"I Don't Need No Lemonade"

Artist: ERNIE K DOE
Album: NEW ORLEANS FUNK — New Orleans: The Original Sound of Funk (Soul Jazz Records, 2000)
Song: HERE COME THE GIRLS

FROM THE BOY: Why is it that sometimes you have to go record shopping in England to find great American soul records? It’s like the British can hear the best of our music because of the distance, as if only the best tones are capable of resonating across the frosty Atlantic. In 2001, during the buildup to the war in Iraq, I spent my birthday in London, engaged in a record-buying binge that may never be equaled. One of the best finds was a CD comp of late 60s and early 70s New Orleans Funk tracks from the likes of Gaturs, Shirley & Lee, Lloyd Price, and Professor Longhair. It’s called New Orleans Funk, New Orleans: The Original Sound of Funk. In short, it SMOKES. All of it. But I’m wearing out the repeat button on this Ernie K Doe track. I did some really basic research, and as far as I can tell, this UK comp is the only place this song has ever appeared. Are you kidding me? Shouldn’t this song play over a dance scene in a Quentin Tarantino movie? Shouldn’t Ernie’s wail of “Ohhhhh, Water, I don’t need no lemonade” be some kind of cultural catch phrase for no-frills sex?

You gotta hand it to Soul Jazz Records. I’ve been to New Orleans nearly 20 times (and to Ernie K Doe’s Mother In Law Lounge at least twice) and I buy a bunch of records every time I’m there. But I had to cross the Atlantic to find this dynamite mix of classic singles. And their latest release looks pretty tasty, too: The Sound of Philadelphia, a 1965-73 comp tracing Philly soul’s influence on disco and funk. Like I said, there must be some kind of clarifying factor in those icy waters. Thank God (or Al Gore) for Internet record shopping, then, huh?

FROM THE GIRL: Let me preface my post by saying that I do not — I repeat DO NOT — read The Boy's comments in advance. I listen to the song, usually multiple times, before I formulate in my mind what I'd like to say. Then, and only then, do I sit down at my computer, read his posts and, if necessary, shape my comments to reply to something The Boy said, or did not say, etc.

So it was weird, even for me, to find that I want to put this song into a movie soundtrack in my head as well. I guess we do meet in the middle every once in awhile, eh? But this wasn't a Tarantino film. I actually pictured it over the murder/clean-up shopping spree in “Very Bad Things.” And at the risk of being heckled, I think that it would do just as well in place of the song that did appear in the film, Ben E. King's “Supernatural Thing.”

And who doesn't love a song that serves as an ode to the opposite sex? (A possible exception being “It's Raining Men.”) In short, I like it. Not as emphatically as The Boy, mind you. It's catchy, and fun. And this track is as close as the two of us may ever get to agreeing.

Comments

[Dan Phillips]

I think you're right about NEW ORLEANS FUNK being the only comp ever to have this great tune, written by Allen Toussaint. But, it originally appeared c 1970 on the "Ernie K-Doe" LP on Janus. It's one of his best
and most hard to find records. Interesting blog, by the way.

[The Boy]

Thanks for the good insight, Dan. I have to admit I'm a bit of a newcomer to the vastness of Toussaint's influence. You on the other hand, appear to be pretty well versed. I just got done checking out your blog, and I'm off now to add it to our link list. I'm sold. Great stuff.
Also, I program the music at a bar in Kansas City where a couple of Ninth Ward boys doing the 'tending. They've turned me on to a bunch of new stuff from New Orleans, including the Morning 40 Federation (coming post subject, actually). You have a take on them?