So... like everyone else I assume, I bought Etta James' s/t album on the strength of 'All the way down.' But I'm one of those people that often doesn't listen past a certain cut on a record. Well... after discovering the mindmelting amazingness of "God's Song" this whole album has been getting played pretty regularly for a month or so now.I don't have any of her other albums, but tell me waht's good and funky Please. I hear her "Sings Funk" LP is supposed to be dope as well, but I've never heard it. And does "Come a little Closer" have a different version of "all the way down/Back on the street again" on it?
Kinetic
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I wish everyone thought the same as you on the Etta S/T LP I've had 4 copies sitting on a trade/ sell shelf for almost 2 years. No one seems to want it.
the "Sings Funk" is probably my favorite of her funky LP's I think it was released either in '70 or '71. The non-funky tracks are just as good and there is even a Louvin brothers cover on there.
I have a live LP from her covering "All the Way Down" that was released on the Intermedia label. I never hear anyone talk about it but its a fun listen, homegirl has a foul mouth
It might also just be that it's not a particularly hard LP to find.
I only know of a couple of "funky" Etta James LP's - this one, and
"sings funk" ... there is a decent mid-70's disco-funk-ish one,
and I actually like the weird electro/moder soul LP she cut with
Allen Toussaint. My favorite album by her is "Rocks the House!" -
the early 60's live LP recorded in what sounds like a small nightclub.
And rock the house, she does. The crowd interaction on that LP is crazy.
The cast on her arm on the cover is hard-as-f**k, too.
I can't say enough good stuff about Etta. She is touring pretty regualar and I encourage you to go see her. I think currently she is touring sheds and festivals with BB King. I've seen her many times including once with James Brown, Mary Wells and Martha Reeves. (Martha is currently on the Detroit city council I just heard).
She started recording as a young girl with the Johnny Otis Show. She feel into the heroin trap. There is a famous story about her listening to the radio while in rehab and hearing Janis Joplin. Damn, that girl is stealing my style she thought. She got clean and made a whole series of great records for Chess.
She made 2 very nice records with Shuggie Otis and Eddie Vinson in the early 80s.
http://www.soulstrut.com/reviews/list.php?category=Soul&page=44
http://www.soulstrut.com/reviews/list.php?category=Blues&page=3
Quite possibly my favorite live album of all time.
And for a left-field surprise, get her CD Love's Been Rough On Me - I think it's on Private Music. Don't overlook this album because it's from the mid-'90s; it's a country-soul experiment similar to, say, Delbert McClinton, and she's totally on her game. Don't know if this is still in print or not (and I'm too tired to look it up on Amazon.com), but it's worth finding.
Love this one, too. Can't find an image for it, but there's a pretty good Etta James record with a fair-skinned woman with blond hair at a tree and I don't know if they were trying to pass her off as Etta James or what, but it is definitely not her! Just someone who doesn't look like she's lived life as much!
Her auto-biography, Rage to Survive, makes for a pretty exciting read, too.
Anyone catch her on Tavis Smiley last week?
Yeah, Etta James Sings on Custom (later reissued on United)! That album has her classic 1950's rock & roll sides like "Roll With Me Henry," from back in the time when R&R and R&B were damn near the same thing.
From the same label(s), there's also The Best Of Etta James, which this time has a DARKER-skinned lady posing at a tree pretending she's Etta! Who the hell did they think they were fooling? (This same model appeared on quite a few early-'60s albums, including Bunky Green's My Babe.) Anyway, these were obviously the leftovers from her '50s sessions for Modern Records, 'cause seems like the better songs were all back on Etta James Sings, but this LP has one mind-melt that you cannot do without: "Tough Lover," where she out-Richards Little Richard.
No! How was it? Did she have any good tales to tell?
Yes...there's an exclellent duet she does on that record, almost at the end of one of the sides, do you know who the guy is?
Edit - I'm not sure if you are saying it is Little Richard or if we are even talking about the same song!
Yes, she has slimmed down immensely.
Sounds like you're talking about "I Hope You're Satisfied." That's Richard Berry she's duetting with - matter of fact, that's his voice answering Etta all throught the album on songs like "Roll (Dance) With Me Henry." Berry is the L.A. R&B singer who did the original "Louie Louie."
When I said that Etta out-Richards Little Richard on "Tough Lover," that was my way of saying that "Tough Lover" was an exact copy of Little Richard's style. (And it sounds good, too.)
Is that the one with her version of The Bee Gees' "Sound Of Love"? I copped a 45 of that a while back - really good.
Yes, I believe that's it. Thank You PickWickipedia33!
no love for "Come A Little Closer"
When I heard that first song "Out On The Street, Again" I had the "impression" like it was an outtake from a Curtom album circa 73
I think it is. Crown, Custom, Kent, United, Modern and RPM were all affiliated with each other and reissued this stuff a thousand times over with different covers and titles.
Often companies took old hits & songs and speed them up for the Twisting With lps. I know Atlantic speed up Ray Charles old songs to make them Twist songs. I think Chess did the same with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddly. Rule of thumb, avoid Twist With lps unless you are into that kind of thing.
I don't know about the LPs you mentioned, but on the Crown "twist" albums I have, Crown didn't mess with the masters one iota, they just presented them as was. Sure, the PACKAGING was off - how in the hell could you do the twist to these jump-blues sides from the fifties? - with the little footprints on the back that taught you how to dance like Chubby Checker. But I have three of those Crown Twist With albums (but not the Etta James one), and I can verify that no one speeded them up.
Although I gotta say, Atco's Twist With Bobby Darin sounds like it was compiled with some intelligence. Finally, all of his most rockin' sides (like "Queen Of The Hop") all in one place, with no fake Sinatra ballads gettin' in the way! (And no, they weren't speeded up either...)
Hollar if you got a spare copy of "sings Funk" or that live album.