Description
Release Date: 1996
Label: Funky Delicacies
Track List
1 Making It Better
2 Some Kind Of Fool
3 I’m So Lonely
4 Symphony Of Gratitude
5 Society Don’t Let Us Down
6 Kid Stuff
7 No More Baby Love
8 Love Power
9 Love Is A Losing Game
10 I Dig Your Kind
11 Just As Sure As You’re Born
12 Clap Your Little Hands
13 Got To Have More
14 Gypsy Read Your Cards For Me
15 I’ve Got A Feelin’
16 Stay As Sweet As You Are
17 No More Tears
18 Got You Under My Skin
19 If You Want To Try It
20 Take Me Into Your Heart
Notes
New Orleans’ the Barons are certainly one of the most overlooked groups of all time, as this excellent compilation of their late-1960s and early-1970s singles makes clear. Grafting Louisiana funk to Motown soul — a bit like the Temptations meeting the Meters — and tossing in a bit of doo wop, as well, the Barons turned out high quality soul that featured solid songwriting and deadly production. That they’re not a household name seems criminal. Everything here is top-notch, but the tracks produced by the “Creole Beethoven,” Wardell Quezergue, are worth pointing out, particularly the set opener, “Making It Better,” and “Gypsy Read Your Cards for Me,” which sounds a bit like the Impressions gone bayou. Other highlights include “I’m So Lonely,” the title track, “Society Don’t Let Me Down” (which wouldn’t have embarrassed Norman Whitfield as a production) and the jangly “No More Tears,” but truthfully, every track here is a gem, and if the world were fair, the Barons would be every bit as familiar to listeners as the Four Tops or Stevie Wonder.
