365 Days of Song Recommendations: June 2
Coldblooded — The Bar-Kays
I’ve been listening to the Yacht Rock station of Sirius/XM lately.
Good news, reader, that has nothing to do with this. I just thought I’d lay down some misdirection before launching some “black rock,” aka the funk and R&B sounds of the late 1960s and early 1970s that bands like the Bar-Kays helped pioneer.
The Bar-Kays became Otis Redding’s backing band and released their highest charting Billboard single “Soul Finger” in 1967. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, all but two of the original Bar-Kays died in a 1967 plane crash along with the great Otis Redding. The tragedy forced a minor reinvention. The re-assembled Bar-Kays backed the best of the Stax artists through the beginning of the new decade.
By the time the band released 1974’s Coldblooded, their last record released on Stax before the label folded, only bassist James Alexander remained — but this new blood pumped The Bar-Kays into funkier, more dynamic dimensions.
Queue up the album. Its opening, the title track, rings your damn doorbell. “Hello, it’s us, the Bar-Kays. Hold onto your butts, cuz they about to move.” At almost a full six minutes, “Coldblooded” nods towards the greats, featuring a Booker T. groove and vocals ripped from the James Brown playbook. And just when you think you’ve heard the Bar-Kay’s final volley, Barry Wilkins’ guitar lights up an even funkier riff.
Now, the band’s probably most recognized for “Too Hot To Stop,” which opens the film Superbad (2007). And that’s not a bad way to worm their way back into the yute’s playlists, but the band’s always been a little underrepresented and undersold. The Bar-Kays churned out catchy funk and soul in the shadows of the more popular Sly and the Family Stone and the Isley Brothers. They remained eclipsed by those artists.
I’m just here, doing my part to keep the Bar-Kays spinning and put some funk back in your Humpday.
“Coldblooded” is the 153rd song on the exclusive #365Songs playlist!
