OV Wright

Listen/Download OV Wright – Working Your Game

Greetings all

I hope the middle of the week finds you all well.

The record you see before you today, all hot and ready to shovel into your ears, is yet another one that holds a place of honor in my crates, thanks 100% to my man Tony C.

Some time ago, he recommended ‘Working Your Game’ by the mighty OV Wright, which I dug, but for some odd reason was unable to lay my hands on a reasonably priced copy until recently.

Though Wright is by any measure among the first rank of southern soul singers of the classic era, ‘Working Your Game’ is especially interesting, on account of the drums.

Now when I say ‘on account of the drums’ you know that it must be something out of the ordinary, and it surely is.

Whoever is beating (and I do not use that word lightly) the skins on this record seems to be doing what Hunter S Thompson quoted the Oakland Hell’s Angels describing as  “trying to show some class”, translated as going that extra mile (and then some) to prove one’s worth in a particular situation, though since we’re transporting the phrase from the world of outlaw bikers to that of soul records, the percussionist is beating the shit out of his drum set in a studio, instead of clobbering some poor slob in a gas station toilet.

If you know what I mean (dot dot dot)…

I have no idea who the drummer is, but he is going nuts, adding a certain je ne sais quoi to an already hot record, with ringing piano, sassy backing singers and of course Mr. Wright at the helm.

Were the rest of the record even a scintilla weaker, one might think the drums a bit of overkill, but they fit nicely here and the only drag is wondering why the mystery man wasn’t wrecking drum sets for the Backbeat label on a full time basis.

The flip (‘Baby Mine’ which hit the R&B Top 40 in 1968) is also quite good, so head out and grab yourself a copy of this one for your record box.

You can thank Tony.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all on Friday.

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.