A Few Of My Favourite Thangs

Dennis Coffey Trio: Let The Sunshine In and Iceberg's Thang
From: Hair and Thangs (Maverick, 1969)

Continuing with the covers theme, one such record this style of digging through my own crates brought up was Dennis Coffey's Hair and Thangs. My previous knowledge of Dennis before picking up this record was mainly based round his timeless breaks Scorpio and Taurus but this record offers up more proof of the man's talents.

Starting off as a session musician, Dennis played with many of the greats including The Temptations, Parliament and, eh, Ringo Starr before starting his career as a solo artist. You can read more about his music here.

Hair and Thangs offers up a combination of cover songs and original compositions, but what caught my ear was Coffey's version of Galt MacDermot's Let The Sunshine In. So dirty it hurts the track has to be one of the funkiest reworkings of the song ever laid down on vinyl, layering up killer hammond organ with an extremely heavy guitar solo and a couple of drum breaks. Check out the way the vocals are brought into the mix for the final bars as well, ingenious.

Iceberg's Thang displays Coffey's skill at writing original pieces with clattering drums and sweaty guitar work. A couple of tempo changes keep the listener's interest and the intensity of the sound demand that this track gets played loud. This stuff is raw as you like and all the better for it.