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| A jagger bush. |
The Hit
I don’t recall ever hearing “The Rapper” before this week, which doesn’t give me a lot to work with on the “memories” side. On the one hand, it’s before my time (1970), but, on the other, I came out near enough to where I grew up to where that surprises me a little.
Having heard it, I can confirm it’s a catchy little bugger. No matter how many times I went through the two albums by The Jaggerz Spotify gives me access to, I always found myself humming that one (and only that one) after moving on. As noted by its main songwriter, Donny Iris, it opens on a simple strumming guitar riff vaguely reminiscent of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Tight, bright harmonized vocals break over that singing about a guy chatting up a girl - they called that “rapping” back then, or at least in Pittsburgh, PA, hence, “The Rapper” - before the song shifts to a booming funk chorus with fuzz bass buzzing under it and a cowbell clanging through it. Amending the above, it’s a really fucking catchy tune. As for the inspiration, it’s as straightforward as it sounds, as Jimmie Ross recalled in an interview the always awesome Classic Bands:
“Actually, that was a Black saying years ago. What it meant was a guy rapping on a girl in a nightclub. We would see that all the time, so Donny wrote a song about it.”
Iris (born Dominic Ierace) worked up the lyrics, put together the guitar part and brought it to another member of The Jaggerz, Benny “Euge” Faiella. After they fleshed out the song together (the band worked collaboratively in generally), they couldn’t exactly explain the why or what of it. As Faiella explained to the Times Online (from western Pennsylvania?):
“At the time, we were a very soulful band and we were influenced by R&B and like the Temptations and the Impressions and all the black music we played a lot. That song was nowhere like where we were. It sounded entirely different, you know?”
I don’t recall ever hearing “The Rapper” before this week, which doesn’t give me a lot to work with on the “memories” side. On the one hand, it’s before my time (1970), but, on the other, I came out near enough to where I grew up to where that surprises me a little.
Having heard it, I can confirm it’s a catchy little bugger. No matter how many times I went through the two albums by The Jaggerz Spotify gives me access to, I always found myself humming that one (and only that one) after moving on. As noted by its main songwriter, Donny Iris, it opens on a simple strumming guitar riff vaguely reminiscent of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Tight, bright harmonized vocals break over that singing about a guy chatting up a girl - they called that “rapping” back then, or at least in Pittsburgh, PA, hence, “The Rapper” - before the song shifts to a booming funk chorus with fuzz bass buzzing under it and a cowbell clanging through it. Amending the above, it’s a really fucking catchy tune. As for the inspiration, it’s as straightforward as it sounds, as Jimmie Ross recalled in an interview the always awesome Classic Bands:
“Actually, that was a Black saying years ago. What it meant was a guy rapping on a girl in a nightclub. We would see that all the time, so Donny wrote a song about it.”
Iris (born Dominic Ierace) worked up the lyrics, put together the guitar part and brought it to another member of The Jaggerz, Benny “Euge” Faiella. After they fleshed out the song together (the band worked collaboratively in generally), they couldn’t exactly explain the why or what of it. As Faiella explained to the Times Online (from western Pennsylvania?):
“At the time, we were a very soulful band and we were influenced by R&B and like the Temptations and the Impressions and all the black music we played a lot. That song was nowhere like where we were. It sounded entirely different, you know?”
