The Lime (sorry about the crooked scan)
Listen – Love a Go Go – MP3
Greetings all.
I hope everyone had an excellent weekend and is ready and raring to go with some new grooves for the new week.
Today’s selection is something I referenced a while back when I included its b-side (a cover of the Doors ‘Soul Kitchen’) in Volume 2 of the Iron Leg Digital Trip.
The tune I bring you today – with, finally the picture sleeve and label that I promised I’d scan – is ‘Love a Go Go’ by the Lime.
As I mentioned previously, it was probably more than 20 years ago when I dug not one but two copies out of a dusty bin at a supremely unlikely record store in Keyport, NJ. At that time I made the (incorrect) assumption that this was a local 45. It was only many years later, after the advent of the interwebs that I discovered that this was in fact an Ohio (the band was apparently from Canton) 45, and that ‘Love a Go Go’ had seen a second, national issue (with a different b-side ‘Hey Girl’) in 1968 on the Chess label!
Oddly enough – and you’d never know it from the pure garage pop sounds emitting from the grooves – ‘Love a Go Go’ is a soul cover – which probably got it issued on Chess . The tune was originally recorded by none other than Stevie Wonder on his 1966 ‘Uptight’ LP. If you get a chance to check out the original – it’s available on iTunes – you can see where the Lime pretty much sucked the Motown out of the song, replacing the ‘Dancing In the Street’-ish horns with a ringing organ line. This is not to say that I don’t dig their version – if I didn’t it wouldn’t be here – but that it’s a very different experience in its original form.
I’ve never been able to track down any other info on the Lime, so if anyone out there has some, please drop me a line.
Peace
Larry
PS For a LOT more info on the Lime go to Buckeye Beat and search the Bands section. Thanks to the reader that forwarded the link
