Slim Harpo
Listen/Download -Slim Harpo – Baby Scratch My Back
Greetings all.
It has been another busy week here at the Funky16Corners compound, with hospital visits and sundry other responsibilities that simply must be taken care of lest the world wind off of its axis.
First, a bit of important business to get out of the way.
As most of you probably know, these are dark times for music blogs.
The copyright wars are getting hotter all the time, with domains seized, blogs shut down and threats being issued on the reg.
Funky16Corners, one of the longer lived blogs of its kind, has been extraordinarily lucky over the years in that we have not once (knock wood) been on the receiving end of threats, take-down notices or other negative feedback related to the posting of music.
For the longest time, I kept things going as usual, with all of the Funky16Corners Radio Podcast mixes posted in the archive containing the individual files and a fairly relaxed attitude to breaking the links on the single tracks in the regular posts.
A while back I tightened the reins a bit on the regular posts, pulling down the tracks after a 10 day period so that Funky16Corners remained true to its spirit as an educational resource.
Then, a few months ago it became apparent that less, shall we say, “dedicated” bloggers were indemnifying themselves against difficulty by deep linking (posting links on their blogs directly to the URLs on my server) to my tracks, not to mention the same thing being done (in a much more mechanical fashion) by rogue MP3 services that scour the internet for content to offer their visitors.
Despite the fact that I was breaking the links in my posts, they were still available to anyone who had deep-linked or in some other way recorded the full URL of the tracks.
My initial reaction to this was to relocate my on-line archive (which I use frequently to access tracks for mixes and tribute posts to artists that had passed on) and to move tracks to “off-line” locations after the aforementioned 10-day period.
The more I thought about the situation the more I decided that I needed to take whatever steps I could to protect Funky16Corners without compromising the “mission” (for lack of a better word) of the blog.
As a result, I did some restructuring at the server level, as well as removing the ZIP file links from the Podcast Archive.
All of the mixed MP3 files remain, but access to individual tracks has, at least for the time being, been removed.
I know that some of you will be disappointed – the archive is one of the most heavily traveled parts of the site – but this is something I felt needed to be done.
I have always felt that what I do here at Funky16Corners – as well as most of the blogs I link to – is much different than the popular idea of music blogging.
I have never posted full albums here, and the music I do post is always posted along with commentary and historical context.
I’m happy to say that in the many cases where I have been contacted by an artist that was featured here or a member of their family, the feedback has always been positive.
Unfortunately, the reality of blogging in 2012 is that the worst possible scenario could descend at at minute, and I owe it to myself to make this environment as “safe” as possible.
Hopefully the status quo will be maintained.
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That said, I should also remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. If you cannot make the scene at airtime, you can always come by the blog on Saturday and pick up an MP3 of the show.
Also (yes, there’s more…) the post I recently did about the passing of the great Johnny Otis has been republished on the Greek culture website The Goddess of the Hunt!
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What better way to face such chaos than a bit of mellow (bot not too mellow), soulful (just the right amount of soul) Louisiana blues.
Does the name Slim Harpo set your ears vibrating and your feet moving just so?
Though I can’t remember the exact day, I do know the year that the sounds of Mr James Moore (aka Slim Harpo) first breached the redoubts of my ears.
It was sometime back in Nineteen and Eighty Seven that my brother from another mother, the Bluesman handed me a brick of cassettes, all of which contained the sounds from whence he got his sobriquet.
There, alongside the Kings (Albert and BB) was a tape featuring the sounds of the mighty Slim Harpo.
While the name was at the time familiar (no doubt due to British Invasion coverage of his catalog by cats like the Rolling Stones, the Kinks and Them) I had never heard the originals.
I was in for a treat.
While I listened to all of those tapes, the one that took up permanent residence in my automobile was the Slim Harpo collection.
There was something very groovy about Slim’s voice and harmonica that shot right into the pleasure centers of my brain.
Years of reflection have led me to the conclusion that this was probably due to the fact that the music of Slim Harpo, while bluesy, was not entirely “the blues”, swimming in a swamp of R&B, soul and even country sounds, and it was all wrapped up in his unique voice.
He recorded his first record for Excello in 1957, and had his first hits in the early 60s and his first (and only) R&B Number One hit with the record you see before you today ‘Baby Scratch My Back’ in 1966.
The groovy thing is, that while there is something undeniably laconic about Slim Harpo’s music, the more you listen to this record in particular the more you realize how danceable it is.
It’s not a hard-charger, but it possesses a groove as thick as molasses.
Sadly, Slim Harpo died in 1970 at the age of 46, felled by a heart attack.
If you dig this cut, head out and grab yourself a copy of ‘The Best of Slim Harpo’ and get hip to a master.
See you on Monday.
Peace
Larry
Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.
If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.
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PS Head over to Iron Leg too.
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