In the 1960s the United States had so many from-coast-to-coast hits which came from labels of rural cities. They could not get a wider reach without the help of distributers. Today the national distribution networks are dominated by the corporate. And even at that time except Motown or elsewhere there had already been little independent labels with their own networks. New York and Los Angeles, the twin towers where the corporate settle down, held the key to hit-making. Especially, New York allowed so many people, from the big shots to those who struggled to seize the chance, to come in and go out . 'The Brill Building' was located at its center and carried tons of music publishing companies. Don Covay is likely to be generally thought as one of leading person of Atlantic soul in New York, though, he had a set of interesting works before and after having relations with Atlantic in big cities of the east coast. In spite of coming from gospel, his voice ends with a shout before phrasing smoothly in higher tones like gifted soul singers. This is like a white singer who adores the black and starts imitating them. I suppose this should have led to his standpoint a little off from typical soul music since the late '60s through the early '70s.
I took notice of the name Don Covay first on the compilation "Atlantic Rhythm & Blues 1947-1974" in a library as usual for me. I was more accustomed to others' tunes composed by him. Aretha Franklin's Chain of Fools, with a fine groove of the blusy reverbed guitar and the chorus at the catchy part, is one of them. On "Cameo Parkway 1957-1967" there is his composition Pony Time, Chubby Checker's largest hit except for The Twist, and there is also his own singing The Popeye Waddle written by Cameo=Parkway team Kal Mann and Dave Appell as one of bandwagoners during the Twist boom. He wrote various kinds from ballads to dances : Letter Full of Tears for Gladys Knight, You Can Run (But You Can't Hide) for Jerry Butler, The Continental Walk for 'the original Twist' Hank Ballard or Long Tall Shorty for the Kinks before having a concern with Atlantic, and many sides for not only Aretha Franklin but Solomon Burke or Wilson Pickett while staying at Atlantic. On "Mercy Mercy : The Definitive Don Covay", which is out of print but it compiles his own readings since '57 to '75 chronologically, you can hear his own singing Pony Time and his early tunes following the vogues like Little Richard, Ben E. King or doo-wap. They should attract junkmusic lovers like me.
A small label Rosemart released a pretty cool tune Mercy, Mercy, beginning with the impressive blusy licks of guitar (it was said to be played by Covay's usual mate Bob Bushnell or Jimi Hendrix, though, no lists of the session can be found) and intertwining the Goodtimers' gospel chorus with Covay's shout or falsetto. This hit led to his joining in Atlantic which distributed it. You can find in the Rolling Stones' version Mick Jaggar's tongue-rolling-in-mouth delivery resembles that of Don Covay so well and is under the influence of him. His album "Mercy" contains mainly the recordings in New York like those in the Mercy, Mercy formula or gospel-tinged ballads. "See-Saw" featuring his next hits See-Saw or Sookie Sookie has wonderful simple and groovy backings by Booker T & the MGs and the Memphis horns of Stax, which give fine changes to the succession of up-and-down dance tunes in his favor. He was appreciated not only by polular Aretha Franklin who made the rendition of See-Saw but by white rock people, and he is likely to be told in the words 'Atlantic soul of the '60s'.
However, Atlantic started moving its priority from rather hobby-like black music to more profitable white rock since around '68 when the association with Stax was cut. Don Covay sensitively reacted to the tranisition and his notion was embodied as the almost pure white blues rock album "The House of Blue Lights" with the white-based Jefferson Lemon Band. He left Atlantic partly because he was dissatisfied with its weak promotion under the judement like "It would not be sold by the blacks", and then he went on straying from the path. Among his trial and error from strange 'country funk' to Philly soul disco No Tell Motel appeared on "The Definitive Don Covay", I think his rather solid compositions are "Different Strokes for Differnt Folks"(its A side can be heard on "Superdude" and B side on "Funky Yo Yo") from Janus and "Superdude" or "Hot Blood" from Mercury. His ideas in "Differnt Strokes..." were to add some various sounds like soulful horns or sweet strings to rock band sound of Muscle Shoals, and they are developed on "Superdude" and thrown to your ear : funky soul Overtime Man or rock ballad I was Checkin' Out She was Checkin' In or his readings of others' tunes in the style of kind of reggae or the electric. "Hot Blood", featuring Jefferson Lemon Band, shows more rock-oriented sounds like It's Better to Have (and Don't Need) and contains the early funky disco Rumble in the Jungle in relation with the bout of Ali vs. Foreman in Kinshasa. Although soul purists should not allow such things, I enjoy listening as the products of the times strange but interesting before when everything went to disco.
As written precisely in Peter Guralnick's "Sweet Soul Music", Don Covay took the leading role of making an album featuring the artists who belonged to or took the distribution help from Atlantic. Wilson Pickett was eagar at first but retreated and Otis Redding could not join because of his death by a plane accident, nevertheless, Solomon Burke, Authur Conley, Ben E. King, Joe Tex and Covay formed the Soul Clan with their personal expectations and cut a single in '68, a ballad That's How It Feels and an up-tempo Soul Meeting in vocal-relaying styles (they can be heard on "Ali : Original Soundtrack II" or "The Very Best of Solomon Burke"). The group of musicians should have been patient, however, the singers each of whom thought "I am the best" ended in on bad terms and left only two sides. Adding Wilson Pickett they had a live concert in '81, though, it is said that they quarreled off the stage and each of them acted as he liked on the stage. In spite of good and bad opinions of him, I'm certain that Don Covay should have been vigorous in doing his various ideas. (2006/10/28)