CrashPryor
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Funky Friday: "Rock Steady" -- Long Live the Queen

Posted almost 5 years ago
This tune comes from the Queen of Soul herself and is one I have in mind whenever I think of what a funky groove really means. "Rock Steady" is the same vintage as yours truly and comes from one of Aretha's best albums Young, Gifted and Black. Produced by Atlantic's Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin, this album features artists like Dr. John on percussion both Donny Hathaway and Billy Preston (organ),Eric Gale and Chuck Rainey (bass) the Memphis Horns and Aretha's younger and older sisters Carolyn and Erma singing backup...You hear an album like this (which holds covers of tunes written by Nina Simone, the Beatles and Bacharach) and you get the zap on your dome about why this woman is called the Queen-- who else could own a Carole King song with such authority?...it's one of my favorite albums by her and I think it's a must-have for any collector's cache (especially those who like to get their groove on with one of the great voices on a zenith-level performance)...check this alternate (and FUNKY-ASS) version of one of that album's signature tracks...what it is, what it is...
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Comments (18)

  1. kb
    kb says oh HELL yeah, crash. what it is what it is what it is... i grew up with aretha pumping through the house. my mother surprised me for my birthday when i was a teenager (way the fuck long ago) to see aretha outside in baltimore. holy shit that is a memory. okay, i gotta get out my potty mouth before the kids come in the classroom. Happy funky 420 friday!!!!
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  2. kat3260
    kat3260 says fantastic. you always deliver.
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  3. Jonh Ingham
    Jonh Ingham says Dr. John on percussion?? WTF?! And in this mix that is a really wicked cowbell he's funkin' on. I can remember the first time this came on the car radio driving down the 128 into Hollywood - she's got the most amazing voice i think I've ever heard. I'm gonna interview Jerry Wexler next week - this track is on my list of questions.
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  4. CrashPryor
    CrashPryor says NICE! Ask him about that Muscle Shoals era-stuff (didn't he go down there with Aretha to cut her first Atlantic album?)...oh! get some copy on what he said when he first heard Lieber & Stollers' Drifters tunes (sth, like it sounds like 2 radio stations playing at once)...man, I gotta get back on the music train...today's assignment, interview a WWE wrassler (Steve Austin) and an ex British Footballer (Vinnie Jones)...I'm missing talkin' about tunes...hey, there's an idea for a show "Tune Talk"...
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  5. Jonh Ingham
    Jonh Ingham says Oh you'll like Vinnie. As a footballer he was described as having "the mind of a centipede". He was stupid enough to get physical on other players so that everyone in the stadium AND the ref could see it. Once he stopped though he seemed to grow up. He likes 'country pursuits' - fishing and that kinda stuff. He also reckons he's made 70 films, so who's stupid now? (As he once answered a condescending journalist.) Jerry discovered Muscle Shoals after it dried up with the Stax guys and put them on the map. Yes, that's where Aretha happened. He's previously said that she came in with 'Respect' fully formed - the piano, the arrangement, everything - and all he did was roll tape. And I wanna ask about The Drifters, the most sophisticated of all that period. I mean, what's with the arrangement for Under The Boardwalk? That shit makes no logical sense (check the guitar parts) but it sounds sooo sublime.
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  6. CrashPryor
    CrashPryor says @kb: word. that sounds like a great memory, in my book... @kat: I've been into this one for a minute...glad you likes.. @JI: that's cool to know, I'll ask him later on (harder to find filmography on the UK stuff before in the years before characters like Chris and Bullet Tooth Tony were known)...ah, one of the first times I ever went up to Jersey, I remember hearing that tune kicking on a radio-- although I'd heard the cut before I think it's burned on my brain because I was in Atlantic City with my folks and they let me go look around on my own...I walking around by myself on "the boardwalk" when I heard it...
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  7. Jonh Ingham
    Jonh Ingham says Cool memory. I love how certain songs just burn themselves into the cerebellum the second they curl around your ears.
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  8. Jshua
    Jshua says Yo homeslice! My girl just flipped when I told her you were checking out Steve Austin today. She's a big wrestling fan (you know it fits with the whole Marine thang and did I mention she's only 5'2" and a buck 0' something?) Anyways, thanx for the track.. Never heard this version before. Btw, have you ever heard her stuff when she was performing jazz standards for Columbia? Skylark is the shit! I can see now that I'm gonna have to put some stuff up... hmmmm Junie Morrison or "Dubbing is a must, is a must, is a must......." J-
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  9. ivylander
    ivylander says I gotta go drive somewhere with the windows down just so I can feel this.
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  10. wassonii
    wassonii says What a great track. Definitely going to have to find acopy of this album. Gutteral backwoods earthen aetherial. Thank you!
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  11. CrashPryor
    CrashPryor says @ivy: what it is, WHAT IT IS! @wassonii: I liked her treatment of Nina's "Young, Gifted and Black" too... @Jshua: I was just gonna add (after JI's mentioning about how she cut "Respect") that she was an accomplished jazz pianist in her own right...had a great feel for it, was promoted as such for a minute after the "gospel singer" tag started wearing thin. Here's girlfriend on the Cliff Richards Show about a year before YG&B dropped:
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  12. steve simon
    steve simon says totally smoking! i remember my at the time 6 year old white suburban neice always singing nina's version of young, gifted and black back in the day( thanks to me)
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  13. CrashPryor
    CrashPryor says @steve: she was complimenting you and didn't even know it...I know the feeling, when I left for school, I left my mom a mix tape of all this reggae stuff I liked at the time...I came home for a holiday and all of my little cousins slapped on one of those mixes and ran around the living room singing "Buffalo Soldier" at the top of their lungs-- had no clue what they were singing about but they knew a jam when they heard one...good stuff, simon...
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  14. steve simon
    steve simon says love it crash
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  15. nicki
    nicki says A woman's gotta have her FUNK.
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  16. mktackabery
    mktackabery says many thanks for this crash. I've been too busy to post anything today, but I have been enjoying the funk MIGHTILY.
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  17. Cody B
    Cody B says Funky as a 3 dollar bill!
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007
  18. Mike the Knife
    Mike the Knife says True royalty, C.P. And you are just in elevating Lady Soul to queenly status.
    Permalink posted 04/20/2007

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