Monday, January 5, 2009

tight person of the day: edwin starr



LISTEN UP, HUMANITY. I have a problem. My television remote just died. I even changed the batteries and nothing happened. Look, I can barely figure out how to change the toilet paper roll much less reprogram a remote. The thing is, I got really frustrated and decided to let my boyfriend, iTunes, handle the situation. Guess what it picked out for me first? The total badass shown above. I knew I had to take this sign and run with it.

Edwin Starr is a soul singer and also a pro at posing in front of American flags. These colors don't run, y'allz. Edwin was born Charles Edwin Hatcher and I don't think that's a bad last name he had going originally. I see the positive upgrade that happened with "Starr" as a stage name, though. Took it to another level. I am sharing with you his first Motown hit from 1965 today. It was released due to a James Bond popularity thing that was happening at the time. Agent Double-O-Soul! Get it? I'm so into this song title. Dang, I wish I had written this song all those years ago. Brills.

Edwin worked quite a bit with the genius Norman Whitfield, who helped create that unique Motown sound we all know and love. You might be familiar with Edwin from his super popular song "War" from 1970. This anti-Vietnam song has some of the best grunting I've ever heard in a song. Edwin claims it was recorded in one take, which makes me want to marry him even more. Edwin continued recording and had some mild disco hits. Everyone dabbled in disco in those days, but that ain't wrong! He went to the great gig in the sky in 2003. Too soon.

As a bonus, I'm including a video of my personal savior, Billy Preston, singing and dancing to this song accompanied by some joker named Ray Charles on piano. These dance moves probably deserve their own post, but I have bad television to watch and I have a lot of manual channel-changing to do.



Edwin Starr - Agent Double-O-Soul

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