2024 can be kinda lame...
Come Join us in 1974
Brook Benton
The Boll Weevil Song
Released: May 4th, 1961
The events we write about at Gaslight Records happened in some form or another 50 years ago to the day. Roll along with us and imagine you are back in 1974.
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Brook Benton injects a certain cheek into his rendition of 'the boll weevil song'. A poppy or PG rated type cheek.
He leaves the soulfulness of Leadbelly's 1934 rendition at the door, and instead opts for a level of lightheartedness that, in this writer's opinion, undermines the true potential of the track. Leadbelly got to the guts of it. There was a torment and true weight to his delivery, however, these elements have been left wanting in Benton's version.
It perhaps took until a young Jacky White reared his head for this song to be replenished to it's former and rightful glory.
At the very least this tune provides an interesting glimpse at the (50′s-early 60′s) pop industry's tendency to homogenise everything its path.
2024 can be kinda lame...
Come Join us in 1974
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