Rex Garvin
Listen/Download Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers – I Gotta Go Now (Up On the Floor)
Greetings all
I hate to get the week started on a sad note, but hang tight and I promise that I’ll bring things around at the end.
I was chilling the other night, scrolling through Facebook when I spotted a post by my man Agent45, noting that the mighty Rex Garvin had died.
If you have been following my comings and goings (ranting and raving) here over the years you will already know that I hold the music of Rex Garvin (and his Mighty Cravers) in the highest possible esteem, especially the sounds of one very special record.
As I sit here tapping away at the keyboard in the middle of my record room I am surrounded by many thousands of records, tens of thousands of songs, and I love many of those songs deeply, but there are a select few that are genuinely important to me.
Some of these are Rosetta Stones of a sort in that they unlocked doors for me, whether in a purely sonic sense, or providing a gateway into a particular artist or style.
Others are important in that they represent that rare, perfect intersection of composition, production and above all performance.
I have posited here in the past that the best records (in any genre) contain a certain magic, and that a DJ, with the proper amount of taste and practice understands how to release that power properly, mixing the right records together in such a way as to lift the feeling in a room. You release the joy, energy and rhythmic drive in a record and if things are just right and the people are feeling it you achieve, whether for a minute, or an hour, a kind of ecstasy.
There is joy in music, amplified by movement (not just dance) that is ancient and essential and resides in the spirit of every man, woman and child and one of the great tragedies is that we do not release ourselves into that state and partake in its elevating, restorative nature often enough.
When I pack my record box for a particular night, I select things according to the proscribed style and tempo (usually varying), sometimes adding in a “wild card” or two that can be inserted into the mix should the opportunity arise.
What I also include nestled securely in the deep end of the box, usually handled with protective equipment, are the killers.
These are the records that carry in their grooves that exceptional, often explosive power on which an entire set can pivot into another dimension.
A record like this must be used sparingly and with the utmost care.
Spun in the wrong place, at the wrong time – when the audience isn’t ready – its energy can be wasted, but released properly it can do remarkable things.
‘I Gotta Go Now (Up On the Floor)’ by Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers is one such record.
It needs to be stated at this point that Rex and the Cravers were no one-shot wonders. Their 1960s recordings for a variety of labels (Epic, Okeh, Like, Atlantic, Tower) are packed with winners like ‘Emulsified’, ‘Sock It To Em JB’, ‘Queen of the Go Go’ and ‘Raw Funky’, but ‘I Gotta Go Now (Up On the Floor)’ is in a class by itself.
Released in 1967, ‘I Gotta Go Now (Up On the Floor)’ did not – as far as I can tell – chart anywhere, at any level, which, once you listen to the record, seems inexplicable.
Co-written by Garvin, saxophonist Clayton Dunn and drummer Pete Holman, it has an unrelenting tempo, pushed forward by the drums, bass and rhythm guitar, along with the occasional soul clapping and the wailing of a combo organ in the background.
Where the record really takes off, though, is in the vocal performance by Rex Garvin.
The influence of gospel music on soul is incalculable, but it isn’t always this obvious.
Here, Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers have taked the sound of the amen corner, packed it with TNT and sent it over a cliff.
Garvin isn’t merely singing, he’s preaching the gospel of soul, in a song that is quite literally about being carried away by the power of music.
He’s telling you that through the music he is compelled to launch himself out onto the dance floor, feeling the music in his soul, rising from his seat, clapping his hands as hard as he can. He is filled with the spirit (holy or otherwise) and he has to move.
Listen to this record and imagine everyone in choir robes, bouncing the call and response back and forth between Rex and the band.
I GOTTA GO NOW!
(GO AHEAD!)
OUT ON THE FLOOR NOW!
(GO AHEAD!)
SAID I GOTTA GO NOW!
(GO AHEAD!)
OUT ON THE FLOOR NOW!
HIT IT!
(HIT IT!)
DON’T QUIT IT!
This is the ecstatic religious experience secularized (or not, depending on what music means to you) and moved out into the club.
If this record doesn’t send shivers up and down your spine and out into your limbs I don’t know what to tell you.
This is the kind of record that soul music is all about, and the kind of record that moves me to the bottom of my soul.
It is that powerful, and in the 20 or so years since I first heard it, over countless listens has never lost an iota of its power for me.
No matter how many times I listen to it, or pull it from my box and place it on the slipmat in a club, it is always as amazing as the last.
Oddly enough, after almost 30 years, Rex Garvin put music behind him, calling it quits in 1985.
He eventually settled in Atlanta, where he passed away early in December at the age of 72.
I’ll be DJing this week, and I can assure you that I will have this record in my box, and I will spin in in the memory of the mighty Rex Garvin.
I’ll see you on Wednesday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.
Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).
PS Head over to Iron Leg too.
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