Friday, March 26, 2010

I don't want it all...


If I have to tell ya'll that Rosco/Roscoe Gordon was one of the greats then you really should do some research on your own.

By some accounts this record shouldn't exist as Gordon supposedly retired in 1962. Which really only makes sense if you consider that 'retirement' might be a euphemism for 'showing disgust'. Seems 1962 was the year Gordon figured out that the rights to his considerable body of work over the previous decade had all been stolen. Over 300 songs. Not just by one person either. The labels involved were Sun, Duke, RPM, Flip, and Chess.

Even Ralph Bass, A&R man for King [a label which never even released anything by Gordon], got in on the act. He owned the rights to "Just A Little Bit" for thirty years before finally returning them to Gordon in 1990.

Anyway, while in 'retirement' Gordon did several things...he got married, opened a laudromat with money he won in a poker game, and created his own publishing and production companies. In 1969 he started his own label, Bab-Roc.

Oh yeah, he also put out at least 10, possibly as many as 15, singles....including this killer re-make of "Just A Little Bit" in 1968.

Moral of story: check your shit twice before you even begin to imply that a record company flack had good intentions or contributed in any way towards making a record. This applies across the board, from A to...Wexler.

Hope ya enjoy...


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