{"id":20618,"date":"2021-03-10T05:30:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T10:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20618"},"modified":"2021-03-09T07:52:30","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T12:52:30","slug":"things-get-better-soul-man-eddie-floyd-part-3-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/10\/things-get-better-soul-man-eddie-floyd-part-3-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Things Get Better: Soul Man Eddie Floyd (Part 3 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two<\/a> …<\/i><\/p>\n

That success extended well beyond Eddie Floyd\u2019s records. In fact \u2013 as he recounts in detail in his new memoir, Knock! Knock! Knock! On Wood: My Life in Soul<\/i><\/a> \u2013 Floyd got his start at Stax as a songwriter, not a performer. His first success as a Stax house writer was \u201cComfort Me,\u201d recorded by Carla Thomas. Soon after that, he teamed up with Cropper to write songs for Wilson Pickett.<\/p>\n

Even though Pickett was signed to Atlantic Records, a distribution deal paired Stax with the label, giving the songwriting duo the freedom to compose tunes for the fiery soul singer. Two Cropper\/Floyd songs became major hits for Pickett: \u201cNinety-nine and a Half (Won\u2019t Do)\u201d and \u201c634-5789 (Soulsville U.S.A.)\u201d Floyd also had a hand in writing songs that would be recorded by Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor and many others.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But Floyd says that when he sat down to write a song, he didn\u2019t do so with a specific artist in mind. He wasn\u2019t wring to a particular style. \u201cI listen to all [styles] of music, and I feel like I can become a part of it,\u201d he says. \u201cI might be writing a song and all of a sudden it sounds jazzy. And that’s fine with me. Sounds bluesy? That’s fine with me, too. The trends change, but I<\/i> never change. And I never stopped writing.<\/p>\n

And in those Stax years, there was a ready market for Floyd\u2019s songs. \u201cEvery time I would submit a song, I was lucky,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause I never had anybody turn any of my songs down. Everybody would accept the song just as it is. I’ve always done it that way, and I wouldn’t know any other way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even \u201cKnock on Wood\u201d was originally envisioned planned as a Pickett single, and in fact Pickett did record it in 1967 for his The Wicked Pickett<\/i> LP. And Otis Redding cut it as a duet with Carla Thomas, included on their King & Queen<\/i> LP. As a single, their cover charted on both the U.S. pop and R&B charts. The song would go on to develop a life of its own, being recorded by blues guitarist Buddy Guy, harmonica star James Cotton, David Bowie (on his 1974 David Live<\/i> LP) and in a disco version by Amii Stewart in 1979; Stewart\u2019s cover of \u201cKnock on Wood\u201d top-tenned in ten countries worldwide.<\/p>\n

But Floyd makes the point that he\u2019s never \u201cshopped\u201d his songs around. \u201cI’ve never actually spoken to another musician and said, \u2018Let me play this for you. Maybe you might want to do it,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cAll of a sudden, somebody will tell me a different artist has just covered one of my songs. I’ve been honored that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Floyd\u2019s string of hits came to an end just as Stax Records crumbled in the middle 1970s. He cut a few singles in 1977 and \u201878 for small labels \u2013 including the not-really-disco tune \u201cDisco Summer\u201d \u2013 but his days as a charting artist were over. Yet he has remained a popular draw as a live performer. Following the success of the 1980 motion picture The Blues Brothers<\/i>, several members of the all-star band continued as a recording and performing unit. That band \u2013 including Floyd\u2019s old friends Steve Cropper and (until his death in 2012) Duck Dunn \u2013 embarked on a series of U.S. and world tours, often featuring Eddie Floyd as a guest vocalist.<\/p>\n

Floyd\u2019s popularity continued apace in the UK as well. As early as 1981, Floyd was asked to join London soul revival act The Q-Tips, led by a pre-fame Paul Young. Floyd notes that even though \u201cRaise Your Hand\u201d and \u201cKnock on Wood\u201d were his biggest Stateside hits, in England he first hit the charts with another song. \u201c\u2019Things Get Better\u2019 was my first hit record there during that time,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then I met Paul Young over there with the Q-Tips; they were the band playing behind me for a long time. And Paul was singing all his soul tunes sounding like Booker T. and M.G.s with his band!\u201d<\/p>\n

Today at age 83, Eddie Floyd lives on a large plot of land in his native Alabama; he says that he visits Memphis fairly often, but in most cases he\u2019s there attending the funeral of an old friend or associate. \u201cIt really gets a little sad when I’m there,\u201d he says. The ghosts are everywhere. \u201cWhen I go to the studio, I see all these guys who can’t talk back to me no more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Though he still writes and occasionally records, Floyd is more often spotted on his riding lawnmower, cutting the grass on what he calls his \u201cfarm.\u201d His memoir \u2013 co-written with Yorkshire-born author Tony Fletcher \u2013 describes in candid and colorful the details of his early life, brushes with the law and a period of incarceration.<\/p>\n

That time in juvenile detention \u2013 at an institution ominously known as Alabama Reform School for Juvenile Negro Law-Breakers, more commonly called Mount Meigs \u2013 served as a turning point for a young Eddie Floyd. \u201cThe best thing that ever could have happened to me is that I met a person [there] who knew music,\u201d he says. \u201cMr. Arthur Wilmer taught me theory as far as harmonies and melodies. And I left there with intentions of trying to get a career. I didn’t have any idea if it would happen. But it was my intention, and it did<\/i> happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though he\u2019s lived in Detroit and D.C. and traveled extensively abroad, Floyd\u2019s home is situated quite close to where he started out. And he fondly refers to Mount Meigs as his alma mater. \u201cI pass by my school maybe three, four times a week,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd when I’m out on the highway, every time I pass by, it\u2019s \u2018thumbs up.\u2019 That’s what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mount Meigs era notwithstanding, Knock! Knock! Knock! My Life in Soul<\/i><\/a> doesn\u2019t get into the sort of lurid sex-and-drugs-and-violence accounts that often characterize music memoirs. In fact, throughout his career, Floyd has remained wholly free of scandal and controversy. \u201cI stay to the music and not politics,\u201d he says. I come from that era: you won\u2019t get me to say too much about politics. But if you wanna talk music<\/i>, we good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two … That success extended well beyond Eddie Floyd\u2019s records. In fact \u2013 as he recounts in detail in his new memoir, Knock! Knock! Knock! On Wood: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,41,60,69],"tags":[4279],"class_list":["post-20618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book","category-interview","category-rb","category-soul","tag-eddie-floyd","cat-10-id","cat-41-id","cat-60-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20618"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20633,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20618\/revisions\/20633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}