The Down Home Ups of John KaSandra!

John KaSandra - Down Home Ups (monologue) / Good Whiskey and Bad Women

John KaSandra, Stax Records' funky philosopher, was featured on this blog a couple of years ago for his black consciousness funky 45 "(What's Under) The Natural Do." Today's feature was the lead-off track to KaSandra's 1972 Respect LP The True Genius. "Down Home Ups" is a fun monologue about why KaSandra had to leave the farm. After explaining that it "wasn't the downs that made me leave, it was the ups," he explains the grueling life of having to get up, feed up, hitch up, giddyup, etc. All of this nonsense is rapped over a nicely-orchestrated piece of relaxed funk. As KaSandra segues into the song, the instrumentation gets even better, and a femme chorus gives him fine support. One cannot help but think that this is the type of tune that Joe Tex would've gone to town with (KaSandra channels Tex's country soul twang here and there in the song), with its character depictions and jovial tone!