Song of the Day # 120 - Otis Redding

 

Storming. A dance song like so many in the early to mid-sixties though I imagine it could be taken as one great euphemism. From the posthumous The Dock of the Bay record. The lyrics do a grand tour of the venues he's played. One of the true greats! No resemblance fortunately to the terrible sub-Rockabilly cover that plagued the UK charts in the early eighties.

 

'Here we come again…
We're doing a new dance—real strong dance
Everybody—sisters, papas, mamas, papa's boys
A stone dance—you know what they're doing
It's called the Huckle-Buck—real strong dance
Come on and take my hand
Come on and Huckle-Buck with…now watch me
We're going to new places now…
Atlanta, Georgia—here we come
Royal Peacock, y'all
Miami, Florida—going to the Island Club
Step over in Memphis
Going to the Hippodrome
Everybody's swinging
The Mar-keys going down under
Going to the… California
Going to the Five-Four Ballroom
Step over in Detroit City
Going to the Twenty-Grand Club
Move over to Washington, D.C.
We're going to the Holland Theater
Huckle-Buck, y'all
Everybody Huckle Bucking
If you don't know, you're sure out of luck
I tell you what we do…
We're going to Chicago
We're going to the Windy City, they call it
Going to do the Huckle-Buck now
Everybody's Bucking now
Mamas, brothers, sisters, fathers —they Huckle Bucking all night
We got a thing going
You jump back, you jump forward, you jump back-back-back-back
Let me show you how to do it
Jump back, jump up, jump back, jump up-up-up-up.'