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Friday Funk #7 – ‘Cross The Track (We Better Go Back)’ by Maceo And The Macks
Friday Funk #7 – ‘Cross The Track (We Better Go Back)’ by Maceo And The Macks
Friday Funk #7 – ‘Cross The Track (We Better Go Back)’ by Maceo And The Macks
To celebrate Maceo Parker’s birthday this week (14 February), let’s listen to a track that was so funky it deserved a second version 36 years later.
Usually attributed as ‘Cross The Tracks’ (with an ‘s’), the song was actually printed and sung as ‘Track’ (although another Polygram release reckoned ‘Mceo’ was playing, so perhaps their printers shouldn’t be trusted).
The song was arranged by James Brown mainstays Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker, and produced by Brown. The vocals are rhythm-focused, somewhere between chanted and sung, typical of a song by The J.B.'s, Brown’s band. Maceo And The Macks was a different name for the same group. Parker’s saxophone is the star of this song, so the renaming was fitting.
Originally released in 1974, the band were on a hot streak. The year before had seen the release of three albums, among them The Payback, and ’74 was the year of Hell, a classic, and Reality, which received confusingly negative reviews considering its heavy dose of funk.
The song is built on a two-bar bassline whose melody resolves on the final beat of the second bar, leaving a little tension for a while. That tension is further relieved by the vocals: “You oughta get right back / Tell me what it’s like across the track” has a nice, simple melody with a catchy resolution. It’s also just a satisfyingly crisp rhyme: “back” and “track” sound good together.
In the middle of the song, after a bridge section with rolling drums, Parker solos with his trademark biting, short phrases (sometimes just one note). Parker usually plays alto saxophone but he mainly plays on a fairly low register here. He does blow a high note at 2:12 which anticipates the return of the refrain, and then gets back to riffing.
Maceo brought this track off the shelf for a reworking as part of his 2020 album, Soul Food: Cooking With Maceo. Being 36 years later, it’s performed by a completely different band, but they stay pretty true to the original. It’s interesting to hear the production differences: the 21st century version’s snare sound is snappier, the drums and bass sound more compressed.
Parker plays at a higher register on this version. His first solo is a little jazzier, his phrases longer and more wandering. Owing to the longer track length, he has space for another solo which is more typical of Maceo, full of bright, staccato notes.
The newer version also features some funky lead vocals. From 2:12, almost scatting, Parker sings “Somebod-, somebody,” and some unintelligible syllables, and though the “Ha!”s and yelps of “Auww!” and “Woo!” are influenced by James Brown, they come with a Maceo twist, sung with his head voice.
His saxophone playing certainly sounds like nobody else’s. Parker said it himself: “You start hearing all these styles of people and you say golly I like this version, I like that version, but I'm not sure if I want to do this exactly like that. Wouldn't it be sort of nice if I created my own style. Because the question that comes to mind is, 'How did they create their own style?' I don't want to be a carbon copy of somebody else, I can hear funky licks and rhythms and stuff, well maybe I'll feel comfortable in trying something funky, like really really funky. And that's what I did."
To celebrate Maceo Parker’s birthday this week (14 February), let’s listen to a track that was so funky it deserved a second version 36 years later.
Usually attributed as ‘Cross The Tracks’ (with an ‘s’), the song was actually printed and sung as ‘Track’ (although another Polygram release reckoned ‘Mceo’ was playing, so perhaps their printers shouldn’t be trusted).
The song was arranged by James Brown mainstays Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker, and produced by Brown. The vocals are rhythm-focused, somewhere between chanted and sung, typical of a song by The J.B.'s, Brown’s band. Maceo And The Macks was a different name for the same group. Parker’s saxophone is the star of this song, so the renaming was fitting.
Originally released in 1974, the band were on a hot streak. The year before had seen the release of three albums, among them The Payback, and ’74 was the year of Hell, a classic, and Reality, which received confusingly negative reviews considering its heavy dose of funk.
The song is built on a two-bar bassline whose melody resolves on the final beat of the second bar, leaving a little tension for a while. That tension is further relieved by the vocals: “You oughta get right back / Tell me what it’s like across the track” has a nice, simple melody with a catchy resolution. It’s also just a satisfyingly crisp rhyme: “back” and “track” sound good together.
In the middle of the song, after a bridge section with rolling drums, Parker solos with his trademark biting, short phrases (sometimes just one note). Parker usually plays alto saxophone but he mainly plays on a fairly low register here. He does blow a high note at 2:12 which anticipates the return of the refrain, and then gets back to riffing.
Maceo brought this track off the shelf for a reworking as part of his 2020 album, Soul Food: Cooking With Maceo. Being 36 years later, it’s performed by a completely different band, but they stay pretty true to the original. It’s interesting to hear the production differences: the 21st century version’s snare sound is snappier, the drums and bass sound more compressed.
Parker plays at a higher register on this version. His first solo is a little jazzier, his phrases longer and more wandering. Owing to the longer track length, he has space for another solo which is more typical of Maceo, full of bright, staccato notes.
The newer version also features some funky lead vocals. From 2:12, almost scatting, Parker sings “Somebod-, somebody,” and some unintelligible syllables, and though the “Ha!”s and yelps of “Auww!” and “Woo!” are influenced by James Brown, they come with a Maceo twist, sung with his head voice.
His saxophone playing certainly sounds like nobody else’s. Parker said it himself: “You start hearing all these styles of people and you say golly I like this version, I like that version, but I'm not sure if I want to do this exactly like that. Wouldn't it be sort of nice if I created my own style. Because the question that comes to mind is, 'How did they create their own style?' I don't want to be a carbon copy of somebody else, I can hear funky licks and rhythms and stuff, well maybe I'll feel comfortable in trying something funky, like really really funky. And that's what I did."
To celebrate Maceo Parker’s birthday this week (14 February), let’s listen to a track that was so funky it deserved a second version 36 years later.
Usually attributed as ‘Cross The Tracks’ (with an ‘s’), the song was actually printed and sung as ‘Track’ (although another Polygram release reckoned ‘Mceo’ was playing, so perhaps their printers shouldn’t be trusted).
The song was arranged by James Brown mainstays Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker, and produced by Brown. The vocals are rhythm-focused, somewhere between chanted and sung, typical of a song by The J.B.'s, Brown’s band. Maceo And The Macks was a different name for the same group. Parker’s saxophone is the star of this song, so the renaming was fitting.
Originally released in 1974, the band were on a hot streak. The year before had seen the release of three albums, among them The Payback, and ’74 was the year of Hell, a classic, and Reality, which received confusingly negative reviews considering its heavy dose of funk.
The song is built on a two-bar bassline whose melody resolves on the final beat of the second bar, leaving a little tension for a while. That tension is further relieved by the vocals: “You oughta get right back / Tell me what it’s like across the track” has a nice, simple melody with a catchy resolution. It’s also just a satisfyingly crisp rhyme: “back” and “track” sound good together.
In the middle of the song, after a bridge section with rolling drums, Parker solos with his trademark biting, short phrases (sometimes just one note). Parker usually plays alto saxophone but he mainly plays on a fairly low register here. He does blow a high note at 2:12 which anticipates the return of the refrain, and then gets back to riffing.
Maceo brought this track off the shelf for a reworking as part of his 2020 album, Soul Food: Cooking With Maceo. Being 36 years later, it’s performed by a completely different band, but they stay pretty true to the original. It’s interesting to hear the production differences: the 21st century version’s snare sound is snappier, the drums and bass sound more compressed.
Parker plays at a higher register on this version. His first solo is a little jazzier, his phrases longer and more wandering. Owing to the longer track length, he has space for another solo which is more typical of Maceo, full of bright, staccato notes.
The newer version also features some funky lead vocals. From 2:12, almost scatting, Parker sings “Somebod-, somebody,” and some unintelligible syllables, and though the “Ha!”s and yelps of “Auww!” and “Woo!” are influenced by James Brown, they come with a Maceo twist, sung with his head voice.
His saxophone playing certainly sounds like nobody else’s. Parker said it himself: “You start hearing all these styles of people and you say golly I like this version, I like that version, but I'm not sure if I want to do this exactly like that. Wouldn't it be sort of nice if I created my own style. Because the question that comes to mind is, 'How did they create their own style?' I don't want to be a carbon copy of somebody else, I can hear funky licks and rhythms and stuff, well maybe I'll feel comfortable in trying something funky, like really really funky. And that's what I did."