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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