JANICE'S
BLUES ALLEY
PRESENTS
JOE TEX
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Joe Tex made the first Southern soul record that also hit on the pop charts ("Hold What You've Got," in 1965, made number five in Billboard). His raspy-voiced, jackleg preacher style also laid some of the most important parts of rap's foundation. He is, arguably, the most underrated of all the '60s soul performers associated with Atlantic Records, although his records were more likely than those of most soul stars to become crossover hits.
Tex was born Joseph Arrington in Rogers, TX, in 1933, and displayed his vocal talent quickly, first in gospel, then in R&B. By 1954, he'd won a local talent contest and come to New York, where he recorded a variety of derivative (and endlessly repackaged) singles for King, some as a ballad singer, some as a Little Richard-style rocker.
Tex's career didn't take off until he began his association with Nashville song publisher Buddy Killen, after Tex wrote James Brown's 1961 song "Baby You're Right." In 1965, Killen took him to Muscle Shoals, not yet a fashionable recording center, and they came up with "Hold What You've Got," which is about as close to a straight R&B ballad as Tex ever came. It was followed by a herd more, most of which made the R&B charts, a few cracking the pop Top 40.
Tex made his mark by preaching over tough hard soul tracks, clowning at some points, swooping into a croon at others. He was perhaps the most rustic and back-country of the soul stars, a role he played to the hilt by using turns of phrase that might have been heard on any ghetto street corner, "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show" the prototype. In 1966, his "I Believe I'm Gonna Make It," an imaginary letter home from Vietnam, became the first big hit directly associated with that war. His biggest hit was "Skinny Legs and All," from a 1967 live album, his rapping pure hokum over deeply funky riffs. "Skinny Legs" might have served as a template for all the raucous, ribald hip-hop hits of pop's future.
After "Skinny Legs," Tex had nothing but minor hits for five years until "I Gotcha" took off, a grittier twist on the funk that was becoming disco. He was too down-home for the slickness of the disco era, or so it would have seemed, yet in 1977, he adapted a dance craze, the Bump, and came up with the hilarious "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)," his last Top Ten R&B hit, which also crossed over to number 12 on the pop chart.
In the early '70s, Tex converted to Islam and in 1972 changed his offstage name to Joseph Hazziez. He spent much of the time after "Ain't Gonna Bump" on his Texas farm, although he did join together with Wilson Pickett, Ben E. King, and Don Covay for a reformed version of the Soul Clan in 1980. He died of a heart attack in 1982, only 49 years old. Killen, King, Covay, Pickett, and the great songwriter Percy Mayfield served as pallbearers.
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| LOOK | ALBUM | YEAR |  | 1965 | Hold What You've Got | | 1966 | The New Boss | | 1966 | The Love You Save | | 1966 | I've Got To Do A Little Better | | 1968 | Live And Lively | | 1968 | Soul Country | | 1969 | Buying A Book | | 1969 | Happy Soul | | 1969 | You Better Get It | | 1970 | Joe Tex: With Strings And Things | | 1972 | Spill The Beans | | 1972 | From The Roots Come The Rapper | | 1977 | Bumps & Bruises | | 1977 | Another Man's Woman | | 1978 | Rubdown | | 1979 | He Who Is Without Funk, Cast The First Stone | | 1980 | Hold On | | 2000 | Joe Tex: 25 All-Time Greatest Hits |
1965 Hold What You've Got
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1. You Got What It Takes 2. Tell Me Right Now 3. One Monkey Don't Stop No Show 4. Hold What You've Got 5. I'm Not Going To Work Today 6. We Are Ready |
7. You Better Get It 8. Heap See Few Know 9. Fresh Out Of Tears 10. You Can Stay 11. There Is A Girl 12. Together We Stand |
1966 The New Boss
1966 The Love You Save
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1. The Love You Save(may be your own) 2. Live For Yourself 3. Build Your Love(on a solid foundation) 4. I Don't Trust Myself Around You 5. Funny Bone 6. A Sweet Woman Like You |
7. I'm A Man 8. You Better Believe It Baby 9. Close The Door 10. If Sugar Was As Sweet As You 11. Heartbreak Hotel 12. Don't Let Your Left Hand Know |
1966 I've Got To Do A Little Better
1968 Live And Lively
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1. Show Me 2. Do Right Woman, Do Right Man 3. Get Out Of My Life, Woman 4. Wooden Spoon 5. That's Life 6. Love Is A Hurting Thing |
7. Don't Give Up 8. A Woman's Hands 9. You're Gonna Thank Me, Woman 10. Papa Was Too 11. Skinny Legs And All |
1968 Soul Country
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1. I'll Never Do You Wrong 2. Ode To Billie Joe 3. The Dark End Of The Street 4. Funny How Time Slips Away 5. Engine, Engine Number Nine |
6. Skip A Rope 7. Green, Green Grass Of Home 8. Set Me Free 9. By the Time I Get To Phoenix 10. Honey |
1969 Buying A Book
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1. We Can't Sit Down Now 2. Sure Is Good 3. That's The Way 4. Anything You Wanna Know 5. It Ain't Sanitary |
6. The Only Way 7. Grandma Mary 8. Get Your Lies Together 9. The Same Things You Did To Get Me 10. Buying A Book |
1969 Happy Soul
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1. Go Home And Do It 2. That's Your Baby 3. Baby Be Good 4. You Need Me Baby 5. Chicken Crazy |
6. You've Come A Long Way 7. Sweet, Sweet Woman 8. You Can Tell 9. Take The Fifth Amendment 10. Keep The One You Got |
1969 You Better Get It
1970 Joe Tex: With Strings And Things
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1. Everything Happens On Time 2. The Same Old Soup 3. I Love You And I Thank You 4. A Little Friendly Advice 5. Take My Baby A Little Love |
6. You're Right, Ray Charles 7. She Might Need Me 8. Daddy's Got A Bad Back 9. My Wife, My Woman 10. I Can't See You No More |
1972 Spill The Beans
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1. All The Heaven A Man Really Needs 2. You're Sure Gonna Get It 3. Woman Stealer 4. Rain Go Away 5. Let's Go Somewhere And Talk 6. A Mother's Prayer |
7. Cat's Got Her Tongue 8. Living In The Last Days 9. I Come To You 10. King Thaddeus 11. Trying To Win Your Love 12. Papa's Dream |
1972 From The Roots Come The Rapper
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1. Lovin' Man 2. The Only Way I Know How To Love You 3. I Can Do It Better 4. Chained In The Mind 5. I'll Never Fall In Love Again |
6. Oh Me, Oh My 7. There's No Business Like Love 8. The Baby Is Mine 9. Some Things In Life Are Worth Dying For 10. Hate Yourself In The Morning |
1977 Bumps & Bruises
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1. Ain't Gonna Bump No More 2. Leaving You Dinner 3. Be Cool 4. I Mess Up Everything 5. We Held On |
6. I Almost Got To Heaven Once 7. Hungry For Your Love 8. Jump Bad 9. There's Something Wrong |
1977 Another Man's Woman
1978 Rubdown
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1. Rubdown 2. You Can Be My Star 3. Get It 4. Get Back, Leroy 5. Be Kind To Old People |
6. You Might Be Digging The Garden 7. Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk 8. I Gotcha 9. I Know How You Like Your Loving 10. Congratulations |
1979 He Who Is Without Funk, Cast The First Stone
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1. Loose Caboose 2. How Do You Spell Relief 3. If You Don't Want The Man 4. Finger Popped Myself Into The Poor House |
5. Who Gave Birth To The Funk 6. Hold What You've Got 7. He Who Is Without Funk 8. Music Ain't Got No Color |
1980 Hold On
2000 Joe Tex: 25 All-Time Greatest Hits
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1. Hold What You've Got 2. You Got What It Takes 3. You Better Get It 4. A Woman Can Change A Man 5. Don't Let Your Left Hand Know 6. One Monkey Don't Stop No Show 7. I Want To Do(everything for you) 8. A Sweet Woman Like You 9. The Love You Save(may be your own) 10. S.Y.S.L.J.F.M(the letter song) 11. I Believe I'm Gonna Make It 12. I've Got To Do A Little Bit Better 13. Papa Was Too |
14. Show Me 15. Woman Like That, Yeah 16. A Woman's Hands 17. Skinny Legs And All 18. Men Are Getting Scarce 19. I'll Never Do You Wrong 20. Keep The One You Got 21. You Need Me, Baby 22. Buying A Book 23. I Gotcha 24. You Said A Bad Word 25. Ain't Gonna Bump No More |
