Graham Reid | | 1 min read
After Doris Duke - born Doris Curry then later singing as Doris Willingham -- recorded her album I'm a Loser at Capricorn Studios in Macon, Georgia in '69 with Jerry Williams Jnr.
They found it a hard sell and her solo career -- after years of session work and as a back-up vocalist -- looked finished just as it had begun.
"I damn near lost everything with that one," said Williams aka Swamp Dogg. "It was a woman's album, men found it depressing. I walked the streets of New York for six months trying to give it away, then on to Los Angeles.
"I totally believed in this concept when I walked into Wally Roker's Canyon Records. He played it once and said he had to have it.
"I damn near paid him."
The first single lifted from the album released through Canyon was this, a canny piece of emotional double-shift co-written by Williams and Gary US Bonds.
The single became a hige hit on ther r'n'b charts but despite the success of the album it lead to no great career for Duke (who was sometimes confused with this extraordinary woman of the same name).
She changed her name again on marriage, raised kids, turned to gospel . . .
This song appeared on an exceptional collection of Southern Soul entitled Take Me to the River (reviewed at Elsewhere here).
If she did nothing else other than that terrific album her name should be writ large in the footnotes of soul music.
You can stream a collection of Doris Duke free here.
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For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory check out From the Vaults.
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