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The Meters


Jim Alfredson

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I dug out my CD of The Meters this past weekend and have been groovin' to their funky junk as I do my little errands around town. Some of you may remember that I stole Zigaboo's drumbeat to "The Hand Clapping Song" as the basis for our "Clap Yo Hands".

The Meters are so inspiring to me... so simple and yet complex. Funky and fun and raw.

Give it up!

Meters-34.jpg

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I dug out my CD of The Meters this past weekend and have been groovin' to their funky junk as I do my little errands around town. Some of you may remember that I stole Zigaboo's drumbeat to "The Hand Clapping Song" as the basis for our "Clap Yo Hands".

The Meters are so inspiring to me... so simple and yet complex. Funky and fun and raw.

Give it up!

Meters-34.jpg

Jim,

The Meters are so good I can't listen to them too much. They MAKE you want to be them!

My favorite Meters song is their version of "The Look Of Love." It's an alternate take on "The Meters" CD )their first album. It's GORGEOUS.

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I get calls every week from people asking me to put on the Meters. Basically whenever I put on Deep Blue Bruise by the Deep Blue Organ Trio, I get called (Chris Foreman, Bobby Broom, Greg Rockingham). These cats are smokin!!!!

Jimbo, I still have no CDs from you!!!! You promised and I promised airplay and reportage!!!

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I LOVE The Meters! I was heavily into Booker T. & the MG's when I first heard Sophisticated Cissy on AFN Europe and thought "What the hell are they doing!?" It was so much more sophisticated (pun intended) than the MG's. Their records were impossible to get over here back then, but I memorized them and only got a 2-CD compilation from Charly in the 1980's, which I still have, and play! I was so happy when a 13-old drum student of mine liked them so much that he wanted to burn it - I played Zigaboo to him when he played some stone dead funk patterns from a method his regular drum teacher had given to him, which weren't funky at all - but The Meters he liked much better and asked for more!

Their loping rhythms with these unorthodox accents are so hip!

But I find all the later stuff on Warner Bros. only a faint shadow from their earlier Josie recordings. Chicken Strut - some crazy music!

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But I find all the later stuff on Warner Bros. only a faint shadow from their earlier Josie recordings. Chicken Strut - some crazy music!

I heartily agree! I liked them best as a four-piece. When they added Cyril Neville they began to emphasise vocals more, and the music overall was less interesting. I bet they sold a lot more records though!

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Suprise suprise, I'm a Meters fan. I have the Chicken Strut album, a best of cd and a couple scattered tracks on compilations. This thread reminds me I intend to upgrade to full length albums in my never ending quest to eliminate best ofs from the collection.

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  • 1 month later...

The Meters are so good I can't listen to them too much. They MAKE you want to be them!

Sad to see that they don't get along. You can still see Zigaboo play in SF on a semi regular basis! It's worth a trip intot he city just for 10 minutes of unleaded greasy funk, Nawlins style.

Agreed, whenever I listen to them, especially the early Josie material (reissued by Sundazed) the funk gets so deep, I gotta dig myself out. If I listen to them in the car, I start to swerve out of control cuz I just cant let up on the groove, the dashboard and steering wheel gets quite the beating!

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Of course, "ain't nothing like the real thing",

but anyone hear these youngsters known as The Mighty Imperials?

They clearly have been listening to those Meters records.

Nice to see young guys getting into this kind of thing

instead of what passes for teenage/20s music nowadays:

Soulbuster (w/Joseph Henry)

Kick the Blanket

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