I have been listening to “Little Steven’s Underground Garage” on the Sirius network in my car and have been enjoying hearing music that I am not familiar with. The DJ “Mighty Manfred” in particular has been informative with some rock and roll tidbits. Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes the dj’s try to hard to be hip and find really obscure tunes that for the most part are obscure for a reason. But that is a discussion for another day. I have heard plenty of alternative versions of songs I know, covers etc, which I have enjoyed. So here are 2 things I have learned recently.
1.) Sookie, Sookie by Steppenwolf is actually a cover of the song by Soul and R&B singer Don Covay. Steppenwolf Gold is one of the first 5 albums I bought back in 1972 and I played the crap out of that album. So for 50 years I was unaware that this song was not an original. The Don Covay original is obviously more in the R&B style and it was a nice treat to hear it.
2.) Don’t Look Back, made famous by the collaboration of Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger. One of the biggest reggae hits and a gateway tune for a lot of people to start listening to reggae. How the hell did I not know that it was originally down by The Temptations? They are my favorite Motown artist and I have plenty of their material but somehow never heard this song.
So just when you think you know more than most folks about the music scene, along comes The Mighty Manfred to slap me upside the head with some new to me musical knowledge. Thanks go out to him for playing these and other obscure gems. So, what have any of you folks picked up on recently?
1.) Sookie, Sookie by Steppenwolf is actually a cover of the song by Soul and R&B singer Don Covay. Steppenwolf Gold is one of the first 5 albums I bought back in 1972 and I played the crap out of that album. So for 50 years I was unaware that this song was not an original. The Don Covay original is obviously more in the R&B style and it was a nice treat to hear it.
2.) Don’t Look Back, made famous by the collaboration of Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger. One of the biggest reggae hits and a gateway tune for a lot of people to start listening to reggae. How the hell did I not know that it was originally down by The Temptations? They are my favorite Motown artist and I have plenty of their material but somehow never heard this song.
So just when you think you know more than most folks about the music scene, along comes The Mighty Manfred to slap me upside the head with some new to me musical knowledge. Thanks go out to him for playing these and other obscure gems. So, what have any of you folks picked up on recently?
