I Might As Well Claim It
http://www.counterpunch.org/marsh10202010.html
The Great General Johnson
By DAVE MARSH
October 20, 2010
General Johnson died last week. He wrote the first great rock'n'roll
song not about rock'n'roll itself exactly but about why the music
would prevail. And he wrote a ton of other stuff, though that one and
"Patches," his deeply affectionate reminiscence of hard times in the
rural south, got the attention.
"It Will Stand" was a prophetic voice in its way, as much as James
Baldwin's was. "It swept this whole wide land / Sinkin' deep in the
hearts of man." Grown-ups must have thought he was nuts. It was 1961.
Rock'n'roll was out of fashion since … oh, maybe the plane crash. Two
years, might as well have been forever. Who else believed that music
would have a comeback?
Every kid who heard it. I was ten, it never left my mind all through
the crap about the Beatles, long hair, too simplistic….ten years of
blah blah blah.
And that whole period at Invictus Records….man! At that point, he was
the most powerful ally Holland Dozier Holland (who owned the joint) possessed.
In that time, the early '70s, General Johnson wrote some of the
greatest anti-war songs: "Men are Getting Scarce," "Bring the Boys
Home." He wrote the greatest anthem of the down-low, "Band of Gold."
He wrote Laura Lee's "Wedlock is a Padlock," which Loretta Lynn ought
to have covered. Not to forget Honey Cone's rendition of his version
of "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show," which I actually like better than
Joe Tex or Oscar Brown Jr and I don't hardly ever like anything
better than Joe Tex. Beyond that, "Westbound #9 was just classic,
like an updated "Expressway to Your Heart" from the Motor City.
For his Invictus group, Chairmen of the Board, Johnson wrote about
fifteen great songs including "Patches" (I think that they did it
before Clarence Carter defined it.) The Chairmen also had a stage act
that is totally under-rated, with wild ass Harrison Kennedy adding a
P-Funk thing. I remember him racing through the streets of some
theater, in NY or Detroit I can't remember, a la Shider, only wearing
lime green jockey shorts instead of the diaper.
I interviewed them for Creem but can't remember what I wrote. Maybe
nothing. I was taking it in, but maybe not ready to spit it back out.
It was one thing to see Funkadelic, a black rock band, but it was
another thing for that kind of outrageousness to pop up with vocal
groups. It made me ready for Labelle and Sylvester, probably.
Then all those beach music records, a steady stream of them it seemed
like, as they worked the Carolina beaches. Just dance groovesI never
found a great song in any of those various albums they did for little
labels down there. Never found any bad songs, either. Which is
tougher than it might seem.
To me, General Johnson was a giant. A ton more interesting than a
sometimes-inspired hustler like Solomon Burke.
Probably that's just my problem but…what if it isn't?
--
Dave Marsh (along with Lee Ballinger) edits Rock & Rap Confidential,
one of CounterPunch's favorite newsletters, now available for free by
emailing: rock...@aol.com. Dave blogs at http://davemarsh.us/
.
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