YOU GONNA EAT ALL THAT?

You know the band. You know the song. But you don't know this version. I'll leave at that, lest I reignite the grilled cheese sandwich incident. Find the mysto-song at the link below.

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Listen:
Early alternate version of 1968 song at For the Sake of the Song

A SIDE, FIRST 45

I hope you read this before you start clicking. Because if you don't know this band, you ought to experience this song with an empty head. It's one of those songs that, by the end of it, nothing about them matters. Not what they look like, not their age, how derivative they are, what their other music sounds like, or how long the band will even exist. It's just a damn fine song. Take everything out of it but the recorded song itself, it boils down to a well constructed, well produced and well executed song. It's unfortunate how rare that is these days. Said the old fuck.

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Listen:
Temples - Shelter Song at the Slow Drag Go there to get it
Temples - Prisms (streaming) at YouTube
Temples - The Golden Throne (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
Temples at Facebook

WHO'S THAT OTHER GUY?

Holy shit. All it took was seeing a random post about Edgar Winter and I lost an hour or so of my day lapping up stuff from his White Trash period. Edgar Winter's White Trash was the band he had before the Edgar Winter Group ("Frankenstein"). For my money, the stuff he did with White Trash was better than anything he's done before or since, and not entirely because of him, but I'll get to that. The first White Trash LP was his second album, released after a comparatively staid solo album. It was if his label nudged him, telling him he'd better pick it up a notch or risk getting dropped. The album was produced by Rick Derringer, had Johnny Winter and Ray Barretto (!) guesting, and liner notes in the form of a poem about him by a struggling writer named Patti Smith (she was also writing pieces for Creem magazinr at the time). 

It's crazy though. The best thing about the two best Edgar Winter LPs (both of them White Trash albums) is the singer sharing lead vocals with him, Jerry "Count Jackson" LaCroix. The guy had an awesome voice, all throat, all gravelly soul (not unlike Otis Redding), but he never really became a household name. It might have been the weird trajectories that his career took. He first recorded with the Boogie Kings, a late sixties mostly covers outfit, before hooking up with Winter in 1970, or thereabouts.  He left White Trash after a couple years, recorded two solo albums and then joined Blood, Sweat and Tears. A year later he was with Rare Earth. And in both of the latter, he was not the original lead singer. He was a fill in. (His first appearance with Rare Earth was singing "Get Ready" on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, without having ever rehearsed the song, or any other, with his new band.)

LaCroix with Blood, Sweat and Tears

Here's some from White Trash, the first and last feature LaCroix on lead vocals. "I've Got News For You" is a Ray Charles cover, and "I Can't Turn You Loose" is an Otis Redding cover. Note: A couple of these are slow downloads, but all are worth hearing.

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Listen:
Edgar Winter's White Trash - I've Got News For You mp3 at Horn Dogs LaCroix on lead vocal
Edgar Winter's White Trash - Give It Everything You Got mp3 at Giant Panther
Edgar Winter's White Trash - Cool Fool mp3 (via DivShare) at Your Sister's Record Rack (long intro, song starts at 1:07)
Edgar Winter's White Trash - I Can't Turn You Loose mp3 (via DivShare) at Your Sister's Record Rack LaCroix on lead vocal
Visit:
Jerry LaCroix's official site
Interview at Swampland Really good, about how he ended up in all those bands.
Jerry LaCroix solo LP's available here (with song snippets) They're hard to find elsewhere.

STUFF YOUR CYNICISM

Cleotha Staples passed away yesterday. You know her, she was in the Staple Singers. Though she didn't sing lead, it was the Staple Singers, as in plural. Backing vocals were a big part of their gospel influenced sound. Regardless of how big or small her role was, you really have to take the Staple Singers as a whole, because that's how they presented themselves. They always seemed like the family down the street that takes in the strays. When all hell is breaking loose at home, and everybody's fighting and bickering, you know what you did. You headed to a chill house where everybody hung out peacefully, thinking good old fashioned positive empowering thoughts, without sweating the small stuff. With the Staples, it was as if they where trying to take everybody in.

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Listen:
The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself mp3 at Inventati
The Staple Singers - I'll Take You There mp3 at Pro Creations Salon
The Staple Singers - Samson & Delilah mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Staple Singers - Wade In the Water (streaming) at YouTube
Video:
The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself (Wattstax) at Daily Motion
The Staple Singers - I'll Take You There (Soul Train, 1972) at YouTube
A Short History of the Staple Singers at YouTube Short, but with some geood early footage
Visit:
The Staple Singers at Wikipedia 

PLASTIC SOUL ROCK 'N' ROLL

Rare is the band that seems to coalesce around a who gives a shit? attitude so much that it makes the whole band/audience dynamic irrelevant. In that way, Beehive and the Barracudas pretty much rule. They have an air of audience as band, straddling the line between fuck it all side band and raw rock 'n' roll genius. These are the guys who were fucking around in the garage while the hipsters were out shopping. I love how they're recorded. Enough is enough, song done, on to the next one. Nothing's overdone, nothing's pandering, just some cardboard sounding drums, weird riffs, and lyrics that let you discern what the hell they're getting at. The first one below the video is a Gun Club cover. I like it much. 

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Listen:
Beehive and the Barracudas - Sex Beat mp3 at Dollar Record
Beehive and the Barracudas - Erotic Games mp3 at Swami Records
Beehive and the Barracudas - Fuck It Out mp3 at Dollar Record

TOKEN WTF CLIP

Okay, here's an oddball. Carl Perkins versus David Bowie in a knife fight. It's a short scene from an mid-eighties movie called Into The Night. What it lacks in length, quality and overall pizzazz, it makes up for as a bizarre curiosity. Teaser: Perkins pulls a knife out of his chest to go after Bowie. All I'm sayin'.

CAN'T TOUCH THIS

A friend recently shared a link on Facebook, about some new "country music" hot shot shooting his mouth off about the old Country and Western artists, and those who still listen to older country music, referring to them as "old farts" and "jackasses".  Yeah. It is fucking on. Or so you might wish. This shit has been hovering around for a long time. We've been due a Battle Royale between the traditionalists and what's being called country these days. It's like calling Blondie punk rock. Worse. Yet, this little episode will probably be forgotten. That's too bad, because for as long as this old country vs new country dynamic has existed, there has never been a better time for the shit to hit the fan. With all the social media and viral this and that, it's high time for this debate to get legs outside of hardcore country crowd. There's a link to the article below. For now, one Hank, and a reminder about Rocky-52. I'm not through with this.

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Listen: 
Hank Williams - Long Gone Lonesome Blues mp3 at Kick Kick Snare 
Country and western smorgasbord:
Rocky-52 - Huge resource of country music with rockabilly and other roots type music. Click on names with the speaker icons for music. 
Share this link: 
Ray Price Attacks Blake Shelton for Comments About Classic Country Fans at Taste of Country

IT'S THEM AGAIN

Yep. More Velvet Underground related shake. These come courtesy of Probe Is Turning-On the People. It's an interesting mix of covers and oddballs from right around the time of that first LP, most from 1967.  The first song is a cover of "There She Goes Again" by Banana, a band of American GIs, recorded while they were in Vietnam (get this, they were in a jungle, powered by a generator). Then, (you know he had to make an appearance) Bowie with an unreleased version of "I'm Waiting For The Man". Apparently Bowie had a pre-release test pressing of the first VU LP. This is early Bowie, circa '67. For my money, the best thing included is a cover of "Run, Run, Run" by a Dutch group, the Riats, supposedly the first VU cover released on vinyl, again, in '67. It's a neat organ driven version, pretty different fromm the original. Then the Riats tackle "Sunday Morning", on the flip. That's followed by the Yardbirds' cover of "I'm Waiting For The Man" was posted here a few weeks ago. The rest of the songs aren't covers, just vaguely related. The first of those is Bowie with the Riot Squad doing a song called "Little Toy Soldier", which just mentions the Velvets, then two other bands that may or may not have copped the Velvet Ungderground name intentially. One is Velvet Undergound Ltd, from that hub of decadence, Enid, Oklahoma, and then another band called Velvet Underground from Austrailia.

If you happen on this post a few weeks after it was posted, a tip about how to navigate the Probe page is in order. His posts are done in "sessions". This set is from Session 419, so, if it doesn't appear at the top of the page linked, just poke around. The sessions are in reverse chronological order. While your digging around, check out his other posts. The Probe's taste runs the gamut, and the stuff he posts is, more often than not, stuff you won't run across elsewhere.

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Listen: 
Velvet Underground Covers and What Not at Probe Is Turning-On the People Ten mp3s in a zip
Posted before: 
Velvet Underground - Guess I'm Falling In Love (Instrumental) mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu Essential.
Pre-Velvets Reed and Cale:
The Primitives - Do the Ostrich mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Primitives - Sneaky Pete mp3 at Beware of the Blog 
Full length set:
Velvet Underground - Live at the Boston Tea Party at Aquarium Drunkard Twelve song set. 
More Velvets:
All previous Velvet Underground posts with a lot of links that are still live

KNOW THIS GUY

I'm not even going to mess around. Go to Soul Sides now, and feast your ears on Johnny Pate's "Constant Wind". You will want it. When it gets toasty out again, you'll want it. When you've come home a little sunburned after a day outdoors. After you've cleaned yourself up a bit, you'll light the coals, play this bad boy and relax. That's what you'll do. You better. That's what this song was made for. Listen to the whole thing, and don't mistake it for some sort of Les Baxter or Martin Denny type thing. This sucker picks up steam.

The others down there jam considerably harder. The last two are from the soundtrack of Shaft In Africa. An abundance of wah-wah, as you'd expect.

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Listen:
Johnny Pate - Constant Wind mp3 at Soul Sides Go there to get it
Johnny Pate - You're Starting Too Fast mp3 at Grim Wolf
Johnny Pate - You Can't Even Walk In the Park mp3 at Facile la Musique 
Johnny Pate - Shaft In Africa mp3 at All Up In Your Ear Hole 
Visit: 
Johnny Pate at Wikipedia

DALE WRAY SPECTOR WILSON

You've got to hand it to Dave Edmunds. He always knew when to lay back on the guitar and concentrate on the song, something not all that common for a picker of his caliber. I don't listen to his stuff all that much, but there are quite a few things sprinkled about his forty some odd year career that merit keeper status, and more often than not it's not because of his guitar playing. That said, guitar playing is how he gained entry into me and my brothers rock 'n' roll space. Back in his Love Sculpture days he did his share of showing off. Just listen to "Sabre Dance" down there. It's Dick Dale and Link Wray rolled into one hopped up frenzy. It's no wonder why we lapped it up.

The song that actually got me going tonight was his Phil Spector meets Beach Boys cover of the Chordettes' "Born to Be With You", which illustrates my original point. No guitar flash, just a fuck load of castanets and smooth vocals. This shit is lush.

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Listen:
Love Sculpture - Sabre Dance mp3 at Freeky Music (?)
Dave Edmunds - Born to Be With You mp3 at Plain Or Pan
The Chordettes - Born to Be With You mp3 at Plain Or Pan
Dave Edmunds - I Hear You Knockin' mp3 at LZ Center

YEAH, UH HUH, SURE...

Nice photo up there, no?  The full size version is something to behold. It may be the best studio photo of Sonny Boy Williamson that exists and it can be found here in all it's high resolution glory.  That's the real reason for this post, the music's just a little padding.

Williamson was, of course, a great harp player, but he was an even better bullshitter, so much so that no one actually knows when he was born. When he went to Europe in the sixties, towards the end of his career, he found appreciative new fans and wide acclaim courtesy of the British blues craze. Alas, his bullshitting was so known by then that when he returned many of his peers didn't believe that he went anywhere near Europe.

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Listen:
Sonny Boy Williamson - Eyesight to the Blind mp3 at Willy's New Joint
Sonny Boy Williamson - Dissatisfied mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Sonny Boy WillIamson - Don't Start Me Talkin' mp3 at Madison Amps (?)
Token oddball cover:
Bob Dylan - Don't Start Me Talkin' (live) mp3 at Nu Rave Brain Wave
Visit: 
Sonny Boy Willamson at Wikipedia
Full size Sonny Boy - high resolution version of the photo above here

THE EPITOME

Oh yeah, baby. Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban is rolling at their normal speed again, after a slight storm induced slow down a couple months ago. This month is Champion Jack Dupree month over there, and if you've followed their monthly featured artists things, you know that there's a bunch of music and factoids to get you caught up on artists you may not be familiar with. Champion Jack Dupree? For a month? This is a good one. You have some digging to do.

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Listen:
Champion Jack Dupree - Shake Baby Shake mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban Brownie McGhee on guitar 
Champion Jack Dupree - Drunk Again mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Visit:  
Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban Much, much more Dupree
Champion Jack Dupree at Wikipedia 

I DON'T CARE...COPPER

I don't know if you were around yesterday, but that first Mickey and Sylvia song, "No Good Lover", is worth mentioning again. I'm not sure if I should be ashamed, but fuck it, let the record show that, before last night, I'd never heard the song. The worst I could be called is an idiot, and if that's the worst, bring it on. I don't care what my level of geekness is, or is lacking, that was one hot ass song.  So it's down there again, along with a couple others from a page buried on what appears to be a Cramps fan site. The page has sixteen songs, all early sinister rockers. Link Wray..., check.

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Listen: 
Mickey and Sylvia - No Good Lover mp3 at RocknDog  
Ronnie Tate and the Blisters - Wicked mp3 at RockinDog 
Dick Penner - Cindy Lou mp3 at RocknDog
Hoodlum Hoodoo - 16 songs, all raw, at RocknDog NOTE: Click on the song titles on the juke box.

HOW VERY COOL

Man, I forgot how much I liked "Love Is Strange", It's really, really smooth. It doesn't have to shout a thing. A good solid oldie. I didn't need much more than that tonight, but then I ran into "No Good Lover". Holy hell. It's one of those "Aaargh!! Turn it up!" type songs. It just smokes, the guitar on it..., just listen to it. 

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 Listen: 
Mickey and Sylvia - No Good Lover mp3 at RocknDog
Mickey and Sylvia - Love Is Strange mp3 at De Discos y Monstous
Visit: 
Mickey and Sylvia at Wikipedia

MARDI GRAS MISH MASH

I was going to space all of these out for the next few days, but you know what? I'd probably flake. So here's the last Mardi Gras dump before Fat Tuesday.  The Mardis Gras relevance varies, but it's all good New Orleans stuff.  You can listen to these while you get it all out of your system. You only have a couple days left of going off, and then it's time to straighten up and fly right. Yeah, uh-huh, sure. One would hope is just another way of saying ain't gonna happen.

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 Listen: 
Sugarboy and the Cane Cutters - Jock-A-Mo mp3 at Home of the Groove
Al Tousan (Allen Toussaint) - Cow Cow Blues mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Eddie Bo - Check Mr. Popeye mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People
Professor Longhair - Tipitina mp3 (via Box.net) at Carnival Saloon
Huey "Piano" Smith - Don't You Know Yockomo mp3 at Diddy Wah 
Shirley and Lee - The Flirt mp3 at Diddy Wah
The Wild Magnolias - Handa Wanda mp3 at Vibrations Music
Jessie Hill - Ooh Poo Pah Doo, Pt 1 mp3 (via DivShare) at Junk Shop Juke Box
Jessie Hill - Ooh Poo Pah Doo, Pt 2 mp3 (via DivShare) at Junk Shop Juke Box
Huey "Piano" Smith - Don't You Just Know It mp3 at Dalston Oxfam Shop 
The Meters - Pass the Peas mp3 at Aerial Noise
Al Tousan (Allen Toussaint) - Moo Moo mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Benny Spellman - Fortune Teller mp3 at Dalston Oxfam Shop
Bobby Marchan - Get Down With It mp3 at Beware of the Blog 
Lee Dorsey - Yes We Can, Pt 1 mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Lee Dorsey - Yes We Can, Pt 2 mp3 at Videogotz  
Clifton Chenier - Zydeco Sont Pas Sale mp3 at Let's Polka
Snooks Eaglin and the Cane Cutters - You Call Everybody Sweetheart mp3 at Home of the Groove
Huey "Piano" Smith - Would You Believe It mp3 at Modern Kicks 
Jessie Hill - Oogsey Moo mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Jessie Hill - Whip It On Me mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Shirley and Lee - Feel So Good mp3 at Rocky 52 
Lee Dorsey - Holy Cow mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People
Al Tousan (Allen Toussaint) - Pelican Parade mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban  
Huey "Piano" Smith - Popeye mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the PeopleThe Cane Cutters - Night Rider mp3 at Home of the GroovE
Vintage ranting
Ernie-K Doe on WWOZ, New Orleans (1980s) mp3 at Beware of the Blog An hour and ten minutes of K Doe going off, DJing, ranting and actually playing some records.
Listen live:
WWOZ "Guardians of the Groove" streaming here
Visit:
WWOZ web site

WHAT THE HELL

Here's a trio of covers that hit the spot, though I gotta be honest. I don't think that the Velvet Underground, George Baker Selection, and Motorhead originals can really be improved on, but it is kind of cool hearing these in styles that differ quite a bit from the originals and aren't entirely hokey. Two are by Union Avenue, a Scottish band that seem to borrow a lot from Johnny Cash, and by that I mean it sounds as if it's entirely intentional. Not surprising considering that Union Ave is the street that Sam Phillips parked his ass on way back when. The other is by a bluegrass band, the Meat Purveyors, doing the Velvet's "What Goes On" as if looped on Red Bull and moonshine.

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 Listen:
Union Avenue - Ace of Spades mp3 at Cover Me
Motörhead - Ace of Spades mp3 at Shelter From the Norm 
Union Avenue - Little Green Bag mp3 at Cover Me  
George Baker Selection - Little Green Bag mp3 at The Adios Lounge 
Velvet Underground - What Goes On mp3 at Rock Town Hall
The Meat Purveyors - What Goes On mp3 at Cover Me 

SLACK NIGHT SPECIAL

Diddy Wah posted a couple Elmore James cuts. Seems like as good a reason as any to duck out early. Here's two more and a link to the definitive bio at The Hound Blog. Bone up hot shot.

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Listen:
Elmore James - Cry For Me Baby mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Elmore James - The Sky Is Crying mp3 at SupdudeSupguy
Elmore James - Stranger Blues mp3 at Diddy Wah Go there to get it.
Elmore James - Anna Lee mp3 at Diddy Wah Go there to get it.
Visit:
Elmore James bio at The Hound Blog

WHY THE SPECIES IS DYING

This is just a quick test. With just the image of the sleeve above, one fact, and one question, we can determine whether you are a record geek or not. Ready? Let's get started. The fact: It is the sleeve of a Latin record. The question: What is the single most intriguing part of that sleeve? Please put down your pencils. If you noticed that this Latin record is on Motown, and found that intriguing, congratulations. You are a record geek. Good luck. Not with anything in particular, just in general. You'll need it.

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Listen:
Riot - God Bless Cochita mp3 at De Discos y Monstruos

A little funkier:

Riot - Put Your Gun Down Brother (streaming) at YouTube

Riot - Just Beyond (streaming) at YouTube 

SWISS CREME

Goddamn, I love the Reverend Beat Man. The guy is a nut. I don't know what it is about him. Despite looks somewhere south of movie star, and a voice that makes Clarence Frogman Henry sound like Bobby Vinton, the man has some sort of self effacing cockiness that elevates his whole thing. He's an ex-wrestler, one man band solo act, a member of the Monsters, record label owner and DJ, and he should be a movie star. Check out the videos below. The first one is what prompted this post, an unlikely collaboration with the Round Table Knights, a couple of Swiss DJs. It's got some sort of David Lynch thing going on, just enough weirdness that it borders on Dada.

The Beat Man really shines in the Monsters' video below. This one definitely owes something to Quentin Tarantino or Russ Meyer. You'll see what I mean. What I found particularly interesting is that his acting is so good, it almost seems like he's not playing a role, that he really is just a horny old man (or "the pervert" as he is credited in the closing). Actually, that might be the key to the attraction here. His whole persona is like some character out of an oddball B-movie. Really, this guy needs to be on the big screen. If you check out other videos on YouTube (under his own name or the Monsters), you'll see what I mean. But he doesn't want any part of it. Though he did have a role in the feature length The Road to Nod, in the interview at the bottom of his bio page, he says that's it for the movies. (Read that interview and tell me he's not your kind of people. Again, it's at the bottom of his bio page). Regardless, just considering his music, the question remains, why isn't he huge?!? Oh yeah, looks somewhere south of movie star, and a voice that makes Clarence Frogman Henry sound like Bobby Vinton. I get it. Show biz pussies...

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Listen:
Reverend Beat Man - Come Back Lord mp3 at Go Retro
Reverend Beat Man - I Don't Care mp3 at Shut Up and Listen
Reverend Beat Man - Get On Your Knees mp3 at Voodoo Rhythm
The Monsters - I Want You mp3 at Voodoo Rhythm Records
The Monsters - I Wanna Do What I Wanna Do mp3 at Voodoo Rhythm Records
The Monsters -The Love I Never Had mp3 at Voodoo Rhythm
The Monsters - I'm a Record Junkie mp3 at Voodoo Rhythm
The Monsters - Go Away Fuck Yourself mp3 at Voodoo Rhythm
Round Table Knights with Reverend Beat Man - Cut to the Top mp3 at You Are Hear 
Visit:
Reverend Beat Man's bio at Voodoo Rhythm
Voodoo Rhythm Records

CUE BEAVIS

I'm still on that horns in reggae thing. So you're getting dragged into it. Again. Blame Tommy McCook. It was his song from yesterday that caused the relapse. McCook was a founding member of the Skatalites, director of the Supersonics for Duke Reid, with the Revolutionaries at Channel One, and in the Aggrovators. A session player on every reggae record released before 1972. Practically. Alright, not even close. But if you have any reggae, you have him, somewhere.

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Listen:

Tommy McCook & The Supersonics - Starry Night mp3 at Music ADD 

Tommy McCook -A Dancing Version mp3 at Reggae Top Site 

Honeyboy Martin and the Voices with Tommy McCook and the Supersonics - Dreader Than Dread mp3 at Dinosaur Gardens

Phyllis Dillon with Tommy McCook and the Supersonics - Perfidia mp3 at Dinosaur Gardens

Tommy McCook - Tenor On Call mp3 at J Bird

SLY AS SELECTOR

About two or three years ago, my niece and her husband went to Jamaica for a musician friend's wedding. Shortly after she got back, she asked me "Do you know who Robbie and Sly are?" After we determined that it was the Sly and Robbie she was talking about, she told me that she had met them at the wedding and that they were nice. She said that at some point in the reception, Sly had his eyes closed and was rocking back and forth. She asked if he was okay and he replied that he was just "feeling the music". 

That's what I was thinking when I listened to these in succession. These are from a recent list of Sly Dunbar's top five favorite records, recently posted at iCrates. What I found interesting was the contrast of the last two, both of which feature the Sly and Robbie rhythm section. They're separated by only a year, but it was right at that point that they were just starting to play on non-reggae sessions. I gotta say though, I'm not so sure I like how their style has evolved. But, jeez, did they play on a lot of good records. Their complete discography is something to see.

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From Sly Dunbar's Top Five Favorite Records:
Booker T and the MGs - Hip Hug Her mp3 at 8106
Sly and the Family Stone - Family Affair mp3 at Beppers
Tommy McCook - Freedom Sounds (streaming) at YouTube
Black Uhuru - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner mp3 at J'ai Des Amis Shlags 
Grace Jones - Private Lives mp3 at The Couch Sessions
Visit:
Sly Dunbar interviewed at iCrates Not really an interview, but a veery good profile distilled from an interview.
Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare at Wikipedia