Here's the second and last volume celebrating the music of the songwriting team of P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri. However, as I discussed in my write-up for "Volume 1," it seemed a pretty lopsided partnership, with Sloan being the songwriting genius and Barri doing more of the arranging and production. So, in my write-up here, I'm going to mostly concentrate on the story of Sloan's life.
At the end of my write-up for "Volume 1," Sloan was facing an increasingly bad situation. He had been pressured by record company executives who behaved more like Mafia crime bosses - and the evidence suggests there actually was a connection there. By the end of 1967, he broke up his songwriting partnership with Barri, and fled his hometown of Los Angeles, fearing for his life.
Sloan settled in New York City. In 1968, he signed a record contract with a different label, and released his third solo album, "Measure of Pleasure." This was an interesting album that was keeping up with rapidly changing music trends. However, he didn't tour or otherwise promote it, so it attracted little notice. The problem was his life was coming apart. Falling into depression over losing his songwriting royalties (and even future royalties for the next ten years!) to his old record company, he discovered heroin and began using it. Also, he was beset by a series of medical troubles, both mental and physical.
By 1969, his songwriting, and his music career in general, essentially came to a stop. He released another album in 1972, but his heart wasn't in it, and that one also quickly disappeared. Then, he simply disappeared for a long, long time, spending much of that in psychiatric hospitals. In a 2006 interview, he said, "I was ill I guess for a good 20, maybe 25 years. ... Catatonia for a long time."
Even by 1968, practically all the people who had known him well in Los Angeles lost all contact with him. Once such person he'd known was another up-and-coming songwriter, Jimmy Webb, wrote a song about his mysterious disappearance, called "P. F. Sloan." It starts with these lyrics:
"I have been seeking P. F. Sloan, but no one knows where he has gone
No one ever heard the song that boy set winging"
I haven't included it here, since neither Sloan nor Barri helped write it. But there are nice versions by Webb, the Association, Rumer, and others. Weirdly, for many years, Webb claimed it wasn't actually about Sloan, despite his name literally being the title! However, he eventually admitted that it was about him.
Stranger still, Sloan totally disappeared for so many years, yet wasn't reported dead, that a person decided to falsely claim they were him. Eugene Landy was a very controversial psychologist who was in charge of the mental health of musical genius Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. In the 1980s, Landy mysteriously began appearing as a co-writer of many new Wilson songs, despite apparently having no previously known songwriting or musical skills whatsoever. When people questioned him on this, Landy claimed that he actually was a talented songwriter because he used to be known as P. F. Sloan! In 1991, this caused the real Sloan to write a letter that debunked that outrageously false claim. (Shortly thereafter, in 1992, Landy lost his psychology license and was barred from further contact with Wilson.)
Anyway, in the late 1980s, Sloan went on a religious pilgrimage to India. This got him interested in Indian religion and philosophy, and started him on a path to getting his life back together. But still, it was a slow road to a full recovery. In 1993, he gave a well-received concert at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. The opening acts, Johnny Rivers, the Turtles, and Jan Berry of Jan and Dean, all benefited greatly from his songwriting. He released another album in 1994, but he was a relatively forgotten figure by this time, and it only came out in Japan. Then, he disappeared again, spending more time in psychiatric hospitals.
Finally, in 2006, he released an album that got at least some attention in the U.S. and Britain, "Sailover." It had some well known guest stars on it, like Lucinda Williams, Frank Black, Buddy Miller, and Felix Cavaliere. Here's an except from the AllMusic.com review: "P.F. Sloan is still writing worthwhile pop songs with smart, impressionistic, and somewhat off-kilter lyrics, and 'Sailover' confirms time has been quite kind to his muse since he last entered a recording studio." He finally did some touring to support it. Other stars like Susanna Hoffs and Rumer sang with him in concert.
Then, in 2014, he released a well-received autobiography. He also released another new album, a concept album called "My Beethoven" about the life of the classical composer Beethoven. But he died of cancer in 2015, at the age of 70.
Meanwhile, what happened to Steve Barri? He went on to have a fairly successful career in music, but as a producer and then a record company executive. He produced many hits in the 1970s, including "Dizzy" by Tommy Roe, "Don't Pull Your Love" by Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds, "Theme from S.W.A.T." by Rhythm Heritage, and "Undercover Angel" by Alan O'Day. He also produced several albums for the Grass Roots, the Four Tops, and Bobby 'Blue' Bland. But as a songwriter, there's very little after he stopped writing with Sloan back around 1966. I've included three songs here that Barri co-wrote with others in the 1970s: "I Wouldn't Treat a Dog (The Way You Treated Me)" and "Who's Foolin' Who" by Bland and "Love Pains" by the Pet Shop Boys & Liza Minnelli. If you look at his songwriting at secondhandsong.com, that's really about it for him without Sloan. That reaffirms the evidence that Sloan was the key partner in their songwriting partnership.
After that, Barri worked his way up the ranks in various record companies, eventually becoming a senior vice president for Gold Circle Entertainment/Samson Records. He is still alive and 84 years old as I write this in 2026.
Now, fiiiiinally, let me discuss the music here. The first ten songs here were written by Sloan, probably around 1966 to 1969, and all released in those years. He continued to write some hits after ending his partnership with Barri in that era, though none of them were really big hits. "Turn on the Light" is from his 1972 album, and "Violence" is from his 2006, and both of those were performed by him. I would have liked to include more of his own recordings, to show his songwriting was still strong in his later years, but the point of these "Covered" albums is to collect covers. However, I couldn't resist bending my self-imposed rules to include at least those two.
As I mentioned in my write-up to "Volume 1," "Where Were You When I Needed You" is the only song here that's "out of order," meaning this came a lot later than when it was first released. The Grass Roots had a hit with it in 1966, but I prefer the version by the Bangles, which was done by them in 1984.
One last thing. If you want to know more about Sloan's life, here's a good interview he did in 2014:
https://www.rebeatmag.com/whats-exactly-the-matter-with-p-f-sloan/
And here's another one from that same time period:
https://www.goldminemag.com/articles/perception-reality-singer-songwriter-p-f-sloan/
This album is 53 minutes long.
01 Things I Should Have Said (Grass Roots)
02 On a Quiet Night (Association)
03 A Melody for You (Grass Roots)
04 Another Day, Another Heartache (5th Dimension)
05 Bella Linda (Grass Roots)
06 I Get Out of Breath (Turtles)
07 Look Out Girl (Tommy Roe)
08 Baby, You Do It Well (Grass Roots)
09 New Design (Kenny Rogers & the First Edition)
10 I Can't Help but Wonder, Elizabeth (Grass Roots)
11 Turn on the Light (P. F. Sloan)
12 Who's Foolin' Who (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
13 Glory Bound (Grass Roots)
14 I Wouldn't Treat a Dog [The Way You Treated Me] (Bobby 'Blue' Bland)
15 Where Were You When I Needed You (Bangles)
16 Love Pains (Pet Shop Boys & Liza Minnelli)
17 Violence (P. F. Sloan)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/tDiLRAc3
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/Abtx5RNkFo31Pri/file
The cover art was made from separate photos of Sloan and Barri. I don't know when either was taken, but I would guess (based on deleted backgrounds and such) the Sloan picture was taken in 1966 or 1967, while the Barri image was taken in the early 1970s. Both photos were originally in black and white. I colorized them, then put them together in Photoshop.
