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I am who I am, not who you want me to be

by JOHNNY CASINO

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1.
Who needs you 04:46
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Who needs you is originally performed and written by the GREAT band from Boston THE REAL KIDS!!! and written by Jon Felice . The first itme i heard this song was on a 7¨that was put out by the great melbourne label DOG MEAT RECORDS, but the first time i feel in love with the song was watching and hearing the wonderful band THE FREELOADERS play it one night at the Brookvale Hotel !! arrrh those were the days!!! Thanks a bunch to John Felice, David Laing, Guy Lucas and Sean Greenway.
2.
Take me down to your river 04:22
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TAKE ME DOWN TO YOUR RIVER (John A Spittles) Take me down to your river and let me get in I feel your cool cool water and i wanna swim It´s time i got a drink from your loving cup Take me down to your river and let me get in
3.
New clothes old shoes 06:16
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NEW CLOTHES OLD SHOES (John A Spittles) I waited to hear her words in my ears What i wanted to know was where she´d like to go From Smith St Fitzroy we did go That yellow cab did take us to her door A lady called George a ballroom no more We laughed and drank tea Mrs Partton sang in key And we kissed till the sun called me home My new clothes old shoes thru her door My new clothes old shoes thru her door
4.
Brother Grahame say´s 02:21
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BROTHER GRAHAME SAYS (John A Spittles) Sweet May wontcha pour me a drink in a long tall glass Antonio Maria Gerardo Laura too lets make the goodtimes last Brother Grahame keeps saying i keep falling in love Brother Grahame keeps saying i keep falling in love Wednesday night Sala Carabel , in Palencia i found A heart so big a smile so warm and eyes so brown Brother Grahame keeps saying i keep falling in love Brother Grahame keeps saying i keep falling in love Somedays time keeps slippin away and every once in a while you hoped it would stay
5.
Sunken Treasure 02:47
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SUNKEN TREASURE (John A Spittles) Dont wait here for me baby i aint waiting here for you Dont wait here for me baby i aint waiting here for you You should be moving on forward just watch me standing still well i got this sunken treasure but you might sink and drown in blue well i got this sunken treasure but you might sink and drown in blue I aint the one for you baby i aint the one to see it thru going round and round in circles and i know which road to choose going round and round in circles and i know which road to choose but you´ll find me on that back road i´ll be alone and without you
6.
I am who I am, not who you want me to be 03:59
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I AM WHO I AM, NOT WHO YOU WANT ME TO BE (John A Spittles) I am who I am not who you want me to be And I stand where I stand and you see what you see I cut and I bleed you find that so hard to believe I am who I am not who you want me to be You see me stand and fall you seen this before Yeah i stand and fall and you have seen that before I cut and bleed cut and bleed yeah I am who I am not who you want me to be I AM
7.
Someday you´ll go 07:20
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SOMEDAY YOU´LL GO (John A Spittles) I see you in the summertime the clouds belong to the evening tide watching you glow feeling you close i see the sun shining thru your dress your long black hair fall across your chest holding you close wanting you so yeah letting you know i need you so the sun shines bright on Fitzroy street drinking cocktails sand between our feet letting you know feeling you close the suns demise leaves us cold and tired another day gone and it wont be long and we know but we dont show yeah we know someday you´ll go someday you´ll go when i need you so
8.
The road to Ithaca 02:58
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THE ROAD TO ITHACA (John A Spittles) Spanish wine and the moon up high the city lights seem to sparkle in her eyes safe in her arms i have no reason to hide a thought spoken a chance is taken raised glasses with coke and red wine a shared pillow in a city we left behind stories and words are sometimes so hard to find
9.
From lip to lip 03:19
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FROM LIP TO LIP (John A Spittles) I´m being led through that door dont even know what im looking for anymore anymore anymore watch me go from lip to lip give me the chance and i will do it again and again and again watch me do it again and again and again here i stand there i fall but see me climbing back up off the floor when i do you´ll be blue when i do cause i´ll be looking at you just to see what you do just to see what you do
10.
I cant be who you want me to be 03:11
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I CAN´T BE WHO YOU WANT ME TO BE (John A Spittles) I´ll walk when you run i cant be who you want me to be I´ll go left and you go right and we´ll see what we wanna see all day long and into the night we both dance to a different drum for you and me the innocence has gone what are you waiting for i cant be who you want me to be i told you 1000 times before i cant be who you want me to be bags are packed ready to go all kindsa girls all kindsa shows you oughta know i aint coming home I cant be who you want me to be.
11.
Can´t find my way through the door 04:34
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I CAN´T FIND MY WAY THRU THE DOOR (John A Spittles) What do you do when your lonely? Cant find your way to the door Walking down streets that once felt warm The cool wind will chill to the bone what would you say if you seen me when sometimes words seem to fall i´d like to feel what i once felt before but i cant find my way thru the door sometimes i feel you near me sometimes i feel so alone sometimes i feel what was there before but i cant find my way thru the door
12.
I am who I am (reprise) 01:15
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I am who I am am who i am who i am i am i am who i am !
13.
The deaf leading the blind 04:08
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THE DEAF LEADING THE BLIND (John A Spittles) I got something and you need it But you dont even know it yet You couldn´t see it if you faced it And you probably never will Well there´s something in your water And it´s poisoning your ideals The truth you never reveal And you probably never will Well i can see where this is going becasue you dont believe in where it´s been you just want to belong in the end and i wonder what will you do if that party starts without you and you can´t get into the room and your laminate want do hay aint i on the guestlist yeah but im a friend of so and so your name dropping is an art form and then you breeze on in yeah but you cant see where this is going because you dont believe in where it´s been you just want to belong in the end you find pop stars on game shows manufactured and created you celebrate mediocrity and this bullshit never ends i twist the dial to find a station but i cant find it on my radio that sound that i believe in seems to be lost to the years well i see where this is going and i have seen where it has been and im so happy i wont belong in the end

about

Sometimes you have to go with the flow and not be too cerebral about an album and this is one of those moments.

This CD is a big body-shot aimed squarely at the heart, not the head. Lyrics aside (and they're intelligent and heartfelt enough - not just throwaways) this is an album that needs to be heard - felt - in its whole without being over-analysed or filed away into a genre or classification. So let's call it Rock and Roll and observe that it works.

On multiple levels; at times poignantly, at others forcefully, it's a newsreel of big, bold and brassy sounds with Casino's sometimes vulnerable, occasionally bitter and always engaging voice at the centre.

Johnny Casino and his Secrets (a rotating cast of collaborators whose ranks are determined by which city the bandleader finds himself in) are fighting the good fight on multiple fronts yet are still maintaining a consistency of sound. Theirs is a club whose membership is based on mutual respect. You could mix and match the players and still come out with a coherent whole. They know their rock and roll.

None less so than bandleader Casino who, as the album title infers, defies pigeonholing and dances to no-one's beat but his own.

At times, I Am ... sounds like the Prehistoric Sounds Saints or Louis Tillett and the Aspersion Caste with a big, swampy wall of brass, bar-room piano and bristling guitars pushing relentlessly through like a truck through marshland. At others, there's a delicacy and variation of tone that borrows from country-rock or Chicago blues, passing through the inner-western Sydney Delta.

Mo of Sydney glam rockers the Hell City Glamours likened Johnny's vocal on Can't Find My Way Through The Door as channelling Rick Danko and even as someone who's not a massive fan of The Band sans Dylan, that'll do me as a description.

Variety abounds. There's a surreal Velvets-style builder (Someday You'll Go) tinged with didgeridoo, a rocking pop classic (Brother Grahame Says), a Chuck Berry-meets-the-Groovies arse-kicker (Can't Be Who You Want Me To Be), a summery romancer (The Road To Ithaca) and a disarmingly heartland-styled rail (The Deaf Leading the Blind) that's contrastingly savage in its demolition of music industry commodification. All perfectly tracked to work as an album, not just a collection of songs.

The guests - Hoodoo Guru Brad Shepherd, The Boobytraps' Carrie Phillis and Kendall James and The Eastern Dark's Billy Gibson most prominent - are significant seamlessly integrated. Pianist/organist Jeremy Craib seems so integral to the sound that it'd be great to see him playing live full-time.

Casino's guitar playing is up to its usual greatness but it's a key element here, not the main object. He's proud of his vocal and rightly so. Above all, this is an album that's about the songs. All of which are original except for the opener, a fairly obscure Real Kids song Who Needs Ya that came out as a B-side on a Dog Meat Australian single 100 years ago. A canny choice.

I alluded to lyrics at the start. Don't ignore them; they're part of the whole, and about fleeting or re-kindled love, individualism and the emptiness of an industry that Johnny Casino is only too happy to sit on the edge of, looking in.

Well-kept Secrets he and his band might be, but while they and others like them keep making music this good - no, great - we can all live in hope.
Album of The Year - The Barman

credits

released May 1, 2009

recorded in Sydney Australia by Mike Burnham
all songs written by John A Spittles

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all rights reserved

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JOHNNY CASINO Spain

Classy, rocking and cinematic, with sweeping vision, individualism , big, bold and brassy sounds occasionally bitter and always engaging. I-94 BAR

Johnny Casino should be playing upper-middle-class booze orgies to loosen up and wreck soon to be career women. VILLAGE VOICE New York City

Johnny Casino, anywhere, anytime.This man has one musical fault – he’s too fucking good !BEAT MAGAZINE ... more

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