A Little Closer

I was almost blind and deaf for a few days. Thanks God not literally, but near so. Thing is, my computer had been bucking since Sunday, then spasmodic- ally refused normal service during the following days and finally was down on Thursday. It was a shocking exper- ience. Not much damage was done, because I was prepared and had all the important stuff secured on other devices and HDs. But shocking was the experience of being cut off from the world - and not only from the world, but from most of your music, your photos and what not. It's like somebody robbed your home. However, I got back to normal now and a known Japanese company pocketed some of my hard-earned money.

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Actually, this blog calls for a little celebration today, this being the 100th post. I won't celebrate much, though, just a little. (I'm still recovering, after all.) So there are two   v e r y  s e n s u a l   songs for a Saturday night ... for one, Mary Love's hot close-mover from 1966 (released in May or early June). »Move A Little Closer«, in fact only the B-side of Modern # 1020, took her to #48 r&b in August '66 and since then many (predominantly male?) listeners to rapture. Mary Love Comer has for- saken the secular music business in 1986 and became an evangelist (see her webpage here). For all I know she's not happy with some songs she recorded back in the '60s, particularly this one. (That's what I heard, anyway.) On the other hand, it was included on a number of more or less recent samplers and, more importantly,
on Mary Love's authorized »anthology«, the Kent CD Now And Then from 1994.

The second song is Etta James's version of Randy Newman's 1969 tune »Let's Burn Down The Cornfield«, taken from her wonderful 1974 Chess LP (fittingly entitled Come A Little Closer ... a nice coincidence!). Nobody has ever figured out what the song's really about, but physical contact between lovers does play an important part. And Etta James's »sultry« version (Billboard's words, not mine, but I agree) doesn't leave any doubt as to that.

Mary Love: »Move A Little Closer« on Modern # 1020 (1966) /

Etta James: »Let's Burn Down The Cornfield« from the Chess LP # CH 60029 (1974):