I Know Whatcha Mean, Homey

one hitter quitter


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Lee Michaels - Do You Know What I Mean?

My vinyl karma must be in good standing because I’ve been discovering some absolutely unbelievable finds lately. Last time it was a 3000 copy edition DJ Shadow “Dark Days” 45, this time I found the Lee Michaels single, “Do You Know What I Mean?” that I heard on Sirius a few weeks ago. I tried to order a greatest hits collection from my neighborhood indie record store, but they couldn’t locate any of his titles. (This was his only semit-hit, the guy disappeared to Hawaii in the mid 70’s and hasn’t been heard from since.) I couldn’t believe when I found it, I walked into Rockin Billy’s, went right to the Michaels section of the pop 45’s and obscured behind George Michaels' bevy of 7” crapola, were 2 mint condition Lee Michaels 45s, seemingly waiting for me for the past 34 years. As far as I can tell, they’re probably not worth much more than I paid for them, but dang-nabbit this song a cooker! Ubl.com describes this tune as a “first rate blast of white boy soul”, I couldn’t improve on that description. It sounds to me like this song was recorded with just organ, drums, and vocals initially, and Michaels overdubbed a bassline afterwards. During this period he was recording with just his drummer, “Frosty”. The other awesome pickup of the day was a 45 for the movie Hoosiers, it’s got the slightly cheesy main theme, but the bside is the theme from the title game. The special edition dvd for Hoosiers finally came out too, should be cool. I also picked up this song, “Sweet – Funk It Up” who sound like the house band for a David Bowie party or something. I’ll post that up later.

And, even though nobody voted in Friday’s poll, I still had a crunkalicious Friday night. The Mummies were a fun, gimmicky party band and they kept booties bouncin’ all night. 8 guys dressed up as Mummies on a tiny little stage, spectacular entertainment. I can safely say that the hottie ratio was probably much better than @ the Mono show, too. Yowza.