Stax and Malaco sound-stealers JJ Grey (singer, songwriter, guitar, bass, and--here--tambourine) and Mofro (a soul/blues/jam band out of Florida) heard Ludacris's record that I listed yesterday--and they laughed: first at Ludicris's lyrics, and then at Ludacris himself, for Grey & Co. know that 'Cris won't be able to keep his woman for long if all he's focused on is the boudoir. Sure, he'll be able to run through his fantasies for a time, but after awhile, Ludacris will move on, and the next woman might not be as imaginative as the one 'Cris just sang about, and then 'Cris is S.O.L.: straight outta luck.
You see, Grey & Mofro knows something that Ludacris doesn't: Grey knows that a woman needs as much, uh, intimate caressing as a man does (like Ludacris mentions). Grey takes it one step further, though: he knows that he's got to be patient, understanding, open to criticism, and acquiescent enough to say, "yes, honey" even when he knows he might be in the right because he wants his woman to keep him around so that she'll cook for him in the day time and at night, again and again. Now that is a smart man.
Grey also knows better (to an extent) than to kiss and tell, as lyrically, he graduated from the Charlie Rich School of Discretion. Sure, he'll take his woman out dancing, and when this song comes on, he'll take her out to the dance floor and hold her tight and grab what she lets him out on the dance floor in front of others who don't give a flip what others see them do while dancing, and if he doesn't get too frisky, then when they get home, she'll take him upstairs. The next morning, when he wants to mention the night before to his woman who's cooking now (just like she did last night), he finds that even with his deep blue-eyed soul voice (his singing a Southern-fried cross of Ray Charles falsetto squeals of pleasure and Otis Redding's serrated soul stirrings), as earthy and fulfilling as it is, can't replicate the magic of the night before. The music can, though.
The music here--and it's all just basic country/blues chord progressions, as simple and direct as can be--is what sells the message, what tells us the secret story that Grey leaves to our imagination, as the music takes it's time, pauses at time for anticipation, and builds to a crescendo, pausing again to allow for some relief, before going right at it again.
The sax and the drums tell their whole story anyway--the drums his rhythm and the sax her...well...no one knows what goes on behind closed doors.
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