The clear winner in my rump-shakin’, crowd pleasin’, frottage actuating DJ set in Malmo was, using the time-honoured measurements of fist-pumpin’ euphoria, face-splitting grinnin’ and physical intoxication, (You’d Better) Straighten Up And Fly Right by The Devonnes.
This record has the sass of the greatest 60s girl group songs, probably the best bass line ever (I played this song to that Mark Monnone, bassist of The Lucksmiths, a few years ago: he stood stock still, transfixed, agog, for the entire song; non- bassists among you will react by smiling and dancing) and a double neat trade in killer lines: try “I can be like an old used car/I’ll quit on you if you drive me too far” for size.
(You’d Better) Straighten Up And Fly Right was found in GWP’s vaults and issued by Kent in 2005. You can find it on the compilation GWP NYC•TCB and should do so: that CD contains essential cuts such as Debbie Taylor’s feisty Don’t Nobody Mess With My Baby, which wouldn’t have been out of place on the Hot Wax release schedule, and Little Rose Little’s blind devotion on the club soul of He’s What I Need.
Best of all, Honey Man by The Modettes sounds like it’s the blueprint for Dexys’ Tell Me When My Light Turns Green; only Honey Man wasn’t issued until 2005. Perhaps it’s here that we have to speculate, as the academic David Luke did on the genesis of the Grimms' Fairy Tales, that for profound human reasons, both The Modettes’ and Dexys’ songs came into being independently (polygenetically) in quite separate cultures.
7 comments:
that's my shopping sorted for today then - top hole
x
Ally, I'm convinced you start the day late morning with an isotonic smoothie, swiftly followed by a large V&T, then, still recumbent in your silk dressing gown in your Soho pad, you surf the net to make a record shopping list before strolling down Berwick St. Oh to be independently wealthy.
i dream that too darling
Cool...so this is the song you wrote on my paper... i kind of lost it later that evening :-)
That is indeed a killer tune; I was listening to it on the way to work today and thought "let me feature it on my blog today," but in my research I found your blog and your spot-on post about the song. If I may, I'd like to add you to my blogroll!
You add away, Stepfather of Soul! Thanks for dropping by.
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