Please note: all words and info below should be deemed completely unreliable and un-fact checked and straight outta stream of consciousness/minimal clicking around the internet. But really, why should truth get in the way of my thoughts? SHHHH GENIUS AT WORK.
LOVE IN THEM THERE HILLS
Philly must have been MAD gritty when this dark one emerged from a pre-Philadelphia International Gamble and Huff late night sesh. In 1968 Kenny and Leon teamed up with Roland Chambers, a member of the failed Kenny Gamble star turn, Kenny Gamble and the Romeos on Artic Records (oh right, the world famous Artic Records, who could forget? PSHAW) to write this one.
Roland Chambers, was not, as one might assume if you're a lazy thinker like I am, part of the Chambers Brothers. He was just a player trying to help KG become famous at the time this came out and helped put funky pen to paper for this cut.
The Vibrations released it as a single on Okeh in 1968. The Vibrations did a lot of crapola but I found Cause You're Mine on Youtube and I could dig it. Vibrations broke up in 1971 and member Ricky Owens joined the Temptations on what I would call the "rotating door" basis that the Temps might have been guilty of a couple of times.
So back to the deep jam here, so heavy, great instrumentation and love the choir-like background vocals but damn, they must have known it was bonkers because they only bothered to record for 2 minutes and 25 seconds. Totally to-the-point funky madness.
I came upon the Maxine Brown version while clicking in the rabbit hole that is Spotify's "Related Artists" option and have heard of Maxine but always mistakenly think that she is MAXAYN, of I APPRECIATE fame or some other gal with a Max in her name, Maxine Nightingale perhaps? With a name like Maxine, you better be bringing the heat is what I have to say about that name.
FUN MAX FACTS
Eventually Signed to Wand Records, a subsidiary of SCEPTER Records
That label was started by (GASP) a gal! Florence Greenberg (Must be a Jewess)
Most important side note about Flo:
In March 2012, the play Baby It's You! premiered on Broadway to rave reviews which told the story of Florence Greenberg and the development of Scepter Records. It has since been on tour on a national basis.
So pissed we missed that matinyay...
And as always, all roads lead to the Sisters Pointer and their album that includes inner sleeve photos of them dressed as cops, coked out of their minds, holding guns. Well, their version of this song was on that weird 20s/countryish period piece THAT'S A PLENTY but my mind always zooms to that unforgettable album image from HAVING A PARTY.
So....I can TOTALLY get behind a ten minute live version of this song on Live at the Opera House which I have definitely thrown out multiple times due to my stubbornness about live albums and duets. But WOW. Fuck that Salt Peanuts bullshit, this song is so bluesy and angry and dirty and I FEEL IT, YA HEARD?!?! The 8:32 version on That's A Plenty is nothing to sneeze at either.
WOW - AND HERE WE ARE.....I tried to map out on paper my thinking process that I am describing here but it looked like the work of a serial killer so I will keep that in FILES NEVER POSTED drawer for now.
PRACTICE UP FOR KARAOKE PLEASE.....
Every time I go out and come homeI can hear my Mama say,
Son, How come every time you come home
you come home from that away?
What's up there that ain't down here
that's leading you astray?
Tried my best to raise you right
but you've gone the wicked way.
Mama please can't you see
There's something up in them hills for me?
Bless my soul Mama you ought to know
there's love up in them hills.(repeat once)
Ma, I said, the people who live on the hill
they're really outasite.
And the people like us that live on the lowland
just don't fit in right.
But when two hearts beat as one
they don't care who's rich or poor.
All they wanna do is love each other
who could ask for anything more?
Mama please, can't you see?
There'something up in them hills for me
Bless my soul, Mama, you ought to know,
there's love up in them hills
