Security - Etta James
Listen to this twice.
First time listen to Etta's superb rendering of Otis Redding's classic.
Listen how she stamps her authority on the song as she sings the opening words, and she's in control all the way - she's demanding that security and she's gonna get it. The clue is, she's so strong she doesn't need to hurry it.
derrrrn (brass)
Security yeah yeah
durrrrnn (brass again)
I want some security ....
Now listen to it again but try to just listen to the band. In 1967, not having the success she wanted with the Chess musicians she had been working with, Etta followed the path of her rival Aretha Franklin to the Fame Studios at Muscle Shoals in Alabama. Earlier that year, in January, Aretha had hit the US top ten with "I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You)" and followed up with the album of the same name which reached number 2 on the US charts, her first recordings at Fame. If it worked for her, Etta reasoned, it can work for me.
And it sure does right from the first pronouncement of the horn section, driven by the excellent Roger Dawkins' drums, the funky bass of David Hood and some telling tambourine from goodness knows who - maybe Etta herself - that takes us home from 1 minute 30 in.
You can hear why she went south!