Jim Stallings

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jim Stallings (* in New Mexico as James Michael Stallings ) is an American rock musician , singer and bassist who appeared in 1969 and 1970 under his stage name J. J. Light with a solo LP and the hit single Heya .

Life

Stallings comes from the Navajo Indian tribe and has lived in Los Angeles since the early 1960s . In the early 1960s he recorded Doo Wop style singles as Jimmy Stallings , for example Dreamin 'in School . From 1969 - probably for the first time on the single Dynamite Woman or, as was sometimes claimed, on the LP Mendocino  - and until its dissolution in 1972, Stallings was bassist in Sir Douglas Quintet and, during the brief departure of Doug Sahm, in the formation The Quintet. Stallings was also the bass player in a band called Truth, which released a trippy psychedelic single in 1968 - PS (Prognosis Stegnosis) / Momentarily Gone .

Sometime in the 1960s, he made friends with Bob Markley, initiator and songwriter of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band , and with him Stallings started a solo project in 1968, for which he took the stage name J. J. Light. Jim Gordon ( drums ), Early Palmer (drums), Joe Osbourne (bass) and Larry Knechtel ( keyboard , piano ) and lead guitarists Ron Morgan (also from West Coast Pop Art Experimental) took part in the recordings for a first album produced by Markley Band) and Gary Rowles. All titles are penned by Stallings with Markley as co-author.

His Indian roots are musically less prominent than with the rock band Redbone , for example , even if some titles ( Heya , Na-Ru-Ka , Indian Disneyland ) and text passages suggest this. Rather, the songs can best be described as psychedelic folk rock . In the liner notes on the back of the album cover, the early Bob Dylan is mentioned as an influence . Sometimes you get the impression of hearing early recordings by Tjinder Singh's two and a half decades later band Cornershop ( Na-Ru-Ka , Hello, Hello, Hello ). The very personal songs are about the difficult youth of a Navajo from a small family and his early move to the big city of Los Angeles.

Interestingly, the album titled Heya! not released in Stalling's home country, although he had a record deal with the American major label Liberty. In Germany and other European countries, as well as South America, New Zealand and Japan , the album and above all the single of the same name that was released in late 1969 sold surprisingly well. In Western Europe, Heya , which became known in Germany in the cover version of the German rock band Jeronimo , was his only hit. JJ Light entered the German single hit parade on December 6, 1969 with his original and reached 12th place in February 1970 with a total of 12 weeks in the charts. Jeronimo made 13th place in a 12-week chart run. There was also a version produced by Giorgio Moroder with Adriano Celentano and German text by Michael Holm . The 1970 successor singles Na-Ru-Ka and Kent State - the latter not included on the original LP - could not be placed in the charts.

For the first time on CD and in the USA the album was available from CD Baby in 2003, but under the name Jimmy Stallings. A newer CD was released in December 2007 on Sunbeam Records. It also contains 11 bonus tracks, consisting of digitally revised recordings (1969) for a second LP that was never completed, including the aforementioned single called Kent State Massacre , as well as the original British single version by Heya with vocal overdubs in the chorus.

Jim Stallings played bass on the Little Wolf Band's 1995 album Dream Song , a project by Native American music producer and Grammy Award winner Jim Wilson . Stallings now lives in Albuquerque , New Mexico, and is still active as a musician.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Heya
  DE 12 December 01, 1969 (12 weeks)
  AT 6th 03/15/1970 (8 weeks)
  CH 8th 02/03/1970 (4 weeks)

LPs / CDs

As JJ Light

  • Heya! - Liberty LBS 83341 I (LST-7634), 1969
  • Heya! - Sunbeam 5042, 2007/2008

The self-publishing label CD Baby released the title of the original album Heya under the name Jimmy Stallings in 2003 , as well as a number of other extremely rare LPs by Stallings, for example Midnight Love Affair .

With Sir Douglas Quintet / The Quintet

  • Together after Five - Smash 1970
  • Future Tense - United Artists 1970
  • The Return of Doug Saldaña - Phillips 1971
  • Rough Edges - Mercury 1973

Singles

as JJ Light

  • Heya / On the Road Now - Liberty LB 15 228, 1969
  • Na-Ru-Ka / Follow Me Girl - Liberty LB 15 315, 1970
  • Kent State / Gallup, New Mexico - Liberty LB 15 393, 1970
  • Baby Let's Go to Mexico / It's a Sunshine Day - PBR 502, 1976

With truth

  • PS (Prognosis Stegnosis) / Momentarily Gone - Warner Bros 7214, 1968

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Review of the JJ Light album Heya! The Rising Storm
  2. ↑ Jim Stallings (Credits) Artist direct
  3. ^ Günter Ehnert (Ed.): Hit-Bilanz, Deutsche Chart Singles 1956-1980 . Taurus-Press, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 107.
  4. ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH
  5. ↑ Jimmy Stallings . CD baby
personal data
SURNAME Stallings, Jim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stallings, James Michael (full name); Light, JJ (stage name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American rock musician, singer and bassist
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century
PLACE OF BIRTH New Mexico