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“Got to scrape the shine right off your shoes,” sings Jerry Lee, backed by Keith Richards from the Stones number, “Sweet Virginia.” Jerry Lee, you might as well say “shit,” like it was done in the original version. You ain’t fooling me. You may be too late for the redemption bandwagon.
“Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” came off his Capitol debut of the same name, an album I do not own but will purchase someday at a garage sale for twenty-five cents
The back cover of this album promises a record that is “sending the blues & other like-minded music through other-worldly filters…resulting in something reverently irreverent, respectfully reckless, ruthlessly relentless, heretofore unencountered & stranger than fiction…”
My fear for this release was two-fold; first I thought it might never happen, thinking the band broke up. Second, I was afraid the reunion would not be fruitful, and just a walk-through of their past formulas.
I like a few of the songs, but this style of music really is not my bag. So my final grade on this may seem a little harsh. The band sounds like they know their way around the studio except when it comes to mixing in the vocals
It takes until Track No. 7 rolls around on Budos Band III for a tune entitled “Budos
Dirge” to make its appearance. Frankly, this track should have been the title cut.
“What we do / Is what we do / It’s all the same / There’s nothing new.” Those are some of the lyrics from the track, “What We Do.” There is some truth to those lyrics and it is also an understatement.
I first rented the VHS of In The Heat Of The Night in the early 80s. Being a Ray Charles fan, I immediately searched my 30 or so Ray Charles records looking for the title track on some compilation or late 60’s ABC-Tangerine release. But I found nothing.
Apparently the Godfather of Soul fell in love with these guys after hearing them in Cleveland, and produced the album for them. Apparently they have some session credit on a few other James Brown cuts from this time period too.
Our little bird, Inara George, told me that she and her musical partner Greg Kurstin believe that Hall & Oates are masters of their art. I first took it as a rather tongue in cheek statement in regard to other musical masters like Bacharach & David or Goffin & King.