{"id":2713,"date":"2012-05-03T13:25:40","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T18:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2713"},"modified":"2012-06-01T14:10:20","modified_gmt":"2012-06-01T19:10:20","slug":"joe-bataan-es-tu-cosa-its-your-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2713","title":{"rendered":"Joe Bataan – Es Tu Cosa (It’s Your Thing)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong>
\nJoe Bataan (center)<\/strong> <\/strong>
\n <\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download Joe Bataan – Es Tu Cosa (It’s Your Thing) <\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/del><\/p>\n

Greetings all.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

The end of another week is upon us, and it behhoves me to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show<\/strong> takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this and very Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio<\/strong><\/a>, followed the next day, posted in MP3 form right here at the blog.<\/p>\n

The tune I bring you today is a very groovy, very laid back slice of Latin soul.<\/p>\n

I will go ahead and assume that you\u2019re all familiar with the mighty Afro-Filipino singer and bandleader Joe Bataan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He has appeared in this space a few times in the past (vocally<\/a> and instrumentally<\/a><\/em>) and is unquestionably one of the kings of the classic era of Latin soul.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s selection is a particularly interesting number as it touches on a few different musical strands (if you will<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

\u2018Es Tu Cosa (It\u2019s Your Thing)\u2019 is (and isn\u2019t<\/em>) a \u2018cover\u2019 of the hugely influential 1969 single by the Isley Brothers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though it bears no musical<\/em> relation to the Isley\u2019s tune (it sounds a lot closer to the laid back groove of Willie Bobo\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Fried Neckbones and Some Home Fries\u2019), it does pretty much quote the lyrics of that song\u2019s chorus.<\/p>\n

The lyrics do eventually diverge from the Isley\u2019s tune, and the overall effect suggests an after-hours club in Spanish Harlem, replacing the lively funk of that song with a relaxed soul.<\/p>\n

When I first got my hands on this 45 I gave it a fair amount of thought.<\/p>\n

As I said before, the Isley Brother\u2019s \u2018It\u2019s Your Thing\u2019 was a huge hit in the Spring of 1969, going to #1 R&B and making it to #2 Pop.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s influence can be seen not only in the long list of outright covers of the song, but also in the list of homages to it as well, in records that borrow the main riff (like Clarence Wheeler and the Enforcers<\/strong> \u2018Doin\u2019 What We Wanna\u2019) or \u201canswer\u201d the OG (like Marva Whitney\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018It\u2019s My Thing\u2019).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not out of the question that Bataan felt that the refrain\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s your thing, do what you wanna do<\/strong>
\n I can\u2019t tell you who to sock it to<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026had transcended its roots as a lyric and emerging as something much bigger, the kind of statement that would find its way on to t-shirts and spray-painted onto city walls.<\/p>\n

Either way, it is a very, very groovy record, perfect for the coming of summer weather.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig it and I\u2019ll see you all on Monday.<\/p>\n

Keep the faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>
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\nAlso, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Bataan (center) Listen\/Download Joe Bataan – Es Tu Cosa (It’s Your Thing) Greetings all. The end of another week is upon us, and it behhoves me to remind you that the Funky16Corners Radio Show takes to the airwaves of the interwebs this and very Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio, followed the next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[58,14,90,70,18,13],"tags":[166,175,164],"class_list":["post-2713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-songs","category-funky16corners","category-latin","category-latin-soul","category-soul-45","category-soul-jazz","tag-funky16corners","tag-latin-soul","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-HL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2713"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2818,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2713\/revisions\/2818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}