Later That Night... Back Again at Capital City Club

The night after Billy Batts, I was in the very same venue with Platinum.  I zipped straight downtown from the afternoon gig in Decatur.  Not much to report.  We had Bogey on the front line, and Dianna as well.  Also had another young cat to meet for another audition for the front line.  We ended up working up The Temps' Just My Imagination.  I can't recall ever hearing the original version prior to hearing the Stones do it on Some Girls.  Suburban white boy syndrome.  To be honest, I think I could say the same about My Girl;  the Stones released it on Flowers and that's the version I knew until later in life.  Never had any Motown records as a kid.  That's the way it was, I have to say.  My brother and sister didn't have any, so I just wasn't exposed to it.  I don't remember oldies stations being around back in the the '70's.  So anyways, I started playing along.  I am familiar with the Temptations at this point, but I didn't have the bass line in my head 100%.  I knew it was a distinctive riff that cycled through the tune.  Gus started singing it to me while we were playing.  He knew it and told me what was right and what wasn't.  The school teacher in him came out.  He corrected me until I got it, and by golly, he was right.  Once I had it, the song sounded right.  The bass is just so critical, the song isn't the song until that line is happening.  Bob Babbitt performed the understated line on the original single, released in 1971, well after some of their more psychedelic offerings in the late '60's.  Well, I'm glad we learned it.  We ended up connecting it with My Girl, as the song is a bit long and they are both in the key of C.  Bogey actually took the lead, although it was suggested by the guy who was trying out.  Other tunes that we brought out: Kool & The Gang's Ladies Night and Get Down On It.  Somehow in my exposure to these R&B hits, I had never heard the longer album version of Ladies Night.  This one has 2 bridges, with that crazy hit on the Flat Seven chord.  Everybody plays it in Cm, although to my ears it is clearly in C#m.  Not sure why, but there you go.  It's not the Real Book's fault (for instance, everybody plays Red Clay in Cm because that's the key of the cheesy chart).

Not much to really report other than we were on the other side of the room.  It gives us more room to stretch out but, as Junius pointed out, we end up playing to a smaller area in front.  After considering it, I realized that it is better to be in the main room.  Less confining and what feels like a larger dance area makes for more fun for the crowd.  That's what we're here for.  Everybody who wanted to dance got their groove on.  My Tobias with the new Tapewounds performed well, as did the Stingray with the increasingly dead strings.  Need to change those puppies out one of these nights.