Robert Palmer | Take It Easy

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday Jim is asking us to play a song that mentions doctor, cure, heal, treat or drugs. You can read what he says about this in his post, Doctors’ Day, in which he tells us that this is a special day in the US to recognise what doctors do for us. Amongst their collection of weird and wonderful special days this one stands out as a good one. I had quite a few possible choices for this but have settled on two, both from back in the Seventies. The ‘doctors’ involved aren’t really the medical type, but so what! They are both great tunes, and that’s what counts for me.

I’m starting with something a little laid back to ease you into your Sunday. This is a video in which the original recorded version has been synced with a live performance, but it’s very well done and you’d be hard pressed to see the joins:

In case you didn’t recognise it, that was Little Feat with Rock & Roll Doctor. And before I forget, here are the lyrics:

There was a woman in Georgia didn’t feel just right

She had fever all day and chills at night

Now things got worse, yes a serious bind

At times like this it takes a man with such style I cannot often find

A doctor of the heart and a doctor of mind

If you like country with a boogie beat he’s the man to meetIf you like the sound of shufflin’ feet he can’t be beatIf you wanna feel real nice, just ask the Rock and Roll doctor’s advice

It’s just a country town but patients comeFrom Mobile to Moline from miles aroundNagodoches to New OrleansIn beat-up old cars or in limousinesTo meet the doctor of soul, he’s got his very own thing

Two degrees in be-bop, a PHD in swingHe’s the master of rhythm he’s a rock and roll king

If you like country with a boogie beat he’s the man to meet (he’s the man to meet)If you like the sound of shufflin’ feet he can’t be beat(I say he can’t be beat)If you…If you wannaIf you wanna feel real nice, just ask the Rock and Roll doctor’s advice

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Martin Fyodor Kibbee / Lowell T George

Rock and Roll Doctor lyrics © Naked Snake Music

Little Feat is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1969 by lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George, bassist Roy Estrada (both formerly of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention), keyboardist Bill Payne, and drummer Richie Hayward. The band’s classic line-up, in place by late 1972, comprised George, Payne, Hayward, bassist Kenny Gradney, guitarist and vocalist Paul Barrere, and percussionist Sam Clayton. George disbanded them because of creative differences shortly before his death in 1979, but the surviving members re-formed the band in 1987 and they have remained active to the present day: Payne, Clayton and Gradney are still with them. The band’s name came from a comment made by Zappa, when he remarked that George had ‘little feet’ – the change of spelling was apparently in homage to The Beatles.

Rock & Roll Doctor was the opening track on the band’s fourth album, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, which was released in August 1974 and reached #36 in the US and #40 in Canada, but didn’t make the UK charts. It wasn’t released as a single at the time, but did become one when a re-recorded version was included on the compilation album Hoy-Hoy! – this came out in July 1981, and peaked at #39 in the US and #76 in the UK. Second time around the single made #34 in the US Mainstream Rock Chart, based on radio airplay. Trivia about this was a little hard to find, but I did find this from the review in Rolling Stone magazine:

“The syncopations of “Rock and Roll Doctor” are riveting but the tune’s overall format is too choppy to be uplifting. Yet along with the title song, “Down The Road,” and guitarist Paul Barrere’s “Skin It Back,” it qualifies as fine dance music.”

It seems that even in those days the ability to be pretentious was on the person spec to write for Rolling Stone – some things never change. And I’d have liked to see him trying to dance to this!

Today’s second tune is another great oldie, from the end of that same decade:

Robert Palmer and his usual ‘backing band’ with Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor). The track was first released in May 1979 as a single, ahead of its inclusion the following month as the opening track on his fifth album, Secrets. The album reached #19 in the US but only made #54 here in the UK, for some inexplicable reason, but it rated best in Canada, where it got to #4. It was one that I bought at the time and played to bits: I’d been following his career ever since the early days, when I saw him as a member of the band Vinegar Joe, with the amazing Elkie Brooks – if you only know her later, laid back style you missed out!

Like the album the single didn’t do all that well in the UK, only getting to #61, but it fared much better in the US, reaching #14. Again, it scored best in Canada, where it went to #1. No accounting for taste, is there, but I think the Canadians were right. The song was written by an American singer-songwriter of whom I had never heard – John ‘Moon’ Martin. He released his version in 1978, but it didn’t make the charts anywhere until Robert Palmer picked it up and recorded it. It still sounds great today, and those trademark ladies always liven up his videos! Sadly, Robert left us in 2003 at the age of just 54. He suffered a heart attack, which was thought to have been brought on by years of smoking – a pity he didn’t heed the doctors’ warnings, really.

That’s my pair of doctors for you, and I hope you enjoyed them. Thanks as always to Jim for running the show – I can’t imagine my blogging week without SLS! See you again for another staple, Tuesday Tunes 🎶