PUN FREE TITLE.

I had "Whole Lotta Love" on the brain from the other night. Having posted a King Curtis song on the last post, it was his version that I'd been thinking about. I meant to revisit it. Then today I ran into a version of Tina Turner doing it. It's actually pretty good. I gotta say though, I did fast forward throughout her version the first time I listened to it just to hear if it kicked in, like the Ike and Tina version of "Proud Mary". Never happened though. Her version of "Whole Lotta Love" is five and a half minutes long and sounds like a version a very stoned person would enjoy. Very Isaac Hayes sexy slow funk. I, not being stoned, noticed that it had a reggae vibe to it, what with the empty space. That's why I like it. That and her singing. Her vocals do strange things to me on this one.

I kind of poked around looking for a reggae version and ran into one by Alpha Blondy. A little too show biz for me. I probably should have listened first before watching the video, which really is the show bizzy part of it. Onto another reggae version, one by an outfit called the Dynamics. Theirs, turns out, wasn't all that bad. I checked further and it's from an album of theirs that's all reggae covers. After a pause to roll my eyes, I saw that they also covered Herbie Hancock's "Rockit". My first thought was, "Man, this has gotta suck." It did not. It almost sounded like something Jerry Dammers and and his Spatial whatever would do.

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Listen:
King Curtis and the Kingpins - Whole Lotta Love (streaming) at YouTube
Tina Turner - Whole Lotta Love mp3 at Sunrise
The Dynamics - Whole Lotta Love (streaming) at YouTube
The Dynamics - Rockit (streaming) at YouTube
Video:
Alpha Blondy - Whole Lotta Love at YouTube
Herbie Hancock - Rockit at YouTube

THIS ONE'S FOR YOU SNAIL

Sometimes it just depends on how you hear a song. What some see as a schlocky cover (and might not even make it through the first listening), others might see as an whacked-out extension of one of the simplest rock riffs of all time. And more than likely anybody who makes it past the thought of a sax player covering Led Zeppelin is listening out of curiosity or knows the name King Curtis. In either case, his reworking of "Whole Lotta Love" is one that begs for repeated "what's going on here?" type listenings.

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I could have easily been in the schlock-seeing category of listeners had not been for my younger brother Ted, AKA Snail (a nickname with absolutely no relevance to anything, other than being spouted out once by one of my high school friends. In fact, though I address him as Snail only in affection, I've no idea whether he hates it or not). So far on this blog, I've resisted bringing up the profound experience of growing up with my brothers, two absolute rock n' roll hearts, in the same bedroom. It's a subject that goes so deep that, once tapped, would probably read like a biography. Suffice it to say that it not only shaped my taste in music, it shaped my life; and that's not an understatement. Everything musical moment in my life has stemmed from the stereo wars and record collecting of our teens. I bring this up now only because it was a King Curtis tape from Ted that first made me think of Curtis as something other than a hired gun. I was cognizant of his work, but owned none of his solo work.

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As it is Father's Day, and Ted's birthday was earlier in the week, I will allow myself a slight digression, if only to publicly recognize the influence of both of my brothers, and my unwavering awe at Ted's skills as a Dad. Without an ounce of corn, I gotta say, I love you bro.

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About the song, though it starts out as a relatively faithful cover, with Curtis's sax replacing the vocals, at 1:15 it turns into a fuzzed out, horn-heavy, 70's movie chase scene freak-out, replete with a Latin tinged rhythm section. You are definitely rewarded for listening to the whole song and, by the time it ends, disappointed the overload doesn't last longer.

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King Curts - Whole Lotta Love mp3 at AM, Then FM

More on King Curts' Whole Lotta Love at Funky 16 Corners