T.V. and The Tribesmen - Barefootin'

ako

whats the deal with this band / LP? i got it forever ago and i know ive seen it more than twice, so im guessing its relatively common, but...any info on this band? what else did they do?plus some of this drumming is pretty damn up-to-date for 1966(!)"too many dogs for me" is nice.

SoulOnIce

Im not sure about the whole album,
but apparently the version of Barefootin' credited to
T.V. is actually by Joe Medwick, recorded with Huey Meaux
in TX 1966 - I learned this from the liners to this CD:



After hearing it and reading that, I have wanted to cop
the T.V. & the Tribesmen LP for a while, to see what the
rest of it is like. The Medwick CD has some good stuff on it,
although I would say Barefootin' is the highlight.

Medwick's story, according to the liners, is pretty tragic -
he is more of a songwriter than a performer, and he wrote
many of Bobby "Blue" Bland's biggest hits, including the
smash "Further On Up the Road" - but apparently he would
just bring songs to the owner of Duke, who would pay him like
$15 or $20 and get him to sign all the rights away on the spot.
He died penniless, while others made hundreds of thousands of
dollars from his compositions...an all-too familiar story.

pickwick33

Im not sure about the whole album,
but apparently the version of Barefootin' credited to
T.V. is actually by Joe Medwick, recorded with Huey Meaux
in TX 1966 - I learned this from the liners to this CD:



After hearing it and reading that, I have wanted to cop
the T.V. & the Tribesmen LP for a while, to see what the
rest of it is like. The Medwick CD has some good stuff on it,
although I would say Barefootin' is the highlight.

I would have to say "Barefootin'," IMO, is the highlight of the TV & the Tribesmen elpee too (and even then, Robert Parker's original smokes TV's). The rest of it is just an album that is competently done, but with lots of filler.

Medwick's story, according to the liners, is pretty tragic -
he is more of a songwriter than a performer, and he wrote
many of Bobby "Blue" Bland's biggest hits, including the
smash "Further On Up the Road" - but apparently he would
just bring songs to the owner of Duke, who would pay him like
$15 or $20 and get him to sign all the rights away on the spot.
He died penniless, while others made hundreds of thousands of
dollars from his compositions...an all-too familiar story.

Unfortunately, that was the story of several compositions that wound up on Duke. If you see that tell-tale "D. Malone" in the credits, that was likely a tune that was bought from some struggling songwriter who didn't know much about publishing.
David Porter tells a tale about how Don Robey (Duke prez) once tried to buy out a song he and Isaac Hayes wrote with Bobby Bland in mind; by this time, Hayes and Porter were a little too hip to the songwriting game, so they passed.