Sir Mack Rice

Listen/Download – Sir Mack Rice – Mustang Sally MP3

Listen/Download – Sir Mack Rice – I Gotta Have My Baby’s Love MP3

Listen/Download – Sir Mack Rice – Love Sickness MP3

Greetings all.

As I said on Friday (yes, we’re bookending the weekend with obits) the giants of classic soul are falling at an alarming rate, and we were reminded of this last week with the passing of the mighty Sir Mack Rice.

Born Bonny Rice in Mississippi in 1933, by the 1950s he had relocated to Detroit where he would join one of the most important early soul groups, the Falcons, which would be home to singers like Wilson Pickett, Eddie Floyd, and Joe Stubbs (brother of Levi and an unsung hero of Motor City soul).

Rice is best remembered to the general public today as the author of ‘Mustang Sally’, one of the most ubiquitous of all classic 1960s soul tunes, via the hit by Wilson Pickett, and then its revival on the wedding circuit in the cover by the Commitments.

Rice was unusual in that the importance of his career is split pretty evenly between his work as a singer and songwriter.

He made a number of excellent 45s over the years for Blue Rock, Stax, Atco, Capitol and Truth, as well as writing songs for artists like the Staple Singers (Respect Yourself), Rufus Thomas (Breakdown, Funky Penguin) and others.

Rice had a smooth, tenor voice with a Southern twang, and considering the excellence of his songs, should have been a much bigger deal in his day. Sadly he only had two R&B hits in his career, Mustang Sally in 1965 and Coal Man in 1969.

The tracks I bring you today are my faves by Rice. I would have been remiss were I not to begin with the original (and little heard these days) version of Mustang Sally.

Produced by no less a light than Andre Williams, Rice’s version is very cool, yet it’s easy to see how Pickett’s incomparable, powerful voice grabbed the attention of the public.

The next two tracks are both sides of Rice’s second Stax 45 (and the last in his first stint with the label), ‘I Gotta Have My Baby’s Love’ and ‘Love Sickness’.

Yet another entry in the “how was this not a hit’ sweepstakes, I first encountered ‘I Gotta Have My Baby’s Love’ tucked away on an old Jerry Blavat comp from the 60s (the Geater had excellent taste). It’s a fast moving bit of classic Stax, co-written by Sir Mack and Booker T and the MGs. It features some blazing horns, remarkably heavy drums and great piano.

The flipside, ‘Love Sickness’ finds it self closer to mid-tempo, and features a very groovy chorus and some interesting chord changes.

Sir Mack Rice, despite that fact that his work is best known to soul collectors, was an important part of the machinery of 60s soul.

He will be missed.

See you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

 

____________________________________________________________________________

 

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.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.