O.V. Wright - A Nickel And A Nail (Back Beat 622)

A Nickel And A Nail

OK folks, like I was saying over on The B Side, they just don't come much better than this. One of those 'Mount Rushmore of Soul' songs that we've talked about in the past (like The Dark End Of The Street), it never fails to knock me out.

Released on this date in 1971, right in between Al Green's smash hits Tired Of Being Alone and Let's Stay Together, it gives you an idea of just how amazing things were back then on South Lauderdale Street.

Slim Harpo - I've Got My Finger On Your Trigger (Excello 2309)

I've Got My Finger On Your Trigger

OK folks, by popular request here's the other song Slim recorded on that last fateful trip to Music City.

The personnel remains the same as on Folsom Prison Blues, with the notable addition of the great Pee Wee Ellis arranging the horn charts. It's a little known fact that after the famous 1970 'mutiny' in the James Brown Band (led by Maceo Parker), many of the 'King's Men' wound up in Nashville. There are 45s on Excello from this period by Maceo and Marva Whitney, and Bob Wilson would later work with Richard 'Kush' Griffith at the label as well.

Pee Wee liked what he heard from the band Wilson had put together for the session, and told him that Karl Himmel's drum pattern on here 'messed his mind up!' I'm right there with that, baby.

Oliver Morgan - Who Shot The La La (GNP Crescendo 318)

Who Shot The La La

Please join me in saying goodbye to the king of the second line, Oliver Morgan, who passed away this past Tuesday in exile in Atlanta.

Morgan came up in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, running partners with Jessie Hill, Eddie Bo, Papoose Nelson and his brother, the fabled Prince La-La. His first recordings, like La La's, were made for A.F.O. under the name of 'Nookie Boy'. This monumental party classic we have here today, was released in 1964 and helped turn La-La's untimely death into the stuff of legend. It also became Oliver's signature tune, performed with his trademark umbrella, as he led the 'second line' every year at Jazz Fest, and anyplace else that would have him.

He and his wife Sylvia had made their home on Tennessee Street in the Lower Ninth Ward until Hurricane Katrina took it from them in 2005. Relocating to Atlanta, their heart never seemed to have made the trip. "He had 9th Ward soul," said Antoinette K-Doe, the widow of Ernie K-Doe and a friend of Mr. Morgan's for more than 40 years. "And he was a good father and a good husband."

May he rest in peace.