Atlantic Blues: Vocalists, various artists, Atlantic Records, 1986 (continued)

The hits and the stars keep coming. Percy Mayfield had a minor hit with I Don’t Want to Be President. Nixon was gone in 1974, and Mayfield says he didn’t want to get stuck with that mess. Next there’s Ted Taylor doing a big Mayfield hit—River’s Invitation. Esther Williams isn’t accusing her man of being a cold fish—she’s just like a fish because she keeps going for his line. She likes what he uses for bait. Otis Clay describes the meanest woman in Pouring Water on a Drowning Man. She pushes him when he’s falling, kicks him when he’s down, stabs him in the back, puts salt in his wound, and leaves him in the cold. Rufus Thomas did Walkin’ the Dog and sang duets with his daughter Carla Thomas. Titus Turner wrote All Around the World, which Little Willie John turned into the immortal Grits Ain’t Groceries. Bobby Bland, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, complains that his baby treats him like a school boy. Johnny Copeland (perhaps best remembered now as Shemekia Copeland’s father) said he’ll cry if he wants to (but not the way that Leslie Gore put it). Johnny Taylor has a bad dream that the only woman he ever loved was leaving. [My nightmare was that the goggle brought back Johnnie Taylor to my queries for Johnny.] Miss Aretha Franklin told her man that if he’s not gonna take care of business then he oughta stop taking up space. Z.Z. Hill (who was Z.Z. before ZZ Top) wants his baby to be home at dinnertime.