TOM JONES – “THE BODY AND SOUL OF TOM JONES” (1973)
This is one of the 2,500 LPs I used to have in my collection, back when I was a vinyl fiend. That seems like oh-so long ago — kinda was, from ’97 until about ’01. I used to love this record, and I hadn’t heard it in almost 10 years, until last week.
We’re going through yet another wave of blogs getting either shut down or going private-invite-only, and one of the best ones I’d found recently that just went the way of the dodo was The Crooner’s Corner, which was an excellent repository of soft, smooth sounds. In addition to about 20 LPs worth of Tom Jones
I’ve been going through all the Tom Jones stuff I’d just grabbed, when I came across this one, which for my money might just be the best LP he ever cut. It’s certainly the grittiest and funkiest. It kick-starts with a Tarantino-worthy track, “Running Bear”, a quite silly and deliriously danceable ditty about a native brave and his squaw (a song that used to send me running for the turntable after its three minutes were over, so I could plunk the needle back down to the beginning, over and over again.) From there, it’s a non-stop heavy-hitting thrillride.
YES! I put “What’s New Pussycat?” on at a wedding and the dancefloor cleared fast. It really was a buzzkill to the freak dancing crew.
Is that Bob Peak artwork, or just an incredible simulation?
Thanks this is a really interesting find, a lot more ballsy than I seem to remember 7o’s Tom Jones Being.
Great album-I’m also a big fan of “Tom” from 1970. He pulls all the stops out on that one.