Happy Birthday Eddie Bo Posted by Junior

Vibrettes: Humpty Bump Parts 1 & 2 Eddie Bo: Getting To The Middle From: Eddie Bo's Funky Funky New Orleans [Funky Delicacies, 2005] It's been a miserable few weeks for soul and funk fans (I'm still hard at work putting together my Hayes tribute) so now would seem an appropriate time to celebrate some happier news. Awesomely talented NOLA producer Eddie Bo will be celebrating his 78th birthday tomorrow and, all things being equal, will probably be playing a gig to celebrate. I'v ebeen meaning to feature Eddie for a while now but have been suffering from a lack of Bo records to feature. In fact both today's choices come from something you rarely see on Earfuzz - a compilation - but it's a damn fine one and we're living in a recession apparently so give me a break please. One of my favourite Bo productions, Humpty Bump is a mighty fine slice of sixties dance related funk as The Vibrettes kindly talk you through the motions required to successfully pull off the Humpty Bump. Not much more than a minimal rhythm with vocals this track grooves so damn hard. Those drums, those drums... Turns out this isn't a Bo production but is instead the baby of Johnny Otis who I've yet to feature on here (though his son has been featured on this site many times) - great track anyway. Eddie also released a fair bit of quality under his own name as well as anyone whose ever danced to Hook and Sling can testify. Getting To The Middle is a bass heavy beast with that impossible to resist horn hook. True to form Eddie even throws a break in there at the end so everyone's happy. You can find out more about the man's legacy at the ever reliable Funky 16 Corners Happy Birthday Eddie. On a side note, you may have noticed that I'm still playing around with the site's look a bit and am in desperate need of a new banner. Any suggestions to the look of it would be welcomed with open arms, and, possibly, a hug.