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Dennis Coffey is one of music\u2019s unsung guitar heroes. A key session player in the Detroit music scene, he played on countless recordings coming out of that city\u2019s most fertile period. And as a solo artist \u2013 usually working with musical partner Mike Theodore \u2013 Coffey turned out some of the era\u2019s most enduring instro-funk. Hits like \u201cScorpio\u201d epitomized the down \u2018n\u2019 funky sound of Coffey\u2019s style. The four albums he cut for Sussex Records \u2013 Evolution<\/i> (1971), Goin\u2019 for Myself<\/i> and Electric Coffey<\/i> (both \u201872) and 1975\u2019s Instant Coffey<\/i> are all essential records. (Note: A planned reissue of those four albums was scotched by label wrangling, but my liner notes<\/a> for the unreleased boxed set are online here<\/a>.)<\/p>\nCoffey\u2019s later work included a superb 2011 self-titled album on which he recut classic sides that he had played on \u2013 no retread excursion here \u2013 with an array of fine vocalists. That\u2019s covered here<\/a>. And in recent years, some excellent archival releases have shown another side of Coffey\u2019s work; I wrote liner notes for two of those (Live at Baker\u2019s<\/i> and One Night at Morey\u2019s<\/i>). And I interviewed him about his career and another archival release, Hot Coffey in the D<\/i> in 2017; that\u2019s here<\/a>.<\/p>\n While the above covers good chunks of Dennis Coffey\u2019s career and output, it leaves a significant gap in the form of his three releases on the Westbound label. The first of those, 1975\u2019s Finger Lickin\u2019 Good<\/i>, reached #31 on the R&B albums chart. Like most all of his output from 1969\u2019s Hair and Thangs<\/i> through the end of the \u201870s, it has long been out of print. A new vinyl reissue from Org Music rights that wrong. With a curious (if understandable when considered against the backdrop of this very on-edge era in which we unfortunately find ourselves) re-titling, Finger Pickin\u2019 Good<\/i> is once again available.<\/p>\n The album opens with \u201cIf You Can\u2019t Dance to This You Got No Business Havin-Feet.\u201d The track is a party instrumental, in the grand tradition of \u201cTaurus\u201d and other Coffey classics. The orchestration hints at some of the disco textures that would inform later \u201870s offerings from Coffey. The catchy horn charts are a treat, and the vocals \u2013 while largely superfluous \u2013 are fun.<\/p>\n On the original release, \u201cFinger Lickin Good\u201d was the album\u2019s title track. It digs deeper into a funk groove, and again features some vocal chorus work alongside the spirited horn section and Coffey\u2019s understated rubbery guitar leads. \u201cI\u2019ve Got a Real Good Feeling\u201d mines similar territory with similar results. The approach here threatens to wear a bit thin, and it serves to deliver less variety than on some of Coffey\u2019s previous releases. But it\u2019s solid enough. And when released as a single, \u201cFinger Lickin Good\u201d made it to #14 on the U.S. Disco Singles chart.<\/p>\n A cover of organist Bill Doggett\u2019s 1956 classic, \u201cHonky Tonk\u201d builds a hypnotic figure using the same ingredients, albeit with more prominent vocal chanting and a standard blues structure given a disco feel. But Theodore\u2019s breathtaking string charts elevate the tune, and Coffey\u2019s barking guitar work is top-notch as ever. \u201cEl Tigre\u201d delivers even more guitar fireworks, with Coffey making extensive use of his wah-wah pedal. And the melody \u2013 especially on the song\u2019s the bridge \u2013 is strong.<\/p>\n The original cover. Look closely. Side Two opens with \u201cLive Wire.\u201d The track takes a bit to get going, but when it does, it reveals itself as a dancefloor sensation. The chorus vocals, peerless horn work and subtle guitar filigree add up to another winner. Coffey\u2019s original \u201cSome Like it Hot\u201d simmers and seethes, sounding more like blaxploitation soundtrack work than the other tracks on Finger Lickin\u2019 Good<\/i>. It may be the album\u2019s strongest track.<\/p>\n A cover of David Bowie and John Lennon\u2019s \u201cFame\u201d makes perfect sense, as Bowie\u2019s recording has a sound very much in line with what Coffey was doing at the time. The vocal chorus chimes in the with title throughout, but where the lead vocal would normally be, instead we have some vocalizing guitar work that sounds much like \u2013 but is not \u2013 a Golden Throat (see: Frampton, Peter and Beck, Jeff). Coffey\u2019s reading of the tune is at once faithful and original enough to justify its existence.<\/p>\n The original LP wrapped up with \u201cWild Child,\u201d another funkfest with some tasty bass work anchoring the arrangement while Coffey lays down a guitar dialogue with the horns. The Org Music reissue appends a previously unissued bonus track, \u201cWhat It is It Ain\u2019t.\u201d The bonus cut focuses more on guitar, with Coffey laying down multiple tracks featuring his inimitable six-string work.<\/p>\n Org Music\u2019s reissue reproduces the original album\u2019s racy art \u2013 think Ohio Players meets Laff Records \u2013 albeit with some artful reworking of the letter L to render the album title acceptable to modern-day moral guardians. The back cover photo is a more literal reading of the original title, one that renders the revised one somewhat incongruous. But in the end, it\u2019s the music that matters, and whatever one chooses to call it, Dennis Coffey\u2019s seventh studio album of original music under his own name is an essential party record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dennis Coffey is one of music\u2019s unsung guitar heroes. A key session player in the Detroit music scene, he played on countless recordings coming out of that city\u2019s most fertile […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2614,31,40,64,65,69,73],"tags":[664],"class_list":["post-29164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disco","category-funk","category-instrumental","category-reissue","category-review","category-soul","category-vinyl","tag-dennis-coffey","cat-2614-id","cat-31-id","cat-40-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29164"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31766,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29164\/revisions\/31766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/coffey_lickin.jpg\")
No, not at that<\/em>; at the title<\/p><\/div>\n