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Posts Tagged ‘Wilson Pickett’

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Mojo’s Cold Shot: Bo Diddley, “Drive By: Tales From the Funk Dimension”

One of the many things I love about Popdose is our collective freedom to write different kinds of posts: Sometimes you gets yourself a Cold Shot related to some bit of blues news, or sometimes we reach back into the archives to espouse the greatness of an evergreen-but-bona-fide classic.

And still other times, such as this week, we share discoveries that might not be new—but they’re new to us.

Not long ago, cruising Bomp’s spam of the week, this tasty little CD came up for grabs: Bo Diddley’s Drive By: Tales From the Funk Dimension 1970-73, compiling tracks from four lost classic Chess albums issued in the early 1970s and available on—get this—Australian import.

Are you kidding me? After buying roughly 8,000 albums and being graced by probably as many promo copies, record titles alone rarely—if ever—sway an album purchase. But with a name like that, even in these cash-strapped days, it sounded just too good to pass up. Blues-funk of the early 1970s can be fantastic, as the old guard like Bo Diddley, Albert King, and Buddy Guy latched on to the urban sounds coming out of Chicago blues clubs and the second wave of the Memphis Stax soul sound led by Black Moses himself. So Mojo laid his money down. (more…)

Tags: Albert King, Bo Diddley, Chicago blues, Creedence Clearwater Revival, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Mojo Flucke, Mojo's Cold Shot, Muddy Waters, Wilson Pickett
Posted in Mojo's Cold Shot, Music | Comments

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Versionality: “Stagger Lee”

by Kelly Stitzel

About a month ago, while I was working on my Soundtrack Saturday post about Shag: The Movie, I tweeted that I never got sick of hearing Lloyd Price’s version of the blues folk song “Stagger Lee,” which is what Annabeth Gish and Scott Coffey’s characters dance to during the shag dancing contest at the end of the movie. In fact, I think I listened to it about 20 times just in the few hours it took me to write that post. The first time I’d ever heard any version of “Stagger Lee” was while watching Shag, and every time I hear Price sing it, I think of that scene and just want to put on my shaggin’ shoes and go to town. (Okay, so I don’t really know how to shag, but whatever.)

Seeing my tweet about my love for Mr. Price’s “Stagger Lee,” the lovely Jeff Giles asked if I’d ever heard the version by Chris Whitley & Jeff Lang. I replied that I hadn’t, and within the hour an MP3 was waiting in my in-box. After listening to it and telling Jeff how much I liked it, a discussion about some of the other versions of the song began, ultimately leading to the idea of this feature, which I hope continues with the thoughts of members of the talented Popdose staff on other oft-covered songs.

Now, much has been written about the Stagger Lee story and even about the many versions of the song; I’m certainly not going to try and rehash everything for you here. Instead I’d encourage you to read this and this, and if that’s not enough Stagger Lee history for you, there’s always Wikipedia. Rather, what I wanted to talk about here is what I love about the song and its many renditions.

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Tags: Beck, Bill Haley, Bob Dylan, Chris Whitley, Dr. John, Fats Domino, Grateful Dead, Huey Lew, Huey Lewis & The News, Ike & Tina Turner, Jeff Lang, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Cephs, Kelly Stitzel, Lloyd Price, Mickey Baker, Mississippi John Hurt, Neil Diamond, New Monsoon, Nick Cave, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pete Seeger, Phil Wiggins, Samuel L. Jackson, Shag, Stagger Lee, Taj Mahal, The Black Keys, The Clash, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Wilson Pickett, Woody Guthrie
Posted in Featured, Featured - Frontpage, Music, Versionality | Comments

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Popdose Flashback: Terence Trent D’Arby, “Neither Fish Nor Flesh”

by Mojo Flucke

flashback_wide

Let’s get a couple things straight: Terence Trent Howard, a.k.a Terence Trent D’Arby, a.k.a. his latest name–which came to him in a dream–Sananda Francesco Maitreya, is a certifiable nut. He also doesn’t seem to have someone in his entourage who can reel in his nutty musical impulses, which leads to peculiar interludes, asides, giggling, and soliloquies in his recordings. He likes making weird concept albums, rock-opera things that sound like what might happen if Wilson Pickett were fronting Styx.

Yet his voice is beautiful, powerful, and rough. His grasp of soul singing is extraordinary; he can effortlessly flit from gospel to jazz to hard funk to pop to Memphis-style soul shouting, and even pull off late-’60s psychedelic soul, which was pretty weird to begin with but yet he makes it sound cool. He’s kind of like Prince, except more flawed in a Sun Ra kind of loony way (both D’Arby and Ra had issues with U.S. Army service, so they have that in common). (more…)

Tags: Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Mojo Flucke, Neither Fish Nor Flesh review, Neither Hit Nor Successful, Popdose Flashback, Popdose Flashback '89, Terence Trent D'Arby, textbook definition of "sophomore jinx", Wilson Pickett
Posted in Featured, Featured - Frontpage, Music, Popdose Flashback '89 | Comments

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

Mojo’s Cold Shot: Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens

by Mojo Flucke

Be still my soul. Lawd have mercy. When soul first came out, so many social issues made so many people so PO’d (civil rights, Vietnam, rioting in seemingly every urban area, drug abuse, the specter of nuclear war) that retreating into gospel-sounding soul music was a welcome respite–and a way to constructively vent the emotions that otherwise might drive a man or woman to commit an act that was, er, socially nonconstructive.

Welcome to 2009, the post-Bush wasteland of scorched-earth economics, war and pestilence, terrorism, drug abuse and bad, bad pop music. Along with acts like Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, James Hunter, Amy Winehouse and a fistful of other neo-soul artists my peers have been writing up on Popdose (Ken Shane’s Black Joe Lewis piece is one example), Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens have come to rescue us from the stuff we hear about on the radio and see on the TV and flat-screen computer monitors that just plain don’t make no sense. Like a shooter going off in Binghamptom at a facility whose sole reason for existence was helping noncitizens become citizens here in our land of milk, honey, and executive bonuses. I mean, WTF? (more…)

Tags: Amy Winehouse, Gospel Queens, Lily Allen, Mojo Flucke, Mojo's Cold Shot, Naomi Shelton, Sharon Jones, Wilson Pickett
Posted in Mojo's Cold Shot, Music | Comments

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

CD Review: Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, “Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is”

by Ken Shane

Do you like those smooth soul ballads? Maybe you like to kick back with your lady, or man, and chill out with the lights low, and the Delfonics singing softly in the background. If that appeals to you, I’ve got a suggestion for you: stop reading this right now. Because to paraphrase Tina Turner, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears don’t do nothing nice and easy.

The eight-piece band, led by the irrepressible Joe Lewis, has come storming out of Austin, TX with their Lost Highway debut, Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is. They were a huge hit a couple of weeks ago at South by Southwest, and now they appear poised to conquer the rest of the world.

I’m not big on coining terms, and someone has probably come up with this before me, but the most fitting name I can give to their music is punk soul. Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears come at you with the kind of energy and aggression usually reserved for only the most committed punk bands, and their soul groove is deep and fierce.

The most obvious influence here is James Brown. Just check out “I’m Broke” to see what I mean. There are also echoes of Wilson Pickett and Joe Tex. And just when you think Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears might be a one-trick-pony, they come at you with “Master Sold My Baby,” which blends dark Delta blues with a New Orleans second-line beat.

There’s nothing here to tell me whether Lewis is a great technical singer. He is certainly a great soul shouter, but since there are no ballads, and not much in the way of melody, he is not called upon to explore the full range of his voice. He openly admits that he didn’t sit down to write any of these songs. “If I sit down and try to write a song, it sounds contrived. All the songs on this record, I just made up as I went along. I couldn’t do a lot of ‘em again if I didn’t have ‘em on tape.”

Fortunately, the Honeybears rhythm section knows how to lay down a wicked groove, and the band knows how to play together as a unit, instead of seeking individual glory. The groove established, Lewis adds his stream-of-consciousness lyrics to the pot, and the stew really begins to simmer.

Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is was produced by Spoon drummer Jim Eno, who was very pleased with the band’s spontaneity. “We were able to do about 75 percent of the album live, and that’s something that you very, very rarely do.” That immediacy jumps right out at you from the speakers.

The soul revival continues apace.

Tags: Black Joe Lewis, CD Review, Delfonics, Honeybears, James Brown, Jim Eno, Ken Shane, Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett
Posted in CD Reviews, Music | Comments