I'm SOULed!

The first time I heard James Carr belt out this soul scorcher I could not believe what I has hearing. In my opinion it just may be one of my favorite country-soul songs ever. Although not as popular as his fellow soul singers like Otis Redding and Percy Sledge, Mr. Carr is considered one of the best emotional delivery men by hardcore soul junkies. Unfortunately popularity wasn't as easily attained for James in part to his sever bipolar disorder which affected his touring and recording. This song, "You Got My Mind Messed Up", was released on GoldWax in 1966 and was his first big hit. Not his most famous, which is "The Dark End Of The Street", but I hope you'd agree that it's a top notch soul song.
James Carr - You've Got My Mind Messed Up

I tried to find some information about Johnny Cool And The Counts but my search came up null and void. I do know that it was released on the Custom Label but other than that I got nothing. I happened to come across Johnny Cool And The Counts from a now sadly defunct soul music blog. This song is something that is a bit different from other soul songs, it's a lot more up tempo hence the word bounce in the songs title. I love the quickness of this song and the drums are incredible. It's a fun listen for sure. I'll post the other equally amazing song I have by Johnny Cool And The Counts in another post. For now just enjoy this one.
Johnny Cool And The Counts - Love Bounce


Swamp Dogg (Jerry Williams, Jr.) is one of the most eccentric characters in the Soul/R&B realm. He says whats on his mind and doesn't care. He started out as a producer, engineer, and occasional songwriter with Atlantic in the '60s. He cut a few songs under the name Little Jerry Williams before transforming into the Great Swamp Dogg. He released his first album under his new moniker called Total Destruction to Your Mind which featured him in his underwear on the album cover. He also has another cover that was voted worst album cover for Rat On! Needless to say that the Dogg is eccentric. I read an interview where he explained that he changed to Swamp Dogg was because "Whatever I wanted to sing about I could do it as a dog since you expect a dog to do just about anything... and you're forgiven afterwards (laughs)." Don't let all the eccentricities fool you though, Swamp Dogg delivers great songs. Sometimes it's political, sometimes it's racial, sometimes it's about a war veteran hooked on drugs.
Swamp Dogg - Sam Stone

Fun Facts about this song. It was a song in the movie Grindhouse Presents: Death Proof directed by Quinten Tarantino. It's a revised cover The Shirelles "Baby It's You. The Smith didn't really have many singles and were mostly a cover band doing rock and R&B songs in the late 60's. The soulful female singer is Gayle McCormick, who had some little solo hits in 1971 after the Break up of the band. Baby It's you was a Burt Bacharach composed song, what didn't that man do? This song has been covered by The Beatles as well. Enjoy!
Smith - Baby It's You