1970's OBSCURE SOUL SONG ID???
pickwick33
8,946 Posts
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):
This is a rough paraphrase, I think; not quite true to the record, but close enough. Anybody know what this is?"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!!!!!!"
Comments
"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]
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...
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.
Maybe two-thirds of my 45's are organized by labels, and White Whale is one of them...
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...