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I downloaded this collection for $8.99. It was worth the nine bucks to aurally experience the various interpretations Charles Hardin Holley, but I find myself coming back for repeated listenings to only five songs, Smith’s “Words of Love,” The Black Keys’ “Dearest,”, My Morning Jackets’ “True Love Ways”, Lou Reed’s “Peggy Sue” and Jenny O’s “I’m Gonna Love You Too.” I like the Cobra’s cut as well as Cee-Lo’s and Florence & The Machines’ version of “Not Fade Away” is worth a listen too.
…these songs respect the traditions of their respective genres, listening to Long Time Thing is like opening up a time capsule and hearing songs that were tucked away for the last 40 to 50 years.
The emergences of Phillipe “Soul” Wynne, sharing lead vocal duties with tenor Bobby Smith was the final ingredient in the recipe of fame and success. Listen to “Could It Be I’m Falling In Love,” with Thom Bells’s keys underpinned by Larry Washington’s congas, the strings, the girls and finally, Wynne ad-libbing over the coda. The Spinners had arrived!
The Road From Memphis works better than Booker’s previous LP, Potato Hole for a couple of reasons. The the originals are much better songs and his collaborators are more sympathetic to his ideas. It sounds like Booker’s vision of a new LP was realized more than somebody else’s vision for a new Booker T. Jones album.
“Black Snake” is reminiscent of “Resurrection Shuffle” by Ashton, Gardner & Dyke, but it would be a disservice to the Joe & the band to compare them to those brass rockers of the early 70s – like Chase or early Chicago – because the Honeybears can swing.
Again the band displays their love for the game with pop hooks and history lessons. It’s like the Schoolhouse Rock of Baseball.
To fully appreciate this song, don’t listen to it on a compressed mp3 file. Find a remastered CD or an old piece of vinyl and listen to it on a nice stereo system. You will be amazed.
“And baby it was all right,
And it was all right,
Hey it was all right,
It was all right.”
Devotees of soul jazz records made by the great B-3 players like “Groove” Holmes, Jimmy Smith, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Brother Jack McDuff, run out to your local record dealer and immediately grab this new disc by ‘Papa John’ DeFrancesco. It’s like steppin’ back to 1972.
The opening track, “Run Me Over” sounds like something Nancy and Lee would do if they were 23 years old and recording in the new millennium.