GREG DULLI
The Afghan Whigs’ very able man selects songs for exultation, nemesis and DIY cool.
1 GEATER DAVIS I’M GONNA CHANGE (Seventy-Seven 45, 1973)
“The horns hit you full force right at the jump; like a widescreen soul symphony version of Shine On You Crazy Diamond. It’s one of the great ambush moves in music history. But it’s still not enough to prepare you for THE VOICE. Geater Davis is one of the greatest singers you will ever hear. Ever. Sandpaper and velvet. Like a chopped and screwed David Ruffin. He takes every syllable and milks it for everything it’s got. Apologia in excelsis. How he wasn’t a superstar is a mystery I’ll never understand. But he is in my heart forever. And verily I say get down. Get down and get lifted.”
2 JOHNNY JENKINS BLIND BATS AND SWAMP RATS (from Ton-Ton Macoute!, Atco/Capricorn, 1970)
“A great singer in his own right, Johnny Jenkins hired Otis Redding to be in his band as the lead singer of The Pinetoppers, and as a guitar player influenced Jimi Hendrix. He made Ton-Ton Macoute! essentially with who would become the Allman Brothers minus Gregg and Dickey Betts. It’s truly killer. While his excellent version of Walk On Gilded Splinters here would be famously sampled as Beck’s drum track for Loser and the entire album is a stone jam, I have always gravitated to the sex groove of Blind Bats And Swamp Rats. It’s a story-song and it soon becomes apparent that the story here is gonna be revenge. I’ll not give away the ending, but I will tell you that Nick Cave should probably cover it someday.”
3 CHRIS WHITLEY FROM A PHOTOGRAPH (from Rocket House, ATO, 2001)
“A perfect song. When you hear one, you know it and this is one of those songs. When I first heard it, it made me think of The Last Picture Show and no surprise that both were made in Texas. It is at once fragile and defiant, stately and devastated. At first the world is candlelit and then the sun shoots through the trees and you’re suddenly flying through a ghost town only to land again and get your heart sweetly broken. I have listened to this song over and over again and hear new things each and every time. 3:55 of sheer transcendent, ramshackle perfection.”
4 O’SPADA PAY OFF (from Pay Off, Despotz, 2010)
“With more hooks than a tackle box, this song surges from strength to strength to strength. O’Spada are the creation of Swedish songwriter/ frontwoman Julia Spada and this lady’s got serious singing and songwriting chops. It’s superfunky pop and kind of reminds me of Prince’s first couple albums with its urgently synthy steez. Plus she can flat out wail. I can’t remember how I came to hear the song but after listening to it several times, I was hunting down live performances on YouTube. And while I love the studio recording, the live version at På Jam in Malmo is a definitive take. Barely controlled chaos and a good fucking time is happening right in front of you. Dig it.”
5 AARON WILLIAMS (ALLEGEDLY) DRINK ’TIL I CAN’T THINK NO MO (YouTube (tinyurl.com/ l6dnb5x), 2015)
“It starts with a stone cold beat that is simply him rapping his knuckles and fingernail on a car hood near a beach somewhere in America. And then this dude begins to slowly blow your mind. He leads in with the hook/chorus and trust me when I say you will be singing it in your head and/or out loud for days. “I’m gonna drink ’til I can’t think no mo, smoke ’til I can’t see no mo/I’m gonna go to the club/I’m a show up/Throw money ’til my arms get sore,” he sings. And then begins the Mystikal meets DMX verse bars and things become increasingly more animated as he rhymes you back to that chorus. And like all great MCs, he puts you in the room with him, “I’m in the VIP/Bad bitches surrounding me/ Lickin’ their lips/Throwin’ their hips.” All while calmly rocking his own beat and hanging on to his Arizona Iced Tea. He’s so fucking cool and this song is amazing.”