Shorty Long remembered

The best boot sale find this weekend was The Prime of Shorty Long which was issued soon after his premature death at the age of just 29 on June 29th, 1969. Shorty Long, who played a variety of instruments, was one of the more underated stars of Motown, with a bluesier style than most of his label mates. He shot to prominence with Devil with the Blue Dress On and followed this up with Function at the Junction and his biggest hit Here Comes the Judge. The album pictured here contains a couple of his later smaller hits I Had a Dream and A Whiter Shade of Pale.

I see there have been a clutch of deaths this week - original Drifer Bill Pinkney, Boots Randolph, whose Yakety Sax will forever be associated with French maids chasing Benny Hill at high speed, and George Melly, a man whose talent could easily have been squeezed into a matchbox. There were obituaries of Boots and Bill in The Times on Saturday: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2039442.ece

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2039451.ece

Sorry to have to miss the great Al Green on his current UK tour. I've seen him several times before - the most memorable being at the North Sea Festival a few years ago when I bagged a position in the front row a good hour before he came on to perform. I hope he has many more years ahead of him.