Saturday, 8 August 2020

Joe Tex born 8 August 1935


Joseph Arrington Jr. (better known as Joe Tex; August 8, 1935 – August 13, 1982) was an American singer and musician who gained success in the 1960s and 1970s with his brand of Southern soul, which mixed the styles of funk, country, gospel, and rhythm and blues.

Tex was born in Rogers, Texas to Joseph Arrington and Cherie Sue (Jackson) Arrington. He and his sister Mary Sue were originally raised by their grandmother Mary Richardson until their parents’ divorce when they moved to Baytown with their mother. Tex played baritone saxophone at George Washington Carver High School and sang in his church choir at McGowen COGIC Temple in Baytown.

Tex frequently entered Houston-area talent shows and in one instance won $300 and a trip to New York in 1953. This trip allowed him to perform as an amateur at the Apollo Theatre, winning first place over other future greats such as Johnny Nash 
and Hubert Laws. Talent scout and future manager Henry Glover saw Tex there. Tex did not sign right away with Glover, however as his mother wanted him to finish high school first.  Joe Tex waited for a year, and through Glover, signed with King Records at the age of 19.

Joe Tex recorded under the King Records label from 1955 to 1957 with little success. However, it was there that Tex’s rivalry with Fellow King Records artist James Brown began. In 1958, Tex signed with Ace recording studios and began to perfect his trademark microphone tricks and dance moves. It was these dance moves and tricks that many claim James Brown stole from Tex. He was credited with one important innovation in soul music, the spoken “soul preaching” style which he called “rap” and which would be imitated by Isaac Hayes, Barry White, and Millie Jackson among others.


                             

Tex opened for artists such as Jackie Wilson and Little Richard while with Ace until 1960. He then recorded with Dial Records from 1960 to 1964. In 1964 he found a recording home and garnered his first hit, “Hold On To What You’ve Got” (1965) at 
FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Ironically Tex did not feel the song would do well and actually tried to stop its release, but the studio went against his wishes and it sold more than a million copies by 1966.

Tex made his mark by preaching over tough hard soul tracks, clowning at some points, swooping into a croon at others. He was perhaps the most rustic and back-country of the soul stars, a role he played to the hilt by using turns of phrase that might have been heard on any ghetto street corner, "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show" the prototype. In 1966, his "I Believe I'm Gonna Make It," an imaginary letter home from Vietnam, became the first big hit directly associated with that war. 

King Curtis, Aretha Franklin & Joe Tex 
His biggest hit was "Skinny Legs and All," from a 1967 live album, his rapping pure hokum over deeply funky riffs. "Skinny Legs" might have served as a template for all the raucous, ribald hip-hop hits of pop's future. Before recording these tunes, Joe used to make himself hoarse. He felt that he sounded better that way, and also more authentic, as he really did start to rasp while on long concert tours. The concept worked well for four years, but began to run out of steam in 1969.

After "Skinny Legs," Tex continued recording hits until 1972, when he decided to pursue life as a minister in the Nation of Islam after converting in 1966 when he changed his offstage name to Yusef Hazziez. He came back to music after the death of the Nation’s leader, Elijah Muhammad in 1975.He was too down-home for the slickness of the disco era, or so it would have seemed, yet in 1977, he adapted a dance craze, the Bump, and came up with the hilarious "Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)," his last Top Ten R&B hit, which also crossed over to number 12 on the pop chart.

His last public appearance was in 1981. After that, Tex retreated from the public eye and retired to his ranch in Navasota, Texas with his wife Beliliah Hazziez. Though he lived most of his life clear and free of drugs and alcohol, according to Tex's longtime 
producer Buddy Killen, Tex indulged in drug addiction and alcohol abuse during the last four years of his life. Tex's final performances as part of the Soul Clan pictured him as gaunt and looking unwell, which Killen claimed that Tex had "lost his will to live".

In early August 1982, Tex was found at the bottom of his swimming pool at his home in Navasota. After being sent to the hospital, he was revived and sent home. Just a few days later, on August 13, 1982, five days after his 47th birthday, he died at the Grimes Memorial Hospital in Navasota, following a fatal heart attack

Joe Tex was nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame six times, most recently in 2017.

(Edited from blacpast.org, AllMusic & Wikipredia)

10 comments:

boppinbob said...

For “Joe Tex - Yum Yum Yum ~ The Early Years 1955-1962 (2015)” go here:

https://www.upload.ee/files/12118798/Joe_TEX_-_1955-1962.rar.html

CD 1
1. Davy You Upset My Home (2:38)
2. Come On This House (3:03)
3. My Biggest Mistake (2:52)
4. Right Back To My Arms (2:26)
5. I Had To Come Back To You (2:50)
6. She's Mine (2:23)
7. Pneumonia (2:42)
8. Get Way Back (2:24)
9. Ain't Nobody's Business (2:16)
10. I Want To Have A Talk With You (2:05)
11. Cut It Out (2:13)
12. Just For You And Me (2:37)
13. Open The Door (1:41)
14. You Little Baby Face Thing (2:26)
15. Mother's Advice (2:55)
16. Charlie Brown Got Expelled (2:18)
17. Blessed Are These Tears (2:21)
18. Don't Hold It Against Me (2:20)
19. Yum Yum Yum (1:53)
20. Grannie Stole The Show (2:10)

CD 2
1. Boys Will Be Boys (2:29)
2. Competition (1:39)
3. More Than Just A Friend (2:31)
4. Put Your Confidence In Me (2:09)
5. All I Could Do Was Cry (Part 1) (2:37)
6. All I Could Do Was Cry (Part 2) (3:03)
7. Ain't I A Mess (2:37)
8. Baby You're Right (2:17)
9. I'll Never Break Your Heart (Part 1) (2:27)
10. I'll Never Break Your Heart (Part 2) (2:26)
11. Wicked Woman (2:38)
12. Goodbye My Love (2:41)
13. The Only Girl I Ever Loved (2:35)
14. What Should I Do (2:04)
15. The Rib (1:56)
16. The Giant Step (3:00)
17. Popeye Johnny (2:12)
18. Band Shakin' Love Makin' Girl Talkin' Son Of A Gun (2:12)
19. Meet Me In Church (2:19)
20. Be Your Own Judge (2:33)

Joe Tex was one of the most original soul stars of all time. With his raspy voice and a hint of Little Richard, he certainly had a style of his own. One listen to his number 'Yum Yum Yum' and you'll get an idea of his rock and roll / proto-soul style. This is the most comprehensive set of his early singles yet released on CD and includes all the singles he made before achieving fame in 1964. Arguably the most underrated of all the 60s soul performers, Joe Tex, with his unique style singlehandedly laid some of the most important parts of rap's foundation.(Jasmine notes)

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Below is a selected discography found on various music blogs. A big thank you to all credited up-loaders with active links
(1) Neilwizard & Bordel Do Rock blog
(2) acmmijas (PASSWORD : mijas)
(3) Mike 1985 @ Jazz’n’Blues Club
(4) Ludovico @ Entre Musica Blog (PASSWORD: ludovico)

JOE TEX - SINGLES A'S & B'S, VOL. 1: 1964-1966 (FLAC) (1)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/35xmiu1jdv5pb1d/Joe_Tex_-_Singles_A%2527s_%2526_B%2527s_Volume_1.rar/file

JOE TEX - SINGLES A'S & B'S, VOL. 2: 1967-1968 (FLAC) (1)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/opzdeulfi64icvd/Joe_Tex-Singles_A's_%26_B's_Vol2.rar

JOE TEX - Singles As and Bs Vol.3 (1969-1972) (2)
https://www.filefactory.com/file/1f25jqyhxjlj/JoeTex-SinglesVol.3.7z

JOE TEX - Singles A's & B's Vol. 4 1972-1976 (2)
https://www.filefactory.com/file/1a8jflr55vvd/JoeTex-SinglesVol.4.7z

JOE TEX - Happy soul + Buying a book (4)
https://dfiles.eu/files/lawro82qt

Joe Tex - The Collection (2008) (3)
https://filecat.net/f/EBKx9q

jamerson said...

Terrific stuff thank you

LeeVanCleef said...

"Davy You Upset My Home" is a classic! Thanks for this!

rntcj said...

Hi!

Thanx for the Joe Tex. In "Yum Yum" comp. Disc 1 trk. # 19 "Yum, Yum" see if you can recognize all the foods he sings about. Careful, he's quick!

Cheers!
Ciao! For now.
rntcj

puw said...

Hi, just found your blog in trying to find out what's happened to mijas's acmmijas blog - it's been removed by the looks of it !!! Does anyone know? That's a good blog to lose :(

Searching for their blog led me to this Joe Tex which I haven't got - plenty of holes still to fill LOL.

Thanks :)

boppinbob said...

Hello Puw, Yes unfortunately ACM2 Mijas has gone, but has now been taken over by Luis Blanco and you'll find it here but all the old archives have been removed.
https://elrincondeluisblanco.blogspot.com/
Regards, Bob

puw said...

Thanks Bob for the link.

That's a lot of Jasmine old stuff disappeared then.

I'll go take a look :)

Music Collector said...

Hi there,

At 1st look it seemed like I stumbled into the vault, but unfortunately half of the links are dead (listed below).

Joe Tex - Yum Yum Yum ~ The Early Years 1955-1962 (2015)
JOE TEX - Singles As and Bs Vol.3
JOE TEX - Singles As and Bs Vol.4

Thanks for Vol. 1, I found Vol. 2 elsewhere before that and was hoping to complete the series of four here ...

Any chance to renew the links?

Thanks in advance.

boppinbob said...

Hello Music Collector, Most people get upset when links are dead. I know because I've been there myself. My own links are with FREE membership which means if anyone doesn't download the link in question then it is removed after usually 3 months.. There are one or two that will keep them longer but I am maxed out on those. I'd love to be a premium member for all these different file storers but unfortunately I can't as my budget doesn't reach that far.

I can help you with the Yum Yum Yum album, (which I'll root out and post within the next few days) but unfortunately Vols 3 & 4 are links from another blog (as stated in comment). At the time of publishing they were active, but I never returned to download them myself. If you visit the blogs mentioned then put in another request, or use Google search. Try using "Joe Tex blogspot" of "Joe Tex rar", you may be surprised!
Regards, Bob


boppinbob said...

Hello Music Collector. You're in luck. Had a quick look in the back room and found it.

https://www.upload.ee/files/13588602/Joe_TEX_-_1955-1962.rar.html