

Perhaps Dions major dilemma has to be that all his best work has to be done with a background of New York ? Love it or hate it he can’t avoid it.