Larry Williams

Listen/Download – Larry Williams – Boss Lovin’ MP3

Greetings all.

What we have here, ready to usher you all over the hump, is something very groovy from our man Larry Williams.

If you’ve ever heard me talk about Larry on the Funky16Corners Radio Show, you know that I not only dig his music, but think that he is an artist who’s work ought to be much better known.

He was not only a serious early R&B/rocker, writing and performing tunes like ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’, ‘Bony Maronie’, ‘Bad Boy’ and ‘She Said Yeah’ (all of which made his work a cornerstone of the British Invasion in covers by the Beatles and the Stones), but he went on to write and record some fine soul music on his own, in partnership with Johnny Guitar Watson, and producing for acts like Little Richard and the Staple Singers.

All that, and he also lived a life as a colorful figure on the fringes of the law, running through pimping, drugs and guns.

The tune I bring you today is a favorite of mine, and has an interesting history of its own.

As far as I can tell, ‘Boss Lovin’’ was released no less than three times, first on El Bam, then again on Smash (both 1965) and lastly on Okeh (1967). I only own the Okeh version, but I have heard the other two 45s and they appear to be at the very least different mixes (if not completely different tracks). I hear Johnny Watson on the background on all of them, but Larry’s lead vocal is different, especially on the Okeh issue, which I would venture to say is the most confident of them all.

While I wouldn’t describe Williams as a ‘great’ singer, he was certainly capable of bringing the heat, whether in the early days as a Little Richard soundalike, or later on when his voice was a little deeper and had some growl to it.

‘Boss Lovin’’ is a great example of a ‘shout-out’ track (for lack of a better term), filled with references to other songs/artists, along the lines of Johnny Otis’s ‘Keep the Faith’.

It’s got enough kick for the dance floor, and the inside jokes ought to keep the anoraks in the crowd busy.

I dig it a lot and I hope you do, too.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

 

 

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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.

One Response to “Larry Williams – Boss Lovin’”

1. djwaterman says:

   July 30, 2015 at 7:27 pm

   Yeah! Another classic. I agree, not well enough known, a shame he had to turn to other things to get by.