There's a long bio of Richie Knight and the Mid-Knights on Garage Hangover, and I'm not sure I want to read it. Not because I'm not interested, I'd just like to believe that they were, deep down, as creepy as their cover of Otis Rush's "Homework" sounds. I mean, look at them; they've got a Twin Peaks-creepy thing going on. Maybe it's just because it's a typical early 60's band of faceless white guys. I don't know. But their reworking of "Homework" does nothing to dispel that feeling.
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It's a great song, "Homework," one that seems hard to screw up. Probably the best known version was on the third J. Geils album, "Full House," a live set that had the band at their sweaty, greasy peak. It, like the rest of the album, was just straight ahead rockin' blues, but the pace and spontaneity captured on that album make it hard to ignore. (Really, don't dismiss the entire J. Geils Band output because of "Centerfold." It's like the Faces compared to later Rod Stewart: a whole different band.)
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Knight & the Mid-Knight's version, done roughly ten years earlier (and just a couple years after Rush's original), is a whole different interpretation. The creep-o-vibe is a probably a sum greater than it's parts, namely the Munsters-like tempo of the organ, the extreme echo on the vocals, the weakest space filler whines ever (listen to the "awoow-ow" at :51 seconds in) and the unusual instrumentation and overall mix. It sounds like Knight must have just got a new Wurlitzer with a few more buttons, because there's several different organ sounds buried in it, ranging from aforementioned Munsters, to roller rink to Jimmy Smith. It could be just me, but the vibe is unsettling enough that I can't get enough of it. Sadly, none of their other stuff posted on Garage Hangover sounds quite the same, so historians will probably end up theorizing that recreational drug use led to this departure from their frat party sound.
Otis Rush's original, from 1962, is of course the template. It too has a pedestrian tempo and organ rather prominent in the mix, and Rush's guitar work is perfectly understated; but it's the horns that dominate. The horn arrangement, with it's intro, pulsing rhythm and it's filthy bump-n-grind burlesque sax fills, is the stuff of Daptone drool. Makes me wish I'd done my due diligence thirty years ago.
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4 comments:
Really good and creepy. I want to hear more!
As a member of the band all I can say to the website creator is that we were very successful made a lot of money and have had great lives. My comment to the site is "FUCK OFF "
Back at you buddy. I was actually complimenting your combo, but I guess if praise isn't full-on it's considered as criticism. Regardless, you'd do good to lose that attitude. You can at least comfort yourself in the fact that Kiss was also very successful and, presumably, also had great lives, but their band sucks. Yours did not.
Wow ...you think you were complimentary??? By the way I ended up in the record business as president of several companies...lose the attitude, doubt it not suffering a-holes now that I am 77...don't need to and won't do it.
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