BB King - You're Losin' Me (nonstones)

BB King
Completely Well
"You're Losin' Me"




Download here.

1969 saw the release of BB King's last great collection of songs, Completely Well. The idea behind the album was to combine BB King's straight blues singing and guitar playing with contemporary soul and funk arrangements. Unlike many of these types of experiments, it worked out great. The most well known track on the album, "The Thrill Is Gone", mixed King's slashing single-string work and his impassioned vocals with a low-key soul backing, including some Motown-like strings.

My favourite track however was "You're Losin' Me", which re-imagines a typical BB King cheatin' blues as a funk song. The standout is some nimble bass work by session player Jerry Jemmott, who has played with virtually every important soul and R&B artist in the 60s and 70s, but is in my Bassist Hall of Fame simply for playing on "Memphis Soul Stew".

Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street (non-Stones)

Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street




God damn the 70s were awesome.

Stevie has a sing-off with Grover:




The Sesame Street Song:





Stevie rocking "Superstition".

Live Wire

Warning: Stones-less post.

The Meters
"Live Wire" (Neville, Modeliste, Nocentelli, Porter) – 2:26




A track off the debut album of this seminal New Orleans funk band. Drummer Zig Modeliste is the star here, no question about it. That is simply the sickest hardcore funk groove I have ever heard in my life.

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Image courtesy Home of the Groove.

Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky (From Now On)

I'll be throwing in some non-Rolling Stones, although Stones-related, posts here and there. Apparently, I'm also throwing in the occaisional non-Rolling Stones and Stones-unrelated posts too. This won't happen often, I promise.

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Lou Donaldson
"Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky (From Now On)" (Allen Toussaint) – 5:30
(That's Lee Dorsey on the vocals.)



Jason Heller has a nice piece today at the AV Club on the funk music played by jazz artists, and how it is marginalised by jazzheads as inconsequential ephemera. I have nothing to add to what he said, except to note that I hate the jazz (and jazzheads for that matter), but love the funk. But I want to thank Heller for reminding me of this great 1969 track, which I first heard on some Blue-Note-does-Soul! comp many years ago and not nearly often enough since.




Lou Donaldson