August 2021 - Page 3 of 3

Album: Hold On, I’m Comin’
Year: 1966

. . .

While Sam Moore & Dave Prater had been releasing singles since 1962, it wasn’t until 1966 when they tasted any significant chart success, having hooked up with the Stax machine to produce the utterly dynamite “Hold On, I’m Comin’.”

Co-written by Dave Porter & Isaac Hayes, “Hold On, I’m Comin'” was anchored by a massive and thrilling horn hook by Mar-Keys Don Nix, Wayne Jackson and Charles “Packy” Axton, which dug instantly into your mind and dominated the song so much that you might not even notice just how deep of a groove that Al Jackson, Jr was digging. But good lord, man, just listen to that snare: it drives so deep, hard and insistent that it’s even dirtier than the double entendre of the title.

Album: (I’m) Stranded
Year: 1976

. . .

“(I’m) Stranded,” the debut single from Australia’s The Saints, is one of the key early documents of punk rock, as it came out in that period where the U.K. punk bands had begun to form, but before they’d actually released anything. And, of course, it was basically like the Saints had heard Ramones and decided — rightly, of course — hey, we can do this!

Which might not strictly be true: in one of those James Burke things, the Saints were apparently coming up with their short, noisy and fast aesthetic at the same time the Ramones were. Either way, when copies of “(I’m) Stranded” washed up on the U.K. in late 1976, it definitely struck a few chords for people who only knew a few chords.

Archives for August 2021

Certain Songs #2157: Sam & Dave – “Hold On, I’m Comin'”

Certain Songs #2156: The Saints – “(I’m) Stranded”