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Title: excellent and a half
Review: Even if you don't know the title, almost everyone knows the sound of "Soul Finger," the 1967 hit off this Bar Keys album. The track is shorthand in films for wild soul partying. Those cheers in the background could be at a '67 bogaloo dance hall or a 2010 techno rave. I even think the blasting fire siren horns and stomping beat are a precursor to 1990s house music.If you are reading, you probably know the Bar Keys were the Stax backing band and a lot of them died on the same plane as Otis Redding, though they did reform"What you may not know is that "Soul Finger" is by far not the only selling point of this album. At a half hour, this is a concentrated tablet of the bluesy romps that were dance music all over the US, particularly the old south.With the gleaming exception of "With A Child's Heart," simply one of the most beautiful ballads you may have never heard, this is essential soul and dance music.
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