Get on Down With Jimmy Lewis!

Jimmy Lewis - Where Was He?

I've discussed Jimmy Lewis and his work in an earlier post, so I'll dive right into today's selection. "Where Was He?" was the flip to Lewis' excellent 1973 Volt single "Stop Half Loving These Women." Rob Bowman notes in the second Stax-Volt singles box that Don Davis green-lighted the Lewis 45 only to induce the veteran songwriter to write some material for Johnnie Taylor (to my knowledge no Lewis songs came out of that arrangement on Stax, although later Taylor would cover "Stop Half Loving These Women"). It's probably unlikely, then, that Stax put any promotional muscle behind the Lewis single, which was commercially unsuccessful. "Where Was He?" sounds slightly dated for its 1973 release (to me it has more of a 1970 or '71 feel), but like all of Lewis' other work from that era, it's very good. Lewis revisits his usual "romance-and-finance" theme with the help of a femme chorus over a light funk groove.

(EDITOR'S NOTE - I hope to get Episode #9 of the podcast online tomorrow! Happy 4th of July!)