Delaney & Bonnie, “Home”, Stax….
…there’s a long road ahead & a lot to leave behind…
Turn my legs to rubber…my baby specializes & things get better…& better…wow…it’s finally been released (last year in 2006) after being out of print for almost four decades…white soul at it’s finest…Delaney, the cat who turned on Eric Clapton to vocalizing…plus…Bonnie, white girl from the Ikettes, it can’t get tougher than that back then, backin’ up Tina & Ike lookin’ on…gotta’ have great pipes, be able to dance & have great legs, well maybe not quite as great as Tina’s but that’s payin' some dues…& vocally & direction-wise an integral part of the “Bonnie & Delaney” sound.
I saw Ike & Tina Turner & the Ikettes when they played at the Silhouette club at the north east corner of Walnut & Main East…what a disciplined outfit… Ike who goes way back to Memphis in the early ‘50’s & the ‘acknowledged’ first rock ‘n roll record ever, Jackie Brenson’s “Rocket 88”, Jackie being backed up by Ike’s Memphis session band…anyway, Ike runs a real tight band & show, nobody goes away disappointed from his gigs and up & comers who loved the music like Delaney & Leon Russell learned big time off of the likes of Ike & James Brown & Ray Charles. I also got to see a fantastic Bo Diddley show at the Silhouette but that’s another story…
Anyway if you haven’t heard most of this album & you wouldn't have unless you had saved the vinyl from years ago or managed to collect the l.p. somewhere, seek it out…it’s the cream of the funky soulful Stax session players which is mostly Booker T, as well as some Leon Russell & Isaac Hayes on keyboards & Steve Cropper, guitar & Duck Dunn, bass & the incredible Al Jackson Jr. & the equally sweet Carl Radle on drum duties…and the horn parts hang off Wayne Jackson & Andrew Love & assorted friends… & on guitar, Delaney Bramlett who was a major studio musician before this album was put together, the soulful, funky guitar player record producers called upon to get that happenin’ now sound on your record sessions especially out on the west coast. 16 tracks of fast & slow funky soul but my ultimate favourite is “My Baby Specializes”…leaves me paralyzed dancin’ to it!
The album’s updated liner notes suggest “Home” didn’t do well back when it was recorded in 1968 because this was the days of James Brown’s “Say It Loud I’m Black & I’m Proud” & the Black Panthers etc. & black radio stations in the USA who would normally play this kind of music wouldn’t play it because Bonnie & Delaney were white & were suspected of ‘stealing’ the sound as ha happened with rock ‘n roll in the early & mid-50’s, or example Pat Boones hit of Little Richard’s “Tutti-Frutti”, an early example of ‘racial profiling…hey! I didn’t say that, it’s in the re-released CD’s liner notes…but me? I vote ‘10’ a’la Bandstand…good lyrics of course but mainly because I can dance to it eh!
