{"id":3718,"date":"2013-03-31T12:50:08","date_gmt":"2013-03-31T17:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=3718"},"modified":"2013-04-14T10:52:20","modified_gmt":"2013-04-14T15:52:20","slug":"best-of-funky16corners-eldridge-holmes-a-love-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=3718","title":{"rendered":"Best of Funky16Corners: Eldridge Holmes- A Love Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Mighty Eldridge Holmes<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Listen\/Download Eldridge Holmes – A Love Problem<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/del><\/p>\n

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

For the next week or so, while the F16C fam get in a well deserved bit of rest and relaxation, I’ll be republishing some of my favorite tunes from the Funky16Corners Archives. I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll be back soon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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Originally posted 2\/11\/2005<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Eldridge Holmes<\/strong> is a name that most people outside of old-time New Orleans residents and record collectors will fail to recognize.<\/p>\n

This is a shame because Holmes (in partnership with songwriter\/producer\/arranger Allen Toussaint<\/strong>) made some of the most memorable funk and soul sides to come out of the Crescent City in the 60\u2019s.<\/p>\n

For the full story on Eldridge Holmes click here\u2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018A Love Problem\u2019 was released in 1967 as the flip side to his cover of Lee Dorsey\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Working In A Coal Mine\u2019 (not one of Holmes\u2019 best records and an otherwise unnecessary remake). It\u2019s a slow ballad, highlighted throughout by Toussaint\u2019s piano.<\/p>\n

Holmes, best known for his storming funk sides like \u2018Pop Popcorn Children\u2019 and \u2018The Book\u2019 was a great soul shouter, but for a glimpse of the truly sublime, one needs to check out his ballad performances.<\/p>\n

Opening with a horn section (featuring a decidedly uncharacteristic muted trumpet) and settling into a slow tempo \u2018A Love Problem\u2019 sees Holmes addressing his woman, who\u2019s parents think they\u2019re too young to be in love. Unfolding like some French Quarter Romeo and Juliet story (ending short of the twin suicides of the Bard), Holmes pleading vocal is one of the finest examples of Southern soul balladry from the era.<\/p>\n

He manages to move from an almost conversational tone to moments when his voice soars over the rest of the song. As earthy and soulful as it is, the arrangement at times takes on a kind of \u201cprettiness\u201d, especially when Toussaint lays in piano accents alongside Holmes\u2019 voice.<\/p>\n

Together (along with the anonymous musicians and background singers) Holmes and Toussaint managed to create something of great beauty (something they did again the following year with Holmes spellbinding cover of Tim Hardin\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018If I Were A Carpenter\u2019).<\/p>\n

One of the things you hope for when listening to good (dare I say great<\/em>) music, are those moments when all the elements (writers, performers, lyrics) that make up the little three and a half minute dramas blend into something transcendent.<\/p>\n

One of those moments comes at the beginning of the second verse where Holmes sings (in a pas de deux with Toussaint\u2019s bluesy piano):<\/p>\n

\u2018Something tells me, your Mom and your Daddy they don\u2019t like me. But what they fail to realize baby, is whatever will be will be.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Holmes becomes the boy in the song. The listener gets the feeling that this isn\u2019t just another poetic anthem to heartbreak but a brief window into someone else\u2019s pained memories. The fact that Holmes himself wrote this song (his collaboration with Toussaint was fairly unusual in that he composed many of the songs they recorded together) suggests that pure autobiography is a possibility.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I like to think that a truly great singer is an actor of a sort \u2013 bringing the story in a song to life with their performance \u2013 and even though Holmes may be \u201cmethod acting\u201d in bringing to life his own memories in the composition and performance of \u2018A Love Problem\u2019, he does so in a way that is supremely evocative.<\/p>\n

For a brief moment he makes the listener forget that they are witnessing an artistic conceit, and instead appear to be privy to a real confession, as if you were sitting next to Holmes on a New Orleans bar stool listening to his tale of woe.<\/p>\n

Whether or not this record effects you as deeply as it does me, it deserves a listen (or four or five), if only to bring back to life this great, but largely forgotten performer.<\/p>\n

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

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

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___________________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to go to the ordering page.<\/strong><\/a>
\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).
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PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mighty Eldridge Holmes Listen\/Download Eldridge Holmes – A Love Problem Greetings all For the next week or so, while the F16C fam get in a well deserved bit of rest and relaxation, I’ll be republishing some of my favorite tunes from the Funky16Corners Archives. I hope you dig the sounds, and I’ll be back […]<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[129,14,92,12,18,96],"tags":[166,41,164],"class_list":["post-3718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-funky16corners","category-funky16corners","category-new-orleans-soul","category-soul","category-soul-45","category-the-best-of-funky16corners","tag-funky16corners","tag-new-orleans","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-XY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718","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=3718"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3812,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718\/revisions\/3812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}