Reviews
COASTERS - On Broadway (1973)
Released on KingAdded Sunday, January 31, 2010
I’d known about this LP for quite some time but hadn’t really thought about it until this summer when O-Dub pulled a copy out of the North Bay and played it for me. About a month later, while on vacation in Chicago, I got one for myself. Released in 1973, On Broadway was an attempt by the Coasters to update their sound from the 50s RnB-Doo-Wop that made them famous with such hits as Young Blood, Searchin, Poison Ivy and Yakety Yak. The most notable track is Down Home Girl, which mixes the group’s strong vocals with a slow and looping bass and drum line with some subtle horn work providing the frosting on the cake. Other cuts worth listening to are the Soul of Mohair Sam, a little swinging remake of Love Potion Number Nine with some flute at the end, a slow and bluesy rendition of Mustang Sally, Everybody’s Woman with a little breakdown in the middle, Talkin Bout A Woman, and the groovy Soul Pad with some trippy funny lyrics like having a Buddhist priest sleeping in the bathtub teaching night school at NYU and an African queen” doing the boogaloo.