Don Covay

UnherdUnherd 1,880 Posts
edited September 2010 in Strut Central
Who rides?

He doesn't seem to have ever had a thread. I know he had some hits, wrote "Chain Of Fools" and others, and I seem to remember him being mentioned in the Bowman Stax book.

I have a couple of his lps somewhere, but my collection is in disarray at the moment, and off hand I don't remember them grabbing me, kinda uneven if memory serves. Popsike's got some relatively big numbers for dude. Am I missing any essential albums or singles? Knowledge me.

  Comments


  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    I ride big-time for the early stuff - actually, he has some really early stuff from the late 50's/early 60's that has it's moments, but I'm thinking of the Mercy! and See-Saw albums, and singles from that time for Atlantic. Stuff like "Iron Out the Rough Spots" and "Daddy Loves Baby" (one of seemingly countless reworkings of "Mercy, Mercy" that he made) are staples of my DJ box. Covay is a classic example of a performer making up for a lack of a strong singing voice with personality and energy.

    His late 60's/early 70's stuff has it's moments, but not quite the same charm as those mid 60's sides.

  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts
    I ride hard.

  • Mick Jagger owes this dude some $ and an apology.
    SeeSAw is a great LP.
    I Ride.

  • holmesholmes 3,532 Posts
    correct, dude recorded for a lot of labels dating back to the late 50s, but the mid - late 60s Rosemart/Atlantic stuff is for me his most solid stuff. There are a couple of good 45s on Mercury from the early 70s. I've read interviews with other artists who say he apparently he never quite brought it to the live stage which I found weird.

  • ageage 1,131 Posts
    "Where Are You" is a firme rola and I indeed ride!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Sookie Sookie....nuff said.

  • Some of his Rosemart sides circa '64 have Hendrix on them - I think there's a reissue on Norton.

  • DocMcCoyDocMcCoy "Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
    mrmatthew said:
    Mick Jagger owes this dude some $ and an apology.

    I loved this record when I was a kid, and I still love it now. At one point, some people actually believed this was the Stones incognito, the same way others later thought Klaatu were The Beatles.


  • love me some Covay "Cant Stay Away" is one of the best deep soul sides of all time IMO.

    Dont sleep on his "rock" LP either:

  • Definitely a fan. Like everyone else, I can recommend his Atlantic records, particularly House Of Blue Lights, which Hook-Up mentioned above. It is very seldom - if ever - that you will see a youngish soul singer associate himself with the blues, then or now. And it's not soul-blues like Little Milton, either; it's pretty much straight ahead blues that isn't ashamed to be what it is. If you like Johnny Johnson's Ton-Ton Macoute!, then ...Blue Lights shouldn't be too far behind.

    Also out there: his earlier singles from the late fifties and early sixties, credited to "Pretty Boy." I'm partial to the wild Little Richard-styled black rock of "Bip Bop Bip" and "Rockin' The Mule In Kansas."

    I see his Mercury sides have been mentioned in passing, but really he had more than just a couple of good 45's. The Super Dude I album is solid, and Hot Blood comes dead close. There was also a later compilation from the eighties, Checkin' In With Don Covay, which compiled songs from the two Mercury albums plus a few stray singles. When I want a Covay fix, I find myself going back to the Mercury sides as a first choice. On some of those Atlantic songs, he is "oversouling" really hard, and just generally hamming it up where he shouldn't be. The prime example is "Homemade Love" from the House Of Blue Lights LP - song starts out decently, but midway through he switches gears into a version of "Drown In My Own Tears." He's trying to take it to church, and the song loses it's thread altogether. There were a lot of isolated moments like that during the Atlantic years, but by the time he got to Mercury, he had that all under control. "I Was Checkin' Out, She Was Checkin' In" (on Mercury) is one of the finest cheatin' soul songs ever, in my mind.

    In between there was an iffy 1972 album on Janus, Different Strokes From Different Folks. Not a wall-to-wall classic, but it has its' moments. If you score it cheap, look out for "Ain't Nothing A Young Girl Can Do" (but show me where an older woman is), "Where There's A WIll, There's A Way" and "Standing In The Grits Line." This was later reissued in the UK on the Topline label as Sweet Thang.

    Don't start me talkin', I'll tell everything I know. Covay was indeed one of the greats.

  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts
    Johnny Jenkins? *If* I corrected Pickwick, this is an historic event. I feel like takin a lap down the street!

  • hcrink said:
    I ride hard.

  • The_Non said:
    Johnny Jenkins? *If* I corrected Pickwick, this is an historic event. I feel like takin a lap down the street!

    Have a good jog on me, Non, I fucked up!!!

    Johnny JENKINS. Yeah, you right.

  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts
    There is Johnny Johnson, he did just soul shit.

  • the overtime man !

  • asstroasstro 1,754 Posts
    A track I discovered back in the "It's a Pete Rock sample!" days that now is just a favorite song of mine:


  • I ride! This is my favourite song of his - i love the vox double tracking and the delay they put on the vox at about 2min. Beautiful!


  • definitely a fan here.

    also, Large Pro's loop of that guitar for Akinyele's 'I Luh Huh' is superb.


  • Strider79it said:
    the overtime man !



    the whole album that's from, Super Dude, is definitely worth picking up for $15-20 IMO.

  • Spacecho said:
    I ride! This is my favourite song of his - i love the vox double tracking and the delay they put on the vox at about 2min. Beautiful!


    just picked up this lp a few weeks ago.
    Still trying to get into it.
Sign In or Register to comment.