Oct 032012
I noticed a post by Townsman Buskirk that R. B. Greaves has gone on to his ultimate reward. I honestly don’t know anything by him except the most excellent “Take a Letter Maria,” a song covered by RTH All-Stars Nixon’s Head (whose version, by the way, is preferred by my 5 year old, no disrespect to the recently departed intended). Based on that one song alone, I suggest that he was a GREAT man.
NEXT: Rock Town Hall’s Official Eulogy…
What, no official RTH tribute?
Gents, could you post that Nixon’s Head cover?
The Official RTH Eulogy has been added. I’ve got a cold and went to bed at 8:45 last night, WELL before my normal bedtime.
ladymiss, I’ll see if I can load the Head cover later today. Coincidentally, earlier this week, with no knowledge of Greaves’ health, I had been writing something that tied into that song. I’m hopeful I’ll polish up my thoughts at some point today and share them as well. Thanks.
I forgot to mention in the original post that he was the nephew of Sam Cooke.
Also, if there is a better song advocating for sexual harassment in the workplace, I’d like to hear it.
There’s a Dictaphone joke somewhere in there…
I always have thought “Take a Letter, Maria,” was a great song and I was saddened to read Greaves’ obit the other morning. Duly noting my White Man’s Assumptions, I was surprised to see that Greaves was black! Why was I surprised? Damned if I know. He doesn’t sound “black enough” for me? The bullfighting horns threw me off? I think, too, there is the fact that I have always fused this song and singer with “My Maria” by B.W. Stevenson, which actually came out a few years later. Of course, now I’m assuming B.W. was white. I haven’t checked on that yet. I like both songs, though. Anyway, I am sure both were (or are, if Stevenson is alive) Great Men.
In other news, Motown songwriter & producer, Frank Wilson, has died:
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-frank-wilson-20121003,0,2467483.story
Yikes! Something kooky is happening when I try to post links here! Looked to me like the NY Times link wouldn’t post, so I tried the L.A. Times obit. Sorry about the redundancies!
I was starting to worry I didn’t know there were multiple Frank Wilsons – and that they all died at once!
This happened to me with the Oedipus thing, too. Any way to get rid of the first two?
Yes, I can delete them. For some reason a couple of your posts on Oedipus got flagged in our spam filter. Then I released them, not knowing that you had already gotten one through. I wonder if the spam filter was afraid you were posting Oedipal porn.
A song that I really, really love. Always like hearing it on the radio. RIP…
Is it “A guy walked into my office and said ‘Can I use your Dictaphone?’ and I said “No, use your finger like everyone else.'”?
Until I saw the obit, I thought Greaves was Hispanic. Maybe the horns threw me off too.
Stevenson died in the 80’s and looked a bit like Charlie Daniels. He also wrote Shambala, the only song by 3 dog night that I can stomach. And after noticing that his drummer had a great feel, I looked it up and it turns out it was one of my all time favorites, Jim Gordon.