CALL & RESPONSE Vol. 1 - THE SONICS Ray Charles JAMES BROWN The Beatles & Many More!

CALL & RESPONSE Vol. 1

Paul McCartney & John Lennon each said in interviews that when the other would come out up with something impressive, friendly competition inspired them to do the same.  I’ve liked Jon’s last two posts so much, that I put the finishing touches a new series I’ve enjoyed “test-driving” to try to keep up.

There’s something about songs that feature CALL & RESPONSE between the lead singer & the backing vocalists that gets your blood pumping.  It seems to have come out of southern churches, & one of the masters was RAY CHARLES who reportedly wrote What'd I Say as he went along--according to SONGFACTS:

Charles improvised this onstage at a club in Brownsville, Pennsylvania in December 1958 after he played every song he knew and still had 12 minutes to fill. He simply asked his band to follow his lead... which they did. He told his backing singers (The Raeletts) to simply repeat whatever he said. The singer remembered: "I had sung everything I could think of. So I said to the guys, 'Look, I'm going to start this thing off, I don't know where I'm going, so y'all just follow me.' And I said to the girls, 'Whatever I say, just repeat after me.'"

Included here are two songs written by THE ISLEY BROTHERS (their versions show up on upcoming installments) who went as far as having the organist from their church perform on Shout! (performed here by JOAN JETT)!  Shout! came about in a similar fashion--again according to SONGFACTS:

The Isleys wrote this on the spur of the moment at a Washington, DC, concert in mid-1959. As they performed Jackie Wilson's Lonely Teardrops, Ronald Isley ad-libbed, "WELLLLLLLLLLL... you know you make me want to SHOUT" and Rudy and O'Kelly joined in on the improvisation. The audience went wild and afterwards, RCA executive Howard Bloom suggested putting it out as their first RCA single.

The Isley’s also wrote Twist & Shout—presented here in glorious mono by THE FAB FOUR.

Another artist with a long history of utilizing the approach is JAMES BROWN who really puts his band through their paces on Say It Loud, I'm Black & I'm Proud.  THE STAPLE SINGERS & GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS also came out of the church, & use it to great effect.

Something tells me not everyone on Volume 1 adopted this device after hearing it during Sunday Services...  ROCK BOTTOM & THE CUTAWAYS deliver Get Up Baby (& move your funky butt) and BUCK NAKED & THE BARE BOTTOM BOYS grind out Bend Over Baby & Let Me Drive.  And I’ve never heard anything like DEVO’S Jocko Homo in the house of the Lord.  

THE SONICS inject some venom into Night Time Is The Right Time, & LINK WRAY does the same to Good Good Lovin’.  The Who’s My Generation wraps things up, and TALKING HEADS, DAVID BOWIE, & IGGY POP start things off.  

CHARLIE & INEZ FOX’s Mockingbird is one of my favorite songs, & a sterling example of how irresistible call & response can be.  WARREN ZEVON’s entry, A Certain Girl is another favorite, and I only just discovered that Waddy Wachtel, Jorge Calderon, & Don Felder all play guitar on it.

QUEEN’s Somebody To Love is so unique that it’s easy to miss it's C&R aspect, & every time I hear Come & Get Your Love by REDBONE, I'm compelled to echo their first “HEY!”