Wayne Cochran, Get Down With It! -- The White Knight of Soul (Raven Records, 2005)
Okay! WOW! HUH! GET DOWN! Yeah! Unhuh! First you have to get a mental image of this guy! I mean it! If you never saw Wayne Cochran in person, or even on TV, or saw a picture of him . . . you have to know what the guy looked like. Take uh, well, Donald Trump's hair. Then bleach it WHITE, platinum. Then pile it up on top of his head three times higher than Donald's is. Put him in a shiny red suit, black puff in his jacket pocket. Skinny black tie. Now, in one hand he's holding a microphone, one of those big old Shure Unidynes. Place him in front of a band. A big band. With horns. They've all got matching tuxedos on. They're moving, all synchronized and stuff. They are pumping out a rhythm and blues song loud, no louder, LOUD! Man. "Wow!" the guy with the platinum pompadour screams, "GET DOWN WITH IT!" That's right. You feel yourself moving now? Are you getting the picture? It's important for you to get this before we go on. He's a white guy. His face is scrunched up as he sings -- screams -- the lyrics to "Boom, Boom," or is it "C.C. Rider." It's not James Brown, but he's been called "the white James Brown." But if Miami was your home town, and you were into R&B music in the ''60s, he was The White Knight of Soul just as the subtitle of this startling new anthology from Antediluvian archivists Raven Records claims!
Two dozen soul classics from 1959-1972 fill this CD. And man the thing just cooks!
I remember not even liking Wayne Cochran when I used to see him on television in the ''60s. I was more into the British bands, harmonies, 12 string guitars, and then British blues. But listening to him now, I can fully appreciate the revelation Cochran and his C.C. Riders were in their day. I do recall that they were exciting. Fascinating to watch. Professional. Tight. He sometimes wore a cape, or a jumpsuit instead of the red suit. He was an incredible showman. Jaco Pastorius played bass for him for a while! His first single was "Last Kiss," a song he wrote, but was he beaten to the punch when J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers recorded and rush released it. This maudlin classic teenage tragedy leads off this collection of all singles. This was the '60s, and people only made albums as a way to collect their singles. That's the way it was. Anyway, Cochran's version far surpasses Wilson's and it blows Eddie Vedder's right out of the water. Still, it's a schmaltzy anachronism.
Cochran followed "Last Kiss" with "The Coo" (a song he co-wrote) which was released on James Brown's label. With these early singles, Cochran had not yet realized his mature sound. They are slight R&B tunes, with shuffling beats and a little organ riffing in the background. They swing, a bit. And Cochran works on sounding sexy. Maybe it works.
The Rolling Stones had a hit with "Harlem Shuffle" and Wayne Cochran released it many years earlier, in a rollicking rendition, with riffing horns and a solid beat. This is more like it! Then the screaming starts with "Get Down With It!" The band really starts to groove, and the James Brown similarities really kick in. But Wayne Cochran was never just a copyist, the guy had his own style. It's an amalgam of soul from Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, JB, and more all blended together in the odd, even ugly package that was WC. The White Knight of Soul indeed!
In the years following, Cochran and his band continued to mine the R&B tradition, presenting an exhilarating stage show, which never seemed to translate to record sales. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd based their Blues Brothers schtick largely on the performances of Wayne Cochran; they even covered his "Goin' Back To Miami!" In the Blues Brothers movie, sleaze-ball agent Maury Sline asked Jake and Elwood, "Don't you boys ever wear . . . jumpsuits like Wayne Cochran and the CC Riders?"
Wayne Cochran has now gone back to Miami to become a pastor at his own Voice for Jesus Church but this new anthology from Raven provides the soul archives with a superb collection of the music for which he's best known. Get Down With It! is 75 minutes of non-stop rhythm and blues, and rockin' soul music. Check out the haircut here then put this CD in the stereo and get ready to dance, baby!
