Do The Sadness Strut!

Jeanne & The Darlings - It's Time To Pay For The Fun (We've Had)

A frequent situation in soul music involves songs that have a relatively sad message but a groove that has an optimism of its own. I discussed this in my post about Sam Baker's "It's All Over" - the groove is just too bright for the resigned lyrics Sam puts over. Today's selection was a Volt release by Jeanne & The Darlings, whose work for the label was unfortunately under-appreciated at the time. Lead singer Jeanne Dolphus didn't care for the message of "It's Time To Pay For The Fun (We've Had)," but she gave it a good reading (it almost sounds like she's performing in a musical, doesn't it?) and the group did their usual thing with spot-on harmony work. The "sad-song-with-happy-groove" kicks in on the choruses, when the groove switches to a strutting groove more akin to the "stacks-of-wax" Stax era than the "finger-snapping" time at which the record was made.