Meadowlark Lemon – Shoot a Basket
Meadowlark Lemon
Listen/Download – Meadowlark Lemon – Shoot a Basket
Listen/Download – Bonus Track – Globetrotters – Globetrotters Theme
Greetings all.
The new week is finally here, and once again I have to kind of take a step back and shake my head at the losses the world of music saw in the past week.
I am not a superstitious lad, but I seem to recall going through periods like this – in which the Funky16Corners main page spends a week looking like the obit section of Billboard – at least a few times in the past.
We get wind of the passing of some musical great, and then just when you get back on your feet, somebody else goes.
The sad truth is, considering that the classic soul era got its start about half a century ago, the fact that many of its remaining standard bearers are passing on shouldn’t be at all surprising. That doesn’t make it any easier to take, especially – as in the case of Howard Tate – where the artist has managed to get some well-deserved recognition late in life.
That said, if Funky16Corners has a guiding force, it has always been to bring the great music and artists of the past to light, and if we have to do so posthumously, in an attempt to keep the music alive, then we will.
Fortunately, the artist in today’s post is still with us.
If you were a kid in the 60s and 70s, you surely know the name Meadowlark Lemon.
You just might not expect to see his name in a soul music blog, since Mr Lemon (just Meadow to his Mama) is best known as the one-time leader/frontman of the mighty Harlem Globetrotters, which was ostensibly a basketball team, but were in actuality so much more.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Globetrotters, it should suffice to say that they were a showboating/barnstorming basketball squad that took run of the mill sport, mixed comedy with incredible ball-handling skills and evolved into a major pop culture force.
They got their start in 1927 and were for decades mainly a sports team, performing in exhibition matches due in large part to the still-segregate world of professional basketball.
The team (which over the years included several players that moved on to the NBA) eventually evolved from a crack, ‘straight’ basketball squad into a comedy/trick-shot organization.
By the 60s, with players like Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal at the forefront, the Globetrotters made their way off of the basketball court and into the wider pop-cult arena, appearing on TV (having their own animated series from 1970-1973, a live action show in 1974 and another cartoon in 1979) and in the movies.
Meadowlark recorded today’s selection for the New York-based RSVP label (which also released 45s by Curtis Knight and garage punkers the Faine Jade) in 1966, with a version of Lloyd Price’s ‘Personality’ on the a-side.
It’s the flip we concern ourselves with today, on account of it’s a much groovier affair, with Meadowlark and some backup singers working a soulful, ever so slightly funky re-working of Junior Walker’s ‘Shotgun’, complete with basketball-related lyrics.
As records by sports stars go, it’s pretty good. Meadowlark may not have had the long-term ambitions of Roosevelt Grier, but he acquits himself nicely*.
Interestingly enough, the Globetrotters had nothing to do with the soundtrack album that accompanied their animated TV show, which doesn’t make the brief theme any less funky, which is why I’m including it here.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.
Peace
Larry
*Globetrotter Nate Branch also had a band with Wally Cox, with whom he recorded the very funky ‘Za Zu’
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Themocracy
I fond memories of waiting for an hour for Curly Neal and Meadowlark Lemon’s autographs after they dispatched the hapless Washington Generals. Curly had a furry pimp coat. Where are those autographs now?
Y’all hanging in there?
Meadowlark Lemon also had an LP called “My Kids” on the Casablanca label from 1979. I keep coming across it in my friend’s dollar sales, but haven’t ever picked it up.
And here I thought it was going to be the whistled version of Sweet Georgia Brown! Sweet.
I went to see them with my mom once at the long-gone Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa, FL. We were probably about 15 rows up but my mom noticed some other kids sitting on the court and suggested I go down and join them. I was a shy kid so I wasn’t sure I wanted to, but I finally gave in and had an absolute blast. Good times.