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Sunday, February 19, 2012

Blue Light Special!

Since you're going to make a pledge to WFMU's 2012 marathon anyway, why not maximize your swag?

Any person who pays their pledge of $180 or more by Feb. 26th will receive the Vintage WFMU Pack - Upsalapalooza double CD, Crackpots & Visionaries Vol. 2 card set, plus a classic issue of LCD (WFMU's old 'zine).



Plus!

3 DJ Premiums, Global Domination Bag, new WFMU T-shirt and naming rights to a WFMU Fixture.

Might I suggest:


+
+


DJ premiums can also be yours for a pledge of $75 each.

WFMU


Louis Jordan, 1954



The King Of The Jukebox auditions a new band member. Courtesy of the JET archives.

Below, Jordan can be seen still going strong in a 1966 appearance on The !!!! Beat.

Joe Tex month: The Joe Tex Band


Let's hear it for the band!


Saturday, February 18, 2012

Joe Tex Month: The Coasters/Sleepy LaBeef Connection

 Joe Tex covers show up in the oddest places. Buddy Killen was one busy song-selling-son-of-a-gun from next door.


Both bands cover Joe's Buying a Book-era snotty little ode to germophobia, "It Ain't Sanitary". It's tailor made for the Coasters, and they really ham it up. It makes me wonder if he wrote it for them. A Coasters Sing Joe Tex album would have been great.  


But it's kind of weird when Sleepy Labeef covers the same song on his Sun LP, the bull's night out.

Sleepy must have liked Buying a Book, because this album's also got a cover of the title track. Since the song is mostly one of JT's sermons, it's pretty weird to hear him cover it in his Sleepy baritone, word for word.

Joe Tex's Green Green Grass Of Home



Yesterday, Dr. Filth put up a fine post examining the intersection of the worlds Joe Tex and Roger Miller, which reminded me of another Joe Tex effort that came out of the country field.

The Green, Green Grass Of Home begins with a man happily recounting his eagerness to return to the familiar comforts of home after a long absence. There is, however, a catch. As the song unfolds, we learn the man is actually a Death Row prisoner and he's only been dreaming of going home. In reality, he is to be executed the following morning.

It's become something of a standard in the years since 1965 when singer Johnny Darrell released the original version of the song, followed almost immediately by Porter Wagoner's definitive interpretation, in which he added an extra layer of intensity by doing the final verse as a recitation. Tom Jones took the song to #1 in the UK in '67 and Merle Haggard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Hank Snow, among many others, also recorded memorable versions.

So, all that said, check out Joe Tex's moving version of The Green Green Grass Of Home, performed live on Spanish television in 1968.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Joe Tex month day 17: Dang Me/Show Me! The Joe Tex/Roger Miller connection


"If I were a silly grin, I'd like to be worn on Roger Miller's face."
-Joe Tex-

Buddy Killen was the Joe Tex/Roger Miller connection. He was lifelong buddies with Miller, brokered several of his record deals, managed his publishing and sat the crazy laughing ADD genius down to complete his songs.

According to "I Love You Drops" singer Bill Anderson, "Roger would come in with seven or six lines of a song. It'd be something fabulous, and Buddy would just have to almost take him and chain him to the table to make him finish."

Killen was also one of the snappers on the giant Miller hit "King of the Road".

Joe Tex covered three different Roger Miller songs throughout his Dial career, and it wasn't just the fact that  Killen helped make them the successful artists they were that made them simpatico. Both singers managed to say deeply profound things in often ridiculous contexts, and conveyed both happiness and humor in their performing style in a way that is absolutely captivating and infectious. And they were both funny as do-wacka-do.

JT covered "King of the Road" on The New Boss, "Half a Mind" on I've Got to Do a Little Bit Better, and "Engine Engine #9" on Soul Country.

And on Hold What You've Got, he wrote his own Roger Miller homage/parody, "Are We Ready?", the last verse of which goes out to Newt Gingrich.

Joe Tex with Buddy (right) and journalist Charles Lamb (center)

And just because it's too long to wait until Roger Miller Month, here's Roger and Johnny Cash.

I just told myself a dirty joke!

For more information on Roger Miller and Buddy Killen, check out the informative bio on the official Roger Miller website.


Please Mr. President...


Jon Savage - New Fangled Jingle Jangle Swimmin' Suit from Paris

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Ichiban One-Liners!

Here are some fun facts that you may not know about WFMU:

• We have made our signal available worldwide via the internet.

• We now offer podcasts, blogs, alternate webstreams and an enormous programming archive, providing our online listeners with countless forms of entertainment.

• And we have done all of that without accepting money from corporations or underwriting.

• WFMU is completely independent, which is a claim that few other non-commercial stations can make. We have to pay for everything ourselves, from headphones to rent to electricity, roof maintenance, telephones, etc. There's no "them" to give us any kind of support whatsoever.

• WFMU DJ's do not get paid. No one gets reimbursed for labor, travel, expenses, "Santo research", parking tickets, 45s.

• We're economical and resourceful. When a piece of equipment breaks, we try and fix the old one. Our headphones are held together by duct tape and our turntables are supported by inner tubes.

• WFMU does not take money with strings attached. We don’t accept money from a university or underwriting.

Once a year we throw a big fundraising party and invite every listener to throw in a few clams to keep us on the air for one more year.  That means you!!  We even offer fabulous prizes and swag for your pledge of support.

  

A $50 pledge gets you entered in the drawing for Ichiban One-Liners, complied by artist extraordinaire,  J.R. Williams!!!  Pledge here before Friday, February 24th at 5:00 PM EST.

More infos coming your way next week!!

Joe Tex month day 16: Soul Country


“You wanna know my secret for getting a cross-over hit? I used the same formula every time – half soul musicians, half country.” - Joe Tex


Once Joe Tex and Buddy Killen started collaborating, country music became an essential part of JT's sound. Killen was an ex-bass player at the Grand Ole Opry, and was also a Nashville song publisher with vested interest in Tree Publishing.  Under Killen's influence, some of the country elements present in Tex's early music were brought front and center. Most of his LPs included a straight(ish) country number or two, and countrified arranging techniques added surprising elements to hits like "I've Got to Do a Little Bit Better Than I've Been Doing".  


The 1968 Country Soul LP is all country songs, and with the exception of "If I Ever Do You Wrong" they're all covers. I suspect that part of the reason for the song selection on this LP, and part of the reason for some of the cover choices on other LPs ("Heartbreak Hotel", for instance) is because Tree Publishing owned the rights to the songs, so Killen got some bread coming and going.  


But the results are a pretty good LP - maybe some of the cover choices could have been better suited to Joe's natural abilities, but it was still one of the first full-length country LPs by a soul artist. And while folks like Ray Charles, Arthur Alexander and Solomon Burke were working similar veins, Joe's approach as always made the best of the songs uniquely Tex.  Many of the notable numbers got posted in the "Joe Tex Show" post of February 15, so you should just go watch them there. 


But there are a couple of other real winners on the record that deserve extra attention. His version of "Time Slips Away" is pretty hilarious - underneath the ordinary lyric of the Nelson standard, a second JT mumbles unspoken words of resentment. It's like Joe's dueting with his own subconscious.


But the track I love most is his chitlin' circuit version of "Ode to Billy Joe". I don't know whose idea recording the Bobbie Gentry megahit was, but the results are inspired. The funky soul arrangement drives the song from a lazy lope to a solid mid-tempo dance number, and Joe makes a number of lyrical modifications to personalize it. These make the song even weirder than it already was. 

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Joe Tex month day 15: The Joe Tex Show - complete! - THIS IS GENIUS

We've mainly been talking about Joe's recordings here on Inchiban, but today what we have for you is the best video and audio evidence available for his legendary status as a live performer.  This video was recorded for a TV Special in Scandanavia in 1969, post Happy Soul, and it is 20 minutes of excellence. Great picture and sound quality, with spectacular dancing, singing, and an incredibly cooking band. Even the camera work is passable. Seriously - there are not many better live videos on YouTube than this. 


Almost everything that makes JT my favorite soul guy is right here - the only thing missing is a slow "Hold What You've Got" style sermon. Check out that 1000 mph version of "Show Me"! And do not miss the workout on "Papa Was Too", where Joe defies gravity with the microphone stand. 


"Man That's Your Baby", an extremely funny satire about delinquent baby daddies, is from Happy Soul.  A whopping three songs from Country Soul (tune in tomorrow!) make up the bulk of the set, including the classic original, "I'll Never Do You Wrong".  I love the sweat glistening on his forehead while he earnestly deadpans "I hope a sore come on my elbow/I hope a rock fall on my big toe./I love my toe/and my elbow/so you know I'll never do you wrong." Unassailable logic, that.


It all caps with a jive talkin' "Skinny Legs and All". Stick around past the credits for the best mic trick yet.


Unfortunately, the only "live" recording of Tex that's been officially released, Live and Lively, is a studio + overdub job. It's not a bad record, parts of it are, in fact, great - but it certainly isn't close to that video footage above. I can't help but think a real live album would put JT's rep up there in the highest tier, like he deserves.  But, oh well.  That's Life!

And what the heck - here's a crummy rip I made a couple of years ago, for my own devices, of that version of "Show Me" that leads the Joe Tex Show. Use it for your own devices.


Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Tassel Twirler Tuesday!

Po-Ter-Zee-Bee!

Joe Tex month day 14: The Original Tex-Ter

YCSTAOT
(you can spin this any old time)

We all know that Joe Tex was rapping before anyone called it rapping, but that's not the only "modern innovation" that JT foresaw and performed with both style and wit above and beyond the level it's normally practiced today.

I'm talking about Tex-ting.

Sure, we all occasionally, perhaps to our embarassment, LOL or TTYL in our random wordphone/ chatpane conversations. And if you don't, IMHO you've had to make the conscious decision to hate on the practice, probably for sound or perhaps just reactionary reasons.

But in "The Letter Song", Joe took the art of the abbreviation/acronym to such a high level that I propose we adopt some of them for Joe Tex month.

Particularly on today, Valentine's Day, how much better would it be to send one of Joe's messages to your sweetheart, rather than a silly less than sign with a three stuck on the end of it?

Check out Joe's personal Texicon:

YCCMAOT = You can call me any old time.
SYSLJFM = Save your sweet love just for me.
DKWIMTM = Don't know what it means to me.
DETYSLA = Don't ever take your sweet love away.
ICLMLTW = I can't live my life that way.
TCAHYTU = To come and help you to unwind.

So on Valentine's Day - don't just send your loved one a text. Send 'em a Joe Text.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Joe Tex Month, Day 13: I've Got to Do a Little Bit Better

It's a hit!

Joe's fourth Atlantic/Dial LP is, for me, his best - and one of the best soul LPs I've heard, period. Joe's performances are infectiously joyous, the arrangements on the tunes are exciting (and loaded with guitar!) and it's his best collection of original material ever. The two covers only add to the good natured, hilarious vibe of the entire record.

 It starts with one of Joe's patented responses to a current hit, this time the "Tramp" rewrite "Papa Was, Too" (more on this one on Wednesday) and never lets up. "Watch the One (That Brings the Bad News)" is a great blues vamp about shoe shops, eating chicken, and rattling bags. "Lying's Just a Habit John" is a funny and instructional riff on the "Twistin' the Night Away" melody - it seems there are good lies and bad ones and John's are no good.

And the three that start side two are total jaw droppers. The countryish bowed bass fiddle hook that breaks up the title track is Buddy Killen arranging at its best. "The Truest Woman in the World" is one of JT's greatest sermons ("98% of us are jealous and suspicious and the other 2% are sneaking around!").  And what can be said about the soldier so in love with his girlfriend that he uses her letters to inspire him to get him some more enemies in "I Believe I'm Going to Make It" except maybe . . . "Batman and Robin!"

And then there's "S.Y.S.L.J.F.M" a song so good it gets its own post tomorrow.

Tip top! Get it at the record shop.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Joe Tex and Arthur Alexander - the sequel: I'm Not Going to Work Today

Obviously I'm not one to belabor a point, but here's a second connection between Mr. Ichibans of December and February. This time it comes courtesy of Clyde McPhatter.


On a 1966 Amy/Stateside 45 (seen here in its non-styrene UK pressing) Clyde covered the early Arthur Alexander hit, "Shot of Rhythm and Blues".


And on the flip he drops his version of "I'm Not Going to Work Today", Joe's calypso-fied ode to parental exhaustion.  The song's from Hold What You've Got but must have been around for a while - Boot Hog Pefferly and the Loafers released it on Sound Stage 7 in 1963, and Hold What You've Got didn't come out 'til 65.

Me neither, Boot.

Mad Dog Coll

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Doin' The Bump With Joe Tex


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.

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. 



DETROIT TEX


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

Slim Gaillard, 1954


From the Jet archives.

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

Tassel Twirler Tuesday!







Dead_End_Part_One!

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!

Joe Tex - "Skinny Legs And All" on Upbeat! (Live!)

Monday, February 6, 2012

Joe Tex - I'm A Man

Baby, Be Good


Here's one of my favorites from Joe. Sounds good LOUD!
Joe Tex - Baby Be Good

JOE TEX month Day 6: The Anna/Chess singles: 1960-1963

It's a hit!

The turn of the decade saw Joe land on yet another roster, this time the proto-Motown label Anna.

The thought of Joe Tex on the label that eventually turns into Motown leads to all kinds of speculation of what Joe would have sounded like if he stayed in Detroit. Considering both Joe and Motown's fondness for two part titles, the parenthetical possibilities are endless.

"If Sugar Pie Honey Bunch (Was As Sweet As You)" . . .

"You've Really Got a Hold On (To What You've Got)" . . .

"Mickey's Monkey (Don't Stop No Show)!"

For Anna (and Chess, who licensed the early Anna material) Tex delivered his best series of singles yet. His songwriting was growing by leaps and bounds and his performances exude the miles of confidence, charm and shamelessness that makes his work for Dial so unique and special.

Eventually all of these wound up on the post-"Hold on the What You've Got" compilation album at the top of this post, which is to my ears the first must-own Joe Tex LP (unless you've got 'em all on 45 that is!)


The biggest innovation in his performance style are the raps. Both "I Will Never Break Your Heart" and the eventual Etta James hit "All I Could Do Was Cry" stretch out over both sides of the 45, and the second part is all storytelling. While they're not quite the full-on knowledge drops that he gets into in a few years, it's still the first appearance of the style that set him apart from all other soul singers.

"I'll Never Break Your Heart" is an uptempo answer record to the Impressions' classic "He Will Break Your Heart". It cooks delightfully for the first half, with the Texcitement building every minute, but it really takes off on the flip, where Joe preaches himself into a frenzy. He's so worked up at the end that he hollers "It's a hit!" Sadly, it wasn't. Joe still had four frustrating years to go.


His other singles for Anna are more straight ahead, but they still are a breed apart from typical R&B. Check out the hilarious "Don't Play" down at the first post of Joe Tex month, and dig "Ain't I a Mess", an autobiographical tale of destiny that includes his Grandma, a travelogue of soul-circuit theaters and that fantastic laugh.

Tune in tomorrow for the incredible story of the Joe Tex/James Brown war.

THE APOLLOS BROUGHT TO YOU BY PHYLLIS DILLER!



HERE'S A LINK AS THE EMBEDDING CODE HAS BEEN DISABLED...WORTH IT!!!


Sunday, February 5, 2012

When Ichiban Months Collide: Arthur Alexander covers Joe Tex!


Take it easy - you haven't been suddenly transported back to 2011. We'll get back to the Tex-in' tomorrow, but for today I couldn't resist posting this unreleased-until-the-90s 1968 cover of "Taking Care of a Woman (Is a Full Time Job)" by Ichiban's Mr. December, Arthur Alexander. Arthur was one of the few soul artists of the 60s who displayed his country influence as much as Joe. The OG is on the I've Got to Do a Little Bit Better LP, which, believe me, we will get to in good time.

I'm too hung over from DJ'ing last night to do anything better.

R.I.P. LUX INTERIOR...3 YEARS...

MY LUX TRIBUTE SHOW FROM 3 YEARS AGO...ENJOY.

PART 1


PART 2

If Sugar Was As Sweet As You - Joe Tex


add