I’ll need to get some time and write out my thoughts in some detail after hearing the news that Don Covay has died. I’ve loved Covay since discovering the man behind so many songs I first knew by other artists, thanks to a collection put out by the record label owned by a friend’s brother. My friend E. Pluribus Gergely and I, with whom I argued over who was better, Covay or Joe Tex (he was on Team Tex), went to a soul revue in Atlantic City about 10 to 15 years ago. Lloyd Price took a moment, at one point, to note his friend Don Covay in the audience. He made Don stand up and take a bow. A big guy in a white suit did as instructed. He was about 5 seats down from us. We so wanted to leap over the people beside us and hang with Covay!
Covay was probably the most rocking of R&B guys (see “Sookie Sookie” among songs rockers covered with ease and success) – not in an over-the-top “white” way but in terms of playing guitar-based rhythms that perfectly bridged the slight gap in the ’60s of “white” and “black” music. Graham Parker & the Rumour‘s live cover of “Chain of Fools” comes to mind. His knack for out-Stonesing the Stones continued into the early ’70s, with the amazing song “Hot Blood.” I can’t find it on YouTube just now, but it could easily pass for the best song on Black and Blue. So much great stuff that overcame a degree of hokiness, such as “I Was Checking Out (While She Was Checking In)”. I wish I could crank up “We Can’t Make It No More” right now. Hey, maybe I just took the time I needed to write down my thoughts.
Very well put, Mod. He was Great.
Maybe there are corollaries to people like Covay in recent decades but he’s the type of guy that makes me feel the ’60s were a golden era. Relatively unknown despite great talent and his name keeps popping up all one the place. I think RTH could come up with quite a long list of people much like him from that era. And I don’t mean to diminish his talent by saying there were many like him, only to point out how great that time was.
I turned to RTH today as soon as I heard the news.
The sound he got on those recordings for Mercy and See Saw have been an inspiration of mine since forever.
But I owe the mod and E. Plurbs a debt of gratitude for making me return to those recordings and listen to them with fresh ears in the mid 2000s. I had sort of forgotten about Covay and sensing their enthusiasm for him here on RTH put me in the mood to go back to them. And what I heard were great songs, great grooves, and great performances…much more than just great sound.
You can really hear Covay in Jagger’s vocal stylings on the early Stones records. It’s one of those rare instances where the influence seemed to go in both directions.
I came across another Don Covay-type today – Joe South. Raven (out of Australia) has released 6 of his albums on three 2-fers. I got the first with Games People Play/Joe South a few months ago and just listened to it today. Everything on these albums was written by South
Of course, everyone knows Games People Play. But this 2-fer also included Hush, the first hit for Deep Purple (which I did know was a South composition), and Yo-Yo (a hit for the Osmonds and Billy Joe Royal; South wrote Royal’s big hit Down In The Boondocks as well), Rose Garden, I Knew You When (another Royal hit), and, the big surprise to me, She’s Almost You by Philly’s own Billy Harner, the Human Perculator.
The other thing I always associate Joe South with is Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde. He played guitar on that and is pictured on the inside gatefold.
Anyway, it’s a great 2-fer and I’ll have to pick up the others to see what surprises they contain.