Back To The Well With Bethea The Maskman!

Harmon Bethea - It Could Happen To You

I've done a few posts about eccentric funkster Harmon Bethea and his "Maskman" persona (and the varying permutations of his name, the word "Maskman" and the name of his group, the Agents; a quick search under any of those names should generate a list of posts and podcasts on which other Bethea records appear), and as I continue to dig deeper into his recordings I realize that Bethea was determined to get as much life as possible out of the groove and style of "One Eye Open," his main hit: he followed up "One Eye Open" with "My Wife, My Dog, My Cat" (the second of his two hits) and then later released today's selection, only to revisit the groove in the '70s for "Talking About The Boss and I," which was featured here awhile ago. The Musicor single "It Could Happen To You," which found Bethea getting solo billing as "Harmon Bethea" (although the Agents are clearly on the record), was the flip of "She's My Meat" and it finds Bethea revisiting the good-timey groove of his hits, this time with a "mama's baby, daddy's maybe" lyrical theme.