Recently I read (nah, gulped) Lavette's fascinating autobiography "A Woman Like Me" where she frankly discusses how it felt to be at the back-burner most of her life, when her contemporaries just rose higher and higher (book is peppered with Muthafuckas who deceived her). One of the biggest disappointments of her professional life was album recorded for "Atlantic" in the early 1970s and never released - trough the years this album got cult status as one of those lost masterpieces that somehow slipped trough the cracks and when it finally saw the light in 2000 it got excellent reviews from starry eyes critics who admired still defiant singer.
Listening it today, some forty five years after its original creation, it sounds fine though I understand why "Atlantic" backed away from it - in its original form, "Souvenirs" don't have that one strong hit single that would guarantee chart action and pay back the investment. Although songs are good and Betty Lavette gives her all, material never reaches Olympic heights of other successful artists who managed to catch attention of record buyers. Like Martha Reeves whose very similar debut album sank without a trace, Lavette walked that grey path between soul and rock so perhaps bigwigs in "Atlantic" considered it to be neither here or there and lost the nerve at the very end, without even trying to see would audience accept it. To be honest, collection occasionally catches fire in "Soul Tambourine" and "My Love Is Showing", however the best of all is her excellent version of "Heart Of Gold" and that one was not even included on album (it was meant to be a single) - if this was album's opener and Lavette was given more of similar covers (something she would excel later in life) things could have turned differently. In hindsight, perhaps Lavette would have more chance if this was done by smaller label who would stand behind her, instead with a large corporation that was concerned with profit and investment.
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