Category: Music

Oh Allison … His Ears Were True

Roy Allison, 1927-2016

I’m in my second round of physical therapy for a bad ankle, worn out by more than 30 years of running. The place I’m going to happens to be around the corner from 7 Tech Circle, in Natick, MA. This is an address that was familiar to me nearly 30 years ago. It was the original home of Allison Acoustics. 7 Tech Circle is a modest building, as seen in this aerial photo.

I own two pairs of Allison loudpeakers — the Model 3, purchased in 1979, and the LC-110, that I bought in 1988. Both pairs are still working perfectly. Roy Allison isn’t a household name like Amar Bose, but he is a legend in audio circles, especially in the Boston Area.

Before starting his own company, Allison designed speakers for Acoustic Research in Cambridge, MA. Motown Records went through many pairs of AR3 speakers when monitoring and mixing recordings in the 60’s.

Allison speakers sound very open and natural, favoring dispersion over detail, so they aren’t ideal for punchy studio recordings. But their virtues are immediately apparent to anybody who is familiar with live Classical music.

Besides having an excellent ear for neutral sound reproduction, Roy Allison is a true gentleman. He helped a competitor, Andy Kotsatos, start the still-extant company Boston Acoustics. (I also own a pair of Boston Acoustics A40 speakers, purchased in 1983.) Allison was put out of business during the recession of ’89-’95 in Massachusetts, when his bank called in his loans. Those were tough times around here, believe me, while the minicomputer industry was in its death throes, before the Internet boom saved us.

Roy Allison regrouped and formed a new company called RDL Acoustics, but it didn’t last long. Today he’s retired in Florida, but he’s lent his name to a new line of speakers. They sell replacement drivers for the original series, and every so often I tell myself I should buy a pair of woofers — just in case!

Petula Clark – 1954

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JAN07/Pet1954.flv 400 320]

Here’s a big 5-year jump from the last post. I wish there were more material available from the years in between, because I’d like to know exactly when Pet was put on the wrong track after she outgrew her singing sweetheart days. Most likely it was the fault of her domineering manager-father.

Everything about the way Petula is presented in this 1954 film, with the unfortunate title “Gay Dog,” doesn’t work. She looks 30, not 21. The dress and the hair were undoubtedly the style de rigueur, but the look doesn’t suit her. Based on this clip alone it’s apparent her movie career was going to stall in England.

Petula Clark – 1948

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JAN07/walkingbackwards.flv 400 300]

As promised, here is the start of a Petula Clark video retrospective. This brief scene is from 1948, with Pet at 15 in Here Come the Huggetts, the first in a series about the fictional Huggetts family.

Pet was England’s “Singing Sweetheart,” and she seems here to be a cross between Shirley Temple and Judy Garland. She carries it off, but having sifted through more than 30 video clips of Petula, it seems she had to be quite a chameleon to keep her career moving. I would conjecture the real Petula didn’t show herself until she was closing in on 40.

Contemplating Petula

Petula in PinkWhen I was a kid, Petula Clark songs were special. The records had a characteristic sound that was somehow European, but less obviously so than Shirley Bassey’s “Goldfinger,” which was produced by George Martin. I suppose the psychoacoustic effect of Petula Clark could have have been due to Tony Hatch’s production values, but at the center of it all was Petula, who was attractive to a wide audience, from pre-teens to their grandparents.

Petula Clark, who has had one of the most interesting careers of any singer, was something of a counterpoint to Julie Andrews. Clark and Andrews met in the 1940’s, and while both excelled in acting and singing, Andrews later specialized in musicals while Pet was a singer of Pop tunes.

Back in 1967 an audio essay by Canadian pianist Glenn Gould on the CBC included a segment on Petula Clark. Gould is more than a bit pretentious, but nevertheless this is worth hearing if for no other reason than it’s a critical consideration of Pet from her heyday on the charts, by a professional Classical musician.

[audio:http://ubu.wfmu.org/sound/gould_glenn/Gould-Glenn_The-Search-for-Petula-Clark_1967.mp3|titles=Glenn Gould: The Search for Petula Clark]

Every so often I’ll be posting more video clips of the fascinating Petula Clark, picking up where I started with this scene from one of her first movies, I Know Where I’m Going! by Powell and Pressburger.