Seen here is a 1981 JET photo of Joe Tex on the dance floor. Well, to be fair, almost nobody looked very good in '81.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Doin' The Bump With Joe Tex
Joe Tex month day 11: Ernie K-Doe-Nus Cut!
In which we all learn that a h-o-m-e without l-o-v-e is just a h-o-u-s-e. Excellent 1963 B-side by the one and only Ernie K-Doe, penned by Joe Tex and never recorded by anyone else that I know of.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Joe Tex month day 10: The New Boss/The Love You Save
Now that they had their hit and they knew how to get the most out of Joe's talent, JT and Buddy Killen really started cranking out the product. In 1965 and 1966, Joe Tex released four different LPs for Dial/Atlantic, most of them loaded with original material. In addition most of the companies that released his material in the 50s and early 60s released LPs to cash in on the Tex craze. I think there are six different JT LPs with a 1966 date on them.
Technically, the New Boss, JT's follow-up LP to Hold What You've Got, isn't entirely new. It has a couple of songs overlapping with HWYG, and it's also unique in Joe's 60s library in that almost half the songs are covers (I don't care what he says or how good his version is, Joe did NOT write "C.C. Rider"). Recorded quickly on to cash the new demand for JT's music, it's not the best Tex album of the 60s, but it's got its moments, like the big hit "I Want to (Do Everything for You)" (which is a Joe Tex original and I don't care what it says on that King Sound Quartet LP In the Red put out in 1996) and "What in the World", which has a seriously great Tex vocal and a righteous horn chart.
But to my ears the next in the Dial Series, The Love You Save, is the more entertaining listen. Purpler commentariats than myself have made grand claims for the title track being about social unrest and the Civil Rights movement, and it's safe to say that there's more than love affairs being talked about when Joe's saying he's been hit in the head, left for dead, taken outside, brutalized, and always been the one who had to apologize. No wonder he looks so mad on the cover.
Other winners include the previously posted "If Sugar Was Sweet As You" and in particular "I'm a Man". This mind-boggling rewrite of "You Keep Her" has the greatest lyrics in musical history. If "If I were a song I'd like to be sung by the Rolling Stones" is not carved into my tombstone, someone hasn't been paying attention. Is this song some kind of slam on Bobby Darin's "If I Were a Carpenter"?
And lest y'all think I've forgotten I'm posting on Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban, there's also a hilarious mush mouth version of "Heartbreak Hotel", and a sleeper dance 45 - "You Better Believe It, Baby". This song wound up as the B-side of "I Believe I'm Gonna Make It", and it smokes - a hornless, rhythm guitar driven pounder with a pronounced Beatle influence - check out that scream that leads in the brief guitar break. Get it Elvis! Fill that floor!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Joe Tex Salutes Little Willie John
As seen in the Jet archives, here's a 1968 photo of Joe Tex performing in Detroit at a memorial benefit for the recently deceased Little Willie John.
Joe Tex day 9: Hold What You've Got!
TEX SMASH!
In 1964 things were looking pretty grim for JT's recording career. Dial didn't have very good distribution in the early 60s, and Joe's records just were not clicking. Accounts vary as to who was ready to ditch who - Joe either wanted out of his contract or Dial was ready to the guy who the label was started for in the first place. But Dial managed to get a distribution deal with R&B/soul powerhouse Atlantic - so decent distribution was no longer an excuse and it was all down to Joe.
In one of those stories that belongs in every rock 'n' soul legend's eventual biopic, it all came down to one last recording session, and the big song JT was cutting was "Fresh Out of Tears", another uptempo R&B number.
But things weren't clicking and after hours of recording, Buddy Killen suggested they try something different - a ballad Joe had brought in that could be arranged with a country beat, an overdubbed harmony vocal, and maybe just a hint of "Holy Holy Holy" in the melody to fool buyers in the Christmas spirit. Joe was too hoarse from hollering and hitting high notes on "Fresh Out of Tears" for seven hours, so he had to talk his way through the middle part. The resultant single, possibly cobbled together from several takes, was a #1 R&B/#5 pop smash. True to the script, Joe had pulled it out in the 11th hour.
Here's a rare live version of "Hold What You've Got" (and what the heck, a version of its follow-up, "You Got What It Takes") from the Murray the K Presents LP on the Brook-Lyn label. (Note: not, as noted in the Roctober Joe Tex guide, the Live from the Brooklyn Fox LP.) Right up there with his old rival's Live at the Apollo for audience interaction!
Special thanks to Joe at BlackGoldVinyl for the rips - I stupidly purged this LP years ago
After almost 10 years of slogging through the R&B record industry looking for a hit, once JT managed to find his big one, it was off to the races. Now that Killen and Tex knew how to best use his talent, they mined gem after gem, with Joe's songwriting growing by leaps and bounds. Hold What You've Got has four solid hits (including the mind boggling "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show") and they didn't stop coming. No wonder Joe looks like he's turning into the Hulk on the cover of HWYG!
Buddies!
For the rest of the 60s Tex and Killen would release single after single and album after album of memorable, funny, down home, soulful material that was set apart by JT's sincerity, enthusiasm, his goofy willingness to try anything, and the shameless good humor to get away with it.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Joe Tex month day 8: The Early Dial Sides
Like King and Ace, Anna and Chess didn't really work out for Joe. But because of his obvious talent, producer and music publisher Buddy Killen decided to start a label, Dial, specifically to release Tex's records. Things didn't go very well at first. In fact, a lot of Joe's early Dial singles are a step back in quality and uniqueness from his Anna and Chess waxings, even if they're a leap forward in terms of sound quality. Most of these early singles can be found on the Super Soul compilation pictured above, but they can be a wee pricey for a comp, since a couple of Joe's early Dials are considered Northern Soul classics.
But "Looking for My Pig", one of the best songs (especially for Ichiban purposes!) he cut in the early Dial days, is not. This barn-burning tip/rip to "Walking the Dog" - complete with shout out to Rufus Thomas at the end - only came out on 45 until its eventual release on the First on the Dial CD in 2008.
Another killer early Dial tune not on the Super Soul is "Blood's Thicker Than Water", the flip of "I Wanna Be Free". This is probably the most expensive record in Joe's catalog, consistently fetching over a hundred dollars on the Northern market. So if you see it for a couple of bucks somewhere, don't sleep!
The way forward was planted on "I Had a Good Home But I Left". A call-back to the first two Anna singles, it was a two-parter with a sermon on the flip. This time the tempo was slowed down to a fine Southern lope, and Joe and the band really work off of each other to give his words maximum impact. It gets so good to Joe that he punctuates one bit of wisdom with a "Think about it!" that would make Jerry Lee proud. The track is presented here (for the first time, as far as I can tell) as a seamless song rather than being split into two parts.
The record still didn't sell. But Killen and Tex would take this style to the A-side for the first time at the next recording session, and the results were much different.
For more on the Dial story, go here.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The Amazing Story of the Joe Tex/James Brown Feud
"Money won't change you, Joe - but I will take you out! Payback!"
"You better hold on, James - I don't play! I'll go upside your head!"
Joe Tex and James Brown were bitter rivals. The beef started over a controversy about stage moves. JT thought JB swiped his trademark microphone kicking tricks. JB claimed JT stole them from him. This led to an escalating series of thefts and public jabs that stands up to any modern day hip-hop feud. After all, Joe Tex was the original rapper.
Things started heating up when Jay-B covered a new Jay-T single, "Baby You're Right".
The singers released the cuts around the same time, but Brown had the bigger hit, reaching number two R&B and scoring on the pop chart. Joe was still wandering the wilderness in terms of record sales, so the drubbing on the charts had to sting.
It probably didn't help that James hands Joe his Tex ass, performance wise. How did Joe miss the opportunity to rap over that boring organ solo in the middle?
(not to mention the fact that Brown took half the songwriting credit for his version)
The battle began in earnest when JB stole JT's girlfriend, Bea Ford. Then, just to twist the knife, JB sent JT a letter telling him that he was through with the Bea and Joe could have her back.
This led to the magnificent diss record "You Keep Her", where Joe calls James out by name, saying he was better off without the Bea anyway.
The situation came to a head at a double-billed gig in Macon, Georgia. JB hadn't played his home turf in a while. JT opened the highly anticipated homecoming. He came onstage wearing a ratty, torn blanket, fell down on his knees, grabbed his back like he was in terrible pain, tangled himself up, and hollered, "Please! Please! Please! Get me out of this cape!"
Joe Tex did that opening for James Brown.
In Macon, Georgia.
Wayne Cochran says so!
JB was furious, and trailed JT to an after-show at a local juke joint, Club 15. The band at the gig just happened to be the Otis Redding and the Pinetoppers. Brown grabbed a couple of shotguns, went inside, and started firing at Tex, Omar style! Someone in the bar returned fire, and Joe fled out the back, while Otis and Johnny Jenkins hid behind the piano. Apparently seven people were injured in the crossfire. JB ran back to his tour bus, got behind the wheel, and took off.
"Remember that time James Brown shot up the Club 15 tryin'
to kill Joe Tex and you had to hide behind the piano?"
Eventually the two patched things up enough for Joe to pen the immortal line: "If I was a dancefloor, James Brown could mash potatoes on me all night long!"
Check out page two of this great article about Brown by Scott Freeman, written for Atlanta's Creative Loafing in 2007, and this summary of the beef by James McAllister.
It's all true!
Wayne Cochran wouldn't lie!
Monday, February 6, 2012
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