Revolution on a Stick Welcome Guest | Login or Register

It’s back. I won’t know until I hit “Play” whether it’s better than ever. But it’s back.

1. Dinah Washington, “No Voot, No Bout.” Innuendo-laden jazz, rather than blues or r&b — though Dinah did plenty of those in her day as well. And did them damned well.
2. Wynonie Harris, “Lovin’ Machine.” Hmm. Looks like it’s going to be one of those MMMs. Harris made a good-sized career of saucy jump blues tunes like this one. “You put a quarter in the slot, things light up, out comes your lovin’ in a Dixie cup.”
3. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, “I Want Your Body.” Today’s randomness is definitely all hot and bothered . . . and growing more so by the minute.
4. Joe Tex, “I Want to Do Everything for You.” One of the more underrated figures of ’60s/’70s soul.
5. Fats Witherspoon, “Hook Line and Sinker.” I’ll be honest. I know next to nothing about this track. I think I found it on a compilation of old r&b sides, and it somehow found its way from there onto the iPod. A yeoman-like effort. It won’t make anyone forget Louis Jordan or Fats Domino . . . but it’s also nothing I’d turn away from if it came up on the radio.
6. Al Green, “Let’s Stay Together,” Is there a sweeter voice in ’70s soul than Al Green’s? I know there are many who can compete, of course. And a few who are undoubtedly his equal. But anyone who can put him to shame? I don’t think so.
7. Drifters, “Try Try Baby.” I’m pretty sure this would be the early Clyde McPhatter version of the Drifters. Not one of their bigger hits, but some vintage early ’50s doo-wop all the same.
8. Tom Waits, “Puttin’ on the Dog.” One of the “Brawlers” from Waits’ Orphans three-disc set. Play an old Howlin’ Wolf record at half-speed, lay a whiskey-soaked mashup of lyrics from various Rufus Thomas and Big Joe Turner tunes on top, and you’ve got this track.
9. Four Tops, “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got).” Some classic early ’70s Motown — and the last Top Ten hit for the Tops. The little “Shaft”-like bursts of guitar scattered intermittently in the background always make me smile.
10. Adverts, “One Chord Wonders.” And now for something completely different. Nine straight tracks that all live somewhere in (or at least near) the blues/r&b/soul . . . and then straight into ’70s punk DIY nihilism. I think if you listen close enough to the last thirty seconds, you might actually be able to hear Kurt Cobain being born in the midst of the multiple repetitions of “We don’t give a damn.” No, really, you can. Honest.

Better than ever? Maybe not. But at least one friend told me that MMM has become the highlight of her week, and that she’d missed it during its hiatus. That can’t possibly be true, of course. I’m sure MMM is merely the third or fourth best part of anyone’s week — at best — but, wherever it ranks in your personal pantheon, I’ll try not to take it away again anytime soon.

Trackback this Post | Feed on comments to this Post