Classic Stax Single of the Week
February 24th, 2008 by
Delaney & Bonnie, “It’s Been a Long Time Coming”
Single released May 1968; from the album Home released in late ‘69
To dispense with the obvious, husband and wife Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett were different from most Stax artists because they were one of the label’s few white performers. Delaney was born in Mississippi and pursued his musical muse to Los Angeles, where his gigs included howling as a Shindog, a member of the house band for the hit music TV show Shindig. Bonnie O’Farrell grew up near East St. Louis, where she thrived in the region’s urban blues scene (even eventually backing up Stax bluesman Albert King). Bonnie also moved to Los Angeles where they met, then married within weeks of their first meeting. By 1967, Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett were a romantic as well as a musical couple; in ‘68, they signed with Stax.
Hindsight provides the easiest 20/20 vision and it’s convenient if nothing else to wonder if Stax thought that the Bramlett’s roots-rock blues would help the label buy in to the white, rock album-buying audience, or help sell out. Fortunately, they were first-rate musicians and when they entered the studio to record their first Stax album, they were matched with correspondingly first-rate material (written by Isaac Hayes, David Porter, Steve Cropper and others) and musicians (including most of the MGs).
“It’s Been a Long Time Coming” was the first of two singles pulled from that Stax album, titled Home. The supporting instrumentation and arrangement recreate the feel of the Otis Redding - Carla Thomas duets that were an enduring Stax staple, especially that strong almost bouncy pre-’70s Stax soul stride. With absolutely no disrespect intended, the Bramlett’s vocal brings a touch of hillbilly holler to that strident Stax beat - listen especially to his pronunciation of the word “burning,” which nearly obliterates the “r” sound, or her tangy, twangy phrasing of “There must be someone special watching over you and me.”
