Jivin’ Gene and the Jokers - Go on, go on

I don’t know whether the master of this one came from Gene’s original label, Jin, or whether his regular producer at Mercury was locked out of the studio, but it’s mercifully lacking the strings which ruined or near ruined many of the Mercury “swamp“ tracks. This one is real swamp pop and it’s a relatively little known classic of the genre with hammered piano and gently riffing horns. In 1975 an LP came out in the UK with a rather lengthy title, “The Other Song Of The South: Louisiana Rock’n’Roll“. It was a compilation put together by much loved and respected r’n’r critic Bill Millar, though that’s not really the right noun, lets just say music lover. The tracks were all from the Mercury label including some that had been purchased from small Southern Louisiana labels. The content, by and large, was music from the genre that years later got christened Swamp Pop. Other than a tiny scattering of singles this was the first real airing of swamp pop outside of Louisiana and East Texas, and many of us, self included, owe Bill a massive vote of thanks for the album.