Everyone's a loser, baby

Doris Duke called her second album "A Legend In Her Own Time" which was probably meant to be a droll joke seeing as her 1970 debut "I'm A Loser" only just scraped into the top 40 of the R&B charts. She was a bit of a legend on the UK soul scene though, Dave Godin evangelized about "I'm A Loser" in Blues & Soul magazine when it came out, describing it as the greatest album ever made. He repeated that claim in the sleevenotes of his Deep Soul Treasures series which included a couple of Doris Duke tracks. Now when Dave Godin says an album is the greatest ever you sit up and take notice and now the wonderful folks at Ace Records have re-issued the album in an essential package that also includes all of "A Legend In Her Own Time" as well as some incredible tunes she cut early in her career under the name Doris Willingham.

You pretty much know going in that an album called "I'm A Loser" isn't going to be a barrel of laughs and Doris suffers enough heartache and misery on these songs to make even Morrissey seem quite chirpy. "If She's Your Wife (Who Am I)" is a wrenching song about infidelity and loving a man who treats you like shit. Doris turns in an incredible vocal, sounding utterly crushed by life. Make sure you have some hankies handy before listening to this, it'll tear you up. "Congratulations Baby" is an uptempo number which finds Doris at the altar about to get married which you would think makes it a happy song. But no, the backing singers are calling out "run girl run!" and she sounds in an absolute panic. Pardon my French, but this is fan-fucking-tastic stuff.

Doris Duke vanished from public view sometime in the mid-70s and is believed to be living in New Jersey. Hopefully the re-issue of "I'm A Loser' will bring her out or retirement. But maybe not, apparently she didn't even like the album. Crazy woman.

Read more about "I'm A Loser" here and then go buy the damn thing.

[Download]
If She's Your Wife (Who Am I) - Doris Duke
Congratulations Baby - Doris Duke