OK, so the headline is sure to provoke some thought if you’re a regular Stax blog reader! As I was preparing to write a review of the 2006 Stax Profiles set on Eddie Floyd, one of the label’s mainstays from the time he signed with the company in 1966 until 1975, I did some due diligence and looked up some facts on Eddie at “All Music Guide.” I was astonished: recordings of Eddie’s compositions cover no less than eight pages! There are the obvious tunes like “634-5789,” the massive hit Eddie wrote with Steve Cropper for Wilson Pickett (with a few dozen versions by such folks as Tina Turner, Chuck Jackson, Otis Redding and Ry Cooder), Eddie’s own immortal “Knock On Wood” (which covers over three pages of credits and includes disco star Amii Stewart along with Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Miles, Michael Bolton, David Bowie and The Sweet Inspirations!) and “991/2 (Just Won’t Do),” another Pickett smash. There are also some real Floyd gems: “Til My Back Ain’t Got No Bone,” recorded by Esther Phillips; Eddie’s ’67 hit, “Big Bird” (written by Eddie when an airplane malfunction stopped him from attending Otis Redding’s funeral) cut by The Jam and Rosetta Hightower among others; “Another Night Without My Man” and “Comfort Me,” two Carla Thomas highlights; the brilliant “Got To Make A Comeback,” covered by Robert Cray; and the magnificent “I Love You More Than Words Can Say,” one of the most overlooked and underrated recordings by the late Otis Redding.

Eddie didn’t record all of the songs he wrote for others – so there’s no version of the two Carla Thomas tunes (with appropriate gender change) or of the Otis tune (also cut by Mable John) although on the Stax Profiles’ set (compiled by longtime Floyd fan Dan Ackroyd with whom Eddie appeared in “Blues Brothers 2000”), we do get Eddie’s take on “634-5789” and “Big Bird.” Not as inspiring, “California Girl” although Ackroyd gives us a couple of Floyd cuts that are seldom cited but are first rate, specifically “Raise Your Hand” (a favorite among Brit soul music fans) and “Soul Street.” There is the obligatory “I’ve Never Found A Girl” (turned into “I’ve Never Found A Man” by the late Esther Phillips and for my taste, a little more gutsy!) and “Knock On Wood” (still a crowd-pleaser as was evident when Eddie performed it both in Memphis and in Los Angeles last year for the Stax 50th anniversary celebrations) but we also get more obscure Floyd cuts like “When The Sun Goes Down,” “Love Is You” and “Whatcha Gonna Do With My Heart.”

Eddie Floyd may not be considered in the first tier of ‘60s soul men like Redding, Pickett and Solomon Burke but that he is a solid Stax guy is without doubt as the “Profiles” CD demonstrates. Oh and with such an amazing catalog of compositions, I wouldn’t mind a tiny portion of his songwriting income!

David Nathan
a/k/a “The British Ambassador Of Soul”
Owner, www.soulmusic.com, www.soulmusicstore.com, www.soulmusicglobal.com
Secretary, The Rhythm & Blues Foundation (www.rhythmnblues.org)

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