I DO THE LOOP EVERY FRIDAY

There used to be a practice in my neck of the woods, a tour of sorts, referred to as "the loop," in which a group of people would hit every bar within a few mile radius on foot, starting at one end of the loop, and ending a few hours later at the last bar. Back then there were about a dozen bars or so. Needless to say, you'd be pretty pickled by the end. (I doubt if the loop is still a Friday night activity because there's probably about twenty bars on the route today.) I bring that up, because that's what it's like sometimes when I land on a post and start looking around for more related stuff.

Here is the play-by-play of todays fuck around, because it centers around the Gentrys, a band that isn't nearly as interesting as the blogs that host their music. It began with a chance encounter with the Avantis' original version of "Keep On Dancing," a 1966 hit for the Gentrys, that was posted on Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban. (Note to Ichibaners: I know I've been leaning on your stuff a lot lately. Let me know if you want me to scale it back. No backtalk, I swear.) The Gentry's version is somewhat notable for actually being the same song twice, with a drum fill in between. That's about as wild as studio editing got back then. I'll take the Avantis' version. The song was posted there by Jukebox Mafia, who has a blog of their own, another regular destination I so dig. In the comments part of the post, someone mentioned the Gentrys' version of "Cinnamon Girl," which was a minor hit before Neil Young's version, and I remembered being impressed with it (from an old budget priced Sun comp). Released on a post-Sam Phillips Sun Records in 1970, it was one of the last dying gasps of a hit for the then Shelby Singleton owned label. So I went digging, and I run into stuff at The Devil's Music, Probe is Turning-On the People, and Beware of the Blog, three other habitual haunts. I've mentioned all of these guys before, they're all top notch, and they're all part of my loop. There's several others, but I believe I've reached my quota of blathering for the night.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Avantis - Keep On Dancing mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
The Gentrys - Keep On Dancing mp3 at 4Shared
The Gentrys - Cinnamon Girl (via DivShare) at The Devil's Music (Nice, loud rip. Worth the pop-up annoyance.)
The Gentrys - Cinnamon Girl mp3 at Probe is Turning-On the People
The Gentrys - Brown Paper Sack mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Video:
The Gentrys - Keep On Dancing at YouTube
Visit:
The Gentrys at Wikipedia