Ain't No Sense In Going Home...

Jody's got your girl and gone...

I started writing this thinking that this was basically Big's "One More Chance," before Big's "One More Chance."

Jody leaves ashes in your ash-tray,
Footprints on your carpet, while you work all day.
Even got the nerve to sleep in your bed,
Sit down at your table, and eat your bread.

But isn't it much more? I love "One More Chance" but always found it to be, believe it or not, to explicit. The wordplay is incredible, the track is great, but I love hint of impropriety in this song, and its borderline feminism (this song could be performed by a woman without changing a single lyric). Big's song really is about manipulation of women. ("my game just rewind...") Johnnie Taylor is doing a similar thing, but a little more.

I always thought Taylor, here, (and especially in "Who's Making Love...") was great about making men uncomfortable (in a good way) by breaking away from the Madonna/Whore thing. I play this stuff for my son all the time. I get the humorous praise of the antihero cuckold, and, I'd argue, commentary on black men (niggers vs black people?) and mores. Of course it's more complicated and ambivalent than that. Words fail. Maybe I should just stop theorizing and let the music rock. I need to think more.

On a side-note, fools really need to see Wattstax. It's an incredible doc.