1970's OBSCURE SOUL SONG ID???

pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
edited January 2009 in Strut Central
This guy I knew grew up in Dallas, TX in the mid-late seventies. While he was there, he remembers hearing this song that he claims got widespread airplay on the area's black stations...sez it was a funky Johnny "Guitar" Watson-sounding thing (although not by Johnny), with a chorus that went something like "I'll be your lover, I'll be your friend, but there ain't no way I'm gonna be your fool"...and it ended up with this scalding monologue that went a little something like this (WARNING: FAIRLY EXPLICIT LANGUAGE, EVEN THOUGH THIS GOT PLAYED ON THE RADIO):
"BEFORE I WILL BE YOUR FOOL , YOUR SISTER WILL MARRY A VENUTIAN!!!! AND WHEN YOUR BROTHER'S DEAD!!! AND WHEN YOUR FATHER'S DEAD !!! AND WHEN THAT F****T'S DEAD !!! AND WHEN THE EARTH NO LONGER SPINS ON ITS AXIS AND WHEN I BURN IN HELL FOR ONE THOUSAND ETERNITIES!!!!! I WILL NEVER , NEVER , BE YOUR DAMN FOOL!!!!!!"
This is a rough paraphrase, I think; not quite true to the record, but close enough. Anybody know what this is?

  Comments


  • luckluck 4,077 Posts
    Isn't that a B.J. Thomas number?

  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
    David Bromberg

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Bromberg? For true? If so, what's the name of the tune?

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Never mind, I did some Sherlockin' on my own, it is David Bromberg's "Will Not Be Your Fool." And going by the crowd noise on this 1985 video clip I found on Youtube, this was one of his most popular numbers. Thanks, James!

  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
    Bromberg? For true? If so, what's the name of the tune?

    "Won't Be Your Fool" or "Never Be Your Fool"--something like that.

    You'll love this, pickwick: The only reason I knew this one was because back in my "Breakbeats, Yo" days I got the Demon In Disguise record with "Sharon" on it, and subsequently needle-dropped whatever Bromberg records I saw in the field ("in the field") hoping for more of the same. It wasn't to be, but I remember pricking up my ears at the sub-Marchan quality of the monolgue you're describing. It's something of a forefather to the similarly excruciating monologue on Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers' "I'm Not Your Man." [shudder]

  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    I've been looking for that Bromberg record for years now. File under "white whale."

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Hey, James, did you know that Bromberg was from Hyde Park? And I think he may have briefly relocated there in the '90s...I seem to remember him saying he wanted to raise his children there so they'd know the same kind of interracial atmosphere he knew when he was coming up.

    It was around that time I seem to remember seeing him walking down 57th St., right in front of Powell's bookstore...I'd heard he'd come back, but wasn't expecting to see him...I was so shocked to see him hanging out (I think he was with his kid) and randomly called his name; he modestly answered "yes?" as if we'd met before...seemed like a nice enuff guy. I don't think he's in Chicago anymore.

    And Cosmo: if you're looking for Bromberg white whales, come on down to Chicago, the used stores are full of his old albums...right next to the Siegel-Schwall Band and Bonnie Koloc rekkids...

  • jamesjames chicago 1,863 Posts
    Hey, James, did you know that Bromberg was from Hyde Park?

    I had no idea. This does, however, lend credence to my theory that if you hang aroung Powell's on 57th long enough, you will eventually encounter everyone. Shit, even Michael Jackson came through a few years ago.

    Oddly enough, I seem to run into Patrick Sky records more often than David Bromberg records. It's possible, though, that I've just seen so many David Bromberg records by this point that I now see them without really seeing them, if you know what I mean.

    Bringing it all back home, I have some Patrick Sky record whose label depicts--wait for it--a white whale.

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    When you speak of "white whale" records, to me this means that label from the 1960's that the Turtles recorded for.





    Maybe two-thirds of my 45's are organized by labels, and White Whale is one of them...

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    I've been looking for that Bromberg record for years now. File under "white whale."

    I just told my friend that he's been looking for a David Bromberg record all this time, and he laughed (as a child he thought he was hearing to a black blues singer). He then muttered something about how long it might take him to find it; I replied that it shouldn't take him too long, since his records fall in the commons category. He then shot back - and this is true as hell - that the most common records in the world always become elusive when you're looking for them...
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