“Do you remember”, John Lennon introduces his version of “Just Because”, and then the piano is already hammering to this great self-pity hymn: “Just because you left me …”. Lloyd Price sang it in 1957, when he was discharged from the Army and had to start over. Unlike Elvis, he didn’t drink in the lard afterwards, but only became really famous. The first rocker when rock’n’roll was still called Rhythm & Blues and was actually as black as the white singers would have liked to be.
Price was from New Orleans, where local folklore also included the story of Stack Lee, the pimp who pummeled someone because he played everything for him – including the new Stetson. The Moritat “Stagger Lee” happily glorified the murder and was only allowed to be censored on television. Otherwise everything was there: the night, the yellow moon, the leaves, the barking dog and Stagger Lee with the .44.
If Lloyd Price thumped, he put his vocal cords in mortal danger until the saxophone solo saved him
Price had started as a teenager with “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”, no more than a commercial jingle originally, but all the grief with women. Fats Domino tripled the intro, and then this plaintive voice: If Lloyd Price thumped, he put his vocal cords in mortal danger until the saxophone solo saved him. The whites’ knees went weak and they regretted that they had not grown up themselves in this religious fervor that only existed in the very bottom of the south. Price transferred them to the secular, and with “Personality”, his biggest hit, he was finally also suitable for country clubs.
Nick Cave, Amy Winehouse and Elvis of course tried their hand at his pieces. Eric Burdon from Newcastle’s blues delta has at least gotten close to him vocally. Price remained unmatched in soul.
And wealthy. After all. Unlike the other black blues singers, Price wasn’t ripped off by white managers, he didn’t have to shoot anyone with the .44, but got rich on his own account. Price owned his own label, which he used to promote people like Wilson Pickett. As early as 1963 he largely gave up singing, ran bars, clubs and restaurants, then expanded into the New York construction industry and sold Lawdy-Miss-Clawdy merchandise. In the seventies he organized the two exhibition fights between Muhammed Ali and first George Foreman in Kinshasa and then Joe Frazier in Manila.
Just for fun, he went on nostalgia tours with other heroes like BB King and James Brown. Then when he pulled out his Stagger Lee and the choir responded, the last multipurpose hall would turn into a blissful house in New Orleans. Do you remember back when the devil was little and music was great? Shouter Lloyd Price died on May 3rd near New York at the age of 88.
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