You’d have to have spent your entire life in a cave to have had absolutely no exposure to the living legend that is Sir Tom Jones. He’s arguably one of the greatest singers of all time. The 80-year old Welshman, who was born and raised in the sleepy valleys village of Treforest, has been a national treasure and a staple of the entertainment industry since the 1960s. Although he lived in Los Angeles from 1974 until shortly after the death of his wife Linda in 2016 and grew up listening primarily to American music, Jones is a Welshman to his core and he’ll never let you forget that. Indeed, the people of his homeland won’t let you forget about that either!
If you live in Wales like I do, it’s not a good time until somebody starts a drunken singalong of ‘Delilah’. Carlton’s legendary dance to ‘It’s Not Unusual’ in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is burned into the brains of everyone who’s ever watched the show. Jones’ recurring role as a judge on the UK version of The Voice has kept him in the spotlight still, his regular TV presence memorable mainly for his stories about his musical contemporaries like Elvis Presley and his almost-impromptu performances of his hits or renditions of classic soul, blues and R&B songs like ‘Great Balls of Fire’, ‘Knock On Wood’ and ‘Shake, Rattle & Roll’.
What’s not talked about so much now is a period of Jones’ career at the start of the last decade that not only saw him totally change direction musically but also brought about one of the biggest divides I have ever seen between the critics and the industry. I’m talking about his critically-acclaimed 39th studio album, Praise & Blame. It was released to the general public 10 years ago and, on this anniversary of its release, I feel like it’s very important to talk about it. Praise & Blame was a part of Jones’ career that saw him get some of his highest critical acclaim in years but also, for a very brief period, some of his fiercest and most overt criticism from the business end of the music industry machine, specifically from his label.
Before Praise & Blame, Jones had been heading very much in a modern pop direction. Whilst the late ’90s and the ’00s were a great comeback period for the elder statesman of music, the albums he released during this period such as Reload and Mr. Jones were very different from his classic output. He enlisted the help of popular acts of the time such as The Cardigans, Robbie Williams, fellow Welshmen The Stereophonics and James Dean Bradfield of The Manic Street Preachers, the Barenaked Ladies and even Wyclef Jean and Portishead! He’d also had one of his first huge hits with an original song in years via ‘Sex Bomb’, a very funky dance track co-written and produced by German DJ and producer Mousse T. It seemed that he was fully embracing the contemporary pop stylings of that time. Or was he…?
Then, in 2010, we got the first inkling of what his new direction was going to be. On 7th June 2010, he released a storming cover of John Lee Hooker’s ‘Burning Hell’. The stripped-back production, heavy Americana influence and strongly spiritual nature of the track revealed exactly what this new era of Tom Jones was going to be. He was returning back to his soul, blues and R&B roots in an unapologetic way and his vehicle for this was embracing the gospel music of his adopted home: America. With a cast of musicians that included the legendary multi-instrumentalist Booker T. Jones, this was definitely going to be a hell of an album. Indeed, it was. It was hailed by many critics as being one of Tom Jones’ best albums in decades. They praised the stripped back, live band-style production as well as Tom’s vocal performances. Michael Hann of The Guardian even went as far as to say “at last Jones the artist is the match of Jones the entertainer.”
Not all was well, however, in the land of Praise & Blame. A leaked email revealed that Jones’ new label Island Records were far from happy when the album was delivered. The main director of anguish was Vice-President David Sharpe, who remarked: “I have just listened to the album and want to know if this is some sick joke?”. Sharpe later went on to say that “we did not invest a fortune in an established artist for him to deliver 12 tracks from the common book of prayer.” Needless to say, Mr. Jones was very unhappy with David Sharpe’s comments, calling him “some fella who signs the cheques” and detailing that “he’s not on the creative side of it and they’re 100% behind it.”
Despite this rather odd back and forth, the album’s release went off without a hitch, getting to number 2 in the UK Albums Chart and eventually being certified Gold by the BPI (that means it sold at least 100,000 copies in the UK alone!), as well as securing top 40 chart positions all over Europe. Furthermore, he released a further album (Spirit in the Room) with Island Records in 2012 before switching to Virgin EMI Records (now just EMI Records) in 2015 for the release of Long Lost Suitcase. Whatever problems Jones had with Island Records, it’s likely they were with Sharpe and Sharpe alone. Some have even argued that Sharpe and Jones’ feud being made public might have actually helped the album’s publicity! I’m sure looking back at the album’s obvious commercial success, Sharpe can’t (pardon the terrible puns that are about to happen) ‘blame’ Jones for the creative direction that led to so much ‘praise’.
Looking back on Praise & Blame, Jones’ return to his blues and gospel roots was something he absolutely needed to do. The Welshman had been in what, if you were listening to the critics, was a huge malaise in his career where he had succumbed to the trends of contemporary pop. He desperately needed to reinvent himself. By looking back to the music of his formative years, he somehow managed to give himself a fresh coat of paint and thrust himself back into the spotlight. It could even be said that the huge critical and commercial success of Praise & Blame is what led to Tom’s prominent TV role as a coach on The Voice. It’s been great to have Tom Jones back at his best, belting out those soulful songs in his evergreen voice and becoming a regular presence once again both on stage and in front of the cameras.
Words by Robert Percy