Gotta Groove

The Bar-Kays lost four of their original members in the same plane crash that claimed the life of Otis Redding. Trumpeter Ben Cauley and bassist James Alexander rebuilt the group and re-emerged with this hard-driving album, which mixed the greasy, slow-burning Memphis soul they’d played as Stax’s house band (and on albums like Isaac Hayes’ Hot Buttered Soul) with a raucous style of funk that was at times heavily indebted to Sly and the Family Stone. The two-part “Don’t Stop Dancing (To The Music)” is a blatant Sly ripoff, but they deliver it with conviction, and the fuzz guitar on “Street Walker” is some of the nastiest you’ll ever hear. Tracks with titles like “Funky Thang” and “Jiving ’Round” fulfill expectations, and a version of “If This World Were Mine” features some beautiful horn playing. There are also two Beatles covers (“Yesterday” and “Hey Jude”), if that’s your thing.