Get on back....

I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of this 45 for something like four years....and then two copies turned up on Ebay, as well as another, locally, all in the same week. I bought the local copy [bird in hand], even though it had the same label on both sides. A friend won one of the Ebay copies.

In the end, we swapped copies because I really hate mislabeled records and he was pissed off that this copy had more water damage than expected [which made it a bitch to clean as tiny bits of the label along with printers ink had dried in the grooves].

Anyway, I don't know squat about Elmer Parker except that he has three 45s to his name, each several times harder to find than the last. This being the second hardest [I think]. It's certainly not the easiest or the cheapest to cop.

Beyond that, I only know of one other issue on the Rare Bird label [the release numbers hint at more]. The other is credited to Brenda Parker, who shows up on side two of this record, and may well be the same Brenda Parker who recorded a single for the Black Falcon label.

Brenda and Elmer were a couple? Your guess is as good as mine.

Music-wise this 45 falls into that very sweet spot where blues, jazz, and funk come together exactly as they should, ie, naturally. More naturally than on any other record I can think of. I wish there were a hundred 45s like this, but there aren't.

"Got To Get Back To Louisiana" [incorrectly listed as both parts 1&2] has been comped a couple of times on fairly obscure catch-all type collections. But still, it's not a record that pops up every day. Even I, who has been doggedly searching for this damn thing, didn't have an mp3 of part 1 until I ripped the 45.

Going To Louisiana [Part 1.]

Got To Get Back To Louisiana [Part 2.]