Tighten Up

The cover art of the week. On first sampling, the record is a mediocre affair with the lovely exception of the title track(s, part 1 and part 2). Funky soul dance goodness, please. I found a dusty copy in the recently opened Uncle Sam's Record Emporium of Old Town Lansing for 4.70. At Uncle Sam's all the prices seem to be caculated to come out to very convenient sums when Michigan's 6% sales tax is added (do the math, dummy).

According to Rolling Stone, Tighten Up is the 265th greatest song.

After Bell got his draft notice, in May '67, he wanted to record with his group, the Drells, before he got shipped off to Vietnam. He pulled out "Tighten Up," one of the group's old demos, and remade it as a strutting funk vamp. Bell got shot in the leg in Vietnam; the song went to Number One while he was in a military hospital trying to convince people the song on the radio was his.

Also, the cover may be the inspiration for next Halloween.