Ain’t No Geto Like The One I Got!?

Bobby Bland: “Ain’t no Love in the Heart of The City”
Dreamer, ABC/Dunhill, 1974.
Isaac Hayes: “Hung Up On My Baby”
Tough Guys, Stax, 1974.

Bobby Bland gifted rap fans when BK’s HOVA -related: Dipset vs ROC!?- dropped, “Heart of the City” on the Blueprint. “Ain’t no Love in the Heart of The City” has a sound uncanny to NYC, but Bland is Tennessee born, and to assume Memphis is that city would not be a lofty claim.

Bobby’s `74 release, Dreamer, was iffy and did not leave an impression on many. The flop confirmed that Bland’s career was shook after Duke Records was bought by ABC Records in `73. Whitesnake used Bobby’s song in 1980, Mary Coughlan in `02 and Paul Weller in 2003 -Bobby’s blues have become a standard. All-star jazz guitarist, Larry Carlton, makes this track with bassist, Wilton Felder. Add credit to Kanye’s sample for HOVA’s “Heart of The City” and Bland’s song is brown bag ripe for another sample clearance in Rap’s future.

Enough with the B-A-N-A-N-A-S, it’s lame.

Also in `74, Isaac Hayes played Lee Stevens -a badass cop way before John McClane- who battled Fred Williamson in Three Tough Guys (propers to Bedazzled!). Apparently the cats at Second Hand Songs think Cube’s “You Know How We Do It” sampled Hayes’ joint, but Geto Boys, “My Mind’s Playing Tricks On Me” is the most popular sample of “Hung Up On My Baby.”

Either guitarists, Michael Toles or Charles Pitts (both were with Hayes from `71 to `78ish) are responsible for a guitar solo that is Ron Superior hard.

Note: RIP Wilson Pickett. Our friend at Soul Shower did a great post with three Wilson Pickett mp3s.