Archie Bell & The Drells – Tighten Up!
Well, after over a year of blogging wildly, jumping between genres like a kid with ADD, and building the TWD brand, I think it's finally time I bring some focus to my blogging. We started this site because all of our tastes are eclectic and wide-ranging – a quality that seems to be lost among todays musical landscape of buzzbands and indie trends. While my personal listening habits continue to be crazy, it's just too exhausting to try to give equal opportunity to every genre, era, and style that I love.
As anyone who has read this site since it's inception knows, I love soul. I love funk. I love Motown. I love old R&B. Maybe more than anything else. So that's what I'm going to focus on writing about. Everyone digs this music, and there's a big void (with some exceptions) in the modern music scene uncovering these gems. I'm going to start consistently sharing and giving my views on jivin', dip dappin' jams that I dig up in vinyl crates or happen across through other means. I'll still occasionally introduce you to brilliant new bands, but listen kids, we need a soul injection in this here scene.
My man Archie Bell & The Drells is helping me usher in this new era. "Tighten Up" is a southern funk staple and easily one of my all-time favorite songs. Bell introduces the song with a nod to his Texas hometown since these were the days after the Kennedy assassination and Texas' image was on shaky ground. Then the groove sets in and Bell walks us through the smooth, exaggerated "Tighten Up" dance (that the Drells so deftly illustrate in the video). You can't beat this brand of simple, clean, hip-shaking funk. Thanks for the welcome, Archie.