SPANKY, JACKIE, ERMA AND LAVERN

Spanky Wilson can get pretty damn funky. That's was all I was thinking when I heard her song "You" at at Derek's Daily 45. I can, and did, dig it. That was the impetus for a quick search, that led to a dormant blog with lots of good music, The Ear Hole (do some digging). They had a couple good covers. One of Wilson doing "Sunshine of Your Love, the other a duet of "Light My Fire" by Erma Franklin and Jackie Wilson. Of course, no mention of Jackie "Lonely Teardrops" Wilson can be made without a reposting of his pottymouth gold favorite, "Better Think Twice (Version X)", a duet with the equally free speaking LaVern Baker. That one never gets old.

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Listen:
Spanky Wilson – Sunshine Of Your Love mp3 at The Ear Hole 
Erma Franklin and Jackie Wilson – Light My Fire mp3 at The Ear Hole
Jackie Wilson and LaVern Baker - Better Think Twice (Version X) mp3 at Beware of the Blog

Spanky Wilson - You mp3 (via DivShare) at Derek's Daily 45 Once you get to DivShare, click on the green Download" button, and scratch your head for fifteen seconds. When the button reappears, you're good to go.

EYE COLOR? REALLY?

You know, there's more than a few reasons to record a cover.  Sometimes it might be because the original version isn't very good.  It could be an excellent song, but poorly produced, or recorded at a tempo that just doesn't nail it.  Sometimes (well, actually quite often), there's a whole bunch of covers all thrown together on a tribute album.  Those usually bite, because a good cover, a really good cover can't be done on demand.  Sometimes a cover, especially of a well known song, is done just to get noticed.  Whatever the case, if Alice Russell hadn't have recorded the White Stripes "Seven Nation Army," chances are I wouldn't be cognizant of her.

Check the video above.  It you look at the whole get-up, you might just think schmaltz, but try thinking of it in terms of the Issac Hayes does Bacharach thing.  It's much cooler that way.

Here's a couple from her latest, with Quantic and the Combo Barbaro.  "Pushin' On" is a funky number, and "Traveling Song" is a bit mellower, almost a Dionne or Petula vibe to it, what with the strings and all.  (I gotta say that the violin solo just makes me want to hear Don & Dewey, but we can touch on that another time.)  The other two cuts are two different versions of her covering "Seven Nation Army" with Nostalgia 77, the reggae version of which I believe is a remix.  There's also an older Quantic cut down there, with Spanky Wilson on vocals, that's adequately tight.

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Listen: 
Quantic & Alice Russell with The Combo Barbaro - Pushin' On mp3 at Rollo & Grady They may disable direct linking, if so, you know what to do: go there to get it. 
Quantic & Alice Russell with The Combo Barbaro - Travelling Song mp3 at HillyDilly 
Alice Russell and Nostalgia 77 - Seven Nation Army mp3 at 365 Days of Music 
Alice Russell - Seven Nation Army (Reggae Version) mp3 at Audio Muffin 
Spanky Wilson and the Quantic Soul Orchestra - I'm Thankful mp3 at Ear Hole

SUNSHINE VS RAINBOW

Here's a couple totally unrelated covers I ran across at Town Full of Losers. Two random clicks, and two good songs. That doesn't happen often. (I'll have to watch that blog.) The first is a cover of "Sunshine of Your Love" by Spanky Wilson. Very funky. The drums really get me, as does the bass. The second one is completely different. It's a cover of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Melody Gardot. This one works better with little context. She's a talented singer, and it's a nice kinda bossa nova sounding version. I went to her site, and the rest of the music I heard is high rent stuff.

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Spanky Wilson - Sunshine of Your Love mp3 at Town Full of Losers
Melody Gardot - Somewhere Over the Rainbow mp3 at Town Full of Losers
Visit:
Town Full of Losers

POP THE COURVOISIER

That's right, it's Black Moses time. Another long, totally reinterpreted, cover by Isaac Hayes. Here he stretches the Beatles "Something" to almost 12 minutes. (Could you imagine if he did a Fela cover?!?) Some of his extended songs can be hard to appreciate, but you really do have to listen to the whole thing and not try so hard. For that reason, it makes for good driving music.

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I found it on the blog, Ear Hole, which also had about its pages tons of assorted soul and funk jams, making it yet another blog on the "must really dig in to one of these days" list. I'll limit it to two, the Diplomats of Solid Sound and Spanky Wilson, two keepers. (Remember the drill, right click on title and "save as...")

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Spanky Wilson and the Quantic Soul Orchestra - I'm Thankful mp3 at Ear Hole
Diplomats of Solid Sound - Plenty Nasty mp3 at Ear Hole
Isaac Hayes - Something mp3 at Ear Hole
Ear Hole's main page