Johnny Watson – Coke
Johnny Watson
Listen/Download – Johnny Watson – Coke MP3
Greetings all.
One of the great pleasures of record digging/collecting is the unexpected find, as in ‘I had no idea this very familiar artist did anything like this’ which describes this week’s selection to a tee.
A few years ago I picked up a Johnny Watson solo 45 off of a friend’s list, on which the man who was so famous a guitarist that it became part of his name (i.e. Johnny Guitar Watson) was featuring not on the six-string razor but rather surprisingly on the old 88s!
I dug the 45 a lot, and started to look around for information on the circumstances leading to its recording, and I was very surprised indeed to discover that Watson had recorded an entire album of instrumentals for Okeh in 1967.
This was during the heart of his association with Larry Williams, who just happened to have co-produced the album in question (entitled ‘Bad’) with Watson himself.
The record sees Watson featuring on both piano and guitar on a wide range of contemporary covers of tunes by folks like Eddie Floyd, Ray Charles, Sam and Dave and the Four Tops among others, mixed in with a couple of groovy originals, of which today’s selection is one.
‘Coke’ (hmmmmm…) is hard charging number featuring Watson’s guitar, piano and a tastefully applied horn section.
It has plenty of soulful, au-go-go flavor, and would work nicely on the dance floor.
I don’t think the album has ever been reissued. There was only the one 45 released from the LP.
I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll see you all next week.
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Keep the faith
Larry
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