Down Home Girl!

The Coasters - Down Home Girl

As I posted a couple of weeks ago, the Coasters' 1967 single "Soul Pad" b/w "Down Home Girl" brought the group's sly comedy stylings into the funk era. When Alvin Robinson originally waxed "Down Home Girl" for Lieber and Stoller's Red Bird/Blue Cat/Tiger setup, it was a joyous New Orleans number, with Alvin teasing the subject about her country origins (the first verse was reprised in today's selection) but only so far, as the rest of the song finds Robinson expressing his admiration and desire (he's talking about pushing her in the river so he can the water roll "down [her] velvet skin"). Perhaps such lyrics were too "serious" for a comedy-oriented group like the Coasters, so the '67 version stuck with the teasing and replaced the New Orleans beat with a stripped-down funk groove to create a beat lover's classic. Like "Soul Pad," the song had a second release during Lieber & Stoller's tenure as owners of King Records.