Eddie "Buster" Forehand - Young Boy Blues (Josie 993)

Young Boy Blues

Here's one that's been on my 'want list' ever since I first heard it on the Looking For A Home compilation 10 years ago. The song, written by Doc Pomus and Phil Spector (how's that for a Brill Building dynamic duo?) was first performed by Ben E. King on ATCO in 1960. King, a man that fellow Soul Clan giant Solomon Burke refers to as "the black Andy Williams", does a sweet rendition, but somehow doesn't capture that "teenage angst" thang that's inherent in the lyrics.

There is an incredible version of the song by my New Orleans' guitar hero Snooks Eaglin that was recorded in 1971, and is now available again on the great Sonet Blues Story CD. I would yell it out as a request every time I saw him play, and he always obliged.

Imagine my surprise when I realized that Snooks had based his arrangement and vocal phrasings on a Little Buster single that I never even knew existed! The record was released in early 1968, and hit pretty big in regional markets like Baltimore and D.C. . Once I heard it, I, of course, started requesting it whenever I saw Buster play as well, and began my 10 year quest for the actual vinyl.

I finally found it after seeing the record listed in a Josie discography while I was working on a recent Meters post. I had assumed that it was released on Jubilee, like his earlier singles, and the fact that they had changed the 'Little Buster' to 'Eddie "Buster" Forehand (God knows why...) threw me off as well. Anyway, the record is simply FANTASTIC, and illustrates, once again, how truly GREAT Buster was. That scream there towards the end... Lord have mercy!

The definition of soul, man.