by Max Conroy
I was at the Cousins’ warehouse this weekend, hanging out, looking through piles of records that were in too poor shape to sell, talking about music. We found tons of cool stuff and unfortunately it won’t be available to you guys out there because they’d like to provide you with the best records available. Perhaps email them or reply to a post if anyone out there is willing to have a less than perfect copy of a hard to find record. One of the records that Geoff pulled out was by Jimmy McCracklin. I’d heard the name but knew nothing about him. Later that day Justin threw on his Twist with Jimmy McCracklin album. It was definitely good, but we were hanging out, talking, not paying too much attention to anything. It definitely didn’t sound like Chubby Checker.
The next day, I went to Encore to get some paper sleeves for the records they graciously let me have and casually looked at the first stack I saw, and there was Jimmy McCracklin’s My Answer record. I really didn’t want to spend the money; $10 isn’t going to break the bank, but you know how it is, the end of the month and all. So I walked around holding the record not convinced that I’d buy it, but not ready for anyone else to walk off with it. I dropped the needle on the record, looking around the shop, earphones on, with the feeling that I’m on the inside looking out, through a fish bowl. Hiss, pop. All of a sudden $10 was put into perspective, it wasn’t a problem. Jimmy McCracklin was worth whatever I would have spent the money on, including food or tobacco.
McCracklin was born in 1921…and still performes! He cut his first record in 1945, ya know, back at the birth of the atomic age. That would make him 45 years-old back in 1966 when My Answer came out. I’m not sure if the record is supposed to be a greatest hits record or if Liberty records slapped a bunch of previously released songs around the title track, but I know some of the songs are on other records and the title track was released as a single the same year the record came out. Anyway, I digress. The music can’t be beat and is surprisingly broad in its variety. When I read that it was a comp, I thought that it must have been over several years, but he was only on Liberty in ‘65 and ‘66. The music is strange in that it’s soul, it’s blues, it’s funk, it’s so much all of these things that it’s almost difficult to pin down right away. The first song, the title cut, is a Southern soul ballad about leaving a woman with a letter, ending it with, “I’m sorry for you”. Meaning, I’m sorry for what you fucked up and that you’ll die alone, not I feel bad. The second song Beulah is the one that really caught my attention. James Brown and Dyke were hammering out the finishing touches of their grooves on the anvil of funk when this was made and it’s pretty much as funky as what they were doing at the time. McCracklin’s drummer doesn’t seem like he gets the picture but he’s trying his best in a jazzy sort of way. The next song, Every Day, Every Night, is a straight Jimmy Reed-style blues number. Magic Sam later did a cover of it and it’s obvious that McCracklin was an influence. All of these styles on this record are done so well that it’s mind blowing.
Every Day, Every Night:
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