After the Four Tops, two superb and passionate songs about tricky relationships from a hugely under-rated artist who worked in the same circles, and made a classic 1971 album. Lee Moses should have been as big as James Brown and Otis Redding. He certainly had the voice, filled with screams and grit of the deep soul style, and his dirty funk style ran in parallel to Jimi Hendrix. The singer and guitarist was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1941, but after making a series of recordings in the late 60s and early 70s, lack of commercial success killed his career, and he died in 1997. The first of these songs, here fusion of Pts 1 and 2, came out as a single in 1967. The second, written by Sylvia Robinson, Johnny Brantley, Edward Lewis, Marion Farmer, James Lewis is the title track from the 1971 LP Time And Place, heralded as one of the great funk and soul albums of the time, later versions of which include Bad Girl, and covers of Hey Joe, California Dreaming and Dark End Of The Street. But what these two songs have in common, aside from the quality of the performance, is that they are about relationships frowned upon by others. Heartbreak is here aplenty, but that’s fatal attraction and forbidden fruit for you.
This is a song about a bad girl
Something that happened to me long time ago
Everybody was telling me how the little girl was running around
I had a head of my own
And I just wouldn't listen to nobody
My father he told me
My mother sat down and cried
Said son this woman will break your heart
And then she'll put you down
That's when I told mama these words
Lord, have mercy
Bad girl mama
Bad, bad girl
Mama, they call her bad girl
All because she wanted to be free
But I'm in love with the little girl
And I believe that she loves me
What my heart feels
My lips must confess
So I will never let her alone
I don't care if they call her bad
Bad girl, mama
Lord, have mercy
Bad, bad girl
Love is a mystery
Never can be explained by anything
But I believe one of these days
The whole world will understand
What my heart feels
My lips must confess
So I will
Never let that little girl alone
I don't care if they call her bad
Bad girl
You better believe it, Mama.
We've got to share our love in secrecy
Nobody must know about you and me
We can't take too much liberty
Until the time he sets you free—and I gots to tell you
No matter when, no matter where
Just name the time and I'll be there (I'll be right there)
We can't go to a million places
We can't be around a million faces
We're this chance oh, this I know
But I don't mind it baby 'cause I love you so, ah yeah
No matter when, no matter where
You just name the time and I'll be there (I'll be right there)
(now) If you've got the nerve to slip away
Then I've got the nerve to meet you wherever you say
We'll be taking a chance, this I know
But I don't mind it baby 'cause I love you so—and I gots to tell you
No matter when, no matter where
Ahhh name the time and I'll be right there, oh yes I will
I'll be right there
I'm gonna hold you, I'm gonna squeeze you
(no matter when) No matter when
(no matter where) No matter where
(no matter when) I'm gonna hold you baby
(no matter where) If it takes a train
(no matter when) If it takes a plane
(no matter where) No matter how I get there baby
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