Joe Tex: I Gotcha (1972)

Tex mixes James-Brown-ish funk with southern soul and a few ballads on an album that was recorded with some of the best session men in this wide, wide world: the crews at American Sound Studios in Memphis and the Sound Shop in Nashville.

Joe Tex recorded his last major hit, "I Gotcha", in 1971 at American Sound Studio. "I Gotcha" was originally intended to be recorded by King Floyd, but Floyd never recorded a version of it. Instead, Tex went ahead and recorded it himself in the late 1960s, but ended up not releasing it. He decided to re-record the song in late 1971 at American Sound Studio and released it as the B-side of "A Mother's Prayer," the first single off his 1972 album that was also titled I Gotcha. Radio DJs decided to flip the single over and started playing "I Gotcha." This would result in Tex having his first major hit in five years as "I Gotcha" eventually peaked at number one on the R&B chart and number two on the Pop chart and would sell around three million copies. [wikipedia]

Tex mostly relied on original material. And while his singing is passionate and sharp and the accompaniement spot on, it's the songs that unfortunately do not always live up to the talent available in the studio.

Side A has three sweating funk tracks that all own something to James Brown, most obviously "Give The Baby Anything...", yet all three show that Tex sure had his own way with the funk.
The two ballads inbetween admittedly don't reach me. Tex' penchant for converting every ballad into a monologue seems rather annoying to me. The closing "God Of Love" is nice pop-soul reminiscent of Bobby Womack.
Side B boasts with the driving, slighly over-the-top "You Said A Bad Word". "Bad Feet" has a great southern soul grove for it's rather lighthearted lyrics. "The Woman Cares" is again reminiscent of Bobby Womack. Womack was a session staple at Chips Moman's American Sound and i bet he played on this session and made his influence felt. "You're In Too Deep" doesn't have much to offer in the way of lyrics, but is another nice southern groover.

A nice if not worldshaking album.

This may be the last post for a while as i'm preparing to move house next week. See you soon!

Joe Tex: I Gotcha
Dial (Us) DL-6002 / Mercury ‎(Ger) 6338 093
1972

A1I Gotcha 2:18
A2 Give The Baby Anything The Baby Wants 3:20
A3 Takin' A Chance (Jerry Weaver) 3:32
A4 Baby Let Me Steal You 2:06
A5 It Ain't Gonna Work Baby 3:06
A6 God Of Love 2:40

B1 You Said A Bad Word 2:33
B2 Bad Feet 3:25
B3 The Woman Cares 3:08
B4 Love Me Right Girl 3:06
B5 For My Woman 3:32
B6 You're In Too Deep 2:03

All tracks written by Joe Tex, except as indicated.

Studio: American Recording Studios, Memphis, Tenn. and The Sound Shop, Nashville, Tenn.
Engineer: Ernie Winfrey, Stan Kessler
Producer: Buddy Killen

Tex at Soul Train with "I Gotcha", worth watching for the incredible dancer that's with him on the stage alone: