DAVID PORTER

Victim Of The Joke? An Opera CRAFT

6/10

Overambitious solo record from one of Stax’s greatest songwriters

During the late 1960s David Porter co-wrote some of Stax Records’ biggest hits, including Carla Thomas’s “B-A-B-Y” and Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man”. Emboldened by the success of his former songwriting partner Isaac Hayes, he tried to reinvent himself in the 1970s as a solo artist, releasing a handful of records featuring some excellent originals and some daring covers (most notoriously, an 11-minute version of “Hang On Sloopy”). On 1973’s Victim Of The Joke?,

however, his ambitions get the better of him. Mixing gritty soul numbers with interludes that sound like aimless radio plays, the album tells the story of a lovelorn fellow named David, who pines for a woman named Shirley. The drama is melo-, not mellow, as kitschy as shag carpeting; worse, it sounds extraneous, since the songs tell the same story in much more vivid detail. Porter’s stomping cover of The Beatles’ “Help!” depicts a man flailing for stability while the world shifts violently around him, while the nineminute version of jazz standard “(I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over” is the album’s blistered, bleeding heart and the highlight of Porter’s solo career. Victim was a misfire at the time, but it’s been a cult obsession ever since. Extras: None.